In this Fundamentals of the Faith lesson, Mark Twombly overviews the Bible’s teaching on evangelism, stressing that this is a task to which every Christian is called and that we Christians must know how to present the full and true gospel message.
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we can do that because the gospel is not just for s for uh justification it’s for sanctification we continually as we received Christ so walk right and so I think these truths and as we go through our daily lives immersing ourselves in the glory of the Gospel will really help with this seeing things from from his perspective yeah sorry I didn’t put that second verse there and then um the call to evangelism is in love right we recognize John 3:16 for God so loved the world or loved the world in such a way that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life 1 John 4:9 and10 by this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the the propitiation for our sins I hope you get from this that God defines love we don’t Define love right again that that view of winsomeness and tone as a goal in itself absent of truth I think we’ve established I hope hopefully in the last few weeks that is not love not telling someone the truth is not love so um look back with me at at 1 Corinthians 13 we spent a little time in this uh a couple weeks ago I just want to remind us of this and this gets to the um the idea I think as Pastor John Piper puts it of of Duty contrasted with delight we we discover in the scriptures that Delight is a duty I could go off on that but we’ll leave that alone um 1 Corinthians 13 the first two verses if if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love I have become a noisy gong or a clangy symbol and if I have the gift of Prophecy and know all Mysteries and all knowledge and I have all Faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love I am nothing how how is your heart of love how is My Heart of Love toward those around me right to these verses do we sense God’s love expressed in Christ is that what motivates us it’s a good quote on verse 80 I’m just on page 80 I’m just going to read it I thought was really helpful 1 John 4 tells us that we only love God because he first loved us and John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that he gave that he gave the greatest work in the heart of God the greatest concern in the mind of God is evangelism winning the Lost is God’s Great concern it is also Christ’s great concern Luke 19:10 says for the son of man has come to seek and to save save that which was lost the work of winning the loss is God’s concern and Christ’s concern and also the greatest concern of the holy spirit for it is the Holy Spirit who comes according to John 16 to convict men of sin and righteousness and of judgment it is the Holy Spirit who comes upon the church and after we have received the Holy Spirit we are made Witnesses Jesus said unto him in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth the great concern of God is evangelism the great concern of Christ is evangelism the great concern of the spirit is evangelism saving the Lost is it your great concern is it is it my great concern has God so captivated our hearts Jesus said in John 10:8 freely you’ve received freely give so I’m really challenging us I’m challenging myself to maybe to be more generous with our time with our availability to do this we live in New Jersey right um people shelter right I can’t tell you how long it it’s it takes to get to know my neighbors it’s crazy um you know takes a long time because people are just to themselves you know to to wave high that’s a big step I’m I’m I’m hopefully not just talking about my neighborhood am I right it’s kind of like that right and if if it were me I’d sit on the porch and have people over every night you know people just don’t really roll that way so is that our heart always thinking about that’s why we’re here you know I I think it was John MacArthur who said if you know if if we’re not here for evangelism God might as well just take us home now right so Lord give us give us your heart give us your heart for the lost and then the gospel um being really clear about it um there are a lot of false gospels like there’s a lot of false teaching I alluded to it a little bit earlier well you just need to say this prayer and you’re good no no I uh I had a friend I’ve shared with some of you um I have one unbelieving friend a former co-worker who I probably talked more about the gospel than any other unbeliever and uh he asked me the perfect question that I wish more people would ask Mark what’s it going to cost me to follow Jesus how would you answer that I think I went to it Luke 14 Luke 16 so a man cannot be my disciple unless he gives up all that he has I got to tell him the truth right and so off went that conversation and so this wasn’t going to be an easy believism thing right it would it was going to be a surrender of all that he had to Christ because that’s what the gospel’s call is yeah and uh I wish it was that clear and that easy in in many conversations but Lord help us to get there so the message right 1 Corinthians 15: 3-4 for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures we see that repeated according to the scriptures even Jesus who was speaking scripture because of who he was relied on the scripture isn’t that amazing he opened their minds to understand the scriptures absolutely fundamental right um his death his burial his resurrection again measure how you share the gospel how you hear the gospel to what is said here a lot of times one of these components is missing right Jesus died on the cross for your sins okay well what about the resurrection that means something to you that’s kind of important right really being grounded in the fundament of what we need to communicate and according to the scriptures right we communicate with the scriptures um I I heard one modern Pastor say that uh