Doing the Work of an Evangelist in Preaching, Part 1

Introduction: The Vital Relationship of Evangelism to Pastoral Preaching

0:03 Now, during this entire semester, brethren, we've been concerned with addressing principles that would help us in seeking to construct sermons of the three major species, and we've left with you what I trust are some practical guidelines for the actual construction of sermons of each kind, topical, textual, and consecutive expository sermons. And in the pursuit of this goal, I've worked with the most streamlined model of the major components of each kind of a sermon, the model which divided the sermon into the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion. Now, having completed the material dealing with these matters, what I wish to do in the two remaining lectures, that is, this morning and two weeks from today, we have no pastoral theology, no academy next week, your little Thanksgiving break, is to take up a subject which bears a vital relationship to everything that has gone before. In all of our considerations of the mechanics of sermon preparation, we have both assumed and periodically asserted that all of our treatment of sermon preparation is approached from the perspective of preaching within the context, of pastoral relationships, commitments, and duties.

1:32 Now, this fact is patent in the very wording of the large unit of our study, Essential Elements of Effective Pastoral Preaching. However, there is a vital strand of concern which I now wish to weave back into the fabric of everything that has already been produced upon the loom of our consideration of these things, and that concern is doing the work of an evangelist in the midst of our pastoral preaching. So, having dealt with how to construct a topical, textual, or consecutive expository sermon, sermons comprised of introductions, discussions, and conclusions, we're now going back and seeking to weave through that entire fabric. This is the fabric that has been created in our study together, this concern of doing the work of an evangelist in our pastoral preaching. And in handling the subject, I shall avail myself of the following major headings. Number one, the duty and privilege established.

2:49 Then, secondly, the duty and privilege fulfilled. Then, thirdly, practical suggestions concerning the duty. And then, God willing, next week, we'll take the fourth line of consideration, the disposition essential to the fulfilling of this privilege and duty. First of all, then, the duty and privilege of doing the work of an evangelist established.

The Duty and Privilege of Evangelism Established from 2 Timothy 4:4-5

3:18 This starting point is absolutely essential, for unless our consciences are held in the grip of a God-given sense of duty. In this matter, it's doubtful that we will labor at the task or give ourselves to the cultivation of greater efficiency in the performance of that task week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, in the work of pastoral preaching. Now, it appears to me that the most pointed and powerful injunction with respect to our evangelistic task...

3:59 ...in conjunction with the overall work of pastoral preaching, is to be found in the words of Paul's final charge to Timothy.

4:11 And I want to rest the case primarily upon this text of Scripture. We could trace out many lines of inference which demonstrate that it is both our duty and privilege to do the work of an evangelist. ...in conjunction with the overall work of pastoral preaching.

4:30 In our capacity as pastor-teachers to the flock of God, but rather than trace out those lines, I want us to concentrate on this pivotal text, 2 Timothy 4, verses 4 and 5, or perhaps we should back up to verse 3. The time will come when they will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts. And will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables. But, be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Now, a general survey of the various responsibilities laid upon Timothy, found in 1 and 2 Timothy, I believe...

5:31 ...can be reduced to four broad areas of major ministerial duty.

5:38 Number one, he was to establish the people of God in purity of doctrine. That comes right out in chapter 1, verse 3. For this cause I left you behind at Ephesus, that you might charge men not to teach a different doctrine. And all the way through those epistles, right into this final charge.

6:02 There is this paramount concern that Timothy be an instrument in the hands of God to establish the people of God in the purity of the doctrine of God. The second major category of responsibility was this. He was to direct the people of God into purity of life.

6:26 He was to direct the people of God into purity of life, or you may wish to state it, into... ...the practical details of experimental godliness.

6:39 And again, this is right on the front end of the first epistle. The end of the charge is what? Love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. His concern for the maintenance of purity of doctrine is joined to this concern of guiding the people of God into purity.

7:03 He was to direct the people of God into purity of life, into practical experimental godliness. And so throughout the two epistles, there are whole chunks of those epistles delineating what practical godliness is. And Timothy is told, these things command and teach. If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, you shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ.

7:27 But then he had a third great responsibility, and it was this. He was to guide...

7:33 He was to guide the people of God into proper church order and corporate church life. He was to guide the people of God into proper church order and church life. There, of course, you think of the pivotal passage in chapter 3, 14 and 15, where Paul explicitly states that his reason for writing the letter was that men might know how they ought to behave. They ought to behave themselves in the church of God.

8:09 And he gives explicit directives concerning the centrality of prayer, concerning the standard for officers, concerning the care of widows. He is deeply concerned that Timothy be a guide to the people of God with respect to proper church order and congregational life. And then his fourth major responsibility was, of course...

8:34 To constantly guard and nurture his own life and walk before God.

8:43 Periodically, Paul exhorts Timothy himself, 1 Timothy 4, 16, Take heed to yourself and to the teaching, but thou, O man of God, flee these things. Lay hold on the life that is eternal. And in the second epistle, he tells him, Be not a partaker of other men's sins. Keep yourself pure.

9:05 And that he is to pursue a life of holiness with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. So I believe it's accurate to state that the major responsibilities laid upon Timothy as an apostolic representative there in Ephesus were these four categories. Establishing the people of God in purity of doctrine, purity of life, proper church order, and the constant...

9:35 Guarding and nurturing of his own walk and life before God. Now, without opening up the moot question, that is, the oft-debated and unresolved question, relative to the peculiarities of Timothy's office and his precise position as an apostolic representative, I think we would all agree that these four major categories of responsibility, form the heart and soul of the responsibilities of teaching ruling elders in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is not without reason that 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus have been called the pastoral epistles, or the pastorals. Not because people were ignorant of the fact that Timothy was not a pastor as such, but because they are concerned with those things that now...

