Open your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and then we'll open in a word of prayer. I want to read a text before I pray. It's a text I read in my last installment, my first installment in this Sunday night series on evangelism, on the importance of us being ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5, and I'll read verses 18 to the end of the chapter, and then we'll open in a word of prayer. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Verse 18, the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19 is the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And what's our message? What's this word of reconciliation? Verse 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity we have to gather as a church family again. Thank you for the comforts of this room, these chairs, the sound system, the climate. A lot of our brothers and sisters, maybe the majority of our brothers and sisters around the globe, don't have any of these conveniences. So we don't take it for granted. It's a mercy. It's a gift to us. And we are to be good stewards. So Lord, I pray that the remainder of this hour, we will take the blessings and the gifts you've given to us. And Lord, we pray that your spirit would work in our hearts as we continue this study now. and help us not to be content until every last one of us is evangelistic in our relationships. And I pray that Your Spirit will do this. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I hope you have a copy of the notes for tonight. They were handing them out as you came in. And I must confess something. For the majority of the rest of this series, which will take us into the fall, I am going to take the position of a teacher This is more going to be a classroom, if you will, as we talk about this issue of personal evangelism. And I'm going to be giving you some material that will stretch your mind a little bit. That's my prayer. And I pray that it will convict all of us and move all of us, not out of guilt into being an evangelist, but out of joy. Okay? So right off the bat, who in their right mind would ever volunteer to teach a class on personal evangelism? I mean, think about it. That's like saying, would you ever volunteer to teach a class on prayer? The answer is, well, yes, you're supposed to pray. I get that. But how many of us would want to stand in front of a class and say, I want you to pray like I don't? I'm not happy with where I am in my prayer life. I'm not happy with where I am in my personal evangelism life. But at the same time, I think we all need to be stretched. And I'm so glad that God put this in our hearts to have this series as a church family. Let me start out with a very familiar provocative statement that you know. Finish this. Just because you are in a garage doesn't make you a car. Okay, good. How about this one? Just because you're in a lake doesn't make you a fish. Good. Just because you are in the woods doesn't make you a I was going with bear or deer, but we can do tree. It works. Just because you are in the hospital doesn't make you a doctor. Some of you are scaring me now. Let's get a little more personal here. Just because you are in a foreign field doesn't make you a missionary. Just because you are in the presence of an unsaved person here in Washtenaw County doesn't mean that you're a witness. Just being around unsaved people doesn't mean that you are being evangelistic. You say, well, I'm living my life. I'm trying to be salt and light. And you'll pull that out of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm trying to live in such a way so they'll ask me about the hope I have. Isn't that a verse? And the answer is, well, yes. But if we never cross that line into nouns and verbs with that person, we're still not a witness. Just like general revelation, creation itself doesn't give us the details leading to salvation, special revelation has to do that, the same thing goes true with our testimony in the community. Talking different, living different, deciding different is important. It's salt and light, but we still haven't been evangelistic until we give nouns and verbs to form the gospel message. So that's our goal with this series. And here's where I'm going with this. I do want to spend time later on in this series talking about the keys to personal evangelism. We're going to talk about what needs to be in place in your life before you have a contact. We're going to talk about what to keep in mind during the conversation. And then we're also going to talk about what is your responsibility after the conversation. We're going to talk about all that. That's three separate Sunday nights right there. But before we decide what we want to, if I can use Paul's words, put on, what we need to do and be, according to scripture, before we do the right, we have to forsake what? The wrong. And what I want to do tonight and my next two Sunday nights in this series is I want to talk to you about the obstacles to personal evangelism. We're going to talk about what are the obstacles that the local church makes towards evangelism. Local churches can be a problem. We're going to talk about the unbelievers and how they themselves are an obstacle to personal evangelism. But what I want to do tonight is I want to look at the first obstacle and it's this. How are we as individual believers an obstacle to personal evangelism? That's where we're going to go. And I want to start this study with a quote by, you guessed it, Spurgeon, of course. Just listen to this. This is Spurgeon. We say, well, give us a little prep for this quote you're going to read to us. OK, remember, Spurgeon's a great