Romans and Evangelism 101 (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we are back in the studio. I just was in beautiful downtown Burbank at Calvary Bible Church in Burbank, Pastor Kempis, and driving down the street, Buena Vista, and St. Joe�s Burbank Hospital, and I thought, I think I always say I�m in St. Joe at beautiful downtown Burbank, but hardly ever am.

So I was, but now I�m not. It�s West Boylston. I�m looking outside, and I see power lines, an old decrepit parking lot, and some trees. NoCo Mascot, she�s 14, she�s laying over there here in the studio, tired, and I think she�s kind of got a little attitude today.

You can always write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. By the way, if you�re a Patreon subscriber and a giver, would you email me so I can get your contact information? I�m not able to figure that out, so I want to be able to say thank you.

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Why Evangelism Matters and How to Think About the Gospel

Today, I want to talk a little bit about evangelism, the good news, and what we say to other people about evangelism. How do we preach? I think it�s going to be like a little mini-series, that�s what we�re going to do, a little mini-series, when it comes to evangelism.

When you want evangelism quotes that are good and convicting, they�re pretty easy to find. Here�s a few. The church is under orders. Evangelistic inactivity is disobedience. Who said that? John R .W. Stott.

Here�s one. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that. Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Witnessing is not a spare time occupation or a once a week activity. It is a quality of life.

You don�t go witnessing. You are a witness. Dan Green with the three E�s. Lastly, from Oswald Chambers, angels cannot preach the gospel. Only beings such as Paul and you and I can preach the gospel. I think if you listen to this show, you already even see the title because this is the first time you�ve listened, you would realize that evangelism is important.

I don�t have to tell you, listeners, that evangelism is important. Now I might be able to remind you so that you maybe evangelize more or I could maybe try to not even guilt you but ask you the question, when was the last time you told the good news of Jesus Christ to someone?

I have a desire as a pastor to want to evangelize. I regularly, not always, but I regularly try to turn conversations into gospel conversations, into Bible conversations, something about creation, creator, something about sin, something about different ways to heaven.

I regularly will try to do that. And as a pastor, in addition to that, I�m supposed to try to equip others for the work of ministry. Right? That�s Ephesians chapter 4. I probably interact with fewer unbelievers than most of the congregation does.

Maybe fewer people in the congregation, fewer people who are unbelievers than maybe you do. Reminds me of that James McCord quote, speaking of quotes, cords, quotes, �The minister lives behind a stained glass curtain.

The layman has opportunities for evangelism which a minister will never have. And I think that there�s some truth to that. I don�t want to hide behind that and never evangelize myself. On a somewhat related story, in the preaching class that I teach the men here, I didn�t message a funeral sermon for a loved one in their family that will have died.

So prepare a sermon for your father, somebody who�s alive and you need to prepare a sermon now so that when they die and you�re stressed out and full of sadness, you�ll already have this ready. That is to say, prepare a sermon now that you would preach at your father�s funeral when given the opportunity.

And maybe it starts as a eulogy if you�re just a guest, but they�ll always get to talk. The son always gets to talk. The grandson always gets to talk, even at a Roman Catholic funeral. But I, the Protestant pastor, I don�t get that opportunity.

Therefore I want to train people so that they can do it because they�ll have lots more opportunities in that particular setting, for instance, to preach the gospel than I will. And therefore, I want to try to equip people, not so that I don�t have to do it, but that my doing has an intention of training others.

The Romans Road Expanded Into the Four W's

Now I think what we�ll do before we look at the message of the gospel and an easy way to try to think through it in the book of Romans, I want to give you some reasons why you should evangelize. Essentially, we�re going to take the Romans� road and make it more, we�re going to fill it in more.

Now the verses used in the Romans� road, �all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God� and the free grace, chapter 3, verse 23, then 6, 24, then 9 and 10, I don�t know what other verses they use, but whatever they use, I want to try to make that, I want to flesh it out a little bit more, so you can pick up the book of Romans.