10:36 find their expression in the standing office of the pastor-teacher of a teaching ruling elder in the Church of Christ. Now, if that is so, and if the reasoning is sound, then you see why it is proper for us to come to 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and deduce from this the duty and privilege of a man engaged in full-orbed pastoral responsibility, adding to those responsibilities a constant concern to do the work of an evangelist. Timothy was not to set aside any of these four major categories of, quote, pastoral duty and responsibility. But in the midst of them...

Defining 'Evangelist' and the Pastor's Obligation

11:36 woven through them, ancillary to them, he was also to do the work of an evangelist. Now, again, I am fully aware of the problems surrounding the term evangelist, for apart from its usage here, and in Acts 21.8, and in Ephesians 4.11, there are no other occurrences of the term in the New Testament.

12:07 I am also aware of the debate regarding the permanence or the temporary nature of the office. Owen argues most cogently, and I believe personally, unanswerably, that this was a temporary office. When we read, and he gave some to be evangelists, Owen argues very powerfully that this is a temporary office, even as was the office of apostle and prophet. But wherever we come down on that issue, and your orthodoxy will not be suspect in this place, no matter what side you come down on that issue, there is agreement that because of the etymology of the word, whatever an evangelist was as to office, there is no question as to what he was in terms of function. For evangelist is simply a noun form of the verb to proclaim the gospel. It's a transliteration of the Greek word. Oangelistes, and immediately you think, of course, of oangelizomai, to preach the gospel.

13:30 So that an evangelist, in terms of function, setting aside, the moot question of precise office, temporary or permanent office, put those questions aside, the function is that of proclaiming the God-given oangelia, the God-given evangel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, proclaimed with a view to persuasion and conversion. And at this point, Mr. Daum will be glad that we agree with our good friend and Lutheran commentator, Lenski. I quote from Lenski, commenting on this verse, page 856 in the appropriate volume, Timothy is to do the work of an evangelist, whatever the bad that he must suffer may be. Do it effectively and completely. This soberness is to attest itself, both in that respect. Evangelist is not used in the technical sense of revivalist.

14:43 Some think it denotes missionary. But like oangelizestai, it is entirely general. A man who operates with the gospel of salvation, be his capacity what it will. We have already described Timothy's position in Asia, yet the word is not restricted to that position.

15:07 So that he takes the position that the word evangelist is used generically here, and is not to be understood in the restricted sense of an office, and therefore having only application to Timothy. So in summary, we may say that amidst all of Timothy's pressing and constant standing duties of a pastoral nature, establishing men in the truth, and immunizing them against error, directing into the paths of practical godliness and holiness, guiding them into God-honoring church life and practice, nurturing his own soul before God, Timothy is under a solemn obligation continually to remember that he has not fulfilled his ministerial tasks, he has not fulfilled his service appointed by God, unless he is constantly engaging in the work of an evangelist, constantly engaging himself in the distinct proclamation of the heart of the evangel with a view to persuasion and to conversion.

16:27 Now let me say by way of summary and application, while giving due allowance for diversity of gift, diversity of opportunity, and diversity of opportunity, and other divinely ordained and sovereignly controlled variables,

16:45 it is my assertion that we who are teaching elders in the church of Christ must feel our consciences bound by this text, due the work of an evangelist, and that we should feel them bound not in terms of an occasional and an exceptional evangelistic message, though that may be a dimension of fulfilling the obligation, but that in the midst of and by means of our ordinary pastoral tasks, we are to be doing the work of an evangelist. To state it negatively, we are not to rest content that we are, merely making conscious efforts to establish our people in purity of doctrine, purity of life, proper church order, and guarding our own souls. We are not to rest content. Unless we are consciously, constantly, and zealously applying ourselves to doing the work of an evangelist, we are guilty of ministerial deficiency of the most serious sort.

18:13 This is the most serious sort of ministry deficiency. This is the most serious sort of ministry deficiency. This is the most serious sort of ministry deficiency. This is a deficiency fraught with a multitude of dangers to ourselves,

18:20 and to our people, and leaves us in a posture of great culpability in the face of the unconverted, whom we address week after week, and month after month.

18:41 So, brethren, what I'm saying is that I believe that this passage alone, though there are many other lines of argument that could be brought forward, ought so to grip us that it becomes a matter of conscience before God that I am constantly to be doing the work of an evangelist. I am to be seeking in my ordinary pastoral tasks to be finding, making occasions of proclaiming the God-given evangel, the good news of Jesus Christ, with a clear view to persuade, and I believe the duty and privilege is clearly set forth by way of deduction from the charge laid upon Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Of course, some of the other secondary lines that could be traced out are to be based on the demands of the second table of the law. Love thy neighbor as thyself. And who is my neighbor?

19:53 Any fellow humanist. And if I love my fellow human beings, I want to do them the most good I can. And if fellow human beings who are lost are sitting before me week after week, the best good I can do is to bring the heart of gospel truth to bear upon his mind and conscience as often as is judicious in keeping with my other responsibilities and to do so in such a way that he's conscious that I'm seeking to persuade him to become a Christian and that I'm calling, calling him to decision. Not to a decision, but to decision with respect to the claims of God over him in the gospel.

20:36 We could trace out what I would call the instincts of a gracious heart.

20:43 And we could demonstrate from that avenue that having freely received, we long freely to give. Those are the instincts of a gracious heart. So I say there are many secondary lines, but I rest the whole case on what I believe is a proper deduction from the 2 Timothy 4, 5 passage. So we've considered in the first place the duty and privilege of doing the work of an evangelist established.

Fulfilling the Duty: Overcoming Ignorance of the Law

21:12 Now secondly, and this will take up the bulk of the rest of the first part of our lecture this morning, the duty and privilege of doing the work of an evangelist fulfilled. Fulfilled.