preacher in England in another generation, end of the 1800s. And he also held a very robust view of God's sovereignty and salvation. But he also held to, and I don't think that this is inconsistent, to the responsibility of man to believe and repent. It's a tension that he allows to be solved in God's mind. Someone once asked Spurgeon, how do you reconcile God's sovereignty and our responsibility in salvation? And Spurgeon says, I don't. You don't have to reconcile friends. In God's mind, that's not attention. In our mind, it is. But the Bible teaches both. You preach in both. So that's the guy I'm gonna read this quote from about personal evangelism. Here it is. The saving of souls. If a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed master, the saving of souls will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman who cares not for the scorch or the heat so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. Now listen to this last part of his quote. If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." End quote. Wow. Spurgeon. If we're going to start knowing what we need to repent of, then let's talk tonight, just brass tacks, classroom setting, about what are the obstacles concerning me, concerning you as believers. What are the obstacles? I'm going to identify several with you in our study this evening. It's important for you to weigh your heart out in this. Remember Proverbs 14.8 says, the wisdom of the prudent is to understand their way. In other words, we are wise and we are prudent when we take a hard look at our own hearts and why we do what we do or why we don't do what we don't do. What are these obstacles that we need to repent of and be aware of? First of all is the fear of man. Right? You knew this one was going to come out of the gate. The fear of man kills our personal witness. I have in your notes here the obstacles stated, okay? And I'm putting it in this format just for a classroom feel for you. Here's what I mean by the fear of man. Whenever I establish my acceptance, remember this from our series on the fear of man? Whenever I establish my acceptance based on others' opinion of my appearance and performance. I'll say it again. Whenever I establish my acceptance based on others' opinion of my appearance and performance, I will cease to be a loving confronter of the lost with the mandates of the gospel. Now notice I didn't just say the message of the gospel, the mandate. You understand this. When we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel is not a suggestion. The gospel is not a polite invitation. The gospel is a command to believe and repent. and it has eternal ramifications. That's why I say the mandates of the gospel. We're presenting them with a message that will change their life, and we don't sand off those corners. And if you and I, when you and I struggle with the fear of man, we'll clam up. We'll clam up. A couple of verses that you need to consider on this, Galatians 1.10, right? Remember Galatians 1.10? It's over a few pages to the right. Paul says this, he says, am I now seeking the favor of men or of God, or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Or Proverbs 29.25 is the Old Testament equivalent, and we spent a lot of weeks studying that verse in the fear of man series. It says the fear of man is a snare. Remember what it means to have your leg in a snare, a trap? You'll make no progress, you'll be in pain, and eventually you're gonna perish there if nothing happens. Now what a fitting picture that is. If we struggle with the fear of man, we're gonna make zero progress in confronting people with a message that even Jesus said the message of the cross will be a sword in families. Fear of man kills our witnessing. I think of John Mark. John Mark, who got an invitation to be on that first missionary journey in Acts 13, and by Acts 15, he leaves. He's gone. There was a fear of man problem there. I believe that Timothy struggled with the fear of man, and I see Paul addressing that in every chapter of 2 Timothy. The fear of man, my friends, will kill my witness every time. And the reason this is at the top of the list, A, because we're in classroom mode, B, this is the main one for me. I know I run my mouth in front of groups of people all the time. I'm paid to do that. But I'm telling you, I'll run my mouth in private with strangers too. But as far as bringing the mandates of the gospel to someone, I have to push over this in my life. Maybe you can relate. I've referenced a book in our series on the fear of man by Ed Welch. It was called, When People are Big and God is Small. And I put this quote in your notes. Look at this. If making a decision for Jesus means that we might spend years being unpopular, ignored, poor, or criticized, then there are masses of Christians who temporarily put their faith on the shelf. Death is not imminent, so why hurry into such a rash decision? There will be time later to get things straight with God. In other words, kill me, but don't keep me from being liked, appreciated, or respected. The clear proclamation of the gospel does not make us look good. It doesn't make us popular." End quote. He's right. I don't follow you around in your weeks any more than you follow me around in my weeks, but I know that all of us get into relationships, and the better we know the person, the more this one shows up. Give me a handful of tracts and put me at a bus stop, and I'll have no problem giving the gospel mandates to strangers. But set me in a room with my dad, or with my neighbor, or with my sparring partner that knows me well, and suddenly this one becomes big. Am I going to value his friendship