Equipping Eve: Equipped to Evangelize (Part 2)

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

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Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

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My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

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Well, hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benzinger. Thanks for tuning in.

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Hey, guys, if you're listening, you shouldn't be. No, men, if you happen to be listening, thank you for tuning in.

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I certainly appreciate your interest, but just please note that this show is for women.

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I am the only host of this show. There is not going to be a man pop up here to co -host with me, and so to be true to God's command that women are not to teach men, we really prefer that you leave the show for the ladies.

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Now, guys, men, if you want to tune in and listen to an episode to see if it's something that you want your wife, sister, mother to listen to and hopefully to find that it's something that they will be edified by and learn from, that's okay, but let's not make a practice of it just in order to allow me to stay true to that biblical command.

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So all right, now, ladies, it's a wonderful day to talk about Jesus, isn't it?

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That is what we're going to talk about today. We're going to continue our discussion of evangelism, but before we do that,

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I was doing a little internet shopping. Who doesn't love internet shopping, right?

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Well, you know, we're kind of in between holidays here as I record this. We're past Christmas, oh, but Valentine's Day is upon us.

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So there's so many choices out there on the wonderful world of Christian bookstore websites.

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The Christian bookstores don't seem to sell books anymore, which might be a good thing because most of what they do sell is full of heresy.

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So anyway, I went to the Family Christian store website and went to their clearance section and found this little candy jar with peppermint candies and it says,

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Jesus is the sweetest name I know. It's described as a sweet sentiment and sweet treats filled with peppermint candies.

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This adorable mason jar has the message, Jesus is the sweetest name I know. Once the candies are gone, fill it with your favorite treat for year round sweetness.

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Makes a great gift for all the sweet people in your life. Of course, it's decorated with snowflakes, so I don't know why you'd want to use that year round, but hey, it's on sale.

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It was originally $14 .99 and today it is $3 .74. That's a steal. The candy might be a little stale, but Jesus is the sweetest name

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I know. So there you go. That might be a really nice, maybe a valentine present for someone who you don't like that much.

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So that's why you buy them something on clearance. So there's that. But then I went to the

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Christianbook .com website and clicked on their valentine tab because I'm a glutton for punishment.

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There are a lot of fun Jesus tchotchkes here if you would like to waste your money on them.

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So ladies, this is your public service announcement. If you need to go shopping, you can check these out.

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There's a little coin purse that says a friend loves at all times. There's a t -shirt with John 316 on it because, you know,

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God so loved the world, clearly we should identify that with the man -made creation of Valentine's Day.

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That makes a lot of sense right there. You can get all kinds of interesting cups and glasses and coasters.

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Love coasters. That's weird. They have pictures of roses on them and then they say, follow your heart.

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One of them says, follow your heart. I'm not sure that maybe the person who designed that did not read

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Jeremiah 17 .9 that the heart is deceitful and desperately sick and wicked.

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Who can understand it? I don't care to follow that heart, but anyway, and then another coaster says, love with your whole heart.

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So that's your little shopping tip for the day. Shopping tip, don't buy tchotchkes at the

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Christian store website. That is a waste of your money right there. Okay, ladies, as I said, we're going to continue our discussion of evangelism today.

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So last time we started running through just four short points that are four things to keep in mind as we present and proclaim the gospel to unbelievers.

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And I mentioned that I stole these from my pastor as part of a two -part series that he did on evangelism that he recently preached at our church.

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And I will post a link to the both of those sermons for you to listen to and to be edified by because you will be encouraged by those sermons.

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So please listen. So we stopped after two points because I'm long -winded.

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And so we're going to continue with the last two points. And keep in mind, ladies, this is not one of those, you know, formulaic gospel presentation things.

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That's not what we're trying to get across here. This is not the Romans Road. This is not the four spiritual laws. This is just four things to keep in mind.

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And the first one we said was that we need to be clear about the authority of Scripture. Scripture is our authority.

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And just because the unbeliever we are talking to does not hold to the authority of Scripture does not mean that Scripture loses its authority.

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And so we need to keep that in mind. We need to understand that we are under the authority of Scripture. And we need to proclaim the gospel as such, as it is there proclaimed in the

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Scriptures. That is where the truth is. God's word is truth. John 17, 17.

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The second point that we noted was that we must declare to that person that he or she is a sinner.

