76a) The Church Evangelizing #3

Introduction: Legitimate Means for Evangelism

0:02 Well, as we continue, brethren, in seeking to open up various aspects of the responsibility of our oversight as it pertains to the corporate life of the people of God, we are presently focusing on certain aspects of that oversight as it pertains to guiding those under our care in fulfilling the task of evangelism. And last week we took up two major headings of the subject. We looked at passages that set before us the biblical mandate for the task of evangelism, passages that ought to be household passages in the life of our assemblies, and then secondly we considered some of the biblical motives which ought to impel to and accompany us in the fulfillment of that task. Now we come this morning to what I am calling large letter C. Some legitimate means for the accomplishment of the task. I recognize that we are only going to address a specimen of those means that are legitimate expressions of Bible-framed, Spirit-owned, Christ-glorifying evangelistic endeavor,

1:16 and the very fact that I would address some of them might raise objections on the part of some. Some would say if the theology is straight, then we...

1:26 We should have nothing to do with getting to specifics, but I believe the Word of God does set before us both examples of the specifics and also the principles that we can, within the broad parameters of Scripture, seek to be helpful to one another by making specific suggestions as to how we may, in concrete ways, seek to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission. And I've divided those means into what I've called...

1:56 First of all, the ordinary means, and then secondly, the extraordinary or special activities calculated to bring men and women under the influence of the gospel, and then having looked at those two divisions, we'll conclude with some practical considerations in seeking to motivate and direct your congregation with respect to fulfilling this task. First of all, then, as we take up some of the ordinary means, I've listed five categories. First of all...

Ordinary Means: Regular Preaching and Teaching of the Word

2:26 Second of all, those means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the Word of God. In our day, this is an aspect of evangelism that is often overlooked, and evangelistic endeavors are thought of in terms of this second category, the extraordinary or special activities or, quote, special meetings held in the church, evangelistic crusades, evangelistic meetings. But what I want to set before you is what I...

2:56 is a biblical perspective that as we think of the church fulfilling its God-given privilege and task in conjunction with the evangelistic mandate, we must never demean or put in a lesser place this matter of those means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And as a watershed text, I remind you of 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 23 to 25. You remember...

3:26 Remember the setting Paul is sorting out, the charismatic free-for-all that was going on at Corinth, a situation, he says, into which an uninstructed person would come and think that he'd walked into a madhouse. And Paul is sorting this out and putting these various issues into their proper categories. And here, in verses 23 to 25, he writes, If, therefore, the whole church be assembled together. So, the...

3:56 The context of his directive is the assembly of the church as church. And all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving. Will they not say that you are mad? He's indicating that you ought to be conscious of the presence of the unlearned or the unbeliever who comes into your assembly.

4:20 Furthermore, you ought to be concerned as to what is conveyed to him. So, he's reasoning with them within that framework. But, if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed. And so, without going into the precise nature of the prophecy envisioned, one thing is clear.

4:52 It was the exercise of a God-conferred gift or gift, within the gathered church, that became a powerful instrument of confronting the unconverted with his God. And it was in a stated, ordinary gathering of the people of God, with God-given gifts of utterance being exercised within God-given guidelines, that became the means of confronting the unconverted with the great issues that are epitomized in the central issues of the gospel. And so, although it is in the ordinary preaching of the word, there ought constantly to be this evangelistic thrust and passion and the recognition that in the totality of that ministry, there is a ministry that God will own under his blessing to the conversion of sinners. And then you have this strange example of someone doing this in a pastoral setting in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19 through 21.

5:59 Speaking of the ministry of reconciliation that God has given to Paul and his companions, he says, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We, that is, Paul and his companions, therefore, on behalf of Christ, we are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though God were in treatment, God were in treating by us. Now notice what he does. In an epistle written to the church at Corinth, Paul launches into a passionate evangelistic appeal and in treating.

6:40 This baffled me for years. As though God were in treating by us, we beseech on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And working together with him, we entreat also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

7:04 For he says, at an acceptable time I hearkened unto you, and in a day of salvation did I succor you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Paul has intruded into this pastoral epistle, this epistle addressing pressing pastoral concerns, this passionate evangelistic appeal, and for years it troubled me.

7:29 It seemed so out of place. It was as though he were suddenly lifted up and put down into a context of unconverted people in a letter addressing a whole litany of practical pastoral concerns. And to me the most satisfying explanation is that he's doing what any true servant of God will do. Who though conscious of his primary function in addressing the church by way of instruction and consolation and exhortation and reproof and guidance, as he is caught up in the awareness of this aspect of his privilege, being a sent one of the living God with a message of reconciliation, he will indeed find himself doing what Paul told Timothy to do, do the work of an evangelist.

8:13 And he will be doing it in the course of his ordinary pastoral ministry. And if there's another explanation for what Paul is doing here, I would welcome to have it explained to me. But it seems, it seems to me on the surface of it, that this is precisely what he is doing. And the pastor, the apostle, sorting out the problems in the church at Corinth, when his mind is drawn to the central issues of his identity as a herald, as an ambassador of Christ, he finds himself directly appealing to these we beseech on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.

8:51 Well, I thought they were. Were they not the saints in Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, of whom he could speak in the first epistle? They came behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Well, yes.

9:03 And yet, no. Is it the realism that Paul recognized? The very one who wrote, If the unbeliever and the unlearned come among you and all prophesy, his heart will be laid bare, he will fall down and cry out. Is he, with that realism, assuming that there at Corinth there are some who, though within the church as to their attendance, are not vitally united to Christ?