21:26 If it is our duty and privilege, and I've sought to establish that from this text in 2 Timothy, then the question comes, how is it to be fulfilled? And my basic answer is that it is to be fulfilled by setting before men in due proportion the meaning,

21:55 the demands,

21:57 and the privileges of the law, and of the gospel. By setting before men in due proportion the meaning, demands, and privileges of the law and of the gospel. No man can begin to do the work of an evangelist unless he understands and is able to articulate the leading lines of biblical truth respecting the law and the gospel. In a very real sense, doing the work of an evangelist means overcoming the ignorance of men regarding the law and the gospel, and under the blessing of God establishing the scriptural content and implications in the minds and hearts of men, pressing them home with genuine concern and urgency, dispelling in the minds of our hearers, in our regular expository preaching, our series of topical sermons, constantly aiming at those avenues by which we can dispel ignorance respecting the law and the gospel. To state it positively, establishing our hearers

23:24 in proper views of the law and the gospel and persuading them to respond appropriately, this is to do the work of an evangelist. Now let me be specific. First of all, the ignorance to be overcome with respect to the law. There are three major areas of native ignorance with respect to the law that we must seek to overcome as we do the work of an evangelist.

23:53 Number one, it's universally binding authority. It's universally binding authority. Men must know and feel that as the creatures of God they are solemnly bound to personal, perpetual, perfect obedience to the law of their creator.

24:23 Now we know from the first three chapters of Romans that all men have as God's creatures some degree of consciousness of accountability to God.

24:37 But they must be brought to see and feel feel the precise nature and extent of that accountability, and see and feel it to such an extent that they become desperate until they comply with the only divine answer to that accountability, and that is the answer found in the gospel. I remind you of the simple texts there in Romans 3 and in Romans chapter 7, that through the law comes the knowledge, the experimental knowledge of sin, in the language of Paul in Romans 7, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. I was alive apart from the law once. That is, I thought that I was alive. I was alive apart from the law once. I was alive apart from the law once. I was

25:41 myself alive in my own righteousness, and not until I understood the universally binding authority of that law, and in particular the tenth commandment, and its application to motive and desire. Paul said, until that happened, I regarded myself alive. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Without this sense of the universally binding authority of the law, men are indifferent to their state and condition, they are indifferent to the divine remedy, and they are likely to go on in blatant high-handed sinning which increasingly corrupts themselves and all who touch them. And therefore we have a solemn obligation to do what Paul did when he stood before a heathen potentate as he sought to get to the man's conscience. What did he do? In Acts chapter 24, we read, Acts 24, verses 22 to 25,

27:04 But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the way, deferred them, saying, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will determine your matter. And he gave order to the centurion that he should be kept in charge and have indulgence, and not to forbid any of his friends to minister to him. But after certain days Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. Now notice, Paul was proclaiming the faith in Christ Jesus, but in so doing, what was his method? As he reasoned of righteousness, an inflexible, unchangeable, divine standard of right, and of self-control. That is, the demands that that standard of righteousness makes upon the human person and the judgment to come. What the implications are, if we have not met that standard of righteousness, but have been self-indulgent and self-centered, the judgment to come. Felix was terrified. He no longer

28:22 was a comfortable sinner. He became a terrified, uncomfortable sinner. An unconverted sinner, but no longer comfortable. Uncomfortable! And he became uncomfortable as Paul reasoned with him, engaged his mind, and sought by premise and deduction and application to bring home to the theater, into the deepest chambers of the soul of this man, a consciousness of the universally binding authority of God's holiness. In other words, he was a man of the Holy Law, with its implications in terms of the judgment to come, and we see him doing that, of course, throughout the first three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans.

29:05 So, doing the work of an evangelist means that we must set ourselves in our preaching to remember that before us there are always people who are ignorant with respect to the law, and we must seek to overcome that ignorance in the first place with respect to its universally binding authority. Secondly, we must seek to overcome their ignorance concerning its pervasive, penetrating spirituality. Its pervasive, penetrating spirituality. Men must be brought to see that the law of God touches everything from the heart outward, and everything from the most secret, prime, it outward deed inward to the most secret motions and desires and cogitations of the mind and of the heart men must be brought to see its pervasive and its penetrating spirituality and here i come back to romans 7 7 and following where paul gives us the best inspired commentary on what happened

30:25 to a man who came to the discovery of its pervasive penetrating spirituality you see paul had no question about the universally binding authority of the law but he was utterly ignorant about its pervasive penetrating spirituality he thought himself to be alive by the very law that should have shown him to be in desperate need of that which jesus of nazareth alone could give him and his testimony is he had not known sin except the law said thou shalt not covet and went on to the blessing of god under what particular circumstances we do not know that his testimony is it was class application of the law all particularly with reference to its pervasive penetrating spirituality that caused him to see himself for what he really wants and of course here we have our lord himself during the great example in the Sermon on the Mount as to how we can so preach as to bring to men this consciousness of the spirituality of the law. Now, without this, the results will be that people will either

31:42 be held in the grip of cursed self-righteousness or will have no felt need for inward deliverance from sin. Romans 12.3 says, they being ignorant of God's way of righteousness have gone about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And what was their fundamental ignorance? They were ignorant of the law itself. They were ignorant of the very thing that they thought was their ladder to heaven, which in reality was ordained of God to be the mirror to show them that they were fitter. for nothing but hell. And the classic testimony of a man thinking that way is given by Paul in Philippians chapter 3, where he summarizes his own self-awareness as saying, touching the law blameless.

32:41 Now what a terrible thing to have people sitting before us held in the horrible curse of self-righteousness. And brethren, the past few years of dealing with people's souls has convinced me that the old notion that we're saved by being good and doing good has not died with the old liberalism. Much of the old liberalism has died. So decadent.