and opinion of me more than the fact that he needs Jesus or he's going to hell? Fear of man is an obstacle to our personal evangelism. Would you agree with me on that? It's a big one. It's a big one. But let me point out another one. Letter B, misunderstanding of the task. This is an obstacle for believers when it comes to personal evangelism. Let me state this obstacle in your notes here. Often we operate as if, and we even believe, that the task of sharing the gospel is a gift that we don't have or a vocation that we are not called to. Now we've had some fun conversations at the deacon level with Salvador and others in a recent meeting, talking about the gift of evangelism and the call of evangelism, even the office of the evangelist. sometimes that's enough fodder in the conversation for us to say why don't I don't have that I don't have that gift or I'm not called to the office of the evangelist and I believe that was an office that we see spelled out in Ephesians chapter 4 that's not me and I know people like that I know people that I would believe were in the office of evangelist or I know people that are gifted they seem to always be leading people to Jesus like my father-in-law And I don't have that. That's not me. And so I don't have high expectations on me to be a witness. And what that is is a misunderstanding of the task. One of my two favorite books on the spiritual disciplines is by Donald Whitney. It's called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. He has a chapter in there on the discipline of evangelism. And I have a quote there in your notes. While it is true that God gifts some for ministry as evangelists, he calls all believers to be his witnesses and provides them with both the power to witness and a powerful message. Every evangelist is called to be a witness, but only a few witnesses are called to the vocational ministry of an evangelist. Just as each Christian, regardless of spiritual gift or ministry, is to love others, so each believer is to evangelize whether or not his or her gift is that of an evangelist. Home run. I would even adjust what Dr. Whitney said, and I would say, if we are supposed to love everyone, love our neighbor, saved and unsaved, the greatest expression of love we can have towards an unsaved person is to give them the good news of Christ. That's how we love them. There are two texts I'd like for you to consider on this one. Forever we need to put into a shallow grave in the backyard this idea of a gift. And if I don't have it, I don't have to do it. The first one is Matthew 28, 18 through 20. You know what that is? Remember this? The Great Commission. Let's look at it. Matthew 28, 18 through 20. I know I said I'm in classroom mode, but I've been yelling. I need to relax a little bit, right? Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now some people say, hey, this doesn't apply to us. He's talking to the disciples. You ever hear that one? The problem is that last phrase, the end of the age thing. We haven't reached that yet, and this commission is on until that point happens. So this extends to disciples right down to us. We are ambassadors for Christ, to use Paul's language. But also, in 2 Timothy 4, 5, Paul says to Timothy, he says, do the work of an evangelist. It's not something that effortlessly will flow out of every one of us. Some it does. And again, I know I talk about Lori's dad and my brother-in-law Mike Knight a lot, but those guys will witness to a bus and a stop sign. They've witnessed to everyone. And I'm telling you, in the waiting room at the hospital there in Flint, the room would be full. I'm sitting with dad and Mike here. There's another family group in the middle of the room, and then another family group on the other side. And Mike and dad are witnessing to the group over on the other side in front of this second group. They're having a conversation across the room with the gospel. And I'm like, man, and these people are engaged in it. How do they do that? I look at that and I'm like, I can't do that. I mean, I witness and by God's grace, I see people come to faith as you do, but in front of everyone, to me, I'm not comfortable doing it that way. I don't want to make it a spectator sport, but that's just my style. I'd rather go over to the other side of the room, sit down, and quietly dialogue with them. But that's Jim. They're Mike and Ed. And they need to do them, and I need to do me, right? But whatever makeup you are, whatever your constitution is, whatever your personality, understand this. Just because you're not a Mike and an Ed doesn't mean you're not supposed to be witnessing. Don't wait around for a zap that's gonna make it easy. Don't wait around for someone to start stroking a check for you and calling you evangelist before you do it. Every last one of us is to be a witness. And that's why, as a church, we talk about making disciples, and every disciple is growing as a worshiper, a servant, a witness, and a discipler. So I guess that means, again, that if Jim is not witnessing, Jim is stalling out his own discipleship. Again, look down at your notes here. Do I have this quote in there from William Booth? Did I put that one in your notes? Oh, okay, I got one for you. Just listen to this one. Who knows who William Booth is? He's a founder of what organization? Salvation Army, right. Listen to what he said. Not called, did you say? Not heard the call, I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burden, agonized heart of humanity and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. and then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world." End quote. I love that phrase. Not called? Maybe you meant to say not heard the call. You say, what is an obstacle? An obstacle is a misunderstanding of the task. Thinking that it's for the professionals. Thinking that it's for a certain personality type or someone who's gotten a special zap from the Holy Spirit. We are all to be witnesses. What's a third obstacle we need to be mindful of as we understand our way? What makes us slow to witness? I call it a failure in worship. A failure in worship. Here's the obstacle stated, and it's just straight out there. Here it is. A silent witness is a disobedient witness in an unloving son or an unloving child of God. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, you have two Bible texts to consider. Your first one is Matthew 22, 34 to 40. We look at this text a lot as a church family. You know what it's going to say as soon as I start it. The lawyer came to him and said, what's the greatest command? Remember this? And he says, Jesus said, you need to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. In other words, in all dimensions, in every part of your existence, your goal every day, the greatest command in God's sight is to love him. That's the greatest command. And if you say, well, how do I know if I'm loving him? Well, that's the second text, John 14, 15. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. This follows, letter C follows right behind letter B. Being a witness is a command. And therefore, if I want to love God and demonstrate that love, I will obey him in this command to be a witness. Look at it this way. I'm trying to I'm trying to say it this way When you and I are engaged in a relationship over through which we're trying to spread the gospel of Jesus. We're making friends With a purpose of witnessing to them or we're engaging a stranger In a conversation that God has providentially put us in for a few minutes with the sake of the gospel in both settings when you have as your end goal to witness you are worshiping and Because you're obeying. You say, well man, I've had people slam doors in my face, or I've had family members walk out and be upset and not talk to me until next Christmas. You know what? You're no longer tethered to their reaction to your efforts at witnessing. Because what was going on between you and them is really something going on between you and God. God, you want me to be an ambassador to you, I'm giving the message. I'm not responsible for their response to me. Now you need to give it sweetly, and we'll talk more about that. but it's a failure in worship. John Piper's written a good book on worship. It's called Let the Nations Be Glad, and this is at the front of that book. He says this, quote, missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. That's provocative. What does he mean by that? He says missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. missions begins and ends in worship. What does he mean by that? It means this, the ultimate goal is to not just give the message to our neighborhoods and nations, but to see that message given with clarity and simplicity and in the power of the Holy Spirit and God regenerating people in our neighborhoods and missions, increasing the number of worshipers worldwide of the true God. That's the end game. So when he says missions begins and ends in worship, he means this. Missions begins when I realize I'm going to love God and obey him by giving his gospel out and it ends with, and that's worship, and it ends with God saving people because of that message and increasing the number of worshipers in the world in each generation. I love that. There's a failure in worship when there's a failure in obedience. A fourth obstacle though, Letter D is uncertainty in preparation. Uncertainty in preparation. Now, I wanna mess with your minds on this one a little bit. Here's the obstacle stated, I'll read it twice so you can get it. While cultural, I'm gonna use some big words here, I'll explain them. While cultural incarnation, What is incarnation? Well, theologically, we think of incarnation at Christmas when God became one of us to reach us. Well, in the world of missions now, in conservative evangelicalism, it's popular now to use this word incarnation to talk about missions and witnessing. And it means that you need to become one of them in order to win them. And someone's decided to call that incarnational mission. And that's a whole conversation in itself. While cultural incarnation or becoming like the culture, immersing yourself in the culture so you can sneak up on people in the culture and trick them into getting saved. While cultural incarnation is popular, And lifestyle evangelism is common, meaning, well, I just want to live the Christian life in others, but don't make me talk to others. I just want to live in front of them and be different, but I don't want to talk to them, break that silence and get awkward. Once the line is crossed into actual conversations, many believers don't know what to say. With all the songs that we sing, even the songs we sung this morning and tonight, with all the songs we sing with the gospel in it, we tend to freeze in those moments when someone says, what does it mean to be a Christian? So I continue here. Debate over elements. In other words, what do we have to talk about? Do we need to talk about lordship or not? Do we need to talk about the importance of repentance or not? Do we need to talk about young earth in every gospel presentation or not? Do we need to give the big story and start in the Garden of Eden in every situation and end up in heaven in the new creation? What are we supposed to include? Debate over elements, boredom