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Our great God and Father, we thank you this morning for who you are. Holy, majestic, supreme, our ultimate confidence. Father, you sustain, empower, maintain all things. And the good news is that because of that, we can trust you to keep your promises.
Every single one of them, and we thank you for that. We thank you for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us. We thank you that you have granted us your spirit by which we can not only know him, but that we can look to him constantly.
And Father, know that we have the seal of the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. Lord, we pray for your blessing on this Sunday School this morning. As we talk about evangelism and the mistakes that we've made, will make, and ought to try to avoid.
Father, bless each one here, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we started looking at mistakes we make in evangelism last week. And as I thought about this, I'm going to briefly recap. But number one, and this is a major one, we forget to tell people about Jesus.
If the goal of an evangelist is to tell people about Jesus, then that's the number one thing we should do. And I thought, I was thinking about this letter that the evangelist, self-proclaimed evangelist, sent my grandmother.
And I thought, you know what, I'm going to rewrite it on the fly here, just for him. If you recall, he said a lot of things about the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, but almost nothing about Jesus. And I thought, what if the letter went something like this?
Dear Mrs. Hartley, I was so sorry to hear about the passing of your dear Wes. Good start. And you say, you know, I got to know him over the last few months. And I know what a shock his death was to you and to your daughter, Sharon.
The good news is that as I got to know Wes, and as he was coming to these Bible studies, a unique event happened one evening. He stayed after until there was just me and him and the pastor. And we'd studied that evening.
We'd studied the Bible. We'd studied specifically about the Lord Jesus Christ. And Wes stayed and we prayed with him. And he told us that he'd been convicted of his sin. He knew that he had no claim to enter into heaven.
He knew that he was not worthy to enter into heaven because of his lifetime of sinning against God. But then he said, I've come to realize and come to believe that because of Jesus' perfect life, because of Jesus' sacrificial death, because of his resurrection, I believe all those things.
And because of that, I know that I will be with God. Forever. I trust entirely in Christ. Then he could say, dear Dorothy, like Wes, may I just encourage you to study the scriptures and see if these things that Wes came to believe are true.
I would invite you even to start your study in the Gospel of John and get to know Jesus Christ. Truly God, truly man, who came to die on behalf of sinners like Wes, like me, and like you. I think that would be a lot better letter than what he sent.
But the first mistake is we forget to tell them about Jesus. And again, you know, over and over again, he's talking about the Holy Spirit of promise and all these different things. Okay, first mistake.
Second mistake. We proffer or offer Jesus as a solution for their problems. And I talked about that. People have bad marriages. Well, the solution is Jesus. You have an addiction. The solution is Jesus.
You're lonely. Get a teddy bear. You know, buy a dog. I don't know. And I gave the example of really laundry soap, the funeral where the pastor suggested all these other things and then said, you know, try Jesus for six months.
Mistakes evangelists make. Number three, we present a Jesus who does not exist. We presented Jesus who does not exist. Now, what might I mean by that? And you're like, I have no idea what you mean by that, Steve.
What do you think I mean by that? A Jesus who does not exist. Okay. Who does things he doesn't promise in his word like what? Okay. Fix your marriage and all that stuff. Yes. And your finances. Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
I forgot that. What other sort of Jesus do people talk about that doesn't exist in Scripture? Yes, Brian. Or Cheryl. Okay. One who gives you everything you want. He's your secret Santa. Only he's not restricted to Christmas.
Vadim. Okay. One who does not convict you of your existing sins. In other words, he just accepts you wherever you are. He's not going to change you. He just loves you unconditionally. Now, is that true?
I mean, we hear about evangelists will say God loves you unconditionally. Is that true? Well, okay. But as soon as you say for believers or if you're regenerate, is that a condition? In other words, here's the question.
And here's the way people propose Jesus. God loves you unconditionally because or Jesus loves you unconditionally. Jesus seemed to have some other opinions. I mean, for example, if you reject Jesus, does God love you?
In a general sense, but not in a salvific sense. I mean, would it make you feel better if you go to an evangelist or you're an evangelist and you come up to somebody who's not saved and you say, you know what?