33:05 And now it's just humanism with a little religious flavor. But that notion is so ingrained in men. As one man put it, you still have dear women who think that arranging the flowers on the communion table will somehow help them get to heaven. And therefore, we must continue by the grace and power of God as is appropriate dispel that ignorance concerning the law.

33:31 That God's demands of righteousness are pervasive and they penetrate to the inner recesses of the heart. But then there's a third area of ignorance concerning the law that we must constantly seek to overcome as we do the work of an evangelist. Not only its authority, its spirituality, but its inflexible, unbending strictness. Its inflexible, unbending strictness.

34:03 The law declares do and live, fail to do and die.

34:11 Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Now, we have a peculiar problem in our day because man made in the image of God who is to reflect that image in many areas but particularly in the area of being like God in that God alone speaks truth.

34:46 In a day when truth has fallen in the streets, when there's a general cynicism that nobody in any place of authority says what he means or means what he says, people assume that God really doesn't mean what he says. He may say certain things for effect but he really is not prepared to stick by what he says.

35:14 Hence, there is no real conviction at the grassroots level as there once was even among unconverted people that God will relentlessly track down every offending sinner and cast him into hell. Relentlessly because he has said the soul that sinneth it shall die. Men will continue to entertain their fond dreams that somehow things will be relaxed a bit if and when a day of judgment really comes to pass.

35:54 And a God of love and mercy would track down every thought, every word, every deed, every lustful, lustful glance, every word that was not an expression of truth and reality, every attitude of envy and covetousness and jealousy. I mean, let's be reasonable. We're only human beings. God knows and understands it, yes.

36:22 And that God who knows and understands says that he will bring every secret thought into judgment.

36:30 Men shall give account of every idle word in the day of judgment. You must not assume that your unconverted hearers really believe that. And in doing the work of an evangelist, you and I are called upon under God to seek to overcome this horrible, abysmal ignorance concerning the law. And our task is complicated by the general lawlessness of the age, by the lawlessness of the church that has been theologically buttressed and by a system of interpretation that has pushed the law off into an epoch of redemptive history, the age of law.

37:11 And that's behind us and has been superseded by the age of grace. Brethren, you're going to minister in a context whereby, in large, people's consciences feel very little of the pressure of the demands of God's law. And therefore, there is no real context for appreciation. of the cross of Christ.

37:36 For he came not to call the righteous, that is, those righteous and comfortable in their own eyes, but he came to call sinners to repentance. As you can see, my copy of Ryle's Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century is well worn. It has some of the most helpful materials on preaching to be found in any book, not explicitly dealing with the subject of preaching in its title. But listen to the advice given by John Berridge to a young minister.

38:11 And this is what Ryle is saying concerning this counsel that Berridge is giving to a young minister. I know few wiser and more comprehensive letters of advice to a young minister about a sermon than one not dated which Whittingham has inserted at the end of his collection. Apparently he has a collection of the writings of John Berridge. Among other things, he says, quote, here's the old seasoned pastor evangelist preaching to the young preacher.

38:43 When you open your commission, begin with laying open the innumerable corruptions of the hearts of your hearers. Moses will lend you a knife which you may often whet at his grindstone. Lay open the universal sinfulness of men's natures, the darkness of the mind, the forwardness of the will, the fretfulness of the temper, and the earthliness and sensuality of the affections. Speak of the evil of sin in its nature, its rebellion against God as our sovereign, ingratitude to God as our lawgiver, and contempt both of his authority and his love.

39:23 Declare the evil of sin in its effects, bringing all our sicknesses, pains, and snares, all the evils we feel and all the evils we fear. Lay open the spiritualness, the spirituality of the law and its extent, reaching every thought, word, and action, and declaring every transgression, whether by omission or commission, worthy of death. Declare man's utter helplessness to change his nature or make his peace. When your hearers are deeply affected with these things, which is often seen by the hanging down of their heads, then preach Christ.

40:05 Lay open the Savior's almighty power to soften the hard heart and to give it repentance, to bring pardon to the broken heart, a spirit of prayer to the prayerless heart, holiness to the filthy heart, and faith to the unbelieving heart. Let them know that all the treasures of grace are lodged in Jesus Christ for the use of poor, needy sinners, and that he is full of love as well as of power, turns no guard, beggar from his gate, but receives all comers kindly, loves to bless them, and bestows all his blessings freely. Here you must wave the gospel flag and magnify the Savior supremely. Speak of it with a full mouth that his blood can wash away the foulest sins and his grace subdue the stoutest corruptions. Entreat the people, you see, the view to decision, closing with Christ, to seek his grace, to seek it directly, to seek it diligently, to seek it constantly, and to quaint them that all who thus seek shall assuredly find the salvation of God. What's he telling the young man?

41:21 Overcome their ignorance and indifference with respect to the law and the gospel. That's what he's telling them. I'm not using those heads, but that's the substance of his advice to that young minister. And so, brethren, I urge upon you to settle in your minds, as a principle, and pray in and periodically evaluate your sermons to see if indeed you're driving at this goal of overcoming in your ordinary ears.

41:47 I'm not talking about attempting to do it in every sermon. I'm talking about pastoral preaching in which you're doing the work of an evangelist, seeking consciously. In some sermons, the avenues into it will be larger than others, more extensive, more detailed, but over the long term, long haul, seek consciously to overcome men's ignorance concerning the law, particularly in these three areas that I've touched upon. It's universally binding authority, it's pervasive, penetrating spirituality, and it's inflexible strictness.

