Lesson # 11 Evangelism & The Believer (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

This is number 11 lesson number 11 on the subject of evangelism and the believer

So the verse the memory verse first Peter 3 15, this is out of a different translation from how

I memorized it So I'll just read what the book says first Peter 3 15

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to make a defense

To everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you Yet with gentleness and reverence, so the idea is to give a response tell people when they ask you tell people what you believe and Also be ready to let them know why you believe it.

So evangelism and the believer it says the word evangelism Brings many thoughts to mind some people think of tents and famous speakers

Others envision weekly visitation and the terror of witnessing this lesson will introduce the biblical concept of evangelism and the role the

Believer plays. Okay. So why do you think it says that? the terror of witnessing

Yeah, I think there are some people that Yeah, they don't want someone to come up and and have that what do they call it come to Jesus talk or whatever but but then going to others and talking that to them about Christ it can be a sort of an intimidating thing because you know in the

Culture we live in we're told two things don't talk about Politics and religion.

So these subjects are just off the table. You shouldn't talk about it So when you try to talk to someone about Jesus Even though many modern

Evangelicals don't even like to use the word religion. That's still how people think of it right or wrong.

So Should we witness to people? Yeah, and witnessing can be more than you know, you're at the supermarket and you pull someone aside.

Excuse me, sir You know Jesus as your Lord and Savior like most people don't Take that approach

But you can witness in a variety of different ways So we talked about that in the sermon last week.

So we're going to cover some of the same subject matter But the call of evangelism, this is number one

The call of evangelism according to mark 16 verse 15. What were the disciples to do?

It says they were to go into all the world and preach the gospel

To all creation or as I'm familiar with the translation go and preach the gospel to every creature

So our philosophy of preaching the gospel, it should be hey, we are willing to tell anyone who will listen

There's no group that's off -limits In the day and age we live in a lot of ministries said do not evangelize

Jews Because you know, they don't want to be evangelized. They think they'll find it offensive or Some preachers have said they have their own covenant with God don't evangelize the

Jews Which I disagree with obviously or don't don't evangelize people of other religions.

That's proselytizing Proselytizing is about you know, if they ask you that's fine, but do not go and try to convert them well that that directly contradicts the command that Jesus gave to the church to go out and preach the gospel to everybody

Yes, Larry Is there any difference between Disciples and Christians yeah

Yeah, well, so I you probably picked up on what I said in the sermon last week

I said because we were talking about Matthew chapter 4 how Jesus called

Peter and Andrew James and John into full -time ministries. He called them to be what what were they called?

The twelve were called his Yeah, he said I'll make you fishers of men but they were the twelve were called disciples so they were following Jesus daily they had committed their lives to Learning it was full -time

Learning and then full -time Christian service. So what I had said is if Okay, if if there is a difference between a disciple and a believer it would be that that a disciple is somebody who is

Full -time Christian or at least part -time Christian ministry, whereas a believer, you know, they work at a bank

They're a contractor. They're a doctor. They're a dentist. They have whatever secular job, but they still believe and they still

Contribute but they're not a disciple in the sense that they're you know full -time in Christian ministry

I said that would be the difference if there is one But I think that every every believer is called to Discipleship like every believer is to be a follower of Jesus.

We should all be learning and we should all be Serving to whatever degree as God has gifted us.

So I Can't I guess I can't give a set yes or no that there is is a difference or that there isn't a difference

It would depend on how you Define it one thing I would oppose is this the idea that a disciple is a

Christian who you know is really Committed to God and they obey God but a believer just kind of does their own thing and they're not really that That should not be the case that a believer might

Kind of live how they want but a disciple someone who really takes it seriously that distinction should not exist

So I would object to that if that's how you define it So, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's that's my answer

Marcus Okay, well let me know if you got it back

Okay All right, but mark 1615 this is

Mark's version of what the Great Commission, oh, that's it Yes, so we therefore and teach all nations

That's that we're all taught to go and I have heard it said though I'm not a Greek scholar, but I think the person that told me this was a

Greek scholar said that the correct Grammar there is as you are going right?