9:29 And he gives this statement of the central issues of the gospel, of this alien righteousness, the one who knew no sin being made sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him, and giving this passionate evangelistic appeal. Packer's comments in his classic work, it's become a classic, it was first printed, I think, in 1955, InterVarsity printed it in 65, but I think it first saw the light of day in England. I think it saw the light of day over here even earlier. And so it continues to go through reprints because it is such a helpful distillation of biblical and practical thinking on this matter of evangelism.

10:12 And he writes on page 54, in a most perceptive way, he's saying that there are many ways of bringing the gospel before the unconverted, personal evangelism, and gives Andrew and Philip, and Paul home meeting, group Bible study, and then he makes this statement, also, and most important, there are the regular services Sunday by Sunday in local churches. Insofar as the preaching at our Sunday services is scriptural, those services will of necessity be evangelistic. It is a mistake to suppose that evangelistic sermons are a special brand of sermons, having their own peculiar style and conventions. Evangelistic sermons are just scriptural sermons, the sort of sermons that a man cannot help preaching if he is preaching the Bible biblically. Proper sermons seek to expound and apply what's in the Bible, but what is in the Bible is just the whole counsel of God for man's salvation. All scripture bears witness in one way or another to Christ, and all biblical themes relate to Him.

11:28 All proper sermons, therefore, will of necessity declare Christ in some fashion, and so be more or less directly evangelistic. Some sermons, of course, will aim more narrowly and exclusively at converting sinners than to others. Some will aim more narrowly and exclusively, and we say amen to that. But, but, you cannot 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.

12:05 The Lord Jesus Christ, said Robert Bolton, is, quote, offered most freely and without exception of any person every Sabbath, every sermon, either in plain and direct terms or impliedly at the least. Again, beautifully balanced statement, end quote. So it is, inevitably, wherever the Bible is preached biblically, and there's something terribly wrong in any church or any man's ministry to which Bolton's generalization does not apply. If in our church's, quote, evangelistic, end quote, meetings, and, quote, evangelistic sermons are thought of as special occasions, different from the ordinary run of things, it is a damning indictment of our normal Sunday services. So, if we should imagine that the essential work of evangelism lies in holding meetings of the special type described out of church hours, so to speak, that would simply prove we had failed to understand what our regular Sunday services are for. And you see, the more and more the perspective illustrated by Bolton is true of us, the less our people will be vulnerable to thinking that evangelistic services are something of a totally different stripe. Evangelistic prayers are of a totally different stripe.

13:29 One of the things that encourages me, particularly when my fellow elder, Pastor Jeff Smith, leads the worship service, and I don't know if you've noticed this, rarely does he ever leave out of his opening prayer, and we pray, Father, for the unconverted among us, that while we worship, and while we praise, that you would open their eyes. That's a tremendous evangelistic tool that is constantly praying, pressing home to the awareness of those sitting there. They are unconverted around me. I ought to lift up my heart in prayer to God for them, and it helps cut the nerve of presumption that because you're here in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing, you're right with God, the awareness in the leadership.

14:12 No, there are some here who are not right with God, and it is our prayer that this very service of worship will be the instrument, under God's blessing, to bring them into a knowledge of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we must think biblically with respect to the ordinary means, particularly those means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Now, that does not mean that unless we have an explicit application to the unconverted somewhere in the sermon and call it such, we have failed. We're not saying that.

14:46 We'd be hard-pressed to prove from the Bible that every single sermon ought to have a head or a subhead that says, this is an indication to the unconverted. But whether you have it as a heading, it certainly ought to be something that throbs and breathes through the sermon, because if your heart is engaged before God with a yearning for the conversion of sinners, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and there will be some indication that you are not presuming that everyone present is a child of God. So do not, do not think lightly of those means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and do not avoid the challenge of seeking to find a legitimate avenue out of every theme and every text that will enable you to give some specific application to the unconverted. Now, you don't want to become so tame and predictable that everyone can prepare himself that that application comes at precisely the same point and in the same structure. I'm not advocating that at all. But what I am saying is this, that if you believe that gathering with God's people and under the presence of God and the ministry of the Word there is a unique possibility that this may be the crucible of birthing people unto life in Christ, then surely you're going to reflect that in the substance as well as in the demeanor

Ordinary Means: Administration of the Sacraments

16:13 of your ordinary preaching privileges. But then, small letter b, as the second of the ordinary means, those means connected with the administration of the sacraments. And by the sacraments, I'm referring, of course, to baptism and the Lord's Supper. And while we can, by deduction and inference, say that baptisms provide a wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel as this visible word that validates and illustrates the gospel is being enacted before us, we can, by analogy and by inference, say there ought to be a strong focused evangelistic thrust to any meditation, any comments made in the baptismal waters or in the preaching before the ordinance. But certainly, with respect to the Lord's Supper, we have explicit biblical data. In 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 26, we are told that as oft as we eat this bread, that is, the sacramental bread, and drink the cup, the sacramental cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he come. Now, since I left my full notes at home, and I don't want to trust my memory, I think this is Katangelo, is it not?

17:36 Does someone have a Greek text in front of him? Yes, and I think it's a present indicative. All right, you are continually proclaiming the Lord's death until he come. And here you have one of those family of words that is translated often in the New Testament to describe preaching, proclamation.

17:58 And there at the Lord's table, we are proclaiming the Lord's death. Proclaiming it to whom? Well, to angels, to unseen principalities and powers looking in upon our assembly, proclaiming it to one another. But surely, we are proclaiming to our children who sit with us.