I have good news for you. God loves you. He still might send you to hell, though. Tell me more about the love of God. The Jesus who does not exist is the one who just comes alongside, you know, who likes to party with sinners.
I mean, this is kind of, you know, this is my country music Jesus. You know, the Jesus who just likes to hang out with the worst people in the world. Is that correct? Not really. But I mean, this is this is sort of how he's he's acceptable, even in non-religious situations, because Jesus, as your friend, unconditional, unquestioning friend who just comes alongside and spends time with you and just likes to hang out and never convicts of sin.
That Jesus is OK. But when you say that Jesus is God, Jesus is going to judge. Jesus has a standard that he explains in Matthew 548 of perfection. Perfection to enter into heaven. How many people like that God?
How many people like that Jesus? And, you know, the scope kind of shrinks. People aren't so fond of that guy. I remember once sitting in a church and hearing about God wringing his hands, hoping that the people listening would make the right decisions.
So how about a Jesus who's anxiously waiting for you to believe, who can't wait for you to believe, who's really rooting for you? That Jesus doesn't exist either. Instead, Jesus, in John 6, says that all that the Father has given me will come to me.
Every single one. And, you know, again, as I was praying, I just thought, the great thing about the sovereignty of God and salvation is that because he chose us before the world began and he has fixed his affections upon us and he cannot change, the Bible tells us.
The good news is, no matter what struggles I'm going through, no matter how low the valley is that I'm in, I can depend on one thing. And that's that God does not change and he will not change and he will not move.
And because he has purchased me, he's not going to return me. There is no receipt and, you know, manager and all that stuff to go through and just kind of get rid of me. He's going to keep me. Now, this Jesus who does not care about what I'm doing or anything about me, you know, just comes alongside me.
There is some truth to that. There is some truth to the idea that Jesus meets you where you are. And what is that truth? OK, I mean, you're skipping ahead. What's the truth about Jesus meeting you where you are?
You're a sinner, right? Does he say, stop sinning and then I'll save you? But the disconnect for all these people, which Bill hit on and Sinclair Ferguson has referred to this, too. You know, the lie is that God loves you as you are and then leaves you there.
Right. The reality is that once the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you, once he's caused you to be born again, the transformation, which we call. OK, well, I mean, that's instantaneous, right? Sanctification begins.
God is at work in you. What does that mean? It means he's changing you. Do you always feel like God is changing you? Do you always have that sense that, wow, I'm sure feeling holy today? Some of you might, you know, I mean, you know, come in in your robes and, you know.
No, but that's not really the question, is it? The question isn't how holy am I feeling today? I mean, one of the things that we're inclined to do is to kind of get down on ourselves because I can't believe what I just did.
I can't believe what I just thought. Now, is that in a sense that's good to do, right? I mean, we don't want to just ignore our sins. But I think sometimes what we forget to do is think, you know, since God saved me 30 years ago, however long it's been for you.
Can I see that he has changed me, that he has transformed me, that he's changed my affections, that he's changed the entire direction of my life? That's what's important. That's what helps us. Because if we just go minute by minute, we can wind up, you know, kind of paralyzed by our own sin.
Okay, so that's number three, we presented Jesus who does not exist. Number four, we've talked about this, but I want to emphasize it. We forget to tell them about sin. And you say, well, who could ever do that?
Why would you ever do that? Why would somebody forget to tell someone about sin while they're evangelizing them? Sinning. Okay, we don't often recognize, well, you know, the sinfulness of sin, yes. But I think if I could just twist what you're saying a little bit, and hopefully not get away from what you mean, I think it's hard for us to, because it feels kind of judgy, doesn't it?
Yeah, and it's provocative. And it sounds like, you know, to steal from an old Center Night Live skit, it sounds like we're coming down on you. Right? We don't want to come down on you. We don't want people, we feel like if we talk about sin, that somebody might get convicted.
That they then won't want to listen. And that we'll have lost, you know, it's like, you know, you're out, who fishes around here? Anybody fish? Me either. Okay, let's say for the sake of exaggeration, that we're out fishing.