42:25 Unless you do that, you are not, may I say it reverently, you are not putting into the hands of the Holy Spirit whose presence you seek in your presence, preaching the instrument ordained of God. Pierce men's hearts and to make them feel their need of the Savior. You take out of the hands of the Holy Ghost the instrument he's formed to make men receptive to the gospel.

42:55 Now that's stating it in a stark way, and I state that in the context of our agreed theological position of God's absolute sovereignty and his ability to use the most sloppy presentation of the gospel marvelously to save sinners, we understand all of that, but we do not hide behind that. We plot and plan and calculate and order our ministries in the light of our balanced duties as extracted from the word of God. And our duty in doing the work of an evangelist is to seek to overcome men's ignorance regarding the law. And then, of course, the second great category is the ignorance to be overcome with respect to the gospel.

Fulfilling the Duty: Overcoming Ignorance of the Gospel's Doctrinal Content

43:43 In doing the work of an evangelist, we must also be committed to addressing the ignorance to be overcome with respect to the gospel. And again, there are three major areas of ignorance with respect to the gospel.

43:59 As you stand to preach in even the best of congregations, one of the indications it is a healthy congregation is that your people will have raw sinners sitting under the word of God, people that they are witnessing to and working with and praying for and bringing them under the sound of the word. Well, what ignorance do they bring with respect to the gospel? Well, number one, it's essential doctrinal content.

44:29 Though all men bring into the sanctuary some consciousness that they are creatures accountable to God, that is part of their creaturehood. No man brings a gram of native knowledge about the doctrinal content of the gospel in virtue of being a creature of God. That knowledge comes only by special revelation. It is in no way imparted by general revelation.

44:59 So while we've got a hook, as it were, in men's own consciousness, when we're plowing with the law and we have an amen corner in the breast of every man, and that's what gives you great authority and sense of confidence, that though a man may blether and deny it and cuss, you know you've got a built-in amen corner in his own breast. When you press externally in your preaching the very demands that he hears whispered in his breast.

45:30 But now with regard to the gospel, there is abysmal native ignorance that can only become overcome by special revelation. So we must overcome the ignorance of its essential doctrinal content. The gospel is a message of good news which focuses upon the divine activity and the provision for needy sinners to rectify their relationship to God. The gospel is essentially the announcement of good news and the center of the good news is what God has done in Christ for sinners.

46:11 Not what the sinners to do. And certainly not what the sinners to do for Christ decide for Christ. As though the gospel awaits his activity. We are to set before men this glorious good news of the divine activity focusing in Christ which is the heart of the gospel.

46:33 When contemplated in forensic terms you have the language of Romans 1, 16 and 17. The gospel is that message in which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. When contemplated in terms of personal terms the element of reconciliation comes forward. 2 Corinthians 5, 19-21 where Paul says that the gospel we preach is a gospel that focuses upon reconciliation.

47:04 God hath reconciled the world unto himself not imputing unto them their trespasses and has committed unto us the word, the message of what? Reconciliation. Now that's not a contradiction. Well, is it a word that focuses upon the righteousness of God?

47:21 Or is it one that focuses upon reconciliation to God accomplished in the work of Christ? Well, it's all of those things. It's simply turning the diamond and looking at it from a different dimension. When contemplated in terms of its central blessing answering to man's most frequently felt need it focuses on forgiveness of sins.

47:45 Unto you, Paul says, in Acts 13, is proclaimed through this man the forgiveness of sins where he makes forgiveness of sins to be the cardinal blessing of the gospel. Well, is it the righteousness of God, forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation? It's all those things. See, the gospel is so rich that we need not feel ourselves bound in conveying its essential doctrinal content to use just one formula or one facet of the diamond.

48:19 But we do need to set forth its essential doctrinal content all of which gathers around the uniqueness of the person of Jesus of Nazareth and the accomplishment of the work of salvation by his doing and his dying.

48:45 Now, that essential doctrinal content must be overcome in doing the work of an evangelist. Just the very term evangelist etymologically binds us to set forth the evangel which is the good news of what God has done for sinners in Jesus Christ. Now, if this ignorance is not overcome men will be preyed to mystical experiences short of saving faith because according to the scripture saving faith must have minimal doctrinal content.

49:21 And the more full that doctrinal content is the more likely is the faith to prove stable and genuine and persevering.

Fulfilling the Duty: Overcoming Ignorance of the Gospel's Demands

49:34 But, we must also overcome another area of ignorance in conjunction with the gospel and that is not only its essential doctrinal content but its fundamental evangelical demands. Its fundamental evangelical demands Now, some would question the use of the terminology and say the minute you say demands and gospel you're talking nonsense. Well, I think I'm talking Bible.

50:05 In other words the same evangel that comes with doctrinal content that focuses on a unique person and what he has done to make right the sinner's relationship to God which according to the law is all wrong the minute we talk gospel we are in the middle of the gospel. We are into the realm not only of the great indicatives of God God was in Christ doing something but we confront on the heels of the great indicatives the inescapable imperatives. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent Acts 17 30 1 John 3 22 this is his commandment that we believe on the name of his only begotten son and when our Lord went forth according to Mark 1 15 and 16 to preach he preached the kingdom of heaven is at hand and then two imperatives repent and believe in the gospel and when the Philippian jailer cried out of distress of soul sirs what must I do to be saved Paul did not say Philippian jailer man the fatal word is due you must rid yourself of all notions of doing that is the essence of Pelagianism

51:31 you must come to the realization there is nothing you can do nor ought to do that is not how he responded he said believe with an aorist imperative believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and Paul could say in the providence of God in my own New Testament devotional reading I was in Acts 20 this morning and struck again with how these notes must have dominated Paul's ministry when he could say to the Ephesian elders I taught you publicly and from house to house testifying to Jews and Greeks Acts 20 21 repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and under the rubric of repentance that's where we lay out the demand of God that sinners stack arms get out of the God business forsake their idols or from the perspective of attachment to Christ it's under the rubric of repentance that we call men to count the cost of supreme attachment to Christ that they must come to him prepared that he shall have a place above father, mother, brother, sister husband, wife and their own lives also all of that comes under the rubric of the fundamental evangelical demands of the gospel repentance