We are all going to be going so I and I I'm just impressed with how

Important or how often the term wholehearted is is urged in in the

Bible and so The reason we're not all professional.

We don't make our living from it But the whole idea is that we are all going we're going into our workplaces.

We are going to it into our marketplaces We're going we're going anywhere and when you're sitting in a waiting room or if you're sitting in a bus stop or Anytime So when anytime anywhere, so when you're talking about going out into all the world for every believer, you know

You're going into the world That is you're going into the doctor's office. You're going into the workplace

So there is a sense where the Great Commission has given to all of us to bring our

Christian witness Wherever we go in the world Obviously Jesus gave the command to the disciples to where they were what we would call

Evangelists or missionaries that they were literally to leave their home country and to just go out and that's the overall mission for the church

That we should all be You know because in order to have missionaries people have to give people have to pray people have to support them

And you know, we're all in it together. We have different roles. Okay, but that is the

Great Commission in Mark 1615 just said a little differently All right be

What are the three aspects of making disciples according to Matthew 28 19 and 20?

Number one is what? Well, yeah, go go and make disciples.

So first of all you have you have to convert people make disciples then the second thing you are supposed to do is

To baptize them, right so make disciples Baptize them and then number three is to teach to teach them all that Christ commanded and where does that happen?

The teaching happens within a local church So this is kind of the most basic thing of all you you bring the gospel to people

You call upon them to believe it once they believe it then they get baptized once they get baptized

Then they join a local church and that's where they learn and grow and hopefully serve

You know, the problem is Sometimes we go to people and they will say yes

They'll say the sinners prayer. They'll they'll profess Christ then for whatever reason they won't

They won't or they don't get baptized. I don't know why that happens, but it happens Then then even for those sometimes they'll get baptized, but then they won't join a church or they won't be committed

Learning and serving in a church. So obviously we want the whole package Just because things happen doesn't mean that it's fine or it's just the reality, but we want to make disciples baptize and then teach

Okay, see What did Jesus say should be proclaimed to all the nations

Luke 24? 46 and 47 That God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life

Declare it to all nations No repentance for Forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations

So yeah, sorry. I had a little fun with that. I heard a sermon by RC Sproul and it's called back to basics

I would encourage you to listen to it. If you if you watch sermons online back to basics by RC Sproul They're just talking about that God loves you.

You know, what is the gospel? He said Got a lot of people say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

That might that might be true Yeah, but his point is that's not the gospel your testimony may be powerful it may be important to you

It is important, but your testimony is not the gospel and then he got into what the gods so those things are all fine does to say

God does love the world, but What is the gospel and the gospel is as I've been stressing on Sunday morning part of the gospel message is what what's the

Word that begins with R that so often gets left out Repentance repentance for the forgiveness of sins

Okay good so far, all right anything from you hell -fire and brimstone

I Mean that's that that is part. That's what you're being saved from right you remove that part and all of a sudden

Salvation becomes sort of unnecessary If there's nothing to be saved from okay D.

What was Paul to tell the people in Acts 22 15? that he would be a witness for Christ to all men of what he had seen and Heard and that whole idea of giving your testimony

And I don't want to make it sound like it's not important because it is I think Paul really was the one who set that Pattern of giving what is it in the book of Acts?

He gave his testimony what four times? I think at least Four times so telling people what

God has done for you and what he has done in your life or things that you have seen That is very very powerful very

Important All right on the next page it says first John chapter 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

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 verse 10 says for the

Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost the work of winning the lost 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 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 In all

Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth the great concern of God is what?

Evangelism the great concern of Christ is evangelism the great concern of the

Spirit is Evangelism saving the loss now. Do you agree with this statement? Now how many of you listen to the sermon that you know at the beginning of each lesson it gives you the go to gty org

Forward slash fof and it gives you a sermon each lesson as a sermon. I Listened to the sermon last night.

