The Church Evangelizing, Part 3

Introduction: The Legitimate Means for Evangelism

0:04 Now, in seeking to understand the task of overseeing and guiding the people of God in their corporate life, we are presently focusing upon some directives for the task of evangelism. And in our previous time together, I sought to mark out the limited sphere of our present concern, namely evangelism as it pertains primarily to what we might call, in the light of Acts 1.8, our own Jerusalem and Judea. I then proceeded to lay before you what is found in your printed outline as large letters A and B, namely the biblical mandate for the task of evangelism, and then B, the biblical motives which ought to impel to and accomplish the fulfillment of that task. Now we come today to large letter C, the legitimate means for the accomplishment of the task. And that's on page 6.16 of your printed outline at the top.

1:18 The legitimate means for the accomplishment of the task. And we will have three major subdivisions. One. Two.

1:28 And three. Now, by way of introduction to this subject of the means, let me say this. What we are doing now is to move from the what of the evangelistic task to the how. Now, some feel it's enough to give the what.

1:48 In other words, to lay out the biblical basis for the task and the biblical motives for the task, and then to go beyond that. But in terms of any specific instruction, is to move into a realm that we ought not to seek to traverse. Others feel that the how is left purely to pragmatism. Well, it is my conviction and the presupposition of what I'm laying out before you today is that our doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture, and in particular the regulative principle, not only impinges on the how, but also, I'm sorry, not only on the what we are to do in the task of evangelism, but also it applies to the how. And let me suggest that the legitimate means available to the people of God can be ranged under two basic headings. The ordinary and the extraordinary. The ordinary or those, connected with the normal activities of the people of God, and those connected with special activities of the people of God.

Ordinary Means: Preaching and Teaching the Word

3:07 So we take up then, as you see it in your outline, the ordinary means, and I have broken them down into five small letters, A, B, C, D, and E. And the first, and it is first, not only in my treatment of it, but I believe, first in order of importance, the means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the word of God. Since the proclamation of the word is an ordinance of Christ set within the context of the church, you must teach your people to regard this ordinance as part of their evangelistic endeavor and activity. And if you do, then, as they pray for the stated meetings, particularly the meetings for corporate worship and proclamation of the word, they will not only pray for the edification of their own souls, the edification of their brothers and sisters, but they will also plead that sinners who are under the word of God will be brought by the voice of Christ to repentance and faith. And they will be brought by the voice of Christ to repentance and faith. They will look upon the stated meetings as the great evangelistic crucible for their own children.

4:34 They will look upon the stated meetings as the framework into which they should seek to bring those contacts that they have established in their neighborhoods, in their place of work, or business, or school associations, and they will not have this idea that I must win the person to Christ out of the church, outside of the church, and then get them into the church to be built up in Christ, but rather they will see this vision of a cooperative effort. They will see that whatever they are able to do by way of personal testimony, opening up the scriptures, and bearing witness one to one in the shop, over the back fence, over a cup of coffee in the kitchen, that bringing such people into the gallery, into the gathered assembly of God's people, where the word of God is expounded and applied by a gift of Christ to the church, is the vision that ought to frame their evangelistic endeavors. And Dr. Packer addresses this very clearly on page 55 in his little classic work, Evangelism in the Sovereignty of God, and I commend that section to you. Thank you.

5:56 Now there are two passages of scripture. One is in your notes. I want you to add another one. The first is 1 Corinthians 14, 23 to 25, which is the watershed passage on what we might call the evangelistic impact of the ministry of the word of God in the midst of the gathered assembly.

6:21 Here, of course, Paul is speaking specifically of the gifts of public utterance that were, we believe, limited to the apostolic period and were not even, it can't be demonstrated, were even present in all of the apostolic churches, but there in the church at Corinth, we read verse 23 of chapter 14, If therefore the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad? But, if all prophesy, that is, speak the word of God in an intelligible tongue 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 the concept, of the special presence of God in the midst of the gathered people of God and in that context the word of God being addressed to the conscience of the unconverted is not foreign to the mindset of the New Testament.

7:45 And this dichotomy that we only evangelize in the marketplace but in the church we have a purely didactic ministry to the sage simply will not stand up to a passage such as 1 Corinthians 14.23-25. Furthermore, in the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians here we have the example of how someone engaged in the work of teaching will imperceptibly slide into the task of evangelism even in an epistle written to a church that is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 having described the glorious reality of the new creation in Christ he says in verse 18 but all things are of God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. And it's as though reflecting upon the deposit of the ministry of reconciliation flipped the switch in Paul's heart and suddenly he launches into what we might call his evangelism his evangelistic mode. He puts on his evangelist hat to wit 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

9:14 we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ as though God were entreating by us we beseech you on the behalf of Christ be ye reconciled to God. Well I thought this was a Christian assembly. What's he doing beseeching them to be reconciled to God? Well you see the teacher becomes the evangelist.

9:37 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 for he says in 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. Then he drifts back into being the teacher with respect to the Christian ministry giving no occasion of stumbling in anything that our ministration be not blamed but in everything commending ourselves as ministers of God.

10:18 You see how he slipped out of his role as teacher into evangelist and back into that of teacher. Now if it's right for an apostle to do it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in giving us a portion of inscripturated revelation then it seems to me we ought never never to feel any compunctions of conscience. In fact we ought to feel compunctions of conscience if we don't do it. For the pattern has been set for us in the word of God.

