Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by Tony Zabala

SWORD DRILLS

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

by

Tony Zabala

"Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving That which I have vowed I will say Salvation is from the LORD." (Jonah 2: 8-10)

Last time, we talked about the second and third purposes for evangelism which are loving God and loving your neighbor. We also looked at some practical ways as to how the Christian shows his love for God and love for his neighbor by simply following God's commandments concerning evangelism because when the Christian follows God's commandments he is showing his love for God and for his neighbor (Matt. 28: 19-20, Acts 1:8; John 14:15). Both the second and third purposes of evangelism of loving God and loving your neighbor stem from the primary purpose of evangelism which is the Christian evangelizes for the glory of God (2 Cor. 10:31). And we also explored the issue that even if the Christian follows God's commandments concerning evangelism, but fails to lead a holy life, ultimately, his evangelistic efforts will be in vain and not glorifying to God. The Christian gives glory to God in everything he does including his evangelism.

The Plan of Evangelism

So we have looked at the purpose of evangelism, now we will start looking at the plan of evangelism. It is always important to have a plan especially when it comes to evangelism. You don't want to go out haphazardly witnessing to your friend or neighbor or go out and do street evangelism without some type of plan in mind. In fact, the Bible promotes having a plan when you undertake any project. The king counts his army before going off to war and a person who builds his home counts his materials and sees if he has enough funds to finish the project (Luke 15: 24-31). They would be foolish if they didn't have some sort of plan. Likewise, it is the wise evangelist who formulates a plan prior to undertaking any type of evangelistic endeavor.

Trust in God's Sovereignty

The first point in the plan of evangelism is to trust in God's sovereignty. The sovereignty of God as defined by Easton's Dictionary states that God "has the absolute right to do all things based on His good pleasure" (Dan 4:25, 35; Rom. 9: 15-23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 4:11). God's attribute of sovereignty is probably the most comforting attribute of all of God's attributes especially for the Christian evangelist because the evangelist can rest on the fact that God is in control of all things especially in the salvation of the unbelievers he is witnessing to.

The salvation of the unbeliever does not depend on how perfect my Gospel presentation is or how many times I go out to evangelize or how I made that apologetic argument concerning the problem of evil. Ultimately, the unbeliever's salvation rests on the grace of God alone because man is dead in his trespasses and sins and he does not have the ability to come to God by his own freewill (Eph. 2: 1; Rom. 3:18).

In addition, it will take God's divine intervention through the power of the Holy Spirit to call, draw, and finally regenerate a dead sinner, who is a child of Satan. (John 3:8 ; 6:44, Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:17). So the evangelist must not put his trust in his evangelism presentation or his evangelistic efforts to save the unbeliever. The Christian must trust in God's sovereignty as to whether God chooses to save the unbeliever or not.

God's Sovereignty v. Man's Responsibility

So if God is sovereign over all things including evangelism, what is my responsibility in terms of evangelism? Does that mean that if God's sovereign over evangelism including the salvation of unbelievers, do I have to forgo my responsibility to evangelize as some extreme hyper-Calvinists believe? Well, no, just because God is sovereign over all things including the salvation of unbelievers, the Christian has still been commanded by God to proclaim the Gospel to every living creature (Matt. 28: 18-20; Acts 1:8).

Your responsibility, dear Christian, is to faithfully proclaim the Gospel no matter what the result, give the best Gospel presentation you can, preach the best sermon you can, work hard in your evangelistic efforts, and leave the results of that unbeliever's salvation to God's grace and mercy alone (Eph. 2: 8-9; Rom. 9:15, Titus 3:5). We work hard in our evangelistic efforts because we want to glorify God in everything we do, but we always leave the results of that person's salvation to God (Jonah 2: 8-10; 1 Cor. 10:31).

It is God's declarative will to use Christians as his means to get the Gospel out despite the fact that ultimately salvation for the unbeliever rests on God's grace alone. Christians have the honor and privilege of proclaiming the King's Gospel message to a lost and dying world (2 Cor. 5:20). God dictates the ways as well as the means of our evangelistic efforts based on His sovereign grace. God uses sinful yet redeemed, imperfect, broken vessels as his agents to proclaim His Gospel to the world. As my old apologetics teacher used to say, "God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines". Christians are those crooked sticks.

