Now we have already been thinking about Christ's example of evangelism, but there's still a great deal more in the New Testament. And so this one will be about New Testament teaching about evangelism. This is in addition to what we've already had. I will refer in this some of the things that are said in John's Gospel, but you know that John's Gospel was written about the year ninety AD after the rest of Scripture was written. So I'm including it with the rest of the New Testament. Section one, the commission of all believers. One, the great interest of the Trinity. That is in evangelism. A, the Lord God preached the gospel in the Garden of Eden. We call this the proto-evangel, the first time that the gospel is presented. Where the Lord God told Satan in the presence of Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent while he would bruise his heel. Satan received a deadly wound at Calvary. The Lord Jesus received a wound unto death, but was raised from the dead. And B, the Son preached faithfully throughout Palestine. Matthew four, seventeen to twenty-five, describes his preaching in Judea and then in Galilee and even Syria, which bordered on the north, heard the gospel as a result of this. And see, the Holy Spirit now preaches worldwide. John fifteen and twenty-six said, When the Spirit has come, he shall bear witness of me, and he said, You shall be witnesses also. Of course, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer that makes evangelism effective now. And D, the Triune God is with us and empowers us. The Triune God is with us and empowers us. The Lord Jesus promised, I will be with you even under the end of the age. He promised that if we do these words, the Father and I will come and be with you. And He said the Holy Spirit shall come, and He will abide with you forever. Now, number two, the Great Commission. There are a good many people today who we call ultra-dispensationalists who say that the Great Commission was only for the apostles. The answer to that is, that the Lord plainly said that this was to go on until the end of this age. Read the close of Matthew twenty eight and see. Now here's the great commission. A. Preach to all the world. I'm emphasizing the word all. Preach to all the world. B. Teaching them all things. C. With the promise of his presence always. Lo, I am with you always. And D is for all this age. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The end of the world, it says there, but the word world is age, and it means this present church age, undoubtedly. So we are included. Number two, the importance of prayer in evangelism. There's a very excellent little book that has been written by Dr. Schaefer, Louis Barry Schaefer, who founded the Dallas Theological Seminary, on evangelism by prayer. And then I believe that Dr. Frank Gabeline, who was headmaster of the Stony Brook School of the Boys for some years, now retired, also wrote a booklet, Small One, which was put up some years back called Winning Men Through Prayer. I think we miss the great value of prayer in evangelism. We have substituted activity and mechanical methods and psychological pressures and what else. And we ought to begin with prayer. The minute that a group of Christians realize that they're not getting any place, They should get on their faces before the Lord and admit that they're failing. Is that what they do? Well, they've organized another committee. That way they feel like they're doing something. We're committed to death. Let's begin where God begins. One, we are utterly helpless. Maybe you'd rather I say I, but I say we. That is in our own wisdom. or strength. We are utterly helpless. A. Apart from Christ. John fifteen and five. The Lord Jesus said without me or severed from me, you can do nothing. B. Apart from the spirits. John six sixty-three. He says it's the spirit that quickens or makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. If it's done in the energy of the flesh, it doesn't help the devil throw a few more tears. That's all that will happen. Nothing will happen that will last apart from the work of the Spirit. And see, against satanic hatred and power. That is, we are helpless against satanic hatred and power. Second Corinthians four, three and four, in whom the God of this world, that's the devil, have blinded the minds of them which believe not. And in Ephesians six and twelve, we are wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Wicked spirits in the heavens. That's why we have to put on the armor. Number two, interceding priests must be clean. I call your attention to our study on our priesthood, the priesthood of all believers. We are both a holy priesthood to go in before God and a royal priesthood to go out with the gospel. So interceding priests must be clean. That section in First Peter II covers both of them. A. Compare the cleansing of Old Testament priests. I haven't time to go into this, but you should read these two chapters, Exodus twenty-nine and thirty. And there you'll find in Exodus twenty-nine that the priest was one bade, two consecrated, and three clothed. And then you'll find that in chapter thirty, the labor was prepared, and the priest was told that they must stop at the labor and wash every time he passed it, going to and from the service of God. So there was the initial cleansing, and then there is the final, or the daily cleansing, after we are His own. We were cleansed by the precious blood once for all. We are cleansed by the Word of God daily. Let me establish that with some scripture. B, we have had the bath at conversion. Psalm thirteen and ten, look at the revised version there. He that is washed is he that is bathed. Now the washing of regeneration is not baptism. It's the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ. First