That was a long sermon If you ever think I preach for a long time, you ought to listen to that. It's like an hour and seven minutes

It was well worth it But John MacArthur, he started his main point that he came back with at the end really making the distinction between a church and a social club a

Church that does not have a desire to reach the loss where the people in the church

Like I'm not gonna share my faith or I'm not gonna talk to someone about why would I do that? Or God forbid if a church had the attitude that proselytizing was wrong or you shouldn't do it you know if we all just gather here and pat each other on the back and Have our own thing going and we're not trying to reach anybody or we're not supporting missions overseas a church like that is what?

Yeah, it's dead it's yeah, it's a social club So the great heart of God is evangelism.

I mean, that's why That's why we preach that's why you hand out tracts or that's why you talk to people about you

That's why you're ready to share a give a defense to anyone who asked you because that's what we want to do.

I Mean if a church didn't reach anyone Obviously over time

And we live in New England This is a time in our nation city because I don't want you to get discouraged as I know many of you have

Try talking to people and you know, how is it? How are New Englanders about the gospel? Cold right?

This is a cold area it's a heart it's hard packed ground and Just the day and age we live in is a cold time but that's no excuse not to do it and Then the person who actually responds and then comes into the church

It's just that much more glorious when it happens, but don't get discouraged It's I don't think it's you doing anything wrong

So if you're witnessing don't get discouraged feel like you're I'm just it's me.

It's not you it's it's It's the climate that we're in. So there's been times in history where people have just flooded into the churches and then there's times where that's not happening and Really?

It is more of a sign sign of the times kind of a thing in my opinion, I guess but okay number two the good news of evangelism the gospel and everyone in this church knows that the word gospel means good news a

According to 1st Corinthians 15 3 & 4. What is the good news that Paul preached?

Christ died for our sins He was buried and he was raised on the third day

And then if you read this passage, it says according to the Scriptures they rose again according to the

Scripture So there's three elements and I would say that this is the most clear definition of the gospel anywhere in the

Bible 1st Corinthians 15 3 & 4 Why does it say he was buried why is that part in there?

Is that what you're gonna? Okay, good. There's actually four things. It says

Christ died and That he was buried the fact that he was buried proved that he died

Yeah, and it says and that was according to the Scriptures and I says and then he was raised on the third day according to the

Scriptures But then the next verse says and he appeared Yeah, so being buried proved that he died and that he appeared proved that he was raised

So there's no that's good points good. I like that. Thank you for that Yeah, cuz there's the you know, these theories if anyone went to Bible College I'm sure you've heard of the theory that the swoon theory of the resurrection or something that Jesus just fainted or he didn't run

Unbelievable, but no he was dead He was buried. He was Fully dead and that he rose again and people saw him

People were I over 500 eyewitnesses And obviously this is what sets

Christianity apart from any of the world religions that the founder of our faith Died.

Yes, he did die, but he rose again all the founders of every other religion. They all died and they all stayed dead

Okay of what did Paul say that he was not ashamed Romans 1 16? I'm not ashamed of The gospel why?

It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to us

Jim Okay, it is the power of God Do we believe the power is in the message?

Often and I'm not saying that this is always wrong But a lot of times churches try to figure out new strategies new ways to reach people

Well, I mean, okay, we can we can look at new strategies and new approaches But the the message the core message cannot change

Because the power is not in your approach. The power is in the gospel without God the

Holy Spirit convicting someone's heart and Then responding to the actual gospel itself

You're just doing You have a social club. You're maybe doing social work, but it has to be the true gospel

Marcus Tell me

I had a Example we our verse of the week is to do it with gentleness and reverence.

I think his new Kings James and But in old King James, it's meekness and fear, but I do like gentleness and reverence.

But anyways, I was approaching Parking lot and a pickup truck was coming towards me.

I had my directional on to turn and he had his on So I flashed my lights He was obviously a professional driver because he knew when you flash your lights that means

I see what you want Go ahead and do it Yeah So he just wait thanks and went in and I parked down below him and we ended up walking into the grocery store together

I forget what kind of pleasantries we might have exchanged but I'll always try and then of course, you know

It isn't a grocery store. You keep going back and forth and seeing the same person over and over Well, not only that we finished through our checkup lines the same and we're walking out the same thing and I'm Thinking to myself.