with older presentations. So what do you mean by that? If I were to ask some of you to witness, you would say, well, I know the Roman's Road. I use the Roman's Road. Some of you would say, like I would say, oh, I'm going to do Evangelism Explosion. Some of you might say, well, no, I like Larry Moyer's Evantel presentation. Still others might say, no, I'm a Way of the Master guy myself. Still others might say, I like, is it Fay that says Share Jesus Without Fear? I like that guy. But what I'm finding with Christians today, especially Millennials and Gen Z, the ones I get to work with in the classroom, is that they're bored with some of these older presentations because their thing is to deconstruct everything. And then one more part of this, and lack of practice with any are often the culprits. Now that's a long one. I'm going to read that now and not interrupt it. What do I mean by uncertainty of preparation? While cultural incarnation is popular and lifestyle evangelism is common, once the line is crossed into actual conversation, many believers don't know what to say. They want to debate the elements, they're bored with older presentations, and they don't practice any of them. And it's here that I just want to say, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice with no warning, you should be able to give the gospel in two minutes or 30 minutes. Or you might want to say, you should be able to tweet it or preach it. You might have two minutes with someone, you should be able to get through the gospel claims of Christ in two minutes. If you're sitting in someone's living room or over a coffee, you should be able to do it in 20 to 30 minutes with interactions. I'm saying quit being critical of all the different approaches and own one. If this was a class in the very full sense, I would give you a homework assignment this week. You know what it would be? I would say, I want you to write a four-page paper. I want the first two pages to be you evaluating an existing well-known model of evangelism, EE, Romans Road, Way of the Master, whatever. Just present it and critique it, positives and negatives. And then the second two pages of your paper, I want you to write your own presentation. You can borrow from this or that or tweak, evangelism explosion, but what are you going to say when the opportunity comes for you to break the silence with a stranger or a loved one? But I see a lot of God's people, they just, they're not prepared. There's uncertainty about preparation. I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything. I mean, look at Paul. When you just touched the apostle Paul, the gospel came out. We giggle at the toy that was popular years ago, Elmo. Remember him? And if you push your finger in the middle of Elmo, he giggles. When you put your hand in the back of the Apostle Paul, out comes the gospel. And it comes out like this in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 and 4, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you, listen to this, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. There you go. You push Paul in a corner, that's what's coming out. The simple gospel message. Christ speaks of this in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, verses 46 through 47. as he's talking, appearing to his disciples, he says, Thus it is written that Christ should 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. And you are witnesses of these things. Tell people what you have seen. We have the message right there, ready. I love what Paul says in Romans chapter 10. Romans 10, verse 8, but what does it say? The word is near you and in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Boom, gospel. I love the verse that we read before we prayed to start the service this evening. I think it's, I agree with MacArthur, it's the gospel in one verse. 2 Corinthians 5.21, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. You have it all in one verse. That verse is so good that Sandy Ellis is aware of this. I've had her test drive something that we've paid for and printed as a church. We have over 1,000 little gifts we're gonna give to you in a couple weeks. You're each gonna start out with five, and it's an invitation card to church, like a business card. You can't leave it on the table, can't leave it in the restroom at the airport. The rule is gonna be, we're gonna have rules for our game. You have to hand it to someone after a conversation. On the front is information about our church, and on the back is one verse, 2 Corinthians 5.21, in case the Lord gets to open the door for you to share the gospel with them in that conversation. But be prepared. You've got to have an approach. And don't worry, I'm going to propose one to you. I'm going to demonstrate one to you. Ernie and I will demonstrate several approaches. But let me give you one more before we're finished tonight. I told you this wouldn't be a pleasant study. But before we can put on, according to Paul, we have to put off some things. Before we can move forward, we need to repent. The fourth one is, hang on, lack. You say, why do professing believers not witness like we should? Because letter E means there could be a lack of regeneration. You say, with the person we're witnessing to? No. With us. Don't get me wrong. When God regenerates you, you are regenerated for all eternity. I do not believe you can lose your salvation if you are truly regenerated. You say, why? Well, Paul taught that you can't. And Jesus taught that you can't. But I do think that there are a lot of people, like D. James Kennedy said to the people in his own church, some of you I wouldn't want to be handcuffed