52:58 and under faith we set forth the freeness and the fullness of what is available in Christ but the fact that none of it is ours until we appropriate it until we apprehend it until we lay hold of it and here again there is the richness you see if we're preaching out of the epistles we shall preach faith to the sinner in turn of casting the weight of his guilty soul upon Christ as he's offered in the gospel if we're preaching out of the gospels we'll preach faith in terms of heart attachment to him looking to him coming to him eating of him drinking of him there's this wonderful richness you see in scripture so there's never a stereotyping and a truncating of the gospel but you and I must understand theologically what we're doing so that we don't need to import the language of the epistles artificially into our preaching of the gospels we can preach repentance and faith under gospel figures there you have the illustrations of repentance they left all and they followed him and Zacchaeus says if I've wronged any man there's a richness you see and we need to understand what we're doing that in opening up these passages we are doing the work of an evangelist we are overcoming men's ignorance not only with regard to the law but with regard to the gospel

54:27 setting forth its essential doctrinal contents and then setting forth its fundamental evangelical demands now without this if in your preaching there is not a due proportion of setting forth evangelical demands you'll create a situation in which there will be people who have some idea of their state and of their need and that they actually have answers in Christ but they won't know what to do if men automatically know that they ought to repent and believe why did Paul say I preached repentance and faith toward the Lord Jesus it must be preached he said in Luke 24 in that beautiful summation of that post resurrection ministry he opened their minds that they should understand the scripture and he taught them how that Christ must suffer must be raised from the dead and that repentance unto remission of sins be preached in his name ye are witnesses of these things it must be preached the nature of repentance the duty of repentance the nature and duty of faith otherwise there will be people who have vague ideas but they don't know what to do with them or they could gain the impression though God has announced these glorious provisions in Jesus Christ he's really indifferent as to whether or not you lay hold of them what a horrible misrepresentation of God

Fulfilling the Duty: Overcoming Ignorance of the Gospel's Overtures

55:54 the God who like the father in the parable of the prodigal is constantly squinting beneath the Palestinian son looking for the first indications of returning prodigals that he might go and throw his arms around them and love them and dress them and celebrate their return so we must in doing the work of an evangelist overcome this ignorance about the gospel it's not just about the gospel it's essential doctrinal content it's fundamental evangelical demands and thirdly and here brethren may God help me to state it and may he open your heart to receive it it's unrestricted earnest personal overtures it's unrestricted earnest personal overtures now I realize it is at this point that real differences are so great seen among men and the point at which all other things being equal we acknowledge God's sovereignty in making sinners responsive to the gospel but we must never forget that it is a basic axiom that generally speaking God has wooed and won the most sinners to himself

57:22 where there have been preachers engaged consciously in seeking to woo and to win and they did so by unrestricted earnest personal overtures that are contained in the gospel Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 5 11 knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men you have that statement in Acts 14 they so spake hutos hosta they spake in such a manner that many believe and I love Paul's personal application in Acts 13 he says to you is this word of salvation sent to you it is sent it's not just announced out there vibrations going out to all the stars and all the orbs in the galaxy is this word sent and this is where I'm speaking brethren of holy urging holy pleading holy entreating and of course perhaps few men may not be able to hear me since Whitfield from what we know in church history men that had any prominence equaled Spurgeon in this dimension of ministry and his chapter on conversion being our aim

58:50 is one that we ought to read periodically listen to Spurgeon as he speaks to his young preacher boys on page 341 he says the class requiring logical argument is small compared with a number of those who need to be pleaded with by way of preaching to them by way of emotional persuasion now there's the doughty Calvinist using the term emotional not manipulation but emotional persuasion they require not so much reasoning as heart argument which is logic set on fire you must argue with them as a mother pleads with her boy that he'll not grieve her or as a fond sister entreats a brother to return to their father's home and seek reconciliation arguments must be quickened into persuasion by the living warmth of love cold logic has its force but when made red hot with affection the power of tender argument is inconceivable the power which one mind can gain over others is enormous but is often best developed when the leading mind has ceased to have power over it when passionate zeal has carried the man himself away his speech becomes an irresistible torrent

60:18 sweeping all before it a man known to be godly and devout and felt to be large hearted and self-sacrificing has a power in his very person and his advice and recommendation carry weight because of his character but when he comes to plead and to persuade even to tears his influence is nothing short of wonderful and god the holy spirit yokes it into his service brethren we must plead entreaties and beseechings must blend with our instructions any and every appeal which will reach the conscience and move men to fly to jesus we must perpetually employ if by any means we may save some i've heard some ministers blamed for speaking of themselves while they are pleading but the censure need not be much regarded since we have a precedent in the example of paul to a congregation who love you it's quite allowable to mention your grief that many of them are unsaved and your vehement desire and incessant prayer for their conversion and then he goes on to develop this and says do not close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly but at the same time set yourself seasons for a determined and continuous assault upon them and proceed with all your soul to the conflict

61:47 and then he goes on to give counsels along this line well brethren this is what i'm talking about in terms of the old testament prophets peter says it was the spirit of christ in them testifying well how did the spirit of christ testify to the yearnings of god over israel it's in this language speaking of the ungodly seek the lord while he may be found ho everyone that thirsteth come to the waters why will ye die turn ye turn ye why will ye die come let us reason together saith the lord that's how the spirit of christ testified in these unrestricted earnest personal overtures to lay hold of god's gospel provisions and then our lord himself come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and then when he says to the woman at the well if you only knew who it was who was speaking you would have asked and he would have given and then when i've often thought if i could hear but one word from the lord jesus one sentence which sentence would i most wish i could have heard when he spoke it in the flesh well i wrestled with that and at different times i have a differing judgment but the one that always comes into the top three is the one that always comes into the top three is john seven in verse thirty seven the last day