John one and seven says so, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. Now if you're cleansed from all sin, how much does that leave for baptism? People really don't notice and don't believe what the Scriptures say. And see, we do need daily cleansing of our ways. This is illustrated by the washing of the feet by the Savior in John verse. And in Ephesians five and twenty-six, he says, by the washing of water, by the Word. That's our daily cleansing. The Word of God will keep you clean. Somebody said that he couldn't remember anything. Didn't do him any good to read the Bible. He was told a story about a woman who sent her boy to get a basket full of water from the spring. He went down the spring and dipped it in. Of course, it ran out. So he dipped it in two or three times and still ran out. Finally, he dipped it way down and got all braced and then ran as fast as he could to the house when he got there. The last was dripping out. He said, I can't get a basket full of water. His mother said, well, the basket's clean. That's what I wanted anyway. So if the Word of God seems to run through you and you think you aren't remembering it, at least you're being cleansed and spending time over it every day. And D, we may then, then, after we are cleansed. expect answers to our prayers. Read that section in John fifteen, you see. Number three, God, the Holy Spirit, gives a burden for souls. If you're just going to make a list of people that you'd like to see saved and then just repeat those names, save your breath. But if the Spirit of God indicts your prayer, if he lays on your heart a burden for souls, he will answer that prayer. A. His concern. This is given in John sixteen, eight to eleven. That's why the Holy Spirit is here, so far as the world is concerned, to convict them and to bring them to Christ. And B. He leads in prayer. Romans eight, twenty-six, twenty-seven. We don't know what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for the right things. And C. This burden... becomes intolerable. Romans nine, one to three, the Apostle Paul says, I have continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart because of my people. And then in the tenth of Romans, in verse one he says, my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. So if you've got a real burden that causes you to feel deeply that some person is not saved, this is the Spirit of God doing this, this isn't natural. It isn't natural if you'd even care about your own soul, let alone about somebody else being saved. So if he's laid it upon your heart to pray for that person, you pray for them, and then he in turn will lead and answer that prayer. Number four, spirit-indicted prayers will be answered. First John five, fourteen and fifteen, where he says, if we know that God hears us, then we know that we have the petition. You can thank God at the time you're praying with that kind of evidence. A. He may use the intercessor as a witness. John fifteen, twenty-six, twenty-seven. The Holy Spirit will be a witness and so will you. This is after he's told us about praying. Or B. He may use other vessels as he sees fit. Second Timothy, two twenty-one. There are all kinds of vessels in the great house. But he said, if you'll purge yourself, you'll be a vessel in the water. It may be you, it may be somebody else, but God, the Spirit, will do His work. And see, in any case, it is a work of God. Jonah two nine, salvation is of the Lord. Hebrews five and eight, he is the author of eternal salvation. I don't know whether we can even say that we led his soul to Christ, strictly speaking. All we can say is the Spirit of God used me. The Spirit of God laid it on my heart. The Spirit of God guided me to pray for that person. He gave me an opportunity to present the words of him. The Spirit of God led him to Christ. But he uses me. Now, number three, the results of evangelism. One, God is glorified. I don't know whether you're prepared to accept this or not, but I want to say it anyway. If not one single soul ever gets saved, God would still be glorified in the work of his Son at the cross. I believe that with all my heart. Amen. I believe that. God is glorified, A, in Christ's subjection as Son of Man. He said, Now is the Son of Man glorified? When he prayed to his father about this, the father spoke from heaven and said that he was glorified, he was pleased in him. And be in his finished work on the cross. God is glorified in his finished work on the cross. John seventeen four, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He was looking ahead as though Calvary was already accomplished. And C, in the offer of salvation to all. Acts eleven and eighteen says, Then God had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. And when they said this, they glorified God. They were happy that God offered salvation even to the Gentiles. So he is glorified in the offer of salvation to all. And D, in the salvation of each individual. I'll give you one example here. In Galatians one, Paul said, they heard that he who persecuted the church now preaches the gospel, the message that he once destroyed, and they glorified God in me. And I think we should do this for every soul that gets saved. Don't walk up and pump their arms and congratulate them. They haven't done anything, just as a poor sinner that have accepted Christ. Glorify God. He's the one who did it. And number two, believers are saved. This is the second result of evangelism. Believers are saved. And I have given a few scriptures here that emphasize this. They're not saved by the church, they're not saved by their works, and they're not saved by ordinances, they're saved by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And number three, rejectors are condemned this is what many people don't realize