Oh Be ready always to give an answer to that He didn't he never asked me but he was walking away towards his truck.

And so I said, hey And he said

I says can I give you something to read he says sure thanks and took it

And I think gee that wasn't very gentle Right, I'm gonna have a great time up there a

Lot of people if you just hand them a track Hand them something to where they can decide if they want to read it or not a lot of people even if they don't respond they'll they'll see that you care enough a lot a lot of people will appreciate that much

Very rarely. Will somebody tell you where to go and how to get there? I mean that might happen, you know, but That's probably not gonna take place

They might take it and throw it away, but a lot of people take even if they don't respond, you know You don't see them next week in church or something.

They do see that you care enough to reach out to them so Larry And Isaiah 55 it says that God God's Word will not return to him void

But it will accomplish what it was sent out to do. Yeah, and I've heard so many times different testimonies

Well being a Gideon, you know the little pocket New Testaments that they pass out a lot of times

Somebody will take it and throw it in their backpack or put it away in their dresser drawer

In years later We'll pull it out and they're going through something and say, huh?

And open it up or end up in a motel room or something, you know and find the

Bible You know God's Word will accomplish what it was

Sent out to do yeah and God's Word sometimes has the opposite effect

I forget who said it but the same Sun that melts the wax

Also hardens the clay, you know, sometimes God's Word does Come to a person and it and it has the opposite effect.

It makes them More against it. Well, that's not what we want.

Well, but That's all God's Job, this is all what God is doing

You know We're called to do our part and we leave the rest of it to the Lord All we can do is be faithful what he's called us to do

Marcus and then that does bother me But this whole this whole issue of the fact that most people are lost or brought is the way they go

Leads to destruction that most people are lost that bothers me and it has to bother God, too But like Larry said it will accomplish the purpose where with it will it is sent and the purpose might be that it will be evidence against them at the final judgment and So you just say oh, man

Right and that you know and that leads some people say well if that's true then we shouldn't Then we shouldn't bring it to them because you're no wait stop stop rational eye

We need to not rationalize things and say well, I shouldn't do this because or therefore

We just need to do what? What the Lord says? Well to two other things that you mentioned that I?

Have comments about one is that you said well, it's just the climate in which we live Well, it's time we had climate change the right kind of climate change and this yes, it's true that Lot of the seeds fall on stony ground or they fall on shallow soil or they fall amongst the weeds

But some fall on that so the more seeds you spread the better chance you're gonna do it

It's up to the Lord to okay here the soil Okay the next section is

Number three the essentials of evangelism, so we looked at number one the call to evangelism number two the good news of Evangelism and then number three the essentials of evangelism here

This is something that I don't know if this is really stressed Because the way it's being presented here in the book is that hey, this is part of the gospel, too

This is something people need to understand, and I think this is where a lot of churches

You're gonna start dropping off number one What must someone believe about Jesus Christ for salvation number one they must believe

Jesus is God? You have to believe that otherwise

Your gospel or the gospel someone is saying they believe in is not the true gospel

Let's turn to Matthew chapter 16 So you a person must realize that Jesus is

God? We've talked about these other groups on Wednesday nights that do not believe

Jesus is God right the Mormons Don't believe Jesus is God therefore they have a false gospel

The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God therefore their gospel is a false gospel

They have a different Jesus so in order for the gospel To be effective you have to have the right gospel the right

Jesus And I would argue that this this is the profession of faith that saves

That you recognize that Jesus is divine Okay, why do

I say that look at Matthew chapter 16? Let's see here

Matthew 16 what am

I? Help me out here, where's the Caesarea Philippi confession

First mention okay, yeah, okay there it is Matthew 16 verse 13

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked his disciples saying who demands say that I the

Son of Man am So when Jesus trying to get them to make that profession of faith he starts out with who am

I? see it all comes down to this who is Jesus and They said some say

John the Baptist some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets And he said to them, but who do you say that I am and this is something that we could do when talking with oh

Yeah, there's all sorts of beliefs about yeah, but what do you believe and Simon Peter answered and said?