Ordinary Means: Natural Social Contacts

18:15 We are proclaiming to the unconverted who sit around us, the central truths of the gospel, that we are the people of God, because we live upon Christ crucified, as we heard so clearly this past Lord's Day in Pastor Chansky's very helpful exposition of the significance of the Lord's Supper. And we must, as those leading the worship and seeking to establish the climate in which the Lord's Supper is celebrated, we must seek under God to highlight that wonderful evangelistic opportunity given each time we come to the Lord's table. And then thirdly, as ordinary means, there are those opportunities arising from the natural social contacts of the people of God. And as we seek to instruct our people as to how together we may, with the blessing of God, fulfill the evangelistic mandate, we must seek to instruct them in this very vital area, that their natural social contacts given in the providence of God God's providence that placed them in that particular neighborhood, God's providence that has given them those peculiar work associates, God's providence that has given them those particular companions in school, at university, etc., believing that the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, that in all of those circumstances God is scattering the salt

19:43 and God is sending forth beams of light. Matthew 5, 13-16 You are the salt of the earth. It is not an exhortation. It is a statement of reality.

19:56 As sons and daughters of the kingdom who manifest the character traits given in the Beatitudes, He says to the company of His people, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It stands forth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. You are, not you ought to be, you are the light of the world.

20:23 A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the stand, and it shines unto all that are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Now before whom are our lights to be shining most brightly?

20:49 Well, surely those in whose presence God has placed us by His providence. What I'm calling the natural social contacts of the people of God. And we ought to instruct our people that these are their most natural evangelistic opportunities. Should they pray for every single person on the block?

21:11 Well, certainly I'm sure God wouldn't be displeased if they do that. But at least to pray for the neighbors immediately adjacent, left, right, and across the street. Those that you see when you go to take in your mail, when you're out raking the lawn. That those contacts are given by God that the salt might touch that which needs its influence and the light might shine in those circumstances.

21:35 And then the text that we looked at in the previous lecture, Paul's word to the Philippian church, exhorting them to do all things without murmuring and disputing, to manifest an alternate Christian lifestyle that consistently displays that they are not part of a society marked by discontent, ingratitude, grousing and complaining. He said, no, do everything without murmuring and disputing to this end that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are seen. Not among whom you ought to be seen, you are seen as lights in the world holding forth the word of life. And to convey to our people that this is part of the evangelistic mandate that in those situations where they are seen, that they are to be seen as lights shining in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and that they should seek by the grace of God so to walk in the midst of those natural social contacts that their alternate Christian lifestyle is patent. It cannot be ignored. And then 1 Corinthians 5, 9 and 10.

22:57 And I think this is a strange passage to bring to the service of this particular head but I hope you'll see the rationale for it. Paul is rather sternly rebuking the Corinthian church for not exercising discipline upon this immoral man and then in mandating the social strictures of that discipline he says, I wrote unto you, verse 9 in my epistle to have no company with fornicators not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world or with covetous and extortioners or with idolaters for then you must needs go out of the world but as it is I wrote unto you not to keep company if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat. As Paul envisions that lawless immoral society as you know when you wanted to speak of a society really being debauched you would have had a word readily at hand it had become Corinthianized. It had become the debauched of the debauched and he said now in telling you not to keep company with fornicators, extortioners, idolaters he said look I am saying anyone that names the name of Christ in your ordinary social contacts you are going to be rubbing shoulders of necessity not just with sinners in general

24:25 but with some of the worst of sinners and he says I have no intention to say anything to you that would unnaturally wrench you loose from those normal social contacts even with the basest of men and women. He assumes that the salt is going to remain in contact with that which is putrefied and needs its influence. That where there is moral darkness there will be someone shining with the radiance of moral light and integrity. And here again we need to instruct our people that they should not be fearful of contamination from those contacts that are the natural social contacts.

25:05 Yes, evil companions do corrupt good morals. 1 Corinthians 15.33 And my son if sinners entice thee consent thou not. Those are warnings of the dangers of the ungodly influencing the godly.

25:19 But with those warnings in place we must not develop a kind of a monastic mentality. Paul says otherwise you need to go out of the world. And he says that certainly is not my intention but rather these normal ordinary contacts are to be the very bridge and conduit of opportunity for communicating the gospel. And then of course the familiar text in 1 Peter 3.

25:44 I bring it to the service here though we used it in a previous lecture because it is another watershed text. Here the people of God are suffering in the way of righteousness and he says take it as a badge of honor. Don't be afraid. Don't be troubled.

26:01 But, verse 15, sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord being ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you yet with meekness and fear having a good conscience. And so he assumes that as they patiently and in meekness mirroring their Lord who when reviled, reviled not again as they bear the unjust opposition of the ungodly that their demeanor and their response which is under the visual exposure of the unconverted around them will sooner or later so tweak their interest that they are going to ask what in the world makes you tick? Why in the world haven't you hauled out and hauled off and put that guy's legs out? Why will you refuse when I start to speak to you about how rough so and so is making of you? Why won't you indulge in negative conversation about him like the rest of us are doing?

27:07 We see that you don't deserve it. You don't deserve what you're getting. What in the world makes you tick? Peter says, so have Christ set apart constantly in your heart in his rightful place of homage and adoration and devotion that you stand in readiness to give a reason concerning the hope that is in you.

27:29 And surely this is one of the most powerful means of aggressive personal evangelism when the man's alternate lifestyle has so gone before him that those who behold it can no longer be silent about asking what in the world makes you tick? You don't need to tell them that, quote, my religion is my life. He's already seen that. He just doesn't understand it.

27:53 For him, religion is what he does on Sunday or Saturday night when he goes to confession. It's not his life. It has no relationship to whether or not he looks at the Playboy magazine in the locker in the shop. It has no relationship to what he says with his mouth when the latest dirty joke is being passed around.

