Putting God First in Evangelism

Putting God First in Evangelism

by Vincent Piater

Jeremiah Cry Ministries

As believers we are called to share the Gospel. In fact, we are commanded to. It is said that only 2% of the church actively share their faith. This implies that most of the church is living in disobedience. Many don’t share their faith as they feel unequipped and don’t know what to say. They are afraid as they don’t know what the response will be. The other problem is the fear of offending people when speaking about sin, judgment, and hell. They say, well I just want to speak the words of Jesus and the love of God. Yet Jesus spoke more about hell and judgement than anyone else in scripture. Men must be warned of the realty of judgement and hell. Only Christ can save them, and without Christ they are doomed.

We must plead with men with all of our might and show them what they are in the eyes of God, in their unregenerate state. We must also pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them of sin and bring them to repentance. Unless the Spirit convicts them they are still blind in their sin and the Gospel in foolishness to them. Men some how think that they are good people in their own eyes. Yet Scripture tells us that all have sinned and that there is no one who is righteous. It is only through the grace of God that a man may be saved. It is because men think so highly of themselves, that they have such a low view of the Gospel and their absolute need of a saviour. When man’s eyes are opened to his total depravity, only then can he understand how God demonstrated His love for us. While we were sinners, disobedient unto God, and enemies of God, God sent His son Jesus Christ to shed His blood to reconcile us unto God that we could be saved from the wrath to come.

Here’s a link to the page with the article.

Treasuring Christ Above All Things

In this sermon jam video someone is throwing “things of this life” into the trash can. I just wanted to add, “health” to that list! How about “reputation”, and “personal dreams, hopes and aspirations”? How many other things can we also count as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, for whom we have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that we may gain Christ? How do we come to treasure Christ above all things, even life itself? He brings us with Him into the journey of our gradual sanctification. Often He does this through taking things away, or through suffering, or both. Finally, through His working in our life for our good (Rom.8:28), we come to treasure Christ above all, and all other things are as loss to us. What is left is Christ and joy in knowing Him.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy! Ps.43:4

For Thou dost make him most blessed forever; Thou dost make him joyful with gladness in Thy presence. Ps.21:6

Here is a related sermon/article: Called to suffer and rejoice; that we may gain Christ, by John Piper.

Yes, the Lord will help us endure, but it is not about our loss, our pain, our suffering, it is about HIM! It is about treasuring Jesus Christ above everything!

Worship song: shai linne (with John Piper) MY PORTION listen now and be encouraged in having Him and KNOWING HIM.

Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever! Ps.73:25-26

Witnessing and the Holy Spirit

Over the last few weeks I was within the hearing of some anointed Gospel street preaching (as well as Bible preaching in church) by men filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no true witnessing or Gospel proclamation. I’m exhibit A of the train wreck that occurs when attempting to witness without the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is so much to this extremely important topic; it is vital to learn it and live it if we are to be useful to God as His vessels. He fills His clay pots with the Holy Spirit. Only then are they used. This gives God all the glory! We know all true believers are indwelt and sealed with the Holy Spirit. I am speaking here of the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit for fruitful service, which comes by faith, prayer, repentance and obedience. Here are a few quotes from “The Church’s Greatest Need”, by E. Reisinger.

The Holy Spirit is the source of all spiritual witnessing and all spiritual worship; He is also the “Divine Agent of Evangelism”.

The power of the church for her external work will be proportionate with the power which dwells within herself.

Gauge the power of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers and you may fairly judge their influence upon unbelievers.

We ourselves, must first drink of the living water before the rivers of living water will flow out to the unconverted.

Without the Spirit there will be no conviction. Without the Spirit there will be no conversions. Without the Spirit there will be no Spiritual growth. Without the Spirit all preaching and witnessing is in vain.

The Holy Spirit at Pentecost produced powerful evangelistic preaching.

The answer is Spirit-breathed, Christ-centered, Bible preaching in the power and unction (anointing) of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can bring conviction.

..if He does not so work we should search ourselves to see what it is that hinders, and whether there may not be somewhat in ourselves which vexes Him, so that He restrains His sacred energy and does not work among us as He did before. (He is referring to repentance.)

No acceptable action of the Christian life can be performed without the Holy Spirit.

The Bible makes two things very, very clear in connection with the fulness and power of the Spirit. First, prayer (Luke 11:13). Secondly, obedience (Acts 5:32).

The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods but through men. He does not anoint plans but men.

Knowledge comes by studying. Power comes by prayer and fasting.

Everything that grieves the Spirit must be put away. (He is again referring to repentance of sins.)

We will not have the power of the Holy Spirit without importunate earnest prayer (Acts 1:14 preceded Acts 2; Luke 11:9-13).

You might also like to see the post, The Power of the Holy Spirit, and listen to The Holy Spirit is the Witness, by Joseph LoSardo.

A Street Meeting

That’s what Paul Kaiser calls an evangelism outreach involving one on one witnessing and “high visibility” open air Gospel preaching. About seventeen saints gathered in Old Sacramento on Saturday night for several hours of proclaiming the biblical Gospel to the lost.

Young men listening to Christ being exalted

While the brothers took turns preaching, there were many opportunities to talk to people. Some folks identified themselves as fellow saints and we had some good fellowship-encouragement right there on the sidewalk. I was amazed at how many people actually stood and listened almost the entire time; men, women, children, teens. One man played the part of the classic heckler: scoffing, then expressing skepticism with questions he thought had no answers. The man was respectfully yet boldly answered with classic apologetics as well as presuppositional Bible Truth. We watched him go from mocker to quiet after he read for himself the Bible text and heard preached the truth of God’s creation, the character, glory and holiness of God, the Law of God, the rebellion and wickedness of sin, the wages of sin being death, and the grace and mercy of God in Christ.