What you do, or what you don't do, if you think you have a fish on the line, is just take that rod and just yank it as hard as you can, or, you know, reel it in super hard. Well, why not? Because the fish that was on the hook might get away.
You want to keep it, you know, there's that tension. And so we think that when we're fishing for men, we also have to not go too hard at them. You know, we can just kind of talk about different things, but not really talk harshly about sin.
1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11. Now, this is not directly in an evangelistic context. But Paul's writing to a church where, you know, the Corinthian church is a mess. But here's the interesting thing.
It's a mess, but it's still a church. Still filled with believers. I mean, most of them, many of them are believers. But they've sort of lost their biblical understanding of the import of sin in some respects.
But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Now, that's almost like they know this, but it's like they've glossed over it.
He says, do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. See, there's a change there. They were identified by these things, but they are no longer. But you were washed. You had your sins washed away. You were sanctified. There's that process of becoming more like God, but you've been set apart for his purposes.
You were justified, declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Now, I had, not so many months ago, a prominent person ask me, they said, Steve, a prominent non-believer, say, Steve, could a homosexual join your church?
Could a homosexual join Bethlehem Bible Church? What's the answer to that question? Become a member. Well, why not? Well, why would the sin of homosexuality stop them? Don't you have people who are sinners in your church?
Jonathan? Okay, there's a defiant, continued practice. And listen, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral. Would we allow somebody who was living with his girlfriend to join the church? Why not?
Because if you read this whole list here, how about somebody who just, you know, I'd like to join your church. Okay, well, tell us about yourself. How do you make a living? I burglarize houses. Wait, wait, hold on.
Back up for a second. You mean you're out on parole? You used to be a burglar? No, no, no, I'm still doing that. In fact, what's your address? Nor the greedy, you know, after I did that series about gambling.
What about somebody who says, well, yeah, I make my living as a professional gambler. I wouldn't let that person join the church. Drunkards. Well, I made it to church, I don't know what you want, you know.
Revilers. Swindlers. All those people will not inherit the kingdom of God, but we should allow them to join the church? It's a very low understanding, a very low standard for joining the church, right?
Anybody can join your church. Now, what would you say to somebody who says, why shouldn't a homosexual be allowed to join Bethlehem Bible Church? I mean, we just read what the Bible said. Well, what about, how about this?
Let me change it a little bit. What if they want to attend Bethlehem Bible Church? What would you tell them then? Okay, yes. Any conditions? Okay, they're not going to be serving. I mean, there's a, because, yeah.
Vadim. Okay, they don't preach their version of morality. Other thoughts? Okay, would we put a limit on how long they could come? Maybe, maybe like, you know, two weeks. And I think that's good. I mean, eventually the pastor confronted this homosexual pair that came to the church and asked them, you know, what they thought about what they've been hearing, et cetera, et cetera.
Good. I mean, I think, you know, if we just put it this way, if a heterosexual couple that was living together showed up here and they were coming and coming and coming and coming and coming, well, how long would we wait before we talk to them?
You know, would we sit there and just let everybody in the church think, well, it's okay for this couple to live together? The answer is no. So would we say it's okay for a homosexual couple, you know, and I think there are some things, I would, you know, without getting into graphic detail, I think if they were just being too friendly with each other, I think that the time period would be condensed.
Sorry. But here's the thing. When you're talking to unbelievers about their sin, and this is what's clear in 1 Corinthians 6, unbelievers remaining in their sin will not inherit the kingdom of God. What does that mean?
It means they're bound for hell. There is no good enough. There is no, you know, 70 gets me in. Or at the Master's Seminary, you know, it's 80 to pass the class. Sorry. It's just not good enough. You have to have perpetual, perfect, personal obedience.
And either you do it, or you have to trust the one who did do it. So that's number four. We forget to tell them about sin. Number five. We talk about ourselves and our own experience, mistakes that we make.
We talk about ourselves and our own experience. Our salvation story, that is to say our testimony, might be very interesting. It might be compelling. It might be moving. It might bring everybody to tears.
Can it save anybody? Not by itself. One of the things, you know, when we do baptisms, and, you know, if anybody is listening who wants to get baptized, I often wrestle with this because I don't, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm speaking Farsi to people.