A Quote from J.I. Packer

I would like to end this article with a recommendation of J.I. Packer's book "Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God" and a quote from that book. Dr. Packer's book is excellent and he clearly shows the reader the importance of God's sovereignty in regards to evangelism. I finished this book for the second time earlier this year and I plan to read it again in the near future. Here is just one of Dr. Packer's many great insights from this wonderful book:

“It is necessary, therefore to take the thought of human responsibility, as it affects both the preacher and the hearer of the gospel, very seriously indeed. But we must not let it drive the thought of divine sovereignty out of our minds. While we must always remember that it is our responsibility to proclaim salvation, we must never forget that it is God who saves. It is God who brings men and women under the sound of the gospel, and it is God who brings them to faith in Christ. Our evangelistic work is the instrument that He uses for this purpose, but the power that saves is not in the instrument: it is in the hand of the One who uses the instrument. We must not at any stage forget that. For if we forget that it is God’s prerogative to give results when the gospel is preached, we shall start to think that it is our responsibility to secure them. And if we forget that only God can give faith, we shall start to think that the making of converts depends, in the last analysis, not on God, but on us, and that the decisive factor is the way in which we evangelize. And this line of thought, consistently followed through will lead us astray." (J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, pg. 25, Intervarsity Press 1991)

Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Tony

Some Resources to Consider

Trusting God by Jerry Bridges

Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink

Tony Zabala is currently the lay leader of Grace Community Church's Neighborhood Outreach Ministry located in Sun Valley, California. Neighborhood Outreach is an evangelism ministry which reaches out to the community surrounding Grace Community Church. The views and recommendations from this blog site do not necessarily represent the views and recommendations of Grace Community Church, John F. MacArthur, Grace To You, the Master's Seminary, the Master's College or any other associated ministry.

Loving God and Loving Our Neighbor Through Our Evangelism by Tony Zabala

SWORD DRILLS

"Loving God and Loving Our Neighbor

Through Our Evangelism"

by

Tony Zabala

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (Matt. 22: 36-39)

Last time, we took a look at the primary reason why Christian's evangelize which is to glorify God. We glorify God not only in our evangelistic efforts, but we also found out that if there are any sin issues that we refuse to deal with despite the fact that we continue to evangelize we will not bring glory to God and our evangelistic efforts will be in vain. Today, we will take a look at the next two reasons why Christians' evangelize, and that's because they love God and love their neighbor.

Jesus and the two greatest commandments

In Matthew 22: 36-39, our Lord is asked a question by one of the Scribes. The Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees were always trying to catch our Lord in a trap by asking him trick questions. On this day, the Scribe's question was, "Teacher, which is the great commandment of the Law?" Jesus, adeptly answered him by summing up the whole moral law, "You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.', thereby fulfilling the whole moral law.

How does the Christian fulfill those two great commandments? The Christian shows his love for God by obeying the first four commandments of the 10 commandments or moral law. The Christian shows love for his neighbor by obeying the last six commandments of the 10 commandments.

How do we show our love for God through our evangelism?

So how do we show our love for God through our evangelism? The first thing we must do, simply, is to follow God's commands concerning evangelism. First off, we show our love for God by keeping His commandments. Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love me you will keep my commandments". If you want to show your love toward God through your evangelism all you have to do is follow His commands to "evangelize":

“And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15)

"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 commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt. 28: 19-20)

". . .but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

Another way that we show our love for God through our evangelism is to be concerned about the things that God is concerned with. The Christian shows love toward God by caring about the things that God is concerned about. One concern that God has is to seek and save those that are lost. Jesus said in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus concern for the lost was the same love and concern that the Father has for the lost as illustrated in the parable of the lost sheep where the Shepherd (God the Father) in the parable was concerned, cared for, and even went after that one lost sheep (Luke 18:12-14).

Jesus, the Son, has the same love and concern for the lost like God the Father has, and likewise, as His adopted children, we should have the same care and concern for the lost as well. Now that we have looked at two reasons how we show love toward God through over evangelism, let's now look at how we show love toward our neighbor through our evangelism.

How do we show our love for our neighbor through our evangelism?