I saw a woman standing up against the building wall and came up and stood by her. She was listening intently to the preaching with great emotion on her face. After a while I started talking to her and after going through the Gospel with her I asked her if she has ever heard this message before. She said she had never heard it. She was agreeing about sin and saying she needed Jesus and forgiveness. She then confided in me that she just had a big fight with her husband and shared some painful details. We talked more about the Truth of sin and redemption and she gladly took a NT Bible which she had never read. Then her husband came to get her and I thought he would say, “Let’s go” and take her away, but he said something hurtful to her and then turned around. He looked at the man preaching, and he stood there perfectly still next to his wife for at least an hour, listening to the preaching, not saying a word.

Verses of Encouragement: 2Tim.pt.2

in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2Tim.4:8

But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear…. 2Tim.4:17

The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 2Tim.4:18

Verses of Encouragement: 2Tim.pt.1

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. 2Tim.1:8

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2Tim.2:1

Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2Tim.2:3

…my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. 2Tim.2:8-10

And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2Tim.3:12

preach the word! 2Tim.4:2

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2Tim.4:5

God is Good!

God is so good to me! He lets me be a foreign missionary here in my “native land” of the Bay Area. Yesterday I was at a community center with one of my children and I ended up having a conversation with Shirin, an older woman who is originally from Iran. This was the first real conversation I’ve had with someone who practices the Zoroastrian religion. I was amazed to hear her describe her philosophy of life: it was exactly as I learned from my brief study of this religion. She was telling me how it is all about having “good thoughts, good words and good deeds”. In other words, “It’s all good”!

Resisting the temptation to contextualize or just do the “friendship evangelism” thing, I decided I must go for it and risk offending this grandmother, and respectfully tell her some Truth. So I shared about how we are not good, and do not have good thoughts, and do not do good, but just the opposite. I told her truth from scripture about our sin and breaking God’s Law, and the pride, idolatry, unbelief, self-righteousness, and general wickedness that is really going on in human hearts. She recoiled at hearing this -distress apparent on her face- as though I would bring “bad karma” and spiritual chaos to her happy spiritual equilibrium of goodness. I felt bad about making an elderly lady uncomfortable and consciously asked myself, “Do I really believe what the Word of God says about God’s judgment of sin and Jesus being the only way of salvation? Yes!” Although such evangelism is deemed improper, (even by many Evangelical church leaders) I knew I must love God, Truth and people’s eternal souls more than culture, feelings, and social correctness.

She kept repeating the “I think good, I do good, I am good” mantra and I kept gently responding with Truth from scripture. She was even telling me I was good. I have not spoken to her of the Gospel; she is confident she is a good person, acceptable to her (false Zoroastrian) god. She agreed to meet and talk more tomorrow. I have some Farsi gospel materials left over from last year’s Nouroz. I long to tell her of Jesus Christ, the only God and Savior, and how she can be saved from her sins by trusting Him and the goodness of His Grace towards those who are not good.

“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Mark 10:18

Verses of Encouragement: Isaiah pt.4

For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace… Is.55:12

And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Is.58:11

And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Is.62:5

Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes; behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.” Is.62:11

“And it shall be… all mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD. Is.66:23

Justification by Faith

We enjoyed learning some church history this year in our “Rome through the Renaissance” Middle Ages history unit. The most interesting topic was learning the basics of the Reformation of the 1500’s. As someone whom God saved -via the Scriptures- out of the Roman Catholic Church, I’m very thankful for the men God raised up in Europe to bring His Word to people who previously did not have access to the Truth of the Gospel, but were instead taught they could be saved by performing religious works and paying money to The Church, and that righteousness was bestowed upon them by The Church. The stories of the martyrs who helped get God’s Word into the hands of common people was most inspiring. Here is a hymn that illustrates some precious Bible Truth that people discovered as God’s Word shed Light on the spiritual darkness that is false teaching.

Justification by faith, not by works.
by Isaac Watts

Rom. 3:19-22.

Vain are the hopes the sons of men
On their own works have built;
Their hearts by nature all unclean,
And all their actions guilt.

Let Jew and Gentile stop their mouths
Without a murm’ring word,
And the whole race of Adam stand
Guilty before the Lord.

In vain we ask God’s righteous law
To justify us now;
Since to convince and to condemn
Is all the law can do.

Jesus, how glorious is thy grace!
When in thy name we trust,
Our faith receives a righteousness
That makes the sinner just.

The One Which is Lost

After playing worship songs for two hours, the pastor preached Jesus Christ!

I joined the outreach with SOS Ministries in San Francisco last Saturday and there was a worship band that came down from a Sacramento church to play a two hour set of worship songs, led by the pastor! While they were playing “Holy of Holies”, a man was standing nearby listening intently. He wanted to know what the song was talking about. So he heard about the Atonement of Jesus Christ: what God has done to “make sinners right in a Holy God’s sight”.

Minh, originally from Vietnam, was very humble and acknowledged his sin and his need for the gracious intervention of God on his behalf. He was glad to hear the Gospel since he had never heard it before; previously he was trusting in “tradition” and his own “goodness”. He left joyful saying he would read the Bible in Vietnamese online.

There were thousands of people walking by on the streets that day. How I rejoice and give thanks to God for this “one” who humbly received the Gospel message with gladness. God Himself provided the blood of The Lamb that we might enter into the Holy of Holies. He loves lost sinners and gave His own Son to redeem them. He will surely seek, find and gather to Himself, all His lost sheep.

Now all the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near to Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” And He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine who need no repentance.” Luke 15:1-7