By the way, my Farsi is a little rusty. Anybody know where Farsi is? Okay. We have two people nodding their heads. What's that? No. No, it's Iran. So, your testimony should reflect what? Christ, and thus the gospel.
Right? If my testimony, if I get up and give my testimony, and somebody listens and goes, and that was very impressive, you know, I really enjoyed that. Great. But how about this? Somebody said, you know, Pastor, as you gave your testimony, I was just noticing how often you were referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
To sin. To the hopelessness of life apart from Christ. Those kind of things, right? I mean, if my testimony doesn't contain, you know, sin, salvation, etc., including the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then is it a testimony?
It's a really nice story, but it's not a testimony. Testimony is of the work of God in my life. Of taking me from the refuse pile, as it were, to making me a saint. It has to have the gospel in it. Yeah, I note here, you will find very few examples of evangelism in the New Testament where the preacher gives his own experience.
I mean, Paul doesn't, but why do you suppose it is that Paul ever gives his own story while he's giving his testimony? Why does he talk about himself? Okay, he exemplifies why he's the worst of sinners.
That's in 1 Timothy, but when he's publicly speaking, why does he ever refer to himself? Okay, he would be, you know, from a human perspective, one of the hardest people to save, yes. But I think there's something else going on typically, yes.
And that's one of the problems with talking about what Cindy said was, you know, I used to kill people. I've heard testimonies like that, right? I used to be a murderer. I used to be all these kind of things, you know, and then people get saved, and, you know, it's a pretty shocking and stunning transformation.
But let me put this forth as a... Go ahead, John. Okay, authenticated his message. But how about this? Typically, when he does that, what's the circumstance? He's on trial, right? So he's explaining his own, right?
This is... Why am I, you know, he could even say, why am I even on trial? Yes. Why am I even on trial? Because if, yeah, it is a testimony in the truest sense, right? Because he's, you know, being tried.
Why am I even being tried today? If I had just stayed a good Pharisee, nobody would care. No one would care at all. I could run around and throw Christians in jail all day long. I could hold the cloaks of Christians or of Jews while they're, you know, crushing Christians with rocks.
That'd be fine. But the day I became a Christian, you know, I started getting arrested for stuff. Peter, interestingly, here's, you know, if you think back on Acts 2 Pentecost, it would certainly seem to me, and this is probably what I would do, because I'm not full of the Holy Spirit.
If I were there on Pentecost, I'd want to say, let me tell you about Jesus. You know what? He told me the night he was arrested that I was going to deny him three times. And I did it. And then, you know, and I'd go through the whole thing of my story, right?
And eventually we'd get to Jesus. But Peter doesn't do that. Spends all his time talking about Jesus and about how they crucified him and killed him. Because that's central to them getting saved. Okay, so that's number five.
We talk about ourselves and our own experience. And I think that's a common foible, weakness that we fall into. Number six, failures while we evangelize. We act like we're better than the people that we're talking to.
We give them that vibe. You know, you, on the other hand, really need Christ. So get with the program. I had a seminary professor, and here's a word that we don't use very often. In fact, I'll say it and half of you won't know what it is because I didn't know what it was until I saw it really exemplified by this man.
It's the word winsome. What does it mean to be winsome? Likeable, okay? And intentionally kind of likeable. Relating well with other people. It's that attractiveness that you really, I mean, you could try to fake it.
And, you know, we do sometimes. But it's like, okay, here's the difference. You go to a car dealership. With all apologies to those who sell cars. And all of a sudden you have a best friend. Right? Somebody who's only looking out for your best interest and is going to give you the sweetest deal in the history of the world.
Versus somebody who just really has no self-interest whatsoever. They're only looking out for your good. Genuinely looking out for your good. And, of course, that doesn't happen in the sales world. But, you know.
But I had a professor who used to say you have to be winsome to win some. You have to be able to just think, okay, but for the grace of God, I could be this person. I was this person. I'm no better than this person.
Apart from Christ, I'm hopeless. And that's what Paul meant, by the way, I think, when he said, you know, I'm the chief of sinners. Because when he looks at his life, he's like, I had no hope. There's no reason for God to save me.