28:09 But obviously it does with this character. And he can't figure this thing out. He's not seen this. Where a man's religion is his life.

28:18 It's not religion. It's Christ sanctified as Lord continually in his heart. And here is a marvelous opportunity. And we need to instruct our people and to encourage our people to seize those opportunities that arise from the natural social context that God has given to them.

28:36 And then a wonderful example of that in the life of our Lord Jesus. This is but one example. And he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. You remember that subsequent to calling Levi or Matthew into fellowship with himself and eventually into an even more intimate relationship.

28:57 When Levi desires to express his gratitude to this one who has not despised him and cast him off because of his connection with Rome. We read in Luke 5.29 Levi made him, that is for Jesus, a great feast in his house. Here is a banquet being thrown in honor of the Lord Jesus.

29:18 And there was a great multitude of tax collectors and of others. And from other passages we know that and the others is the rest of the Palestinian mafia. Notorious sinners. And what are they doing?

29:31 Sitting, I'm sorry, a great multitude of others that were sitting at meat, reclining at table with him. Now what did the Lord Jesus do? When he comes, there must have been some previous preparation. You don't have a great feast and fix it up and throw it in a half hour.

29:47 There is a condensed account here. And when the Lord Jesus sees the Palestinian mafia and the riffraff, what does he do? He doesn't say, well, what will happen to my reputation? I mean, if word gets out that I'm sitting down.

29:59 Not standing on the table preaching the ears off these people. Sitting down enjoying course after course of this banquet. And showing myself a friend of sinners. What will happen to my reputation?

30:11 Well, he already knew what would happen to it and he wasn't disappointed. The Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the publicans and sinners? And in the parallel passage in Matthew, it's why does your master? So it's not just them.

30:25 But this is getting back. You're doing what your master does. You're disciples of his and you're following his pattern. What in the world are you doing in this natural, intimate, social interaction?

30:35 Social interaction with the riffraff? And the Lord comes to the defense of the whole situation. Jesus answering said unto them, they that are healthy have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

30:51 And it's interesting in this context. What was he doing in that ongoing work of calling? He had stood by Matthew's receipt booth. He had called him.

31:01 He'd said, follow me. But now he's sitting at a banquet eating one course after another, eating the ordinary food, drinking the normal amounts of wine so much so that they called him a glutton and a wine-bipper, friend of publicans and sinners. Jesus said, this is part of my work of calling sinners. This is the heavenly physician getting close enough to sick people to minister divine medicine to them.

31:26 But the point is, it was a natural social contact. It wasn't an artificially contrived contact. It was a natural social contact. And this is an area where we need under God to instruct our people and to urge them to take those natural social contacts as a means of fulfilling the evangelistic mandate.

Ordinary Means: Special Gifts and Open Doors for Evangelism

31:50 And then letter D, as an ordinary means, those opportunities arising from the special gifts for evangelism both discovered and exercised in conjunction with the church. Romans 12 in verse 3, a text to which we make repeated references in other contexts, but within the life of the church with its beautiful diversity of giftedness on the baseline of all of the people of God responding in loving gratitude as living sacrifices, presenting themselves unto God, Paul says, I say through the grace given to me to every man that is among you not to think of himself as a sinner, but to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly according as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith. And then he goes on into the analogy of the body, one body, one organism, many members, diversity of functions. Well, within that reality and in the light of 1 Peter 4, 10 where we are exhorted that every believer who has received some charism, some, divine endowment, according as each has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, it will begin to be evident that by a strange combination of everything from matters settled

33:18 in a man or woman's mother's womb, development, social interaction, education, station in life, elements of the spirit's operation, a combination of many things will flow into the recognition that this man, this woman, has a peculiar measure of ability to communicate the gospel winsomely, wisely, and effectively to the unconverted. Now whether we want to call that a special gift of evangelism is a moot question and I'm not here to try to decide it. But obviously that combination of things that gives that peculiar ability is a stewardship. And certainly the overarching teaching of the Bible with respect to what do we do with capacities given to us by God, whatever the combination of natural endowment, training, education, a host of other, it's irrelevant. There is the thing that is given as a deposit to be used for the glory of Christ, for the good of the souls of men. And therefore in our pastoral ministries as we begin to see some who manifest special gifts in this area of evangelism, we should encourage them. Do you sense that?

34:36 Do you recognize in yourself taking the Romans 12.3 personal responsibility? You see, he says to every man that is among you not to think more highly but to think soberly. The burden of assessment is a burden that falls upon the individual.

34:52 But it's not the individual in isolation from the body and certainly not in isolation from overseers. So you're there sort of like the coach. You're trying to discern will this guy use his optimum ability on the football team as a cornerback or as a flanker or a wide out or by pumping out, working out and pumping a bit more iron in the weight room can we make an outside linebacker out of him? It's obvious that from his mother's womb, from his early development, from his acquisition of certain skills in playing football, the guy's going to sit here and say, here, here, here.

35:31 And what do you do? Well, you help as the coach to guide him into the place where he finds optimum usefulness in the whole scheme of things. Well, that's what we are doing as overseers. We are not presuming that we can inject our perspective and take out the personal burden of Romans 12.3.

35:49 But as someone is wrestling with that matter and says, I believe that I may have by God's grace some particular graces and gifts in this particular area, what can I do to cultivate them? Would you be willing to go with me and watch me as I attempt there in the hospital bed to communicate the gospel? And you're there seeking to give your input and advice and counsel. And we ought to be sensitive to these things so that the opportunities arising from special gifts for evangelism that are both discovered and exercised in conjunction with the church, that those who have such will find a sphere of usefulness.