10:46 And Professor McMillan's article that God willing I'll have available for you next week wonderfully fleshes out that very principle. So the ordinary means set before us. First of all in supreme among those means are those means connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the word of God. Then secondly those means connected with the administration of the sacraments.

Ordinary Means: Administration of Sacraments

11:18 The sacraments particularly the Lord's Supper are set within the context of the church in its corporate life and identity. Now in that identity and in connection with the supper we read in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 26 these very significant words. As oft as you eat this bread that is the bread that has been set apart in remembrance of Christ and drink the cup you proclaim katangelete you proclaim the Lord's death. Till he come. There is a preaching in the eating and the drinking. You see that?

12:11 As oft as you eat and drink you preach. There is a preaching by eating and a preaching by drinking. And what is it that we preach when we eat that sacramental bread and drink the sacramental cup? Well we are preaching the only thing that that bread and that cup symbolize.

12:38 That is Christ dying shedding his blood laying down his life for sinners. That is the apostolic gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Well then the question is to whom are we preaching it? Well obviously we are preaching it to one another.

13:01 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Speaking and admonishing one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And if it is right that we should speak one to another with each other's edification in view we preach one to another. And I find it a tremendous blessing when sitting particularly when I'm sitting in the congregation at the Lord's table to try to as it were hear the many whose testimony I've heard in the elders circle to think about what they are saying as I see them take that bread and see them take that cup and they are preaching Christ crucified Christ in his poured out life is my only hope of life and salvation and as they preach it it's as though it comes afresh to the ears of my heart with power and I can say yes and I'm preaching it too. I hope you hear my message as I hear yours. So we're preaching it one to another. But then we're also preaching it to principalities and powers according to Ephesians 3 that it's in the church and through the church that it is now made known unto principalities and powers and the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God.

14:21 Angels are somehow involved in our gathering. I don't know how but certainly 1 Corinthians 11 would seem to underscore that. And we preach to principalities and powers that it's Christ's death and the shedding of his blood by which alone we have acceptance with God. But that's not the only ones to whom we preach it.

14:41 That's why we encourage the children to sit with their families. The great principle that is extrapolated from the Passover meal that when they're eating the Passover meal God says and when your child your son shall ask you what meaneth this? Then as he has seen you eating not an ordinary meal but this special meal you're able then to recount to him the glories of God's redemptive activity in which that Passover meal was instituted. So we preach it to our children.

15:14 We preach it to the unconverted amongst us. And so we must never never despise or think lightly of this and seek to cultivate in our people that consciousness that as they pray for God's blessing upon the supper of remembrance that will not only will their prayers be focused upon the blessing of God upon God's people but upon this preaching of the gospel that goes on in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and to a lesser degree this is also true with regard to baptism especially if we're in climates and in a context where we baptize inside and can have a service that precedes or attends the baptism because both visible words preach the one and the same gospel the gospel of the death the burial and the resurrection of Christ is the ground of a sinner's hope and some of your best evangelistic activities or most judicious evangelistic opportunities will come in conjunction with baptisms urge the people baptized to try to get their relatives out this is a significant time and it just may be superstition or who cares what gets them out as long as they're there and what a marvelous opportunity to proclaim the gospel and I can testify over the years brethren that some of my most exhilarating moments of gospel preaching have come

Ordinary Means: Natural Social Contacts

16:42 when I've stood in the waters and just could not contain myself and had to speak forth that gospel I'd given my little exposition before that was planned and prepared but then it was a purely extemporaneous word of proclamation while standing in the water as the great truth of the gospel comes home and impinges upon the physical senses it's not only conceptualized in the mind but it can be felt in the wetness of the water it can be as it were seen in that symbolic burial and resurrection with Christ of that professed disciple of the Lord Jesus so you must seek to instruct your people with reference to these ordinary means connected with the normal activity of the people of God the first that connected with the regular preaching and teaching of the word that connected with the administration of the sacraments thirdly what I've called in your notes those opportunities arising from the natural social contacts of the people of God the opportunities arising from the natural social contacts of the people of God the assumption of our Lord in Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 to 16 is that his people will be in sufficient

18:11 exposure to the world to be called both salt and light with reference to the world you are the salt of the earth but if the salt has lost its savor its ability to flavor and check putrefaction wherewith shall it be salted it is therefore going to be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men ye are the light of the world 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 in the presence of men ungodly men ignorant men who wicked men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven our lord assumes that the people described in the beatitudes will be in living real contact with real live sinners that's one reason why they will get opposition and persecution verse 11 but it is in this way that they are constituted the salt of the earth and the light of the world now notice

19:39 the emphasis is not upon them going around blabbing all the time the emphasis falls upon the impact of their overall lifestyle that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven and in what I regard to be the epistolatory exposition or comment on this passage Philippians chapter 2 in the book you have the same emphasis we looked at this passage as one of the major ones forming the evangelistic mandate now look at it in this conjunction the emphasis grows out of Paul's exhortation in verse 14 do all things without murmurings and questionings there the emphasis is not upon blethering and blabbing but upon keeping your mouth shut and doing things with the right attitude in order 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 now here's where I want to put the emphasis in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom in the midst among whom now what's the assumption that there is real constant contact with a perverse and wicked generation and crooked generation