All my obedience. All my Pharisee-ism. All my law-keeping was rubbish. We want to be winsome. We also want to be hopeful. And what do I mean by that? If I say that, you know, when you go into a conversation about the Gospel, and you want to be hopeful, what do you suppose I mean by that?
Right. My trust, my hope, is in the Holy Spirit. It's not in my effectiveness. Because, you know, again, there's the problem. I mean, I remember the first evangelism program I was in. It was called Discipleship Evangelism.
It was a branch off of Evangelism Explosion, which was done by D. James Kennedy. And it was good, but ultimately, here's what it did. It presented the Gospel to you, and then said what? Now that I've told you these truths, what do you think?
Is it okay to ask for a response? Yes. But if somebody said, you know what, I believe, then your job, according to this program, was to try to buy it back. In other words, I was supposed to talk them out of it, so that then I could judge whether or not this was real or not.
You know, and it's almost like, or if they weren't believing, then I come alongside and I again explain the benefits of salvation, almost like I'm trying to close a sales deal. And at the end of the evening, we'd all meet together, and it was like, okay, you know, how many notches you get.
How many notches you get. You know, it's like keep and score. I want to do what is right. I want to preach Christ and Him crucified. And then I want to walk away trusting the results to the Holy Spirit.
I mean, it's interesting to me how many times, you know, and this can happen to anybody, but it happens more often when you're in the position of a teacher or a preacher. People will come up, you know, months, weeks, weeks, months, years later, and tell you that they got saved during thus and such a period of time when you were talking to them.
And you just go, sometimes I want to look at them and just go, I had no idea. Right? Because I had no idea. You just present the Bible, you just tell them the truth, and you.
Hope. Let me ask you this,.
Talking about being hopeful, and then another word I had down here was willing. Have you ever gone into an evangelism, possible evangelism, kind of like this? Like, well, I guess there's nobody else here who can do this.
I guess it's my job, because I've kind of done that. Right? Where I'm just like, I'm going, I don't really even want to do this right now. This wasn't what I prepared for. And then, you know, somewhere during that whole conversation you start smacking yourself in the head because you think, wait a second.
God has provided me this opportunity, and this person, whatever preconceived ideas I may have had, now it seems like they really want to listen. So what's wrong with me? Why am I thinking like this? We have to have the right kind of ready, be ready.
Right? That's what Peter says. Now, how about this? When you're talking with an unbeliever, should you be prepared to answer questions? Okay? Are there any questions that people ask that you just go, okay, that's dumb.
You know, people say there are no dumb questions. Is that correct? Are there dumb questions? Anybody have an example of a dumb Bible question? An unbeliever asks you, and they say, well, I'll make up some examples.
Okay, well, why should I believe the Bible since it was written by men? Okay, now can that be a good question? Sure, because now I get to tell you that it isn't by men. How can I prove that? Is there a verse or verses in here that say that scriptures God breathed, and it isn't up to men, you know, but God who moved them, the Holy Spirit who moved them?
Yes, there are passages like that. So I'll read those to them, and then what if they say, well, I don't believe that. I think, you know, I believe that the Bible was entirely written by men. There was some kind of conspiracy in Nicaea in 325 A .D.
A bunch of guys got together, and they compared notes, and they invented this religion called Christianity. What do you say then? The historical evidence is different than that, or what? I love that one.
The prophecy has been fulfilled. No, wait. I know what you mean. You talk about fulfilled prophecy in Scripture, right? You say, the Bible said these things were going to happen, and then they did happen, but you know, to the conspiracists, that's not going to help.
Janet? Okay, so you'll get to a point, I mean, I think it's fine to answer questions. I'm happy to answer questions, up to a point. When we enter into the world of Bizarro, then the best way to end those kind of interactions is to just go back to who Jesus Christ is, go back to the Gospel, as Janet was saying, and just say, all I know, friend, is that you and I are both sinners, and that apart from the grace of God causing us to be born again, and trusting in the perfect finished work of Jesus Christ and his life, death, and resurrection, apart from that, there's no hope for us.
And if he says something dumb again, then just say, okay, well,.