36:29 And then, the ordinary means, large, small letter, E, those opportunities arising from local open doors for evangelism. And here, I don't give you a specific text. I just say the general teaching of the scripture that when God opens a door, the God who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens, then given some of the peculiar emphasis of Matthew 25, if we can say that the Lord has a peculiar concern for any, you have in Matthew 25, I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison.

37:06 I was hungry. I was naked. James chapter 1, pure religion and undefiled, to visit the fatherless and the widows. Then, in our own given area, if there are doors open in hospitals to go from bed to bed, if there are nursing homes, the opportunities such as we've had for a number of years here, in some parts, there's release time in even public schools.

37:28 Where the servants of God and others who may not be, quote, in the ministry, could have open doors in order to get in, well we ought to seek to seize all of those opportunities that God sets before us. So those are some of the ordinary means. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are the ordinary means. And I think so often, in our concern to do something more concentrated, something that is more focused, we fail to see that day by day, as our people are scattered in a network of relationships, they have a tremendous amount of evangelistic opportunities in this very unglamorous, ordinary framework established by God.

38:13 The regular preaching of the word, the regular observance of the sacraments, the natural social contacts of the people of God, and those with special gifts in this area not being set forth as the individual, not as the elite, cracked troops, the green beret of any given church, and puffed up with pride and bemeaning others. No, I've seen enough of that, to abominate that notion. But, in our reaction against it, let's not fail to recognize that some will have peculiar gifts in this area. And then those opportunities arising from open doors in the providence of God.

Extraordinary or Special Activities for Evangelism

38:51 And then there are what I've called, secondly, the extraordinary, or special activities calculated to bring men and women under the influence of the gospel. And I'll go through these a bit more quickly, so that we can round out this first hour and take a break. Let me give some specific suggestions. One, a concentrated church-wide effort to bring people to a gathering where there will be appointed formal presentation of the gospel by proven speakers.

39:23 Is it legitimate while recognizing that every gathering of God's people is in a true sense evangelistic, is it right that we should attempt, as churches, to have gatherings where it is known that there's going to be appointed formal presentation of the gospel by those who have a proven ability to communicate the gospel in a meaningful, warm, and, insofar as is humanly possible, a non-offensive way. Where the offense is the gospel and the word of the cross, not a person's oddities, not his boorishness, not his insensitivity, et cetera. Well, I think we'd be hard-pressed to say that given the mandate to make disciples, given the example of our Lord seizing every opportunity to say that we would be offering strange fire upon God's altars to state that on such and such a date there's going to be a supper, an evangelistic supper, and we're urging you to get as many people as you can to come tell them. It's going to be an evening where we're going to have an excellent five-course meal and then a man who works for such and such is going to tell us what Christ means to him or the place of the Christian faith in the marketplace of today's business world. Whatever the subject is, you're not being deceitful. It is never right in seeking to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove to be as deceitful

40:51 as a man. That is the serpent. That we must not be. And sometimes people have done that and they felt the end justified the means.

40:59 If I can be deceptive and duplicitous and get them under the gospel, the Lord may get them. But what are you saying about your gospel? It doesn't produce honesty and integrity in those who believe it. So you're denying the gospel by the manner in which you got someone under the gospel.

41:13 That's what bothers me with these approaches where people say, well, you just come up to the door and say, we're just here to take a religious survey. Well, no, they're not there to take a religious survey. They're there to get the gospel to them. Now, if all you're going to do is take the survey and stop, fine.

41:28 But that's the segue into being able to directly address them with the gospel. Well, there's an element if you say, all I'm here to do, I don't want to give you anything. I don't want to sell you anything. I just want to take the survey.

41:41 Well, are you really being honest? That's kind of a tongue-in-cheek. If you say, well, I'm here to take a survey with a view to hopefully engaging you in conversation on a matter that's very dear to me, to my heart, now you've been honest. You don't need to tell the whole nine yards on the front end, but at least be honest that when you get to where you hope to get, they say, oh, this is what they meant about the thing that's most important.

42:03 At least they know you're an honest, quote, Christian. Not a dishonest Christian. So that in this area, God has wonderfully blessed these efforts. We have made them at times past.

42:14 Some of our sister churches do them quite regularly. I've been privileged to speak at a number of places like this where people have worked for weeks to get businessmen out at a news conference in the meantime for an evangelistic luncheon and preach to large groups of unconverted people in that type of setting. Well, here's a specific suggestion of an extraordinary or special activity calculated to bring people under the sound of the gospel preached by someone who has a proven ability to preach it. Secondly, a concentrated church-wide effort to distribute good evangelistic literature.

42:48 If we were to gauge the usefulness of this kind of an enterprise by its fruit, we'd say it isn't worth it. But who are we to judge? Cast thy bread upon the waters. Thou shalt find it not many days hence.

43:02 He that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. And we have done this in past years. It's time that we do it again. We've blanketed this whole area with literature that both says something about the church and gives an invitation to the church and with a good pointed gospel presentation and we've not seen quote any of this in the past but we have seen quote any fruit.

43:25 But who are we to measure that fruit? How much has that salt kept back people from believing well, you know, nobody believes anything anymore. How many people may have read that and it at least causes them to know there's still people that believe the quote old-fashioned truths. I mean, we are not the ones to measure the benefit and the fruit of anything.

43:49 And if nothing else, this does something for your own people to be light and to be salt. Thirdly, a concentrated church-wide effort to enroll people in a short-term home Bible study. You all know if you follow the prayer letters from the Philippines how Bible studies in business establishments in office buildings have been one of the most useful evangelistic tools in the Philippines. Now, in some places home Bible studies.