You are the Christ The Son of the Living God and by saying

Son of God that meant Jesus was equal with God Okay, so Jesus then responds and said to him blessed

Are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven?

This is the profession of Faith that Christ Jesus is the

Christ. He is the Son of God So Son of God is saying that Jesus is divine, you know, we're all sons of God through adoption

Jesus has the same nature as the Father So if somebody I believe

Jesus died and rose it Yeah, but you you need to recognize he is he is

God Yes, Mike I thought about this recently and it's like The sinner's prayer.

Yeah Yeah, how many people have been told pray the sinner's prayer and You would be saved right

They don't grasp it necessarily right I don't really understand it.

Yeah Believe it. Well, they believe that hey, I said this from Satan, right?

It seems kind of Shallow Misdirected.

Yeah, I almost thought well, is that something of Satan? Is that something that is?

Used by him to Yeah, yeah, it's

Because I maybe it is in here. I mean you get the Romans wrote the other things But I've never come across it where it says

Repeat after me say this and you'll be safe, right? Right, okay, so this we're getting into some serious territory here

Now, let me say this as far as the sinner's prayer goes If you're giving them the words to say

No, I mean you they need to say it from their heart. They need to say what they believe

So you shouldn't be giving them the words Can a person say a prayer and be saved the

Bible says call upon the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved. So Everyone who's a true believer has made some sort of profession of faith and it may have come in Something like the sinner's prayer.

So I want to say that up front, but yeah I mean there is this concern that obviously

Especially if someone's given the words to say hey repeat these words and you're saved I mean, yeah that the

Apostles never did that Jesus never did that So That's a good that's a good point what people need to realize because we're used to the

Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusades come down to the aisle Billy Sunday was a well -known

Evangelist and I from what I understand Billy Sunday, of course, he was a famous baseball player known nationwide

He would go and he would preach and he he would preach the gospel But he would say this come up and shake my hand for salvation so if you came up and that that was your way of if you believe in Jesus if you want to make a

Profession of faith come down and shake my hand and and that's your way of showing that you accepted

Christ Well, what's the problem with that? He's a celebrity Everybody wanted to come forward and shake his hand even people who maybe didn't really understand the message

They're still coming forward and then they chuck chalk up the numbers that you know, 800 people last week got saved at their crusade

So you just have to be very careful about that Making a profession of faith is not what saves a person

Possessing saving faith is what saves a person. So all the people that may have come forward and Legitimately been saved at a

Billy Graham crusade I think even the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association recognized that you know five years later only

Five four to eight percent of people were in a baptized in a church Serving the

Lord. So yeah, we just have to be careful in how we present it up until that error era of the big evangelistic crusades

Evangelism was done differently that you yes, you you do make a profession of faith you get baptized and you become part of the church and You're saved because you are part of the church.

You've been baptized and you have a testimony but as You're alluding to in the day and age we live in there's just millions of people all over the world

That have not been baptized. They're not part of a church. They're not serving God They're not showing any spiritual fruit in their life, but 30 30 40 years ago

I said the sinner's prayer that one time so I'm saved and the guy told me I'm eternally secure

All I'm saying is that it's never the way it was done throughout history so we just have to kind of back balance this but Yes, you have something disagree.

Yeah But it's important I think that also as because you say do this get baptized do this join the church

Do this do this You need to understand that it is what Jesus did and that is what you're placing your faith

And you're placing your faith and what Jesus did and your part in that He did that because you broke those ten commandments and even a child can understand

That it's wrong to lie. It's wrong to steal a Child will do that.

It's wrong to be selfish And so so I mean and in some ways we do complicate it but the gospel is

Easy enough that a child can believe it and I think when a child says Yes, Lord Jesus.