21:07 no concept of isolationism here it just will not fit you are among the people of this crooked and perverse generation and it is in the midst of them that your blameless life is to impact upon their consciences and in that context either the holding forth of the word of life as an adjunct or as a separate activity is to go forward remember we address some of the problems of interpretation from John Stone's commentary on the passage but this much is clear that the people of God are viewed as carrying out their ordinary life in circumstances that would provoke them to murmur and to disputation they are doing that not in a monastery but in the midst of the crooked and perverse generation the same emphasis comes through with first Peter 3 a text that's not in your notes please add it in the next edition this text will appear writing to God's people who are in the midst of suffering for righteousness sake Peter questions in verse 13 of chapter 3 who is he that will harm you if you be zealous

22:36 of that which is good notice the emphasis again is not upon blabbing but upon being if you be zealous of that which is good but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake bless to you and fear not their fear neither be troubled but sanctify in your hearts Christ is Lord being ready always now here comes the speech 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 that wherein you are spoken against they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life now again the emphasis you see is upon consistent holiness in the midst of perverse and wicked people and he says such a life will eventually provoke questions and when those questions are provoked not only in such circumstances but certainly in those circumstances Peter is not teaching the only time we are to open our mouths and bear witness to Christ and of the hope that is in us is if we are asked but surely he is mandating that when those questions are asked we should stand ready to give answer to give an intelligent polemic for our hope why is it that when

24:06 we are abused and it gets to people's conscience that they know we are unjustly abused why is it when the question is asked that we can speak forth boldly and declare our hope we are to be prepared to give such an answer and then of course the passage in 1st Corinthians 5 where Paul in dealing with the whole subject of the social strictures of excommunication and avoidance and biblical shunning qualifies his words verse 9 I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world or with the covetousness or extortioners or idolaters for then you must needs go out of the world he says please don't misunderstand me when I said don't keep company with fornicators I was not meaning to extricate yourself from all of your normal ordinary worldly context to do that context to do that you'd have to go out of the world but as it is I wrote unto you not to keep company if any man named a brother be a fornicator although the emphasis you see is upon the truth of verse 11 what is assumed is very helpful in this context he's assuming that the rank and file of the people of God will be rubbing shoulders with fornicators of this world covetous

25:35 extortioners and idolaters isn't that the assumption as long as you're in your world that's the kind of people you're going to rub shoulders with well we need to instruct our people not only not only with the warnings be not conformed to this world be not deceived evil companions corrupt good morals we need to give those warnings that they not be corrupted by their contacts with the world but we also need to instruct them that they should look upon every such contact as a bridge of witness a bridge of evangelistic opportunity a bridge by which they may be able to address a man's mind and conscience with the word of truth now in this area once again our blessed Lord is our perfect model he is described in the book of Hebrews as holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and yet the thing that irked the religious leaders of his day was what friend of publicans and sinners your master eats and drinks with publicans and sinners and in the light of the recent emphasis on the significance of eating in the oriental custom that's what gold our Lord had meaningful real human relationships

27:04 with real lost defined ungodly publicans and sinners and it was those relationships that became the bridge of opportunity to display his own glory as the one who came to seek and to save that which was lost so we must encourage our people to look upon all of these contacts not as an irritant to their Christian sensitivity though it may well be that in a sense we feel like wherever we go in our country today it's main street Sodom and with and with lot our righteous souls are vexed from day to day with the filthy conversation of the wicked but it's just such people who need the gospel such were some of you and we need to encourage our people not to look upon these contacts as an irritant to be born until the Lord returns but as an opportunity to be seized for the sake of the gospel they must be encouraged to look upon their homes as potential evangelistic centers and to look upon all of their natural contacts as divinely ordained opportunities to live out the gospel to have credibility

28:34 by an alternate lifestyle and when appropriate given a number of variables to speak forth the gospel by word of mouth by piece of literature by tape by many other means some of which we'll mention later and of course not the least of those in this category of our natural contacts is those who come from our wives wounds and it's amazing how many Christian parents don't realize that to them is given the primary privilege and opportunity of the evangelizing of their own children I look back though my parents were very poorly instructed and I think of those times when God kept plowing my heart up with conviction that would come when they would hear from one of the neighbors that I'd use some dirty language and they would sit me down after everyone went off to bed and confront me and they always went from dealing with my tongue to the fact that I needed to be converted and I needed a new heart and if there were a crisis of discipline they went from that crisis of discipline to the root issues and many a time my heart was kept tender by a fresh raking over of the efforts of my own parents to evangelize me and then as I got older and had made some decisions and they recognized that they just couldn't be preaching to me all the time my mother would drop her son little hymn son when you

Ordinary Means: Special Gifts and Open Doors

30:03 get converted there it goes I made my decision I thought I was keeping up a pretty good front when you get converted such and such she was letting me know little evangelistic drops well we need to instruct our people to look upon their children as the most natural evangelistic opportunity that God has entrusted to them alright then small letter D we must instruct them with respect to those opportunities arising from the special gifts for evangelism both discovered and exercised in conjunction with the church that is the overall life and ministry of the church and the text that I've put there are Romans 12 4 and 1st Corinthians 4 10 Romans chapter 12 is a text that we must periodically bring before our people because it is a duty incumbent upon all of the people of God verses 3 and 4 for I say through the grace that was given to me to every man that is among you here is a generic Christian duty and it is this not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but so to think as to think soberly according as God has dealt