44:15 We know some of our sister churches have done great reaping. We've made some efforts here but they've come to naught. One of our families a couple of summers ago pounded the streets up and down their neighborhood and we had someone prepared to lead them in a three successive I think Friday nights it was and they ended up one person came one night I think a Jehovah's Witness and didn't show up anymore and the whole thing fizzled. They just could not drum up any interest.

44:41 And so these are things that we must sometimes try and experiment and if they come to naught recognize it and then say Lord, help us to see if there's another thing to reaching people in our particular setting. An ongoing program of house to house visitation. Again, as I speak to our brethren and our experience in the past in this very little fruit from it. Not no fruit but very little and systematic going out in concentric circles from the place where God puts you geographically but this is certainly as Biblical warrant Paul could say that he taught and preached publicly and from house to house.

45:19 Then, fifthly, a matter that's been very effective with some of our churches a regular presentation of the Gospel in local papers as paid or public service advertisement. Some of our men have written little two to three hundred pieces for the local paper Christian Perspectives and have addressed current issues in the light of the Word of God and though none of them have said it's precipitated revival or they've seen dozens converted when they go out into the community that article is read by a lot of the people when you're in a more consolidated culturally isolated town that has one of these local papers where there's a lot of interaction and people read such papers this can be an effective means, again, of kind of broadcasting the seed of the Word of God and then I've listed in the sixth place an occasional opportunity to put the Gospel of the Word of God into the minds of the people who are interested in the Word of God and I think that's one of the things that we can and ought prayerfully to consider doing in the more extraordinary way and they are church based and they are church organized and church supported and probably

46:49 the best thing for all of these and since I did I left my notes at home and they have the page reference I was trying to remember it in Packer but he has this marvelous statement I'll try to find it in the break time on the enterprising nature of love that it is of the very nature of love to be enterprising if a man has his heart set on a given woman and his first approach she doesn't even give him the time of the day if his heart is set upon it he won't go back again and try he's not going to be blown off by an initial indifference and the nature of love is to be enterprising and if that fundamental motivation of love to God and love to men is implanted by the spirit of God and is growing and is kept alive by the ministry of the spirit then it is of the very nature of love to be enterprising and to be enterprising never enterprising at the expense of truth the use of illegitimate means but within the framework of what we would call legitimate means there are a host of opportunities that can be seized if we are moved by enterprising love and so I commend that little phrase to you enterprising love when we think of these various means that we may implement both in terms

Practical Considerations: Pastor's Attitude and Example

48:19 of the ordinary and then the extraordinary in seeking personally and with our people to fulfill the evangelistic mandate alright brethren let's pick up where we left off in the previous hour as we continue to consider some legitimate means for the accomplishment of the evangelistic task and enterprise having looked at several of the ordinary means and then some extraordinary or special people under the influence of the gospel we now come to some practical considerations in seeking to motivate and direct your congregation with respect to fulfilling this task and I begin with what is foundational to all else namely to recognize the strategic influence of your own attitude and example in life and ministry and I mean your attitude and example what can I excuse is hope of what we should have in life in our lives and this is also an important issue I put together a list of the most important points that I list on this particular issue and I've listed as a key text Acts 20 and verses 19-21

49:49 anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And in this endeavor, while there are unique aspects of Paul as an apostle and as a preacher, and we don't ever want to forget that dimension when using the Pauline example, still saying this to ordinary elders who were to have the ongoing charge of the church, he can at the end of this section say in verse 35, In all things I gave you an example. The specific focus of that example is his exhortation not to covet. He himself provided for his own needs and the needs of others, but surely his example extended beyond that of the selfless, disinterested love manifested in that particular area, but also as one who had this evangelistic passion, which in turn, as they carry on their task, should be reflected in their lives and in their ministries. And at the end of the day, this matter of evangelistic passion and concern will in great measure be determined by the measure of it that throbs within our own hearts. Like preacher, like people.

51:14 And therefore, it is... It's critical amidst all of the pressures of pastoral ministry, many of which are legitimate and can subtly erode this focused concern that we would be instruments to herald the message of God's grace to those who are yet not partakers of that grace.

51:32 It's vital to constantly stir up ourselves in this area. And so I'm giving an exhortation that you seek to read and reread the following works, calculate, to stir up a passion for the task. Interesting that our brother should mention the first that I've listed, Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bona. If I had to be limited to one little booklet dealing with the subject, I would say this is the finest that I've ever encountered.

52:02 His treatment of the subject is convincing to the mind, moving to the heart and to the affections, and I highly commend it. If you don't have it, haven't read it, make it a lifetime companion. And then...

52:15 Spurgeon's book, The Soul Winner, that's gone through numerous editions, the Reformed Pastor by Baxter, particularly the sections in which he addresses his brethren concerning the necessity of having a passion for the unconverted, the chapter in Spurgeon's lectures to my students entitled Conversion, Our Aim. I had opportunity to reread sections of that in reworking the lecture, and as I think of seeking to preach with evangelistic focus, a special focus Sunday night, I'm determined to read that chapter before I even carry on any specific preparation, to have myself stirred up afresh in these areas. And to these I should have added as well Packer's book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. I just...

53:00 This was new stuff in the notes, and I've been working with this and had it on my desk, but simply omitted. I would certainly urge you to put it in there as a comprehensive treatment of the subject and one that, again, goes to the heart and the conscience. It has few equals. And then I'm also suggesting that you read and reread the biographies of men marked by the evangelistic passion.