63:14 that great day of the feast jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink what must it have been when infinite love incarnate in jesus christ cries with all the passion of cry but not a tinge of anything but holy desire expressed in that cry that often gets my number one vote when i'm preaching on the crosses cry of dereliction gets my number one vote but dear people my brothers in the ministry do we really believe that when paul says we beseech you in christ dead that men will actually measure the desire of christ for their salvation by the way in which we plead i fear so often i've missed a few times misrepresented my Lord. As I've told the people, I get chided for being too loud and too earnest by men. But my conscience never chides me for being too earnest. Never! Never!

64:30 It chides me and sends me to bed many a night laden with a sense of my need to be cleansed from my lack of representing the unrestricted, earnest, personal overtures of God to sinners in the Gospel. We beseech you in the stead of Christ. He is not here to say if any man thirsts. And the only way people will know what it was anything like to hear is what they hear of His voice through you and through me.

65:03 What a frightening responsibility. And what a horrible, horrible thought that we would give the impression that the Son of God was basically indifferent to whether or not people came to Him and drank.

65:19 What a horrible, horrible thing to project such an image of our blessed Lord. Just as we recoil when He's presented so cheaply and people use the terminology of the drug culture and say, get high on Jesus. And we say, no, no, my Lord is too glorious and magnificent and majestic to be brought down to the language of a drug trip. Rightly we recoil.

65:42 But brethren, do we recoil at the sound of our own entreaties coming out with so little passion, with so little faith, with so little heart.

65:53 Just as presenting Christ and experience of His grace in the cheap language of the drug culture is abhorrent to us, may it become equally abhorrent to ever have the overture of His mercy presented in any other way than that which at least faintly reflects the unrestricted, earnest, personal overtures of Christ Himself that come to sinners through the gospel. Amen.

The Passionate Heart of the Evangelist

66:23 Gardner-Spring, I believe, understood something of this in his ministry and often addresses it. You'll have to find the page number in your own book, but it's in the chapter on ministerial diligence.

66:39 Gardner-Spring says, The souls of men are committed to his trust, that is, that of the minister. Their apathy must be disturbed, their crimes exposed, their sins rebuked, their consciences impressed, their fears awakened, their refuges of lies swept away, and they themselves urge to flee from the coming wrath. And then in a most moving section, he speaks of the ministry of the Apostle Paul and then the weight of seeking the souls of men ardently and passionately in the chapter on the great object of our preaching, and then he quotes McShane, who said, writing to one of his brethren in the ministry, Never forget, he said, that the end of a sermon is the salvation of people. And a man's efforts will rise as high as his own impressions of the importance of his object, and no higher. He need not be afraid of being too much excited in the pursuit of such an end, for it is important to lay a deadlylace to suchATION that the way and action that is a path can further cause the clppicalization of someone you met and support one another. That's why someone

68:08 you love to have a war tried to deleterify with sin. You would hurt your soul to leave it escape finding a sense of hope and a solution to your needs. That little effort was for my globally Lord, be too strong and ardent, where those affections can be gratified only by the salvation of men and through the instrumentality of God's truth. And then he goes on to say that he believes the thing that killed men like McShane and Payson early in life was that they were consumed by the very passion of their own frail humanity for the salvation of sinners. And surely to do the work of an evangelist must never stop short of this pleading, this entreating, this yearning element. I think I've said in another connection, repeated this incident, but it bears repetition here. Someone who had heard McShane preach and then was in conversation with someone else was asked, it was a woman, what do you believe was the secret of his usefulness? And her answer was,

69:24 he preached. He preached as if he were dying to have you converted. He preached as if he were dying to have you converted. And I ask, when did anyone go out of a meeting saying, you know, I don't know a lot about that man, but one thing is clear to me. He was preaching as though his life depended on my accepting the message he brought. That's doing the work of an evangelist. Amidst all the pressing tasks of shepherding the flock, establishing the faith, and the faith of God, he preached as if he were dying to have you converted. Embracing them in sound doctrine, guiding them into practical godliness, ordering the corporate life according to the norms of scripture, and keeping your own soul and growing in holiness.

70:09 Brethren, brethren, do the work of an evangelist in topical sermons, textual sermons, consecutive expository sermons. Do the work of an evangelist. Only then do you make full proof or fulfill your ministry. Well, our time is almost gone.

Practical Suggestions: Cultivating Motivation

70:30 Maybe what I should do is just quickly give you the heads of the practical suggestions regarding the duty, all right? And then we'll pray. That'd be all right? Can you hang in there for another few minutes? We started late, all right? We come then to head number three. We've looked at the basis of the duty, or establishing the duty and privilege, and then we've considered together the fulfillment of the duty and the privilege, which is basically, and I've tried to reduce it to something you can have as a mental hand. I've tried to reduce it to something you can have as a mental hand, a mental handle throughout all your days, overcoming ignorance concerning the law and the gospel, but now practical suggestions with regard to this duty and privilege. And let me suggest we must constantly engage in a three-pronged motivational exercise. I should say a three-pronged exercise, I'm sorry. And the first one is motivation. There must be the constant

71:31 cultivation of motivation to fulfill this task and duty.

71:38 How do we cultivate the motivation to do the work of an evangelist? Well, we must make ourselves, amidst all our duties, reflect on the brevity of life. 2 Corinthians 4.18, while we look not on the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal.