31:32 to each man a measure of faith here the burden is upon the individual church member to make a sober realistic assessment of his God given gift according to the measure of faith given to him and then he deals with the great principle dealt with elsewhere in scripture that within this diversity of gift there is still the unity and the organism of the body and then he says in verse 6 and having gifts there's the assumption having gifts differing according to the grace given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith or ministry the general word for service let us give ourselves to our service he that teaches to his teaching he that exhorts to his exhorting he that gives some will discover that they do not have a gift of verbal communication but they have a gift to earn money and to give liberally let him do it with liberality he that rules with diligence another one his great gift or hers is showing mercy it is to be done with cheerfulness now in the light of that test it is very likely that within any given assembly in due time there will be those to whom God has given peculiar gifts of evangelism that is a combination of both personality acquired skills

33:01 and knowledge and aptitude to be able to confront relative strangers in such a way that they get their ears and are able to stick the essence of the gospel into their ears in a relatively short time and they are able to do it in a winsome persuasive manner that is a peculiar gift and whether or not we believe in the ongoing office of evangelists I am not getting into that moot question but when I speak of a peculiar gift of evangelism that is what I am talking about a gift that like so many others is a combination of factors both natural endowments spiritual endowments experience and acquired abilities now when such begin to emerge then we need to encourage our people to exercise that gift we need to find a framework in which to cultivate and encourage its development some may show a peculiar gift for cold turkey house to house knocking on door evangelism and you may want to guide such then into a program whereby that gift can be exercised others may have a peculiar gift of going to the suffering in the hospitals

34:29 and in old folks homes and drawing near to people and finding themselves at ease with the suffering and the infirm and the aged and communicating the gospel well as we preach Romans 12 let's make sure we have a framework within which someone who has that gift can put it to the test and cultivate and develop that gift that's how Mr. Bischoff's gift emerged that during his years as a fireman when he had three days off he worked four and off three not always three in a row he began to go to the hospitals in Newark and go bed to bed and talk to people about the Lord and it began to be evident he had a gift in that area and then early when he came into the life of the church I happened to go with him and I watched him and I drooled as the man in an elevator with total strangers could enter into conversation in the most winsome way and by a bedside in five minutes speaking of hell and judgment but in such a winsome way I tried to do it I'd have had the people calling for the nurse to throw me out I drooled I mean no question but a peculiar gift a deposit of God but then cultivated and as he cultivated it then it came into its full expression and I pray God will keep him around for many more years to come because I don't see his successor on the horizon yet and I keep pleading with God Lord surely somewhere

35:58 you're preparing someone to step in and my confidence is in the Lord the head of the church who knows our need in that area but meanwhile I pray God will give him great length of days well then first Peter 4 10 points in the same direction and I'll only underscore the text briefly because it is another one of the passages that you want to you will want to set before your people according as each hath received a gift ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God each hath received a gift well don't assume that there are none within the assembly in which God has raised you up as an overseer who do not have a peculiar gift you may be in a situation most places that I've seen in the past 15 or 20 years open air work is not a viable means of presenting the gospel I'm thankful it was when I was converted that's where I cut my preaching teeth on the street corner four times a week and if I could turn anyone loose to learn how to preach I think I would encourage that method for a number of reasons but if I were to go right back to my hometown and try to do that now with all the years of experience it would fall flat on its face the whole climate is such the whole topography

37:27 of the town in which I was in and everything else has changed and for the most part that type of ministry in most areas is not an effective means some of my friends in England in smaller villages where they still have a central market they still on a Saturday go down and in that marketplace preach in the open air and seek to discover men who have a peculiar gift for being able to communicate the gospel in that context alright then small letter E those opportunities arising from local open doors for evangelism we need to have our eyes open encourage our people to do some inquiring if they know that down the street from them there's an old folks home they go and find the director and say look you've got a lot of people here who can't get out to church we've got a couple of people in our church who'd be willing to come in and sing some hymns and teach a memory verse and bring a little message from the word of God any opportunities encourage your people to seek to find those opportunities in the hospitals the old folks home sometimes in certain parts of our country still opportunities in schools I know some of my preacher friends that are able to get in and speak to the whole assembly and preach the gospel we'll do a little knocking on doors encourage your people don't let them lay it all upon you those opportunities arising

38:57 from local open doors for evangelism and of course the great principle there in the book of Acts was look for your synagogues look for your synagogues those were the natural places where Paul could go where there was a framework and he went to the synagogue until he got thrown up then he set up the school of Tyrannus as his basis at Ephesus and stayed for two whole years and the whole of Asia heard the word of God and in other places it said that he separated the disciples but look for your synagogues those places where there is an opportunity already afforded for someone to come in and to minister the word of God alright so much then for the ordinary means now large letter number two the extraordinary or special activities calculated to bring men and women under the influence of the gospel now these are legitimate means for the accomplishment of the task but they are extraordinary means and I want to give letter A some specific some suggestions and I have given you six of them and it won't take me long to go through them number one