53:24 And among these are Whitfield, Payson, Spurgeon, McShane, Brainerd, Griffin, etc. You complete your own list, but find those biographies which, when you read them, do not bury you with intimidation, but stir you up to imitation and cause you to say, Lord, if I ever preach, if I ever preach with passion, give me something of what this man had, something of what this man had, something of that spirit that throbbed through their ministries. There is a contagion that comes when you draw close to a passionate heart. And that is a phenomenon that relates to human experience and grace works within that framework.

Practical Considerations: Avoiding Common Errors

54:04 So, recognize the strategic influence of your own attitude and example in life and in ministry. And then, secondly, recognize and avoid the most common errors with respect to pastoral instruction and exhortations connected with this task of evangelism. As some of us look back over our shoulders at our own experience and what we've been exposed to in our pilgrimage, we note that there have been some common errors as pastors have sought to labor with their people in communicating to them not only a biblical perspective, on the task of evangelism, but practical guidance in fulfilling that task. And here are some of those common errors that I urge you to avoid. First, avoid the crippling, guilt-producing notion that every Christian has or should have the gift of an evangelist. The quickest way to produce false guilt, and remember, false guilt, like all guilt, paralyzes all noble activity. All noble activity.

55:11 Guilt may produce a twinge of guilt, a torturous activity, but it never produces noble activity. It's the spirit of a freeborn son that produces noble activity. Not the whiplash of guilt. The way of him that is laden with guilt is exceedingly crooked.

55:29 And one of the quickest ways to produce false guilt is to lay upon every Christian the notion that he or she should have or ought to acquire the gift of an evangelist and become an aggressive, confrontational evangelist. I've challenged whole groups of pastors with my Bible and say, produce one clear text that binds the consciences of the people of God as the people of God to this notion. I say, produce a text that says all the people of God are to pursue universal holiness. You can start quoting them left, right, and center.

56:09 Produce a text that says an employer ought to be this, an employee that. The New Testament is full of that. But not a text that says every Christian is to be an evangelist. You look in vain for any such text.

56:25 So avoid the crippling, guilt-producing notion that every Christian has or should have the gift of an evangelist. But on the flip side, seek to avoid the numbing, conscience-saving notion that all evangelistic concern and activity will simply take care of itself. You know the old adage, everybody's job is nobody's job. So you've got to go after the consciences of your people with regard to their involvement in the task without producing crippling notions, false guilt that they should have or seek to attain the gift of an evangelist.

57:06 And then thirdly, avoid the artificial regimentation and imitation which does not allow the vast diversity of gifts and opportunities in any given congregation. Avoid the artificial regimentation, getting everyone into a cookie-cutter, wooden-soldier mentality with respect to the task of evangelism. Giving a canned approach that every single person is to master and three questions that every person is to ask in introducing the Gospel. Brethren, it denies God-given individuality not only the Christian you're seeking to train but in the recognition of the people to whom you're relating.

57:49 You're not relating to them for what they are, distinct individuals with their own pool of peculiar areas of confusion and hurt and sin and all of the rest. Now I'm not saying that we can't train our people to have an increasing stock of helpful tools, verses that they've memorized, possible questions that may open up a conversation. I'm talking about the place of that. And we ought constantly to have our ears open, listening, acquiring, the same way we do with preaching.

58:25 I hope none of us gets to the place where we say, well this is my way of preaching and there's nothing I can learn from anybody. I hope you listen to tapes until you go to your grave. Not just to be fed and instructed but what's this man doing that makes his preaching delicious to me, makes it challenging, makes it interesting. So with our people, we need to challenge them to be able to share with one another.

58:49 You had an opportunity to speak to someone? How did you get that opportunity? What did you say? I'm not negating that.

58:57 That's part of wholesome, biblical body life. But what I'm talking about is avoiding artificial regimentation does no justice to this vast diversity of gifts and opportunities in any given congregation. For example, a dear friend of mine in past years had a place in his community. Almost everyone knew him in association with his particular company.

59:19 It was a large company. He was known to be the president of that company. And he was somewhat of a character in that people knew before he was converted he was a very profligate man and God had wonderfully converted him and given the rather culturally insulated setting of that town and the contacts, it was known that he was not what he once was. And because of his position and because of his personality I mean this guy could get away with things that if he imposed on others it would be ludicrous.

59:51 For example, I was visiting him in the hospital one time and in came his dentist. Now he had a relationship of several decades with this dentist and he'd been witnessing to him giving him tracts and he said, Al, I want you to meet my friend Dr. So-and-so. He said, I've been trying for twenty years to keep him out of hell.

60:11 And his friend smiled at him and said, in fact, yeah, he really has been. He had earned the right. Now someone said, oh boy, that's a good way to witness. And so they're going to say, here's my neighbor, I've been trying for the last six months to keep her...

60:25 But it was perfectly natural with him. And I learned some very helpful principles. He would take me out to eat. First time I ever was taken out to eat I was brought up borderline poor, just plain poor by today's standards and I'd never eaten in a restaurant until I think I was nineteen.

60:42 And so the first time I was taken out for a meal was because of where inflation goes. We're talking now about the early sixties, mid-sixties. And this man wanted me to order an eleven or twelve dollar steak. I mean, to me, that just...

60:54 I had got my conscience sorted out on whatever set before you. Asked no questions, for conscience sake. And so, but every bite it went down hard, thinking how this money could be used for this and how many pairs of shoes it could buy and all the rest. But I watched this man as he was able to witness to the waitress and how he established a friendliness by being flirtatious.