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You know, this is absent from so many gospel presentations. I spoke with a man not too long ago who talked about how, you know, when he shares

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Christ, he likes to just focus on how Christ loves everybody and Jesus loves you.

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And you know, someone else can come along and give the other part of the gospel, but he feels that it's just his job to give someone that part.

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Well, sure, that's the good part, if you will, but it's incomplete and it's a damning gospel.

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Number one, there's no guarantee someone's going to come along and tell that person they are a sinner. Number two, if someone does, now they're confused.

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Well, I thought Jesus loved me. Now you're telling me he's condemned me to hell because I'm a sinner and I have no way to save myself.

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I don't understand. And so we cannot present an incomplete gospel.

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And as you can imagine, that was an interesting conversation with that individual. But moving on, we simply cannot ignore this doctrine of the depravity of man.

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Of course, you probably don't necessarily want to use those words when you're talking to someone else. They'll start to glaze over with some of the theological terms that are commonplace for you and I.

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But someone who is unfamiliar with church doesn't know things like depravity, perhaps. But we need to make it very clear to them that they are a sinner, that we are all sinners in need of a savior.

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And we need to define sin and be clear with them about that. And so that was the second point.

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And before we jump into the last two points here, ladies, I thought I would share with you some words from J .C.

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Ryle. He is one of my favorite preachers of the past and he has some good words to say here about the nature of sin.

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J .C. Ryle says, The plain truth is that our right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving

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Christianity. Without it, such doctrines as justification, conversion, sanctification are words and names which convey no meaning to the mind.

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The first thing, therefore, that God does when he makes anyone a new creature in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner.

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The material creation in Genesis began with light, and so also does the spiritual creation. God shines into our hearts by the work of the

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Holy Ghost, and then spiritual life begins. 2 Corinthians 4 .6 Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day.

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Mark that, ladies. I'm going to say that again. Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day.

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If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul's disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies.

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I believe that one of the chief wants of the church in the 19th century has been and is a clearer, fuller teaching about sin.

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And I would add, one of the chief wants of the church in the 21st century has been and is a clearer, fuller teaching about sin.

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And, ladies, J .C. Ryle goes on for several pages here, and I'll link to this,

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I'm not sure if it was a tract or a sermon, it sounds as though it's a sermon, I'll link to this at the

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Equipping Eve blog, so if you go to equippingeve .org, you can link to the blog there, and there will be links to the various resources we use here today.

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But he goes on and he says, quote, concerning the guilt, vileness, and offensiveness of sin, in the sight of God my words shall be few.

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I say few advisedly, I do not think in the nature of things that mortal man can at all realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the sight of that holy and perfect one with whom we have to do.

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On the one hand, God is that eternal being who chargeth his angels with folly, and in whose sight the very heavens are not clean.

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He is one who reads thoughts and motives as well as actions, and requires truth in the inward parts.

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We, on the other hand, poor blind creatures, here today and gone tomorrow, born in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in a constant atmosphere of weakness, infirmity, and imperfection, can form none but the most inadequate conceptions of the hideousness of evil.

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We have no line to fathom it, and no measure by which to gauge it. Blind man can see no difference between a masterpiece of Titian or Raphael and the queen's head on a village signboard.

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The deaf man cannot distinguish between a penny whistle and a cathedral organ. The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that they are offensive and are not offensive to one another.

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And man, fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of that God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect, perfect whether we look through telescope or microscope, perfect in the formation of a mighty planet like Jupiter with his satellites keeping time to a second as he rolls around the sun, perfect in the formation of the smallest insect that crawls over a foot of ground.

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But let us nevertheless settle it firmly in our minds that sin is the abominable thing that God hateth, that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and cannot look upon that which is evil, that the least transgression of God's law makes us guilty of all, that the soul that sinneth shall die, that the wages of sin is death, that God shall judge the secrets of men, that there is a worm that never dies and a fire that is not quenched, that the wicked shall be turned into hell and shall go away into everlasting punishment, and that nothing that defiles shall in any wise enter heaven.

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These are indeed tremendous words when we consider that they are written in the book of a most merciful

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God. Mark that ladies, everything he just said is quoted from the word of God.