Extraordinary Means: Concentrated Church-Wide Efforts

41:42 We're having a good lunch and they got some preacher from up north though he's a Yankee don't write him off the guy can talk straight and he's a man's man who speaks to you as a man come along and hear the gospel and I've had tremendous opportunities so you've got to be creative in the language again that Dr. Packer love is enterprising and these periodic situations are legitimate means of bringing people under the sound of the gospel and this is not the gospel blimp endeavor you know the book the gospel blimp where all of this machinery goes into effect in order to get a blimp up in the air that'll have a brief statement of the gospel on it whereas if the time and money and energy were spent in just trying to become friends to the next door neighbor and communicate the gospel in a natural way there'd be far more opportunity now this is not a gospel blimp endeavor it's a realistic recognition of two things of the centrality of preaching in the divine purpose and the meaningfulness of natural relationships it's seizing on both of those things and trying to bring them together often in those situations it's good to have someone give a personal testimony and the only justification as far as I'm concerned that's ever needed for the legitimacy of personal testimony as a framework

43:12 for gospel proclamation is Acts 22 and Acts 26 where the apostle Paul standing before magistrates uses God's dealings with him as the springboard of declaring the grace and salvation of God in Jesus Christ several years ago when we were still in one of the schools in Caldwell what we did is we had a series of Sunday evening sermons we advertised in the local paper the message of historic Christianity and then we had a catchy ad do you wonder what the Bible is all about what has the historic church understood about such questions as how does one get to heaven is there a hell come Sunday night this issue will be addressed and then we had no entertainment no offering and no something else I mean we made it plain that they were coming and then we structured the whole service didn't have an ordinary worship service just had an opening hymn prayer and then we and then I said you've been invited you've seen the advertisement and then we went right after it and that thing that's in the tapes catalog on historic Christianity we completely restructured the Sunday evening service concentrated church wide effort to bring people to a gathering where there will be appointed formal presentation of the gospel by proven speakers Spurgeon in his chapter on conversion our aim

44:41 has a very helpful statement here of what they did at the tabernacle on page 343 says don't close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly but at the same time set yourselves seasons for a determined and continuous assault upon them and proceed with all your soul to the conflict on such occasions aim distinctly at immediate conversions labor to remove prejudices resolve doubts doubts conquer objections and drive the sinner out of his hiding places at once summon the church members to special prayer beseech them to speak personally both with the concerned and the unconcerned and be yourself doubly upon the watch to address individuals we have found that our February meetings at the tabernacle have yielded remarkable results the whole month being dedicated to special effort winter is usually the preacher's harvest because the people can come together better in the long evenings and are debarred from out of door exercises and amusements be well prepared for the appropriate seasons when quote kings go forth to battle quoting from second Samuel well you see circumstances have changed now people got the boob tube prime time movies and Sunday evening you see how the cultural factors change but we've got to find the

46:10 situation in our culture and in our time appropriate for these concentrated assaults upon the unconverted all right then the second extraordinary activity that I would set forth as a suggestion is a concentrated church-wide effort to distribute good evangelistic literature a concentrated church-wide effort to distribute good evangelistic literature now it may either be a wide saturation distribution of a relatively inexpensive booklet or good tract or it may be a more selective distribution of a good evangelistic paperback book now let me illustrate both of those under that first subheading a wide saturation distribution of a good tract or booklet I would suggest Benton's coming to faith in Christ Ryle's Dead or Alive or of course Blanchard's Ultimate Questions and I trust with a proper sense of modesty not because I think it's that great but because it just isn't that much my own tract what is a biblical Christian and here people who have no gift for verbal confrontation no gift special gift of evangelism but they have a heart

47:40 they would be willing to come and to say we're going to take streets A, B, and C this Sunday afternoon and we're going to seek to distribute personally not just stuff it in a mailbox knock on the door and say I'm from Trinity Church I'm from Grace such and such church I'm from Covenant such and such church and we're distributing this literature in the entire neighborhood would you receive this as a gift from us expressing our love and our concern about the things that really matter and a saturation distribution of gospel literature or it may be I've suggested in the second place a selective distribution of a good evangelistic paperback such as right with God now I know one man over a period of weeks instructed his people and then on a given Lord's day they had 500 copies of right with God placed on the communion table and several of the elders gathered around them and prayed that God would bless these printed preachers and then the people were encouraged to take as many over a period of a month as they could distribute prayerfully to their natural contacts at work in the neighborhood at school wherever they were and in that way the people were encouraged to think about specific individuals and that was the condition you can only take the books free of charge and give them if you've been praying for those individuals to whom

49:09 you give them and you commit yourself to pray that God will bless that paper preacher once it's in their hands well there's another legitimate means of a concentrated church-wide effort to distribute good evangelistic literature and the great principle though it's in conjunction with giving of our material substance the principle is wider 2nd Corinthians 9 6 he that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly but but he that sows abundantly in other words he that sows profusely shall see that there are commensurate returns he that sows bountifully shall reap bountifully you may want to use a bulk mailing of a good tract or booklet now often there's something very impersonable about impersonal however you may be in a community and that's why you want to know where you are and that's how foolish it is when people just blanket say here's something that worked over here in in boonstown or in jacuzzi village here and now we know it's going to work no you have got to be sensitive and by trial and error seek to find an effective means then thirdly I would suggest a concentrated concentrated church

50:38 wide effort to enroll people in a short term home bible study now there are many areas where this method has been one of the most effective means of evangelism when the whole church has been encouraged and given materials to distribute in their neighborhood to see if a group of people will gather in a certain home say for four Thursday nights in order to study the great questions of life maybe work through Blanchard's booklet ultimate questions the number of good materials are available for such a study and then those studies are led by a proven man or if it's a woman's study by a proven woman if such is appropriate but generally you would want the study to be led by a proven man who can field questions who is not going to be unstrung if someone in his or her enthusiasm right out of the world when they get excited they use hells and dams and they don't know any better right in a bible study they say well what in the world what in age do you mean by that and they are excited and they say that's the damnedest most wonderful thing I ever heard of I mean if you met people I've met some people I have every reason to believe they were converted and they expressed their joy in the Lord