And if you�re familiar with that book, we�ve taught it a lot on this show, that you would be able to say, �Oh, I have the book of Romans, and I see how the gospel is presented by Paul there in the book of Romans.

So I don�t know what to call it. If you know what to call it, besides a Romans� road, I would be open. And essentially, we�re going to look at who is God, who is man, what Jesus came to do and did, and then how do we respond.

Those are the four W�s. That was fun, 30 years ago, 28 years ago, I thought, �Oh, those are four W�s. This is a good way to learn the gospel, four W�s. And then I think I found in something in basic Christianity, maybe Stott has, he didn�t call them four W�s, but I think he has four W�s.

So of course, I�m not making up anything that�s original, I�m just trying to take the Bible and try to make it relevant. No, I�m just kidding. Nobody makes the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant because it deals with God and it deals with sinful mankind, it deals with the person work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, et cetera.

The Command of Christ and the Great Commission

Why should you evangelize? Number one, no particular order, but it�s the command of Jesus Christ. Matthew 28, �And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, �All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

And you notice, as you probably were listening, the singular name in the name, and then we have one in essence and three in persons, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, a way that Jesus clearly teaches the Trinity without using the name Trinity.

I mean, I don�t need the name Trinity in the Bible to believe the Trinity. Actually, there�s no, the word Trinity isn�t in the Bible, actually. No English word is in the Bible. �Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

The Lord Jesus gives the Great Commission, is what we would call it. And that is essentially to go preach the good news, because that�s how disciples are made, how learners are made. And some have said, S. Lewis Johnson style, that the greatest commission was the Father sending the Son to go rescue His people, the Bride.

But in light of that, this is a great commission, certainly. So, if you want to call this the Great Commission, as long as you have a greater commission in mind, �In eternity past, with the Father and the Son and the Spirit there is witness I have no problem with that.

Hell, Judgment, and the Motivation of Rescue

Why should you evangelize? Number two, because hell is real. What does Hebrews chapter 10 say, verse 31? It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And I think if we really believed that, it would motivate us to evangelize, thinking every person has a soul, an eternal soul.

Every person will have an eternal body one day, and it will either be for the delights of heaven or the terrors of hell. That's pretty sobering to think about. Now Christian, you never have to be worried that condemnation will be on you, because God is just and He won't have Jesus pay for it and have you pay for it, so even your future sins Jesus has paid for.

And that�s good news. If anyone tries to motivate you, Christian, by the threat of hell for yourself, by the threat of condemnation for you, by the threat of wrath because of something you've done, they don't understand justification.

They don't understand sola fide. They don't understand propitiation. They don't understand substitutionary atonement. They might say they do, but in effect, no. Remember, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Those who are in Christ Jesus are justified. That's the opposite word for condemn, to justify. Justification, condemnation, legal terms, courtroom terms, terms that are used when you think of judgment and judicial settings.

And that declaration is not who you are on the inside. It's a declaration of how the court sees you. And so when we think of these things, make sure you say to yourself, my motivation when it comes to wrath and condemnation and hell is because other people could receive that.

That is, unbelievers could receive that. And Jesus, the theologian of hell, as some have called him, makes it clear that there is such a thing and it lasts forever. Calvin said, for there can be no doubt, but that by such modes of expression, the Holy Spirit intended to confound all our faculties with horror.

And what modes of expression might those be, John? Punishment, Hebrews 10, torment, Revelation 14, fire, Matthew 3, 5, 13, eternal fire, unquenchable fire, Mark 6, Mark 9, lake of fire, Revelation 19 and 20, destruction, second death, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, the pit, the worm.

When you realize this is true, when you realize, oh, I got saved from this, from the wrath of God, you're happy, aren't you? I mean, just so joyful, so thrilled that you don't have to go. Remember those days where you realize that you're right with God?