our faith is based on an event not a book and I thought in an event that we would know nothing of apart from the book so that’s a little incoherent right but we see this I think we see this stream that um there’s pressure to not use the Bible right do you feel that well you can’t just quote scripture people and why not um can you share the gospel without using the scriptures I had this conversation with several pastors years ago Danny was there and I I was just just kind of wondering what their view of scripture was so I just I just went for the jugular right I said okay do you need to use the scriptures to communicate the gospel and it was a contentious long convers that’s a short conversation that should be a really short conversation may maybe expound on how you use it that’s the longer conversation but if you use it well you know yeah Jesus said this the seed is the word of God and if you’re not sewing seed you’re just spreading fertilizer I think you can connect the dots on that Mike yeah yeah there’s a caricature which diminishes the value of the word of God the the devil yeah yeah the the devil yeah see has done a good job diminishing our view of the scripture which which is by the way why when I think when I I taught on Psalm 119 um several months ago we can never value the scriptures too much and we always need to go back to that right um has God not said right that’s a constant attack and we need constant reminders and what the word of God is so what must someone believe about Jesus Christ for salvation John 1:1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that he is God that’s an essential right John 14:6 I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me I don’t know about you but this might be the toughest one right people say how can can how can you say that your way is the only way what’s a what’s a good answer to that what how how some of Eric yes it’s not I didn’t make it up that’s right and if I were gonna make it up I wouldn’t make this up I wouldn’t make up the one thing that would offend the most people I probably would not do that right right Mike is yeah yeah and think about that word life right in John one in him was life and that life was the light of men um this subject ction that um well how can a loving God send anyone to hell he is the source of life to reject him must be Eternal death it can’t be anything but that he offers life and by the way what makes us think that we deserve a choice of ways much less even one and this is the best possible way right it’s incredible I think we have to recognize that this is true this isn’t God being selfish or exclusive this is God being as loving as he can possibly be need to to recognize that Glenda preaches the gospel and you know we try to not to preach the gospel she want like how we preach her verse by verse that’s what she’s looking for she come from Pakistan she and her husband is looking up and down find church that preaches the gospel I said to her visit Calvary so I hope she come I hope so too’s she’s and then she’s looking for all she’s hearing little talks yeah she’s looking for church that preaches iach to yeah yeah I love what you said about diversity because we’ve been talking about Unity um in in our last couple weeks uh of our lessons and Unity comes from the unifier from having a a message that uh and and a lord who unifies us right and I find it interesting that we emphasize that he brings about his people from all tribes tongues and Nations right um um and someone who’s newer to the church recently said to me I’m amazed at the diversity of this church age ethnicity socioeconomic status the whole thing that’s really unusual people who as I like to say might not even hang together if it weren’t for the gospel isn’t that beautiful this is what the Lord does and but we if we emphasize diversity and I’ve seen this I’ve come from environment like where we emphasize that it’s very divisive isn’t that strange because we’re not focusing on the unifier Tina [Music] yeah yeah yeah rules and he makes the rules yeah that’s a great Point yeah yeah yeah yeah we all set rules were all intolerance do you guys take out the garbage in your home are you intolerant of garbage yes we are yes we are right you make decisions and judgments decisions yeah let’s not pretend that and that’s just when you turn around on people let’s not pretend that you’re not doing that too let’s just talk about that yeah yeah yeah but we don’t like to be it shows what Rebels we are yes uh in our natural Hearts okay um I’m going to try to leave a little bit of time to hear how things went in evangelism so let me keep going here and the third thing is that uh there’s salvation in no one else right right there’s no other name uh under Heaven given among men by which we must we must be saved amazing that God instead of seeing God’s stinginess let’s see let us see his generosity let’s see his generosity we saw this even in the garden right Adam and Eve particularly eve were was focused on the one thing she couldn’t do rather than on the the other things that she could do right this is our human nature our human nature all right Essentials of evangelism I’m going to go um I’m going to expand a little bit from what you have in your workbook and I’m just going to walk through how many of you were here for the um the calvary um the grace evangelism class I think we had that sometime last year some of you are newer than that um so these are the main points from it and I’m just going to go through them um and I found these find these really really helpful um and uh so I’m going to send out send out the slides you can spend some more time in them but a good gospel presentation starts with God what I realized when I first started really looking at this is often gospel presentations begin with man well you’re a sinner what does that even mean if I don’t know who God is and what his requirements are so we need to spend a little bit of time there so God created