to when you die. And he's the founder of evangelism explosion. Let me state this obstacle. The absence of fruit means the absence of, you can probably guess this word, life. Isn't that what James said? Faith without works is what? It's dead. Continuing on here, perseverance of the believer in salvation. is not only revealed, and by the way, perseverance is just a big word that just means endurance. A saved person will continue to move forward in growth. Perseverance of the believer in salvation is not only revealed in a progressive moving away from sin, but also a progressive moving towards practical righteousness. You say, what do you mean? In a church like ours, even on a membership roll, There may be people that aren't saved. And I just want to say, I guarantee it. I guarantee there are people in our membership role of Calvary Baptist Church, at Colonial Baptist Church, at Forest Avenue Baptist Church, at Calvary Bible Church, at Milan Baptist Church, at Harvest Bible, at Inner City Baptist Church. There are people on the membership role who have merely been doing a life of religion and they are not regenerated. See, how can you say that? Remember the kingdom parables in Matthew chapter 13? Let's look at them. Look at them real quickly here. Matthew chapter 13, verse 18. These are sobering. Actually, I've talked to the deacons. There's a series I want to do with you on assurance of salvation. And I don't know when I'm going to do it with you. After James, we're doing a marriage series. And then I want to do Luke, but I might drop this one in there. We're going to spend a lot of time in Matthew 13. But for just tonight, I want you to look at verses 18 to 23. This is the parable of the sower. Remember that one? He sows seed. Some falls on rocky ground. Some falls on a weedy ground. Some falls on soil that's shallow. And some falls on good ground. And he's explaining it here, verse 18. Here then the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown in the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when afflictions or persecutions arise because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one, verse 22, on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." See, what's the point here? One in the four soils represents true salvation. It's not just an immediate excitement, it's not just hearing it, and it's not just immediate excitement, and it's not just a temporary journey, it's those that endure are not the ones, listen, they're not the ones that earned the right to keep it, they're the ones who really had it. And he's saying that to us who live in the time that these kingdom parables are focused. Again, if you look over in Matthew 13, verses 36 to 43, you have the whole tares thing. Remember this parable? Then he left the crowds, verse 36, and went into the house, and his disciples came to him and said, Explain to us the parable of the tares and the field. And Jesus said, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man, and the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one. and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels." I mean, covers are being thrown off here. The details are being very clear. So, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will shine forth as a sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear." I mean, this is a story of wheat and tares, and they're growing together, and they even look alike for a season. But it's when they are mature that you realize that some that we thought were one of us aren't. And only the passing of time reveals that. I could go to 1 John 2. I could go to Romans 6. I could go to Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount and talk about two different types of trees. But suffice it to say that in churches like ours, there are people that can even be on the membership roll that time will reveal they never really were saved. They didn't lose it. They never had it. I want you to look at this quote I've put in your notes here by William Penn. I think I put this quote in there, did I? I didn't get this one in there either. Do you have a Spurgeon quote? Okay, hang on to that one. Here's William Penn. the false notion that they may be children of God while in a state of disobedience to his holy commandments, and disciples of Jesus though they revolt from his cross, and members of his true church which is without spot or wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of spots and wrinkles, is of all other deceptions upon themselves the most pernicious to their eternal condition, for they are at peace in sin and under a security in their transgression." He says, people like us can be deceived. We look like Christians, but that's it. Or to cut to the chase, like Spurgeon says in this quote I put in there, have you no wish for others to be saved? then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that. Wow. Now, this is not time to club you and say, well, I gotta earn the right to keep my salvation, so I gotta tell people. No, no, no, no, no, no. If we can all get busy in our lives and in our family, we can all struggle with the balance of time and responsibilities. And maybe, just maybe, as we turn our attention to this series, the Holy Spirit's saying, hey, yeah, slow down a little bit in this area. This area has been running pretty low in your life for a while. The concern for souls. You've been walking by houses, so to speak, that are on fire. You're not willing to beat on the door and break it down and bring people out. And the Holy Spirit's saying, hey, you know what? Just wake up to it. Wake up. You've gotten busy. You know what God's people do? Those