I am sorry Please forgive me. I'm glad to know that I can be forgiven

Please come into my heart. Yeah, my guess is Jesus says you met your life I'll come on in and he when he comes in he doesn't leave you can tie him up and get him and put him in the cellar

Yeah Yeah, if they meant it Anyone who calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved if they meant it but sometimes people don't and sometimes people don't understand it, so That's that's the issue

I think honestly, I think this we're touching on what is the greatest divide in evangelical

Christianity It may be the most serious issue and I can just say with meeting with pastors for the past 10 years

I'm convinced that there are pastors with different gospels within Evangelicalism that do not believe the same things and what it means to be saved

And this really yeah, so I my heart aches over this and But the opposite can be true where somebody gets they make a profession of faith they get baptized they join a church

And we've all heard of the people Oh, I'm I'm a member of this church and they're they're trusting their salvation is based on the fact that they're a church member

We get it right you're not saved because you were dunked in water You're not saved because you got your name on a membership list, but these are things that save people do

So I yeah, I don't know if that Well, it's just something that's you know been there

I guess Yeah Right. All right, because I think of the cross at the time of Christ's death and the other

One hanging to his right Yeah Right and that thief on the cross did profess faith in Jesus and he was saved without any good works or and of course he died that day, but so a person can be saved by professing and actually possessing faith and just saying the words but This is why it's so important the

Great Commission, right? Make disciples baptized and then what's the third one?

This is why there's so much confusion within the body of Christ because people are not taught Whether it's the church that's dropped the ball to teach them all that Christ commanded or whether it's people that just don't

Commit themselves to learning but this this is the problem why there's so much confusion. So we need to teach with sound doctrine

What the scripture says so if there's any more comments on this it's an important subject but Okay, number one what must someone believe about Jesus Christ for salvation

John 1 1 Jesus is God. They must believe Jesus is

God You say well did the thief on the cross really understand the doctrine of the Trinity and all the well

I don't think he I don't know that he understood the doctrine of the Trinity But he knew that Jesus was gonna die and that he wasn't gonna stay dead

He knew that he had a kingdom law he called him Lord Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom

So just because he couldn't articulate it or maybe he would have failed a theology exam that that's not the issue.

He believed Believe that Jesus is God number one and that's based on John 1 1 number 2 the essentials of evangelism

John 14 verse 6 we must believe that Jesus is the way the truth and the life

No man comes under the Father except through me Jesus said but we must believe that Jesus is the only way to God Okay, so if somebody said well,

I believe in G. I believe the gospel But you know, I mean you can still get to heaven through Hinduism.

I mean Buddhists can still get to heaven by Meditating and You know, you didn't get it.

You didn't understand Jesus is the only Savior. He is the Lord and This is closely associated with Acts 4 verse 12.

Jesus is the only way of salvation So a person must believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation otherwise, they haven't really understood the gospel because he is the

Savior see this is something that the early church didn't really have a Problem with I mean nobody.

Oh, well, I mean, how do I prove this? I guess but on the day of Pentecost when 3 ,000 people came to Christ I can guarantee you none of the saved people in that crowd thought that bail worship could get you to heaven.

I Mean, that's absurd, right? Isn't it absurd? Well, it's just as absurd to think that Islam or some other religion can get you to heaven

So but again, it's the day and age we live in where the one thing as a Christian That's just frowned upon is

Having these exclusive beliefs that the whole Bible is true and that Jesus is the only way of salvation

You start talking to people like that The word the world does not like that.

They want a plurality of gods a plurality of ways to get To God or the gods or whatever like that's the that's the climate.

We're we're in okay, so Number three the essentials of salvation.

What must someone believe about Jesus Christ for salvation number one? Jesus is God. He's the way the truth and the life

And that he's the only way of salvation And is that a new idea to anyone and again

You don't want to make it sound like we're in order for you to truly be saved You need to understand these 50 different things.

I mean, it's a simple faith in Jesus Christ the simplicity of the gospel, but I would just argue somebody who truly believes the message