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Rael goes on, he says, No proof of the fullness of sin, after all, is so overwhelming and unanswerable as the cross and passion of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the whole doctrine of his substitution and atonement. Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the

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Son of God could make satisfaction. Heavy must that weight of human sin be which made Jesus groan and sweat drops of blood in agony at Gethsemane and cry at Golgotha, My God, my

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God, why hast thou forsaken me? Nothing I am convinced will astonish us so much when we awaken the resurrection day as the view we shall have of sin and the retrospect we shall take of our own countless shortcomings and defects.

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Never till the hour when Christ comes the second time shall we fully realize the sinfulness of sin.

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Well, might George Whitefield say, the anthem in heaven will be, What hath God wrought? It's astounding to think about, ladies, isn't it?

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We can't fathom the sinfulness of sin, and yet we must be faithful to explain to unbelievers that they are sinners, and as much as we can grasp it, we must make that clear.

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And the Holy Spirit of God, if he is working in that person, will convict him of his sin.

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And so we are faithful. We go on with J .C.

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Ryle, he says, I do ask my readers to observe how deeply thankful we ought to be for the glorious gospel of the grace of God.

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There is a remedy revealed for man's need as wide and broad and deep as man's disease. We need not be afraid to look at sin and study its nature, origin, power, extent, and vileness.

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If we only look at the same time at the almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

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Though sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded. Yes, in the everlasting covenant of redemption to which

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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are parties, in the mediator of that covenant, Jesus Christ, the righteous, perfect God and perfect man in one person.

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In the work that he did by dying for our sins and rising again for our justification, in the offices that he fills as our priest, substitute, physician, shepherd, and advocate, in the precious blood he shed which can cleanse from all sin, in the everlasting righteousness that he brought in, in the perpetual intercession that he carries on as our representative at God's right hand, in his power to save to the uttermost the chief sinners, his willingness to receive and pardon the vilest, his readiness to bear with the weakest, in the grace of the

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Holy Spirit which he plants in the hearts of all his people, renewing, sanctifying, and causing old things to pass away and all things to become new, in all this, and oh, what a brief sketch it is, in all this

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I say there is a full, perfect, and complete medicine for the hideous disease of sin. Awful and tremendous as the right view of sin undoubtedly is, no one need faint in despair if he will take a right view of Jesus Christ at the same time.

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Amen and amen. J .C. Ryle certainly has a way with words and so we realize in spite of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, there is a

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Redeemer and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why we evangelize to tell sinners that they can be saved, that there is a remedy for sin, that God has provided a way to be reconciled to him and it is through the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so with that ladies, let's move on to the third point here.

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We also need to remember and be clear and concise and direct when we declare the exclusivity of the gospel, the exclusivity of Christ.

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Of course, the first verse I go to when I think of this is John 14, 6, where Jesus says that I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the

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Father but through me. That's pretty clear and direct, isn't it? Think of John 3 ladies, a very familiar passage to all of us and of course we all know

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John 3, 16, but let's go back to verse 3 where Jesus says to Nicodemus, truly, truly

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I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless one is born from above, is what that language is using there, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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Born from above. And of course, Acts 4 declares without any ambiguity, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

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And of course, that is talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. We must declare the exclusivity of the gospel.

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We live in a postmodern world, ladies. We live in a pluralistic society. All roads lead to heaven.

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Don't be so judgmental. Why is yours the only way? Why can't the good Hindu doing good works over here get to heaven?

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Why can't this atheist get to heaven? Why can't this Mormon get to heaven? You can't get to heaven because you don't have the right

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Jesus. If you have any version of Jesus at all, there is only one

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Jesus Christ and he is found in the Bible. And unless you believe upon him and repent of your sin and believe upon him and his work alone, you cannot be saved.

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Period. And we cannot waver on that point, ladies. We cannot waver on that.

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We must stand firm that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

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And finally, we must call unbelievers to repent and believe in the gospel. In fact, it was with the words repent that Jesus Christ began his public ministry.

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Matthew 4, 17, from that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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We often say, we shouldn't tell people to repent of their sin.

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We just need to tell them God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life. No, we need to tell them they are sinners and the wonderful plan goes out the window unless you repent of that sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ.

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Because it doesn't matter what happens to you here on this earth for eternity, you will be in the lake of fire under the wrath and condemnation of God unless you repent and believe upon the

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Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 6, when Jesus sent the disciples out to preach, in verse 12, they went out and preached that men should repent.