Once again, we show our love to our neighbor through our evangelism by following God's commandment to proclaim the Gospel to our neighbor. The greatest love you can show your neighbor is to proclaim the Gospel to him. To tell your neighbor that they are lost, dying sinners without hope unless they repent of their sins and put their trust in faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior is the greatest love you can ever show your neighbor.

Paul stated in Romans 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!" The Gospel is "good news" despite the fact that your neighbor may despise and reject you for your faithfulness in proclaiming it. As a Christian, you are an ambassador and a representative of Christ called out to bring the Gospel of peace to unbelievers who are currently at war with God because of their sinful and wicked ways (2 Cor. 5:20).

If God so chooses, he may save that person you are witnessing to through the power of the Holy Spirit and that person will no longer be at war with God (John 3:8; Rom. 9:15). That's why Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). One characteristic of a son of God is that he is a "peacemaker" who is a bearer of the "Gospel of peace" and the proclamation of that Gospel of peace through the power of the Holy Spirit can turn a wicked sinner who is at war with God and an enemy of Christ into a son of God, who is at peace with God, and a friend of Christ.

Another way that we can show love toward our neighbor through our evangelism is by showing our compassion to them (Matt. 25: 35-40; Jam. 4: 14-17). Whether it be listening to their troubles or meeting their physical needs, we show our love to our neighbors through our evangelism by showing compassion toward them by meeting their needs and using that as a springboard to present the Gospel to them. However, none of this matters, if you don't lead a holy life that is pleasing to God.

You still need to lead a holy life

Living a holy life is vital to our testimony and shows our love for God and for our neighbor through our evangelism. God commands us to lead holy lives. (Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 1:16). As I stated in a previous post, I have met many Christians or professing Christians over the years who are skilled evangelists, have zeal for evangelism, and desire to honor God through their evangelism, but do not lead holy lives. There is usually some sin issue they will either deny or ignore and still insist on evangelizing despite their sinful behavior. This always leads to disastrous results.

That's because they are measuring their Christian lives through their evangelism rather than first and foremost living a life that's glorifying to God and bearing the fruits from their evangelism through the holy life that they lead. Remember, it's all about God's glory as I pointed out the last time. Your life does not honor or glorify God in any way if you still continue to evangelize and have a sin issue in your life that you are either denying or ignoring. Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Loving God means that the Christian follows all of God's commandments not merely the commandments to evangelize.

Finally, you are neither showing love to God or to your neighbor if you continue to evangelize and not deal with your sin issue. You will eventually bear the fruits of your sinful behavior and you will bring reproach to yourself, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and most importantly to Christ Himself. That's something to seriously consider.

Fight the Good Fight of Faith

Tony

Some helpful resources to consider:

Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges

One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven by Mark Cahill

Humility by C.J. Mahaney

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

Holiness by J.C. Ryle

Tony Zabala is currently the lay leader of Grace Community Church's Neighborhood Outreach Ministry located in Sun Valley, California. Neighborhood Outreach is an evangelism ministry which reaches out to the community surrounding Grace Community Church. The views and recommendations from this blog site do not necessarily represent the views and recommendations of Grace Community Church, John F. MacArthur, Grace To You, the Master's Seminary, the Master's College or any other associated ministry.

It's All About God's Glory Not Yours by Tony Zabala

SWORD DRILLS

"It's All About God's Glory Not Yours"

by

Tony Zabala

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10: 31)

Evangelism can be a hard painstaking task without immediate reward or visible fruit. Many Christians partake in evangelism for many reasons: being gifted as an evangelist, enjoying evangelism, wanting to save people from going to hell, or obedience to the great commission, etc. Those are all valid reasons for doing evangelism. However, the primary, Biblical reason the Christian evangelizes above any other reason is to glorify God. Paul stated about the glory of God that:

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10:31)

"“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Col. 3:17)

Paul and the Corinthians

The Apostle Paul was addressing the Corinthians who were a problem church and had many serious issues. Some of those issues included divisions in the Corinthian church because they wanted to follow their favorite teacher rather than Christ (1 Cor. 1: 10-13), they had a conflict with baptism (1 Cor. 1: 14-17), they were more interested in Greek and Roman philosophy rather than Scripture (1 Cor. 2: 12-16), they were prideful because of their spiritual gifts (tongues) rather than desiring the greater things (prophecy) (1 Cor. 13:1, 14: 1-5), and they were tolerant of and not practicing church discipline on a young man who was having sexual relations with his step mother (1 Cor. 5: 1-2).