and owns everything right in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and the Earth is the Lords and all it contains the world and those who dwell in it right we all are owned by him in one sense right God is perfectly holy right be holy as I am Holy right um in him is uh in him is light and there in in him there is no God God is light and in him there is no Darkness at all and then God demands perfect obedience to his laws right James 2:10 is a tough one right he who keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point he has become guilty of all God’s standard is perfection and instead of hating that we ought to really love that that’s what we’re calling people to and then man what is man’s condition man has broken God’s law right all has sinned and fall short of the glory of God none is righteous not even one and as we interact with people I think this is pretty obviously true you know I think it was Chesterton who said that original sin is the most empir empirically verifiable fact in the universe just look around you know um man will pay the Eternal penalty for sin the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord I love what you said Mike keep reading don’t stop at the parts you don’t like keep reading very helpful and then man cannot save himself by his good works right yeah our the best that we can do Isaiah 646 says it says filthy rags the very best that we can do presented to God is utterly unacceptable to him that’s a tough one for people to believe that’s a tough one for people to believe but that’s the reality okay and then we go to Christ Christ came to Earth both as God and sinless man in him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form it says in Colossians 2 he demonstrated God’s love by dying on the cross to pay sin’s penalty amazing to think about just simply Romans 5’8 right but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us one will scarcely Die For A Friend much less an enemy this is what God did this is what God did and he rose from the G grave and is alive today again let’s not forget the resurrection we saw that in the 1 Corinthians 15 verse that’s part of the message he is risen and is alive today so it’s not a matter of it’s not really who Christ was yeah who was he on Earth but who is he and I and I find this super helpful in evangelism keep coming back to Christ what will you do with the claims of Christ this is what Christ said not what I say right and how how do you respond to that and then Sinners what are we calling Sinners to do Sinners must repent of all that dishonors God right Isaiah 55:7 right let the let the Wicked Man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts I think I’ve shared with you that when I realize that God not only not only saw all that I did at all times but that he knew my thoughts I was immediately in Terror I definitely am going to hell then as an 8-year-old good kid was obvious that’s the Holy Spirit making this real in my heart um if any man wishes to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me Luke 9:23 you for telling people they need to deny themselves in an era where your feelings Define real ity that’s a little unpopular right yeah Sinners Must Believe In Christ as Lord and Savior if you confess through the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved yeah lordship not optional I’ve been asked do you believe in lordship Salvation I’m tempted to answer like Jack Nicholson is there another kind right there is not there is not and will you repent and believe in Christ and I’ve had to really be more intentional about this this is not how I was taught to communicate the gospel and we pray for that opportunity don’t don’t let someone get away without challenging them to repent as Jesus did he actually he kind of opened with that maybe we should open with that right yeah again you can see I think MacArthur wrote a book called impossible to believe or hard to believe you can see how the natural man would just not grab this no matter how eloquent we are or how nice we are so um that’s a lot so um if you if you’ve um if you’ve if you’ve taken that course and um if you have the notes now would be a great time to review but that’s your brief your brief recap now um have have any you heard the the the term lifestyle evangelism is that that was kind of big I think maybe in the 80s going into the 90s right at the far end people would say you know would quote I think it was it St Francis who said or maybe it was I’m not sure who said it people attribute it to St Francis but I don’t think that’s right um share the gospel at all times if necessary use words seems necessary right but let our lives and our words be consistent and by the way here’s an area where your life can be consistent if you sin repent and ask for forgiveness that’s a gospel opportunity that’s not you blowing your testimony that’s you showing the gospel because people people don’t naturally do that when when I’ve done that with unbelievers and apologize and ask for their forgiveness it’s very disarming there’s like nobody does that that’s not normal it’s not normal um let’s think about our lives the character of Our Lives do things without grumbling or disputing so that you will be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world this verse got a lot of play in our home with our kids and a lot of conviction to the parents who were sometimes telling their kids not to complain while complaining themselves about their kids you get that simply not complaining is an incredible testim into the world is it not right without grumbling or disputing complaining is really the sense right that that’s a way that we show ourselves our character to be different right people should look at us and say there’s something different remember that old Keith Green song uh because of you people smile at me and they ask me what it is that makes me want to be just like I am I just I say it’s because of you Danny a lot of