52:07 with some of their old language well you see if you've got someone that's all going to go like this so you've got to make sure that whoever is leading that situation is someone who can handle that type of situation alright then fourth suggestion an ongoing program of house to house visitation and the precedent of course is clearly set in Acts 20 and verse 20 although the reference there is primarily to Paul's ministry to the people of God I've taught you publicly and from house to house but that it seems to be evangelistic is underscored by verse 21 testifying to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and there will be some who have a special gift for this ministry whose gift ought to be both discovered cultivated and used to the optimum what we did in the past and we're right now discussing a new assault upon this area but when we were located in Essex fells we discovered a group of some eight or ten men who had a particular gift in this area and we drafted a letter and put some good literature into an envelope and they made every effort to get into the home no tricky stuff no I'm here to take a religious survey none of that stuff we're

53:37 here from the little church around the corner that meets in the church or building around the corner and we'd love to come in and talk to you about the things that are dearest to our heart may we come in well no I'd rather you well will you then please accept this and then at least we're able to leave a letter that said a little something about the church and some gospel literature but in a number of situations they were able to get into the home go back into the home you say well what kind of fruit did you see from that well to our knowledge not a conversion many streets were covered dozens and dozens of homes but it's not a matter of whether or not quote it works it was a matter of we felt it was our duty to seek to bring the gospel to that community in which God had placed us and so you will want to seek under God to discover those who are particularly gifted in this area and then of course some of our brethren have found this fifth suggestion very helpful a regular presentation of the gospel and related issues in local papers as paid advertisement one church I know of called it Christian Perspectives a Alan Dunn has been able to do some good stuff and they've let him put it in free in his local freebie that goes out all over the place he got called up and they said would you like to do the religious article and he's done a series on the Ten Commandments some good stuff and our brethren out in Grand Rapids are

55:07 they still doing this Dave and every week

55:16 getting the gospel in this way and it's a lot of profuse sewing and occasionally you may get a contact but even when you don't see them there are people whose minds and hearts are being confronted with the truth of God and then sixthly an occasional opportunity to put the gospel into the marketplace now some of you will really wonder what in the world you've come to when I tell you that we have actually in the past set up booths in flea markets and we used to have a professional artist who worked for Archie comics and when the Lord saved her she thought her Archie comics abilities would be forever suspended but we put them to good use to set up very attractive eye catching signs for the flea market I remember one of them that showed an Archie like looking guy

56:12 with regard to the real gutty questions of life and who am I where am I going and we had tapes and books that we tried to sell and tracks that we tried to give away and we just rent space in the flea market seeking to get the gospel into the marketplace and there of course the biblical principle is Paul not only went into the synagogue but he went to the marketplace and there sought to communicate the gospel now let me emphasize brethren these are only suggestions of some of the ways just some of the ways in which we can make special church wide efforts to bring the gospel to our communities and here I commend Packer's book again page 78 at the bottom of the page to the bottom of page 79 and where he opens up that concept that love is enterprising and while we've seen this go to seed and the text is so abused I've become all things to all men and people are using media that contradict the message there is not a thing in any of the matters I've suggested that contradicts the message and for which we do not have at least in principle biblical warrant all right now then let's take a break at this point and then we'll come back to consider number

Practical Considerations: Pastor's Attitude and Example

57:42 three some practical considerations in seeking to motivate and direct your congregation with respect to fulfilling this task all right brethren having begun to consider the means by which to accomplish the task of evangelism both the ordinary and what I call the extraordinary now let me conclude with heading number three some practical considerations in seeking to motivate and direct your congregation with respect to fulfilling the task of evangelism and in your outline this is set out in small letters A B and C A recognize the strategic influence of your own attitude and example in life and ministry recognize the strategic influence of your own attitude and example in life and in ministry it is a general law of reproduction that we bear fruit after our kind and if our own hearts are exercised in secret prayer it will come out in our public prayers there will be a freshness there will be an urgency there will be a pathos all

59:11 of those elements that make public prayer edifying have their tap roots in secret prayer and so it is with this matter of the maintenance of an evangelistic passion and fervor and activity among our people the apostle Paul was very conscious of this when in addressing the Ephesian elders you remember that he first of all reminds them of the kind of man that he himself was in their midst you yourselves know Acts 20 18 from the first day that I set foot in Asia after what manner I was with you all the time serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind and with tears and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews and he could say later on in that same chapter in verse 35 a in all things in all things I gave you an example and brethren only God can measure the tremendous influence of the example of a man who in his pulpit exercises week in week out year in and year out manifest a genuine passion and earnestness

60:40 in addressing sinners that are sitting before him a man who preaches with no passion no pathos no pleading no warning no wooing someone who does not seek to draw by the winsomeness of the privileges of the gospel to threaten and drive by the warnings of impenitence is a man who most likely will never see any pervasive evangelistic passion amongst his people it's a pleading preacher that under God will make a pleading people an earnest preacher who will under God be used to create an earnest people a wise and skillful preacher will by his example be setting a pattern for his people as to how they can be wise and winsome with the lost therefore you as a man of God must continually stir yourself up in this area of evangelistic passion and vision and in seeking to give you tools to do that I highly recommend that you make as your lifetime companions some of these following books and booklets words to winners