It's no surprise to find Paul exhorting the Corinthians in chapter 10 with regard to the Corinthians measuring their Christianity by the externals such as the food they ate or drank or what day they practiced the Sabbath. Paul was reminding the Corinthians in this section of chapter 10 that the true measure of one's Christianity or relationship with Christ isn't found in the externals, but that the Christian's life glorifies God in everything he does including the externals.

The first catechism in the Westminster Larger Catechism states that: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." Have you ever wondered why that's the first catechism in the Westminster Larger Catechism? The reason why the English Puritans made that the first catechism is because if the Christian's main purpose is not to glorify God in everything he does, everything that he does for God will ultimately fall apart. If the Christian's main purpose is not to glorify God as Scripture and the Westminster Catechism advocates, his purpose will be primarily man-centered and his efforts will ultimately fail rather than having a God-centered purpose which is to glorify God in everything he does.

So what does this have to do with evangelism?

Everything! I have seen too many Christians or professing Christians over the years involved in evangelism who measure their whole Christian walk based on how much evangelism they do or how excellent or supposedly perfect their Gospel presentations are and later find out how much of a mess the rest of their Christian walk is. You start to find out that they are involved in some sin that they refuse to repent from, or they want to argue and promote some theological side issue which has nothing to do with the essentials of the Christian faith hence causing division in the body of Christ, but yet they still want to evangelize and have no problems going out evangelizing despite their sin.

The problem is that even though the Christian is saved and continuing to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit, he still has a tendency to revert back to measuring his Christian walk by his works rather than what Christ did for him on the cross. In addition, if the person refuses to deal with his sin , that person may be a professing Christian who is not saved at all and measuring his supposed Christian walk by his evangelistic efforts.

So my question to you is how does this glorify God? The answer is it doesn't glorify God at all.

So how can I make sure that my evangelism glorifies God?

Glorifying God in your evangelism is more than just going out consistently to proclaim the Gospel and delivering a theologically perfect Gospel message. It's also leading a holy life which is pleasing and glorifying to God. (1 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 1:16). Your evangelism and the fruits from your evangelistic efforts are a result of a life that is glorifying to God and not vice versa. If you are continuing to evangelize, not leading a holy life, and not dealing with the sin issues in your life, then your evangelistic efforts are in vain and not glorifying to God at all no matter how many times you evangelize or how many people you proclaim the Gospel to. So here are some questions to consider if you want to find out if your evangelism is glorifying to God:

Do you still evangelize despite the fact that you have a sin issue in your life which you haven't dealt with or are ignoring just because you evangelize? (hypocrisy)

Do you judge other Christians because they are not as enthusiastic or as zealous about evangelism as you are and as a result of this, do you bear any animosity toward other Christians or church leaders because they don't have the same zeal as you have rather than being content and trusting in a sovereign God who can change the hearts of these leaders and members of your congregation? (spiritual pride, censoriousness)

Do you desire to lead a holy life and are you actively examining you life for any sin and mortifying those sins in your life or are you measuring your Christianity based solely on your evangelistic efforts? (works)

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you should seriously examine your Christian walk, repent of these sins, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you mortify these sins. If this is a continuing pattern in your life, you should seriously consider stepping down from ministry and dealing with these sins prior to resuming your Christian duties of evangelism or any other ministry the Lord has lead you to partake in. Your Christian life and testimony are just as important as your evangelistic efforts or your Gospel presentation. Most importantly, it's all about God's glory not yours.

"Fight the Good Fight of Faith"

Tony

Some helpful resources to consider:

Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges

Humility by C.J. Mahaney

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

Holiness by J.C. Ryle

Tony Zabala is currently the lay leader of Grace Community Church's Neighborhood Outreach Ministry located in Sun Valley, California. Neighborhood Outreach is an evangelism ministry which reaches out to the community surrounding Grace Community Church. The views and recommendations from this blog site do not necessarily represent the views and recommendations of Grace Community Church, John F. MacArthur, Grace To You, the Master's Seminary, the Master's College or any other associated ministry.