61:16 And God really dealt with me. I was so on guard, anyone would think I was flirting. I treated every waitress like a potential seductress, you know, and I'd barely look at them and talk. But I watched them and I learned and I absorbed.

61:28 But I absorbed them in a way consistent with who I am. I could never do what he does. But there are certain things he does that I can incorporate that become part of my arsenal of learning how to set someone at ease, get opportunity, perhaps, to speak of Christ and of the Gospel. And to petrify into a specific method the way he did it would be absolutely ludicrous.

61:53 And so that's what I'm talking about. I'm making sense when I say avoid this artificial regimentation and imitation without saying that we cannot and ought not to be sharing specific principles and be learning from one another all the time. And then, fourthly, avoid the unscriptural notion that since an outpouring of the Spirit would automatically intensify activity and success, and it always has, we need do nothing until such is given. This is called hyper-Calvinism.

62:23 This is being called an unfaithful and a wicked servant. This is called burying your talent. Well, if the Lord would come, it'd be multiplied a hundredfold. I'm going to sit back and wait for the Lord to come and multiply it.

Practical Considerations: Centrality of Fervent Prayer

62:39 He says, no, you occupy until I come. Thou wicked servant, at least take what I've given you that I might have my initial investment with interest. And this whole notion that because, and it would, an outpouring of the Spirit would automatically intensify evangelistic activity and success, that does not negate our duty, our responsibility, and our privilege, so avoid allowing your people to drift into this kind of hyperism. And then, my final exhortation, and this is the capstone overall, recognize the central place of fervent and persistent prayer in the entire evangelistic endeavor. When we have come to believe the scriptural testimony concerning the state of men as dead in sin, bound by their sins, blinded by the God of this world, then it is absolute nonsense to think there's any little approach that we can have that will get someone to pray the prayer that is going to precipitate a divine intervention into the tragic human condition. At the root of much of the classic evangelistic approaches is, if not an explicit, a de facto Pelagianism, that the sinner has plenary ability to determine his own destiny. And while verses on sin may be quoted, the whole

64:05 idea that I'm moving toward getting the clincher and getting the client to buy the goods and pray the prayer after me is predicated upon a Pelagian view of man's condition. And so we need under God, for ourselves and for our people, to recognize and constantly emphasize the central place, not an ancillary place, the central place of fervent, persistent prayer in the entire evangelistic endeavor. And I've listed several of the texts that are crucial in this area. James 1.18, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, of his own will, utterly dependent upon the exercise of the divine will of God. 1 Corinthians 3.3-8, that crucial passage that eminent servants of God, such as Paul and Peter and Apollos, they are called but sowers and waterers, and only one is the ultimate increase giver. So then, neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters. They do plant, they

65:13 do water. But in terms of the ultimate result, they are nothing but God. He's everything. God who gives the increase. Yes, reward will be given according to each man's labor, but in the context, the emphasis the apostle gives is that success in gospel endeavors is utterly dependent upon the good will, the good pleasure, and the power of God. And how is that power granted to us? Sovereignly, yes, but mediately through the prayers of his people. Luke 11.3 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to his children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And as Paul views his concern for the Galatians, my little children of whom I travail again in birth, till Christ be formed in you. What is the great end of evangelism? In terms of seeing the success of the message, nothing less than Christ formed in men.

66:13 He is not formed in those who do not come to repentance and faith, who do not come to rest in an alien righteousness, yes, but if they come to truly rest in Christ as their only hope of life and salvation, that very Christ will be formed in them by the Holy Spirit. And then Paul's example that we looked at last week, where he speaks of his own constant heaviness and burden for his fellow Jews, that this one who is always rejoicing is yet always sorrowing. And he says, I say the truth in Christ, I do not lie. My conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. Well, what does he do with that sorrow and that pain? He gives vent to it, among other things, in terms of his supplication. Brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved. And we then need to follow that pattern as God gives us an increasing constraint upon our hearts, a divine heaviness for the unconverted to find a conduit of that burden as we supplicate for them, that they may be saved. I commend to you, as

67:31 some of you know, I've been working through Dr. Carson's book on the prayers of Paul, and I found his chapter, well the whole book is just masterful, about three quarters of the way through, but his chapter on prayer and the sovereignty of God in relationship to our intercession is the finest treatment I have ever seen on that subject. Tremendously helpful. Very lucid, clear, balanced, exegetically, theologically, and I find that I need to constantly be stirred up in these areas, that I just at times have said, Lord, here I've been forty-five years in the way and I feel like I've enrolled in kindergarten. I had to tell God that on my knees this morning. It's grievous, brethren. I say, well, Lord, where have I been all my life? Where have I been? The most

68:21 elementary issues, we have to come back to them again and again and again and again. And brethren, don't let that discourage you. Don't let it discourage you. But bless God that He brings you back to the foundational issues again and again and again.

68:35 And may God grant that we, as the servants of God, as we find our place in the Kingdom of Christ and our service in conjunction with His Church, that not only will we be known truly as men who walk with God, who are marked by a responsible, passionate, relevant, applicatory ministry in the Word to God's people, that the people will know, consistent with our God-given temperament, with our particular gifts, that we, like McShane, are dying to have our people converted. As someone asked the dear little Scottish woman what she felt was the secret of McShane's success as a preacher, and she said he preached as if he were dying to have you converted. He preached as if he were dying to have you converted. And may God grant that as we give ourselves to that task, the Lord will, by the blessing of the Spirit, cause a kind of holy contagion among our people, and that we will have the joy of seeing them, each in his own place, seeking to do his part in the overarching responsibility of bringing the Gospel to our own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and some whom God will carry to the ends of the earth.