Now, those are great days. Maybe sometimes that wears off a little bit. Life gets busy. I understand how things get out of our mind and that joy of our salvation maybe flickers because of sin or something.

But it's good to be reminded that we don't have to go there. It's all based on the work of Christ. And remember, somebody preached the gospel to you. They were concerned that you, if you died in your sins, would go to hell.

And they preached the gospel to you. Now maybe they didn't directly know it was you. Maybe it was, I heard a lot of gospel preaching on the radio and so it wasn't even a particular person who was preaching to me.

It wasn't like it was my mom or dad or friend or something, but I heard a lot of radio preaching. By the way, one of the reasons why I love radio and do no compromise radio is because I either got saved through the ministry of the word via radio or a lot of sanctification, a lot of Bible knowledge through the radio.

I was a sales rep in Los Angeles and instead of driving around listening to essentially K-rock 106 .7 and alternative music or maybe sports radio, something about the Lakers and Chick Hearn, I began to listen to the Bible being taught on, of all places, radio, KKLA.

I think it was at 99 .5, is that right? 98 .5, I don't know. Spurgeon said, it is labor in the fire, he's talking about hell, but no ease, no peace, no sleep, no calm, no quiet, everlasting storm, eternal hurricane, unceasing tempest.

In the worst diseases, there are some respites. There is no peace in hell's torment. You cannot compare the pains of this life with the agonies to be endured hereafter. Could all the misery that ever startled the keepers of our hospitals be conceived?

It could not convey the least idea of the pains of the spirits that are doomed to dwell in eternal fire and everlasting burning. The memory aghast, hope and fear, thoughts and imaginations, conscience and judgment, all will be wracked.

Every one will be stretched on a bed of fire. Every nerve strained to its utmost. Every vein made a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on.". End quote. Not scary. I would just as soon put my fingers in my ears and say, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

But it's true, right? When I got the diagnosis that I had prostate cancer, I didn't want to hear it. I wanted to put my fingers in my ears. But it was true. So the sooner I can digest that and come face to face with it, the better.

We can hear the passion of people who don't want others to go to hell with quotes like, if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And of course, you can probably think of times where you evangelize.

I remember my grandfather. I thought he was going to die. He ended up dying a couple years later. But on what I thought was his deathbed, I had my wife and my mother take grandma away down to the cafeteria at the hospital in Omaha.

And I began to preach the gospel to my grandfather. And he was kind of a non-practicing Lutheran. I mean, he would go on Christmas and Easter and those kind of things. And if you ask him, he'd say he was Lutheran.

But I remember telling him, you know, if you were going to run off a cliff and you were blindfolded, I'd have to probably tackle you to stop you. And you might get the wind knocked out of you, but I would do it because I loved you.

And what I'm going to tell you now is probably going to knock the wind out of you. Your baptism as a Lutheran child is not going to save you. And then, of course, grandma comes back. And she starts screaming, Mike, Mike, Mike.

She knew what I was doing. And at least I tried. I did preach the gospel to him, but boy, why else should we preach the gospel? What's another reason for preaching the gospel? Well, number three, Jesus was a great preacher of good news.

Was he not? When you watch Jesus in the Bible, you'll see him with Nicodemus. You could call him the soul winner, couldn't you, Jesus? The woman at the well. There are some that didn't seem to respond, but Jesus was still either talking to them about the law so they see the need for the Savior, like with the rich young ruler, or he would go to Peter and Andrew and with powerful words, proclaim truth to them.

Dick Lucas said God had only one son and he made him an evangelist. Therefore, when we think about Jesus, what would Jesus do? Of course, there are some things that fall short when we think of WWJD. But if you think to yourself, was Jesus an example in any way?

Yes. Of course, I could go to 1 Peter 2 and tell you he's an example when it comes to suffering in a godly way. But the list could go on. And I think if you watch Jesus preach, if you watch him teach, he would be a great model of teaching.