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In Luke 5, Jesus is in the home of the tax collector,

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Levi, which is Matthew. And verse 30 says, the

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Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

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And Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

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I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I have come to call sinners to repentance.

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In Luke 13, verse 1 reads, now on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to him about the

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Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, do you suppose that these

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Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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Or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

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I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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And then one of my favorite verses, ladies, is the great commission that is found in Luke 24.

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In Luke 24, Jesus says to his disciples, verse 46, thus it is written that the

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Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. And that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.

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Repentance for forgiveness of sins. And what do we see happening in the early church, ladies, when

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Christ has ascended to heaven and the disciples are preaching and proclaiming the gospel as Jesus commanded them to do?

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We see in Acts 2, Peter gives his sermon and verse 37 says, when the people heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do?

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Verse 38, Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. Repent. In Peter's second sermon there in Acts 3, verse 17, he says, and now, brethren,

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I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also, but the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his

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Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which

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God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time. Repent.

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The early church preached repentance. Paul spoke about repentance in his epistles.

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He spoke about what repentance looks like in 2 Corinthians 7. He says,

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I now rejoice in verse 9, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

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For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

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In 2 Timothy 2, Paul talks about the nature of repentance being given by God. Repentance is given by God to us.

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In verse 24, he says, The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps

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God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth that God would grant them repentance.

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Peter wrote about repentance later and wrote about the nature and character of God in 2

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Peter 3 .9, saying that the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

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We must come to repentance and faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, ladies, the idea of repentance is all throughout the book of Revelation.

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Think of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 and how

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Christ himself calls these churches to repent of their sin. We are called to repentance initially in our salvation and we are called to repent of our sin as believers and to come to God and confess our sin and repent before him so that we may be washed and cleansed and it's not a matter of losing your salvation.

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It's a matter of striving for holiness and righteousness before the

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Lord. And so, ladies, these are the four things that we need to really keep in mind when we're evangelizing.

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Again, not for spiritual laws. I'm not trying to sound like that. Just four things to keep at the forefront of your mind, really four important elements that we should be striving to include in our gospel proclamation.

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That scripture is authoritative. That mankind is sinful.

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Every man and woman and child is a sinner. That the gospel is exclusive. There's only one way to salvation and that is through the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And that you must repent and believe upon the gospel. That is the command of scripture.

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Repent. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot leave these key elements out, ladies.

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I hear people say, well, I'll just give part of the gospel and then I trust that God will bring someone along to bring the other part.

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Well, it just so happens that that person likes to give the lovey -dovey part. Jesus loves you and he'll forgive you of all your sins. Whatever.

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But that doesn't work if everyone has that mindset. No one's ever telling these people to repent. And so you can say

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Jesus wants to forgive you of your sins. Jesus can forgive you of your sin, but you don't know what sin is.

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You need to show these people their sin and call them to repent of it.

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And believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And ladies, we have the truth of God's word.

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That beautiful, glorious, wonderful truth. And so we can evangelize with confidence.

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And trusting and knowing that the Lord's, his word will not return void. He will use it.

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That's the beauty of the sovereignty of God in salvation. We are called to proclaim the gospel. Period.

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You can't save anybody. You can't lead them in a prayer and guarantee that they've been saved. You can't do that.

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That's the Lord's work. Trust that the Holy Spirit will do his work. Just be faithful in yours.

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And remember ladies, when we're rejected, when we are persecuted for the things that we're saying, for the truth that we're sharing, that we're proclaiming, that's promised to us by God.

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That is promised to us when we live holy lives, and it's promised to us when we proclaim the gospel.

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But blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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And blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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Jesus said that in his sermon on the mount. He closed out his beatitudes with those verses.

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Ladies, be faithful in your evangelism. Pray for opportunities. If you've been saved by God, ladies, you are equipped.

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God's given you everything you need by giving you salvation, by giving you his word. You don't need anything more to share and proclaim his truth and his saving gospel.

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So ladies, I encourage you to get out there, to pray for those opportunities. And I'm going to be doing the same thing right along with you, praying for more opportunities, praying that God would grow my opportunities and our abilities and our zeal and our fervor and our urgency to see people saved and to see his truth proclaimed whenever we have the chance.

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So ladies, until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.