time looking at this vers yeah yeah yeah we can put on a good game face but then we really complaining good point and what what’s inside has a way of making its way out eventually and then are works right let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven then in Colossians 1:10 I think Pastor Bobby has urged us to pray this prayer consistently and part of it is this so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in All respects bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God takes some real wisdom to walk through this we’re not drawing attention to ourselves but people when they observe you should see something good I think it’s first or second Peter talks about this that when they observe your behavior we’ll have no argument against that right but if we’re persecuted let it let it be for doing good and not for doing evil right so we look we look at our character we look at our works and then finally we look at our words we’ve referred to this a little bit earlier um Colossians 4:6 we talked about how Jesus did this right let your words always be with Grace seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should answer each person yeah to me this is a wonderful adventure of Discovery as how the word of God is sufficient people have different thoughts different questions we listen we seek to address address that with the scriptures right we’re not we’re not oriented to what will please them but like Jesus we want to open their minds to the scriptures to where they are right and there’s been a lot of insensitivity I think in evangelism standing on a street corner yelling at people probably doesn’t meet this standard I’m not saying we don’t be bold right we ought to know how to answer each person may God give us Grace to do that and that Colossians 4 passage tells us about prayer and that’s where we’re going next how do we do it what’s the foundation um we look at again at our motivations Paul reflecting on his fellow Jews who did not believe Brothers my my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation later on he would say I have unceasing anguish in my heart for them is that your experience is that my experience does the thought of people spending eternity apart from God even spending this life apart from God is I grieve you you I’m too selfish sometimes I I got my own problems I got you know may God again give us his heart and then in Colossians 42-3 devote yourselves to prayer being watchful in it with Thanksgiving praying at the same time for us as well that God will open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak the mystery of Christ for which I have also been bound 1 Timothy 2 talks about how we should offer prayers for all kinds of people all kinds of people so when you look at people when we look at circumstances is this your heart are these are these your words right are you are you trying to look at things I think it’s really a a wonderful to think thing to think about in any circumstance just look around and say what is what does God see right and we can’t know all of that but the scriptures can inform Us in terms of what his heart and what his intentions are and we can look to the example of Jesus looking upon the crowds he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a Shepherd when you watch your your latest unfavorite politician do you have that heart is it a heart of compassion I know I don’t I don’t my dad I was going on a rant you know this is in my 20s about you know a particular president n that not in this century and uh and my dad said well are you praying for him I said well he praying that’s praying for impeachment count he said he said no are you praying for salvation I’m not doing that do that do that again uh just as God had to work in our hearts for salvation he he needs to work in our hearts for sanctification in this area doesn’t he that that’ll motivate us more than anything you can have all the technique all the knowledge all of that but has God so inflamed my affections toward him for what he’s done for me and toward others to offer that right that more than anything will take care of of all of this okay and then finally God’s word we alluded to this earlier in the parable of so the seed is the word of God the seed that’s simple enough right how are you at sewing the seeds of the word of God I’m not I’m less discouraged Than I Used to Be when someone doesn’t respond positively to the gospel most people do not respond positively to the gospel but for some people it hits them later and it’s not and it’s not just a one and done if you’ve got friends these are conversations that may take place over years um I have a friend who does a lot of evangelism with Muslims he said it’s like an average of like 7 to 10 years before he sees you know that’s not to say that we’re doing it because that’s just the reality of the investment right but we’re sewing the seed of the word of God and some of the seeds that we sew we might we may not see the the um we may not reap until eternity I heard a really interesting story that Mark de told of um of a a man in Colonial New England who was an atheist not many of those around at least not professing atheists um who rejected the gospel’s whole life in his 90s he’s out in the field and he remembers a sermon preached to him by John Flavel and he falls on his knees and repents and believes in Jesus John Flav’s long gone but the word of God as Paul said the word of God is not bound it’s not even Bound by time right do you have a do you and I have a multi-generational view of this that really keeps me going sometimes because it really gets discouraging it really gets discouraging and then this 1 Peter 1:23 for you have born again not of corruptible seed but Incorruptible that is through the living and enduring word of God maybe we never lose sight of the Primacy of the word of God in evangelism I was at a an evangelism um seminar at a at a church one time where um he gave a kind