who are redeemed, they're like, oh yes, oh wow, I have been busy. Lord, forgive me. I'm gonna re-engage. That's someone who's a believer. But if the Spirit's saying, hey, don't you care that people are perishing around you and you've gotten busy and this and that, and we remain unmoved and unchanged, we don't lose our salvation. Spurgeon is simply saying, you need to check and see if you ever had it. Because God puts within us, not only a desire to obey him and worship him, but he puts in us that second great command, which grows out of that first great command, where we love our neighbor, and the greatest expression of love to God is obedience. The greatest expression of love to our neighbor, so to speak, if they're unsaved, is to give them the gospel. So before we push on any further in how do we do personal evangelism, what do we say in the conversation? How do we get ready before the conversation? What do we do after the conversation? We're going to get to all that. We're going to spend a lot of time on that. I'm pretty pumped about that. But what we need to do first before we put on is put off. And the goal tonight is simply to go home from this Lord's Day, not beat up. You say, well, you're yelling tonight. I was yelling at Jim. I'm yelling at Jim. We go home and we say this, we say something like, Lord, thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that I struggle with the fear of man. And I'm not ready to share. And I haven't been obeying you in this regard. Lord, forgive me. That's where personal witnessing begins. Jim Elliott, the martyr to the Auka Indians, I quoted him this morning. He said this in his journal, we believers, missionaries, we are a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt somebody. I like that. But Jim Elliott wasn't the only one murdered by the Aukas. His teammate Nate Saint was also martyred. Nate Saint and his wife put together a Christmas letter in December of 1955, shortly before they gave their lives as martyrs. And this is what he wrote in his Christmas card in December of 1955. Quote, if God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts. We would hate the things that seem now so dear to us. Our lives would suddenly be too short. We would despise time-robbing distractions. And we would charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the alkas from a comprehension of Christmas. him who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor so that we might through his poverty be made rich Lord God speak to my own heart and give me to know thy holy will and the joy of walking in it Merry Christmas what a Christmas card and here's Nate Saint soon to be a martyr and he's not happy with his witness So as we continue to walk up to this topic of personal evangelism 101, we've come through this one, and this one wasn't pleasant, and I warned you. But we're in a good place, because now we're a little more aware of what to look out for this coming week, as far as the fear of man, as far as not being prepared, as far as worshiping God through witnessing. And we also have very specific points for repentance. Now next time we come together in this study, we're gonna talk about, I believe it's the local church. How is a local church, this sounds strange, how is a local church an obstacle to the personal evangelism of its members? We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna be hard at Jerusalem first, before we reach out to the neighborhoods and the nations. Repentance starts, at the household of God, right? You know the name Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China. And I close with his testimony. He says, I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help him. Now I end up asking him to do his work through me. I like that. So what do we do with this? I'm just asking that you go home and pray through these five points. Ask God to open your eyes. to your own heart, as Proverbs 14.8 says, the wisdom of the prudent is to understand their way. You know, I was driving around. I was driving to do a visit to Dr. Bob's house, actually. This was maybe a month or two ago, two months ago. And I was in my Honda Accord, and I was on Textile Road going around those two roundabouts there. You remember those two roundabouts that you love to drive through? Remember that? By Southside Baptist? So I went around the first roundabout, and I forgot which roundabout it was, but someone wasn't doing it right to my left, so I had to go out fast. And when I did, something went wrong in my car. It sounded like a... And then a... And it wasn't going very fast at all. I'm like, oh man. And so I turned right and got off on the shoulder of the road, and I did and said what you do and say when your car makes that noise. And we start yelling at the car. We're like, really? Go! Go! Why won't you go? You were going back there. Keep going. Even Michelle Toledo came by and said, she knocked on the door, scared the spit out of me. And I didn't see her sneak up on me. And you OK? I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm fine. She leaves. I roll up the window. Go! Had to get towed. A lot of times we look at our lives when it comes to witnessing. We're like, just go! Well, at some point, something's wrong. That's why you're not going. Same with your car. It's the same with our witness. And we need to have someone tell us what's wrong. Could it be the fear of man, lack of preparation, lack of worship, lack of regeneration, these things we've talked about tonight? That's your assignment. Go home and pray, because we have some fun coming ahead in this series. We're going to put off first, and then we're going to put on.