the cross is their condemnation many many people wear a cross as an ornament around their neck or someplace like that and they have never received Christ at all and that cross is their condemnation because that cross leaves them without any excuse a they are condemned already Psalm three, eighteen. Don't wait till you die to find out if you're saved or lost. If you haven't accepted Christ, you are lost. You're condemned already. And B, hardened. Some were hardened. Acts nineteen and four. Like Pharaoh, they hardened their own hearts first. Then it says God hardened his heart. But he did it himself first. And C, Some became opponents. Opponents. They opposed the gospel in Romans fifteen. Paul says, You strive with me in your prayers that I might be delivered from these men. And thee, they shall finally be damned. Second Thessalonians, two twelve. That they all might be damned who believe not the gospel, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. is an awful thought, but it's true. And number four, the last result of evangelism, the witnesses are joyful. A, in being saints. Romans chapter three, the Lord Jesus prayed that my joy might be fulfilled in man, because he said, as thou hast sent me into the world, so send thy van. It ought to be a great joy to every Christian to know that the Lord has sent us and be in converts. First Thessalonians two, nineteen and twenty, Paul says, You're our joy. You're our crown of rejoicing. Now there are five crowns promised as rewards for Christians. Don't confuse salvation. That's a free gift. But crowns are given as rewards for faithful service. And one of them is this one, the crown of rejoicing. It's the soul in this crowd. And we're going to have a great deal of joy when we get to the judgment seat of Christ and meet those there whom we've had a little part in leading to the Lord. And see in suffering for and with Christ. If you'll read these passages that I've appended here in Acts, five, thirteen, sixteen, you'll see how very happy these Christians were, even in the midst of their suffering. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy. Paul and Silas even prayed and sang praises in jail with their backs beaten and their feet fast in the stars. Well, they had to pray first before they could sing, but they got to singing that because they were happy Christians. And then number five, or number four, section four, some examples of evangelism. I'd like to suggest to you that it would be a great help to you if you will give time and thought to the study of evangelism as it is recorded in the scripture. I have bought a number of books because I sincerely hope that I would get some help from them. If I could have read them first, I wouldn't have bought them. They were just filled with psychological methods. They were filled with all kinds of little tricks and quirks that will get a job done. Ways that you can win men to Christ. And some of them are patterned after Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Bragg on them, paddle on the back, make them feel that they're doing something great and all this kind of nonsense. It's worse than nonsense. It's wickedness. What did the Lord say about evangelism? What is recorded in the New Testament about examples so that we'll know what went along? Well, first of all, number one, the believers in the early church. What did they do? Well, this is recorded in Acts chapters two to eight. And this is one division of the book of the Acts. You read this section and you'll find out what they did while they were still at Jerusalem. Now what did they do? Well, A, they witnessed in Jerusalem. Was that a good place to start? Is that where I should start? Well, it was a good place for them to start because that's where they live. It'd be the wrong place for me to start. The place for me to start is where I live. He said, you'll be witnesses to me beginning at Jerusalem. Now, your Jerusalem is your town and your sphere of influence. the place where you work or the school which you attend or the neighborhood in which you live. That's your Jerusalem. If you can't witness to the old lady who lives across the street, what makes you think it should be any good to God if you cross the ocean? That doesn't make a missionary out of a man or a woman. What we need to do is begin right where we are to find souls who need the gospel story. First house you knock on may close the door of your face, but the next one may welcome you in and say, I've been asking the Lord. to guide me, to send somebody to help him. This is a great thrill. You find that the Spirit of God is really using you right in your own neighborhood. So they preached at Jerusalem. What was the result? Well, in the second chapter of Acts, there were three thousand saved. I'll put this down under B. I have something else I want to say about them. I just want to say this about this first section A in Jerusalem. They preached on the day of Pentecost and three thousand got saved. When you get to the fifth chapter, what do you find? It says there's five thousand of them. So it was working. All of these people who were preaching, telling others about it, were seeing results. And a great many came to know the Lord. It even says that a good many of the priests were obedient to the faith. That's quite a thing when you think of the chief priests and the scribes and all of these were the ones who were guilty of putting the Lord Jesus to death. You see, the early church was composed entirely of Jews and proselytes. It wasn't until he got to the tenth chapter of Acts that they went out to the Gentiles. This took a special vision from the Lord to get Peter to go out and preach to the Gentiles. And this is understandable because the Lord had said to the disciples, Don't go to any of the cities of