You could probably write a book on that. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Preachers. Wink. Wink. Why should you preach the gospel? Because there's only one gospel. What do I mean by that? If there were two different ways to go to heaven, or three, or more than one, whatever the number might be, well then, you know, maybe there'd be another person come along and tell them about that.

But since there's salvation in no one else, since there's no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved, then you've got to make sure they hear that message. If it's, well, you could either get saved by Jesus, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Buddha, Moses, somebody, Confucius.

Then, if you didn't tell them about Jesus, maybe they could hear from someone else, an adherent of Islam, something about how to attain heaven and gain heaven. But since there's only one, you've got to preach.

Why should you preach the gospel? Number five, it's still a necessity because God ordains the ends and the means. The end is salvation. Of course, He's going to save everyone. The Father will save everyone that the Son has died for and given to Him.

But there's still a means. There are secondary causes, and that's listed in actually Romans. How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? Therefore, why should you evangelize? Because God just doesn't save people without the preaching of the gospel. I guess you might want to bring up something about children who die in infancy or maybe Down syndrome children or something like that.

I'm not talking about these exceptions. We're just talking about regular, general truths, and here's one. You've got to be sent to preach, and that's how they believe. So, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

The Glory of God, Our Stewardship, and the Harvest

Why should you preach the gospel? Number six, because it gives glory to God. 2 Corinthians 4 .15,. Therefore, God gets glory when people trust in Jesus. The angels are thrilled, and it's a good reason to evangelize because I think God gets glory when you just go tell people about Jesus, but He also receives glory, the glory due His name, when people say, I take you for your truths and for your word, and therefore, I will now trust in you and believe in you, the one who sent the Son.

What is my dog doing? She's walking around. She's snooping, I think, is what she's doing. Number seven, because you've been entrusted with this message. 1 Thessalonians 2 .14,. Therefore, you're an ambassador, you're a trustee, and whether that's the apostles or people who receive the message from the apostle in this long line of handing the baton to the next generation, you don't want to hide it under a bushel, right?

Hide it, no. Hit it, hide it. I'm trying to write on here as we go. And then lastly, I think you should evangelize because there's a harvest waiting to be reaped. That is to say, since the Lord has not returned, there are still elect people who are unregenerate that need to hear the gospel and get saved.

Otherwise, if all the elected come, the world would be over. It'd be time to wrap things up, whatever your eschatological position is at the end time. What we do know right now, regardless if you're pre-mill, amill, pro-mill, post-mill, what's happening is there's this waiting time here in the end days and elect people who are not saved are hearing the gospel and God is granting them repentance and faith.

And therefore, there's lots of people who are going to be good soil. You just don't know who they are. I think of Mark 4, and those are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30, 60, and 100 fold.

What's happening is there's an abundant harvest, a spiritual fruit waiting to be reaped. Of course, not by you. Your job is just to sow. Your job is just to give the gospel. Your job and privilege is to just tell people about the good news.

The Gospel in Romans and the Call to Believe

Therefore, this long introduction, which is an entire show, wow, that's amazing, leads us to what's the gospel. What's the gospel, Mike, from Romans that we have to preach from? Of course, you heard me talk about sin and you heard me talk about Jesus, the sin bearer.

You heard me talk about Jesus, the representative for sinners. You heard me talk about a Jesus who came to seek and save the lost. You heard me talk about, hopefully, a risen Savior and the response being faith.

If you never listen to part two and you're not a Christian, you are sinful and you're going to go to this hell one day and your only rescue is trusting in Jesus at his word that he lived the life you were supposed to live.

He died for the sins that you've committed and will commit. He raised himself from the dead. The Father raised him from the dead and actually the Spirit did as well. Your response is to believe and to trust in the Lord Jesus.

My name is Mike Ebendroth. That was a fast 24 minutes. And we're going to talk about next time, what actually is the message when we talk about this Romans road, the four W's in the book of Romans. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com or at NoCoRadio on Twitter.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.