62:09 of souls by Horatius Bonar I know a few things that are more calculated to stir the heart of any man in whom the grace of God dwells with regard to this matter of passion for evangelism than that little booklet by Bonar he establishes the principle that the heart can never relinquish the object on which it is set without pain and if your heart is truly set on the conversion of sinners though you may have a pained heart and a pained heart will manifest itself in the tone the flavor as well as the content of your ministry and then Spurgeon's book the soul winner even though that term soul winning has all kinds of connotations that it ought not to have in our day nonetheless Spurgeon's book the soul winner is calculated to stir a man up to evangelistic passion and then of course the chapter in Spurgeon's lecture lectures to my students on conversion as our aim and then many of the sections of Baxter's reform pastor these are some of the books along with some of the chapters in Gardner Springs power in the pulpit that I have personally found over the

63:38 years to have an impact upon my own spirit in this area read and read and reread the biographies of holy pleaders and passionate evangelists Whitfield's biography Payson Spurgeon McShane Brainerd and this is by no means an exhausted list but these are those that are proven means I've been amazed over the years to see how many people who have been eminently useful in the church of Christ trace their initial infusion of passion to reading the life of Brainerd Henry Martin caught his flame from Brainerd and in turn many caught their fire from Henry Martin of India or missionary to India spell M-A-R-T-Y-N and so I urge you brethren in this area to recognize the strategic influence of your own attitude and example in life and in ministry but then secondly recognize and avoid the most common errors with respect to pastoral instructions and exhortations in conjunction with this task and what are those most

Practical Considerations: Avoiding Common Errors

65:07 common errors I've listed four of them number one the crippling guilt producing notion that every Christian has or should have the gift of an evangelist and this is one of the errors which I have seen leave multitudes of God's people going around constantly crippled with false guilt a preacher pounding week after week what is in essence a position that says every single believer ought to have the gift of confrontational evangelism and that just simply cannot be demonstrated from the word of God and books such as Conan's book E.J. Conan every member evangelism has have been the means of producing this mentality listen to his view of the office of an overseer the pastor that the individual members may become successful in winning the lost is therefore the one all inclusive reason why pastors were given to the church the shepherding and the superintending both have that as their main object the conclusion is inevitable the main business of the pastor is not the preparation and delivery of sermons and addresses

66:36 so much as the development whether by sermon or any other method of every member in his church into a soul winner his sermons at least those to Christians ought always to have this in view I'm not saying that they are to be consistent godly believers light and salt seizing opportunities verbally to express their faith consistent with opportunity and gift etc by soul winner he means a confrontational successful evangelist who can quote win others to Christ well when people sit under a ministry like that they go around crippled with guilt all of their days and I trust brethren in our passion for evangelism we will avoid that horrible error the crippling guilt producing notion that every Christian has or should have the gift of an evangelist but then on the other end of the spectrum the numbing conscience salving notion that all evangelistic concern and activity will simply take care of itself and that is a numbing conscience salving notion because if people are not reminded of their duty and if they are not exhorted to perform their duty in this area what makes us think they will automatically do it any more than if they are not exhorted to their duty of loving their wives

68:06 being submissive to their husbands being gracious to their enemies in other words if a healthy spiritually minded man or woman automatically does his duty in this area then should he not automatically do it in every other area so to exclude proportionate balanced exhortation admonition entreaty encouragement in this area is to become a de facto hyper Calvinist and to believe that quote the elect will be saved they'll be saved if the congregations to have evangelistic passion they'll have it I will not exhort entreat admonish to it that is a numbing conscience salving notion and though there are no clear commands in the epistles with respect to the matter of being a verbal witness nonetheless from the passages that we looked at the very front end of these lectures we have seen that the mandate is given to the church to evangelize and to do so aggressively and then there's a third area that we must avoid a third error and that is the artificial regimentation and imitation which does no justice to the vast diversity of gifts and opportunities in any given

69:35 congregation now this is the error that lies at the source of most of the so-called evangelism programs whether it's evangelism explosion whether it's a specialized three-day seminar on friendship evangelism whatever it is this artificial regimentation and imitation which does no justice to the vast diversity of gifts and opportunities in any given congregation you see the problem with all canned approaches is two-fold it has a problem in reference to the people of God and a problem in reference to sinners the problem it has with reference to the people of God is this if a man has no concern for the lost or little concern and if a man is not seeking to seize his normal God-given opportunities as bridges of conveying the saving message of Christ the problem is not that he doesn't have a method or a technique the problem is something deeper than that if I may state it in a shocking way the worst thing you could do with some Christians is to get them speaking freely about Christ their lives are a big enough reproach already without adding to that reproach going around blabbing about Christ so there's a

71:05 deeper problem and that problem is that they come to the place where they have a passion to be what Philippians 2 14-16 describes blameless harmless sons of God without rebuke shining his lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and in that context alone holding forth the word of life you can't cure deep spiritual ills that are crippling evangelism by a three day conference or a ten week program it can't be done that simply it's the overall ministry of the church ordained of God for the perfecting of the saints not some quick fixed seminar and then with reference to sinners it has the problem of its artificiality I sat in a reform baptist conference several years ago and I couldn't believe my ears because the preacher took our Lord's dealings with the woman at the well as the paradigm of personal evangelism and built a whole theology of personal evangelism on the paradigm of the Lord's dealings with the woman at the well years ago whenever I'd meet a canned approach I'd say to people look was Jesus right in John 3 or right in John 4 in the way he went