of a silly story but it it it it really um it was really helpful so do we believe that the word of God is living and active and sharper than two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of Soul and Spirit of both joints and Marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart Hebrews 4:12 do we do we believe that so he tells a story of a guy who’s who’s about to be mugged and a guy walks up to him with a knife and he says give me all your money and I’ve got this knife here and he I’m I’m so relieved that you don’t have a gun because I believe in guns but but I don’t believe in knives believe or not that knife’s going to do its work right so it is with the word of God now let’s really think about this I I know people who said maybe you said this I’m not going to share the scripture to him because he he doesn’t he’s not receptive or he won’t be receptive receptive or not the word of God is going to do its work and it may not do it right then it might do it later it might never but we know that the word of God does what it is intended to do right so let’s not base again this goes back to the fear of man right do we trust God to do his work by his means so important and this gets attacked all the time uh I have a video here but I’m not going to share it today I’m going to put it in the slides I I I came across this this past week um MacArthur sharing a story of a a man from who was one of the leaders of the Gay Pride movement in uh in Los Angeles coming to Christ and I thought it was just a riveting testimony I was going to share it today but I’d rather interact a little bit more with you and I I’ll put this in the in the slides it’s uh really really helpful it it it kind of I think it it illustrates the our impressions of what’s possible that person will never come to Christ right that’s not that’s not someone that person is so Antichrist right like Paul like Saul right um let’s never doubt let’s never doubt the power of God so let’s talk a little bit with our remaining couple minutes about application Steve yeah hearing yeah if people don’t have the word of God they’re not going to get that Faith right Romans 10:17 faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ straightforward enough um our Lord our Lord does not value innovation here you understand what I’m saying um we don’t need to get cute right we do we do want to know how to respond to each person walk in wisdom all that but as Rosaria Butterfield said that’s not the end that’s the means the end is God and his word and the gospel it’s a it’s a it’s a play setting for the gospel Our Lives um and um yeah let you know what I just thought of something here 1 Corinthians I think it’s in 1 Corinthians 2 let’s look briefly at this um 2 Corinthians 2 about us being the sweet Aroma of Christ 2 Corinthians 2 starting at verse 14 but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and manifest through us the the aroma of the knowledge of God the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place for we are a fragrance to of Christ to God Among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one an aroma from Death to death to the other an aroma from life to life and who is sufficient for these things for we are not like many pedaling the word of God but as from sincerity but as from God in the sight of God we speak in Christ look closely at verse 15 if you have it open who are we a fragrance to who’s the audience what not to the world no we are a fragrance of Christ to God Among those who are perishing this is tremendously important our orientation is not to those God is saving our orientation is to him and let him do the saving our goal is to please him we we get this backwards all the time well we need to be sweet to people well it says here some are going to find it odious yeah that’s real are you ready for that this is why our orientation is to him and let him take care of the saving we’ve got just a few seconds here I’m just going to go through a couple questions of Challenge and then we’ll pray where is your heart today in terms of receiving God’s love offered in Christ have you truly repented and believed in Jesus I’m not going to assume that everyone here has right have you confess him as Lord and believe in in your heart right where is your heart today in terms of offering God’s love in Christ to others the love of Christ compels us it says in 2 Corinthians 15 right is the love of Christ compelling you controlling you is your life character by characterized by repentance faith and christlikeness in your thoughts prayers words words and deeds right again what’s inside of us comes out of us so we need to look there first not in our technique at our words first but what’s inside and what will come out right and then Colossians 42-6 I encourage you to pray this consistently be devoted to prayer right pray consistently and specifically for those that God has brought into your life and also to consider what initiative what further initiative you might take in reaching them and be patient farming we’re not an Agricultural Society you don’t just throw a seed and things happen right it’s not how it works time patience but as the scriptures say how it grows the farmer himself does not know that’s God’s work so let’s be encouraged and faithful in it father God we are just odd that you would save Sinners Like Us greater love has no man than this that that a man lays down his life for his friends and in Christ you’ve done that he did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all how will he not also with him freely give us all things impress Upon Our Hearts your generosity the depth of your forgiveness he was forgiven much loves much but he was forgiven little loves little may that be always before us father the depth of your your love for us and um Infuse us and inflame us with love for you and love for others father that we would um be others servants for your sake and for your gospel sake in Jesus name amen