71:59 The things that are not seen are eternal. Force yourself to use mental crutches and mental bridges to bring you to felt consciousness of the brevity of life. Pray that every time you go by a cemetery, you'll say to yourself, I one day shall be under a stone. I'll just be something eaten by the maggots, and that time will quickly come. It could come tomorrow. It could come before the day is over.

72:30 Remind yourself, reflect on the brevity of life. Reflect frequently on the doctrine of hell. I'm convinced that one thing the devil doesn't want us to do is to kill us. I'm convinced that one thing the devil doesn't want us to do is to think long and hard about hell. Because if you think about it, it's going to be evident in your preaching that you're worried that people are going there. And when you're truly worried that they're going there, you're going to start persuading them not to go there. And then you're going to be doing the work of an evangelist. So reflect on the brevity of life. Reflect often on the doctrine of hell. Reflect on the worth of a soul. What is the worth of a soul? The deathless soul. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world? And lose his own soul. Reflect on the privilege of being Christ's mouthpiece. On the awesomeness

73:23 of rightly reflecting him. Then read those works calculated to stir you up to do this work of an evangelist. And what are some of the ones, excuse me, that I have found helpful? Horatius Bonar's little booklet, Words to Winners of Souls. Has anybody got that in print now, Rob, that you know of? Yeah. But that is to read that periodically. Words to Winners of Souls by Bonar. Gardner Springs, Power in the Pulpit. The chapters in Spurgeon on conversion is our aim. And then his all-round ministry. The sermons he preached to his men when they came back every year. Read the sections in

74:12 Baxter's Reformed Pastor, where he's urging to fidelity in the work of evangelism. Read the sections in Baxter's Reformed Pastor, where he's urging to fidelity in the work of evangelism. Read the biographies of men who did the work of an evangelist and re-read them periodically. Whitfield, Spurgeon, McShane, Nettleton. This is what I mean by cultivating this motivation to do the work of an evangelist. But then, secondly, you must cultivate your ability to do the work of an evangelist. And how do you do that? Well, expose yourself to good models. Read Spurgeon's

Practical Suggestions: Cultivating Ability and Sensitivity to Opportunities

74:57 sermons with this one end in view. How did he do the work of an evangelist in every sermon?

75:06 Unlike some of us, you have to literally read sermon after sermon after sermon of Spurgeon to find one in which it is not patent where he was doing the work of an evangelist. Some of us, you might have to listen to sermon after sermon after sermon to find an explicit indication. We were even attempting to do that. One of the most grievous things to me is to sit in the congregation as a visitor.

75:34 And have a good and godly man and an able preacher and reformed and godly. But preach as though no unconverted person were possibly present. It's tragic. It's tragic. So expose yourself to good models. Spurgeon, Owen, Baxter, Eileen's Alarm, the Sermons of Shed, the old Puritans. Cultivate the ability by exposure to good models.

76:16 Consciously reflecting upon your sermons and asking yourself, did I somewhere in that sermon make an effort to do the work of an evangelist? What aspect of ignorance concerning the law did I calculate to overcome? What aspect of ignorance concerning the gospel did I calculate to overcome?

76:41 And then thirdly, it should be the cultivation of sensitivity to judicious opportunities. The cultivation of a sensitivity to judicious opportunities. And what I mean by that is simply this. There are times when in the life of the church, the whole set of church circumstances is ripe to do nothing but the work of an evangelist for a sermon or two. When God has brought circumstances to bear upon your people, when to do anything other than focus in upon the weighty issues of the law and the gospel would be, to manifest the grossest insensitivity to divine providence. The passage our brother is going to preach on, you see our Lord doing that. He took two striking incidents there in Luke 13 that apparently were buzzwords on everyone's lips. The Tower of Siloam that fell upon people and those that were seized upon in the midst of apparently offering sacrifices in an ungodly way. He took

77:52 those incidents. And said, do you think they were sinners above all others? I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And then in that 13th chapter, he goes on to give that parable of the barren tree that is cut down. Well, you see, our Lord is the model of seizing, being sensitive to judicious opportunities. Sometimes it will come out of your own reading of the word. Never, never despise those impressions upon your own heart and spirit. We're all so natively dull and indifferent. If God in your own devotional reading takes a passage and gives you a fresh injection of evangelistic passion, then it could well be he's done that, that you might break into the regular course of your ministry and tell your people, the great issues of the gospel have gripped me with freshness and I can't deliver myself until I unburden myself to you. Break into your cotton picking series. Break into what's in the bullet and pour your heart out in terms of that impression that God has made upon your own spirit. Well, I offer these brethren as some poor suggestions, but at least they're real suggestions and practical

79:11 ones. And I trust you will find them helpful in the days to come. Well, God willing, next week, what we want to take up is this fourth line of concern, and that is the dispositional complex, the man of God as he seeks to do the work of an evangelist. And here again, I want to get into matters that I trust will be helpful in the cultivation and nurture of the spirit of an evangelist in each one of us. And it's only as we imbibe that spirit, you see, and it's carried with us to the study and carried with us into the exercise of the initial and an intermediate and concluding steps of sermon construction. It's only when I see myself in that, not only as a shepherd of Christ's sheep, and that's my primary identity, and it certainly is my biblically defined office and function, but in the midst of all of that, committed to doing the work of an evangelist. Now, I haven't even spoken of the benefits this brings to your people. I don't care if there isn't even an unconverted person there. If you pour your heart out to those

80:23 who may be there, there's a contagion of compassion for sinners. And any church where there is not passionate evangelistic preaching from the pulpit, you rarely find evangelistic passion in the pew. It's a contagious grace. And so the tremendous benefit to your people and impressing them with the weighty issues that are impressing your spirit, there is a spiritual contagion. And so we could go into that whole area, but that's another subject and we'll not go into it today.