I'll pray for you. Jonathan? Yes. I mean, there are all kinds of rabbit.
Trails and distractions and everything else, but the ultimate issue is this. One day, friend, you're going to appear before a holy God. What are you going to say? Why should he let you into heaven and not send you to hell?
Well, because I'm a pretty good person. Okay, well, we've already talked about that. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The standard of God isn't, I'm a good person. The standard of God is, you have to be perfect.
And they say, well, nobody's perfect. Well, that's what I've been telling you. I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. Nobody's perfect except God alone. Thankfully, God, in the person of the second person of the Trinity, came to earth, took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserve, and was raised on the third day.
Do you get it now? Well, you have to be nicer than that. You just, it's rinse and repeat. Go back to, I mean, I remember years ago, visiting a friend in Los Angeles, and we'd been down this road a few times over the years, and I thought, you know, he wanted to talk again about Jesus, so I went to his house, because I happened to be visiting in LA.
Went to his house, we stayed up, and it was like, seriously, I'd just gotten in that afternoon, and it was 1 o 'clock in the morning, so, you know, 1 o 'clock West Coast time, so it's like 4 o 'clock my time, and I'm like this.
And I said, you know, I need to go to sleep. I'm about out. And I tried different ways to preach the gospel, and it just didn't seem to me like I was getting anywhere. And he said, when I said I was tired, he said, well, would you pray for me?
And I said, yes. So I prayed. And then, you know, I was done praying, because I could feel myself even while I was praying, kind of going... So I started to stand up. He started praying. And as I listened to his prayer, I was like, man, Steve, you are really stupid.
Because if he believes what he's praying right now, he's saved. So I listened to him, and I thought, man, that is amazing. Thank you, Lord. And I went to sleep. A couple days go by, and he called me. He was having, or I was having breakfast with another friend in Los Angeles.
He calls me up, and he goes, he's super excited. He says, Steve, God sent His Son into the world, and they killed Him. And I said, that's exactly right. And he was just, like, amazed. I'd asked him to read the Gospel of John, and he's like, I'd already read that.
I'm reading through the Gospel of Luke. They killed Him! I'm going, yes, they did. And God raised Him from the dead. That man is a rather amazing example of the grace of God to me, because God took Him from being, by His own testimony, a communist, not a democrat, but a communist, to a great trophy of grace, a married father of six, and just a wonderful teacher, preacher of the Gospel.
Well, if there are any final questions or comments, we need to close. Okay. And I would just say this again to that part. We need to not act better than what we are. Our mistake is to act like we're better than them.
And what does that mean? I mean, there needs to be, during, you know, I was taught, way back when, that when you're preaching the Gospel, you want to do a lot of what? You want to say you, you, you, you.
Sometimes you need to do that, because people need to understand that you are sinners. But there also needs to be kind of like an arm-around-the-shoulder moment. There needs to be some we, right? There needs to be some I in it.
There needs to be some understanding that it's just that I'm not just here to judge you, because I can't judge you. What I can tell you, without question, is that apart from the grace of God, I was as hellbound as anybody.
I had no right to think that God would save me. There was no reason for Him to save me. I was useless. Some of you say, well, what else is new? The point is, there needs to be that identification with Him.
I think we can call it empathy, we can call it winsomeness, we can call it whatever we want. But there has to be a real investment. You have to understand the gravity of what's going on. You just think, okay, if this were going to be my last conversation with this person, would I be satisfied?
Would I think I've done all that I can possibly do within me to make sure that that person doesn't go to eternal hell? It's important. If there are no questions, then we will just close here. Father, we thank You for Your Word.
We thank You for the Gospel. We think of the absolute power of it, even as Paul writes that it is the power of God unto salvation. How can that be? Because Your Word also tells us, in Romans 10, that when people hear that Gospel, the Holy Spirit acts on them, convicting them of sin, causing them to be born again.
This is why we tell people about Jesus Christ. This is why we evangelize. This is why we give the good news to people. Because this is the means by which You save them. Father, make us faithful, make us joyous, make us hopeful, and give us that winsomeness, that love for other people that compels us to go to them and in love give them the Gospel.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.