the Samaritans even. Just stay right here and preach among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But then after his resurrection, he had told them that they were now to go out and preached to all the world, but they still stayed in Jerusalem. Now, B, under this first subheading, the believers of the early church, B, the apostles. And you have the apostles preaching in chapter two and again in chapter four. And all of the public preaching seems to be done by the apostles at first. But then, C, the deacons in Acts seven. Actually, at the beginning of chapter six, the deacons were chosen, seven of them, to take care of the poor widows of the church. And right away, two of those began to be preachers as well as deacons. And one of them was the first martyr, Stephen. And so at the close of chapter six, the Jews have brought him into the council. To hear him, and in chapter seven you have his sermon recorded, and at the close of chapter seven he is martyred. But this is an improvement now. It began with only the apostles preaching, and then pretty soon the deacons began to preach. But D, there was still no outreach. They were still in Jerusalem, still preaching to the same people, still staying at home, no outreach. Now the Lord has to do something, and he does. Section two, or number two of the section. Persecution scattered then. Acts eight and verse one. There arose a persecution, and the believers, except the apostles, were all scattered abroad. Now we don't know where the apostles were, but we assume that they were in jail. We do know that When you come over a little farther, you find some of them being put in jail. So it's very likely that they were put in jail. And the others scattered around all over the country. Now, what did they do? They did exactly what the Lord knew that they would do. They preached. So, A, all preached. And I underline the word all. Acts eight and four, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Now, the word for preacher is a different word than the one When the apostles stood up and preached a sermon, the Greek language is more specific than we can be in English. And the word here is really a word very much like our word gossip. Now, gossip's a bad word. But the word is totally related to it. It means talking over the back fence, talking to the fellow next to you. And that's what they did. When they were scattered abroad, they went out and they just began to talk to everybody that they met. And the result was marvelous. Souls were saved everywhere. B, outreach to Samaria. Now you remember that the Lord had said when he rose from the dead, you preach in Jerusalem and Judea and then go to Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. So Philip, another one of the deacons, remembered this. And from Acts eight, chapter, or verse five to the fourteen verse, you have Philip going down and preaching to the Samaritans. And a great many of them responded. I've often wondered if maybe this first time that the Lord Jesus went through Samaria and preached to the poor woman in the fourth chapter, and then she in turn told the men, I wondered if this didn't kind of prepare Samaria. Oftentimes you'll find that it's so. The Lord has prepared a place, so when you go in and give them the gospel, they're all ready for it. And see to Ethiopia, the same man Philip, was used to preach the gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch. And he met him down on the road going back home, caught him before he got there. So he was saved and he went home as a missionary. And there is a great deal to indicate that Ethiopia was pretty well evangelized before the first century is over. And D in Gaza, the Gaza Strip. Acts eight, verse forty. That's where Philip preached to this man and left him there and the Lord took him away. And E, the boundary was crossed to Gentile. You find this in Acts ten and eleven. Two chapters describe how Peter went to the Gentiles. Now the first preaching to the Gentiles takes place in Acts chapter ten. How God intended this. You remember in the Old Testament he said Jonah. to Nineveh, which was a Gentile city. And that's why Jonah was so reluctant to go. And he decided he run away and go to Tarsus instead. And the Lord brought him back. He was a little down in the mouth there for a while, but he came out of it. And then the Lord got him to go where he belonged. And I don't know what he's going to have to do to you to get to where he belonged, but this is the way God works. Just as he scattered these people, so he sees to it that the gospel gets out. Finally it got to the Gentiles. This was the Lord told them that it should. And section three, Paul's missionary journeys, along with many fellow workers. We often call them Paul's missionary journeys, and we forget all these fellow workers. There are many of them, whom we won't try to name just now. A, Paul's conversion, Acts nine. Paul met the Lord. He didn't join a church. He met the Lord. And B, his commission. The Lord is the one who gave him the job. And C, his training. What's the Bible school or seminary did he attend? A very special one. Alone with God in the Arabian desert. His training. And D, his specific work. In Acts thirteen, the Holy Spirit called Paul and Barnabas to do a special job. And E, his vision. Romans fifteen. That is, he said, I am continually reaching out to the regions beyond. And F, his imprisonment in Acts twenty-one. This might seem to be a terrible tragedy that he's locked up in jail. But G, his increase usefulness. If God sees that you'll be more used to him and learn more in jail and loose, he may see that you get put in jail. But he'd be there with you, as he was with Paul. And Paul was used to write his wonderful epistles while he was there in the jail. So God used him mightily.