Evangelism Truth:
How Do We Evangelize? Part 2
Can we share Christ in a way that strongly maintains our doctrines?
• Evangelism is a more sowing than it is reaping
• God is responsible for results, but we can never become complacent to evangelize the lost
• 2 Corinthians 5:20,21
20 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.
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.
Irresistible Grace Identified
• Irresistible Grace is also known as:
– “Effectual Calling”
– “Efficacious Grace”
– “Efficacious Call of the Spirit,”
– “Transformed by the Holy Spirit”
Irresistible Grace Defined
• “The act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, or the reading of His word, in which He summons people to Himself in such a way that they cannot refuse, resulting in regeneration of the sinner’s heart and the immediate faith and repentance of the sinner.”
• The Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the elect so that they inevitably will come to faith in Christ (John 6:37-40)
• Why does one person believe the Gospel and another does not?
• God saves people “according to His mercy…through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)
Spiritually Dead “Listeners”
The doctrine of irresistible grace recognizes that the Bible describes natural man as “dead in his trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-5; Col. 2:13)
The spiritually dead he must first be made alive or regenerated in order to understand and respond to the Gospel message.
Only the regenerate can believe
• The natural man is dead in his trespasses and sins, he must be regenerated before he can respond to the Gospel.
• Unregenerate man will resist the gospel message…
Faith and Repentance is a Gift
Grace gives us faith and repentance
BUT, all over the Bible, God speaks to men in conditional language… “if you do this, I will do this…”
How then can we speak of irresistible grace?
l 2 Chronicles 30:6-12
• God says to Israel, “You return to me, and I’ll return to you”, “Stop being resistant”, “Don’t stiffen your necks”…. some responded appropriately to God
• The hand of God was also on Judah…
• God gave them a heart to do it!!
l God Enables a Response
• The condition stands, they have to return, they have to yield… But God does not stand back and wait for us to return unaided by His grace.
• Bottom Line: When a condition is given to man, we should never jump to the conclusion that God leaves us to ourselves to fulfill the condition he that He gave us!!
l Salvation is what God does!
• Conditional talk should not be taken to mean that God is depending on us to meet the condition…
• Call to repentance does not imply the unaided, un-empowered ability to do so
l Lazarus Illustrates Regeneration
Jesus told Lazarus to “come forth” and that Lazarus came forth out of the tomb. He had to be made alive because a dead man cannot hear or respond (Jn. 11:43)
l Regeneration immediately produces faith and repentance
Once regenerated, the immediate response is faith and repentance
l Regeneration Inseparable from
Being Saved
By His grace, God “made us alive”
Ephesians 2:4,5
• Efficacious- always bringing forth the desired result
• God “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into” His kingdom (Colossians 1:13).
l Psalm 3:8
“Salvation belongs to the Lord.”
l The Twenty Minute Presentation
l God enables the unbeliever’s heart to listen for 20 minutes, sometimes more ;-)
l The Holy Spirit leads the one evangelizing to discern the responsiveness of the hearer’s heart
l Seven “C’s” of Evangelism Truth