72:30 John 3 he was abrupt he was curt he cut a man off in the midst of complimenting him and said you're blind as a bat dumb as a dodo and unless you experience a radical intrusion of divine life you've had it I mean that's the quickest way to get the fish off the end the end I mean the poor fish ain't even nibbled the bait and you're setting the hook and reeling in to use the language well was Jesus right in John 3 or was he wrong with the woman at the well he didn't look at her and say you wretched lecherous immoral unprincipled woman no give me some water oh what are you doing a Jew asking me Samaritan water he begins to tease her mentally draw her up well which one was right well both were right his dealings with Nicodemus were perfectly right in the presence of the Nicodemus in his dealings with the woman of the well were perfectly right for such a woman and what we must seek to do is avoid this artificial regimentation and imitation which does no justice to the vast diversity of gifts and opportunities in any given congregation how do you feel when you pick up the phone and someone says Mr. Chansky yes I'm so and so from such and such and then

73:59 they start giving you the pitch that's it you want to just put the phone up on the hook you say man if I don't mean more to you on that line to at least try at least try to give the impression that you're talking to me and not spouting your sales pitch don't worry and if that's true with regard to just selling some commodity how much more when people are touching on the most essential elements of life and death and time and eternity and the whole concept of the canned approach simply will not stand up to the scrutiny of scripture and is repulsive to people who are really seeking to relate to people as people to find out where they are and to minister to them at the point of their real need and then the fourth error that we want to avoid is the unscriptural notion that since an outpouring of the spirit would automatically intensify evangelistic activity and success we need do nothing until such is given now this notion thankfully we do not have too much in our circles because we do not have what I would call an imbalanced revivalistic mentality but I've been in circles where with reference to whole blocks of biblical duty all the way from church discipline

75:28 to family life to a host of things the whole attitude is we're in a horrible mess wherever you turn mess mess nothing but mess but if only God would come with the wind of heaven then everywhere we turn where there's now mess there would be order and beauty and God would sort out the families and God would sort out the unconverted deacons and God would sort out proud pompous arrogant elders and so let's just pray for revival and prayer for revival becomes an escape for application to present duty with present measures of grace where as if I understand what revival is historically a sovereign intensification of the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit often localized in a given area with tremendous impact upon saved and unsaved an intensification of the ordinary work of the Spirit sovereignly granted then if there's any path in which I have any grounds to pray that it may please God to grant such a sovereign intervention it's in the path of obedience he that hath my commandments and keep it them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him it's in the path of obedience to present duty that I

76:56 have grounds to pray that God would grant more gracious interventions and copious measures of the Holy Spirit so recognize then the unscriptural notion that since an outpouring of the Spirit would intensify evangelistic activity and success we need do nothing until such is given no we need to apply ourselves to our God-given duty with present measures of grace while pleading for more from the hand of God and then my third practical consideration letter C is to recognize the central place of fervent persistent prayer in the entire evangelistic endeavor recognize the central place of fervent persistent prayer in the entire evangelistic endeavor brethren I trust with us the conviction that God alone gives spiritual life to the dead is not only a clearly perceived theological tenet I hope it is that of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth James 1 in verse 18 1 Corinthians 3 one sows another waters but God gives the increase

Practical Considerations: Centrality of Prayer

78:25 so then neither is he that planteth anything neither he that watereth zero and zero zero for planter zero for waterer but all the credit goes to God who gives the increase but but but but but but but but but , but God has tied the giving of the spirit to the prayers of his people I just read a little devotional meditation by McShane in that lovely little collection of devotional things that you gave me Rob I read this morning his little exposition of Luke 11 13 it was very very moving where he speaks of unless a man has become a veritable beast an evil man yet God has implanted in the heart of a father to give good things to his children how much more will the father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask we must ask though his working is sovereign and free in a way that we can never figure out or fathom it is bound up with the prayers of his people Galatians 4 19 my little children of whom I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you Romans 9 1 and 10 1 the man who had great heaviness some of what we would call the negative side of evangelistic passion heaviness of heart

79:55 could say my heart's desire and prayer for them is that they may be saved and therefore you and I must recognize the central place of fervent persistent prayer in the entire evangelistic endeavor and we must seek to convey to our people the central place not prayer support tacked on that very term gives me the willies I need prayer support for my ministry even more than support brethren the whole concept of prayer support I'm doing something I need a little reinforcement no we need to have God go forth with our endeavors and open blind eyes and unstopped deaf ears and true evangelistic ministry of any kind the soil out of which the plans grow must be prayer the atmosphere which we breathe must be prayer the rain that comes down to cause the seed to germinate and to flourish must be prayer we must cry to God then continue to cry and cry again that God will bless our endeavors and that God would grant us and our people that realization that the work of evangelism though it is a task

81:25 in which we are privileged to communicate the message of life and to be the instruments of establishing bridge heads of influence and bridges of contact ultimately it is God's work the work of the great shepherd fulfilling his word other sheep I have which are not at this fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd