Thursday, May 3, 2018 – Ephesians 6:15 - The Armor of God,
Pt. 14, Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, Pt. 6,
Witnessing
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17.
Vs.
15, “And having shod YOUR FEET
WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.”
The Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive of witnessing; spreading the
gospel of peace. Effectiveness of witnessing depends on the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of common and efficacious grace, Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 3:3; John
16:8 ‑11; 1 Cor 2:14 .
1. The witness of God the Holy Spirit in evangelism is the doctrine of
common grace; making the gospel understandable to everyone who hears it. The
Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit so that the unbeliever can comprehend the
gospel issue, 1 Cor 2:14 .
1 Cor 2:14, “But a natural
man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
1 Cor 2:14,
includes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the common grace of God the
Holy Spirit steps in for this one area to make the gospel of Jesus Christ
understandable to the natural man who otherwise could not understand its
meaning and intent.
2. The power of God the Holy Spirit in evangelism is the doctrine of
efficacious grace; making the faith of those who believe in the gospel
effective for their salvation.
Therefore, we communicate the gospel in our own way and then rely upon
the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in common and efficacious grace.
Nevertheless, your ability to witness for Christ is based on your
perception and understanding of Bible doctrine. In the communication of the
gospel, you must be filled with the Spirit and accurate in your presentation of
the gospel. You do not need to lie or embellish the truth. Just witness the
truth and make the issue clear. The issue is always the person of Christ, not
sin and not trying to add something to faith for salvation.
The weapon for both the believer and the Holy Spirit when witnessing is
Bible doctrine. The pertinent content of the Bible for witnessing are the
passages which declare the way of salvation, the passages which deal with the
person of Christ. No unbeliever accepts the Bible as the Word of God. No one
believes the Bible is the Word of God until he is saved. Therefore, just fire
the weapon at that unbeliever and let the Holy Spirit make the issue real to
them. Remember:
1. “The gospel is the power of God
for salvation to everyone who believes,” Rom 1:16; 1
Cor 1:18 ; cf.
Heb 4:12 ; Eph 6:17 .
2. The Bible is the mind of Christ, 1 Cor 2:16 .
3. The Bible is the absolute norm for truth, 2 Peter 1:12-21.
4. The Bible is Divine power, Heb
4:12.
5. The Bible never returns void, Isa
55:11.
6. The Bible endures forever, Luke 21:33; 1 Peter 1:25.
7. The source of the gospel is the Bible, Luke 16:28 ‑31; 1 Cor
15:3- 4.
1 Cor 15:3-4, “For I
delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Therefore, the Bible is the proper weapon to use in witnessing.
Next, we note that the mental attitude of the believer in witnessing for
Christ is one of being a debtor. We are under a great obligation or debt to
those lost and dying in this world, those who are without salvation, Rom 1:14.
Rom 1:14, “I am under
obligation (debt) both to Greeks and to barbarians,
both to the wise and to the foolish.”
The
more you take in God’s Word, the more you realize what your obligation is to be
witnessing the gospel of peace to those who currently do not have it. You will
also realize that you should be performing your obligation (OPHEILETES, paying
off your debt), the rest of your life here on earth. To do so, (comma) you need to have
the mental attitude of readiness to witness for Christ, Rom 1:15.
Rom 1:15, “So, for my part,
I am eager/ready (PROTHUMOS)
to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
You should be ready at any time in a conversation to present the gospel
to anyone, and as we noted above, not be ashamed to witness for Christ, Rom 1:16.
Rom 1:16, “For I am not
ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Therefore, your mental attitude in witnessing should be:
1. Rom 1:14, “I am debtor,”
2. Rom
1:15 , “I am
ready...”
3. Rom
1:16 , “I am
not ashamed...”
Witnessing is what you do from your own motivation as a part of your own
priesthood without being pushed by others and should never be about taking and
ego trip. Instead, the analogy to witnessing is found in Mat 4:19, taking a fishing trip.
Mat 4:19, “Follow Me and I
will make you fishers of men.”
To be a good fisherman:
1. You must have a desire to fish. You must be motivated spiritually.
Consistency in learning Bible doctrine determines both your motivation and
effectiveness.
2. You must be equipped to fish. You must know the gospel.
3. You must go where the fish are located.
4. You must use the right bait (God’s Word) and be flexible.
5. Fishermen stay out of sight. You never make an issue of yourself.
6. You must be patient. Present the gospel and if you get negative
signals, move on, “shake the dust of
your feet,” Mat 10:14; Mark 6:11;
Luke 9:5
There are many false issues related to the gospel that become a hindrance
to witnessing.
1. Sin is not an issue in salvation, Col 2:14 ; Christ
is the issue. The gospel is the only thing pertinent to the unbeliever. Do not
make an issue of anything else. Do not try to get an unbeliever to live the
Christian life or meet the standards of the Plan of God before he or she is
born again. Do not try to superimpose Christian standards on unbelievers. Do
not try to get unbelievers to give up something. Do not make an issue of the
Christian way of life or commitment or Lordship or baptism or joining a church
or giving money. Never put the cart before the horse.
2. Do not argue; do not beg or persuade anyone to believe. Let the
unbeliever make a decision. Avoid false issues such as salvation by works,
observing taboos, or any other legalistic standard. Nothing is accomplished
toward salvation by persuading the unbeliever he must give up sins, change his
behavior pattern, join a church, or be baptized. You do not try to force a
decision for Christ. This is the job of the Holy Spirit. Avoid gimmicks,
emotional begging, public invitations, and remember to respect the person's
free will. You should always stay with the subject of the gospel when
witnessing. It is easy to get off the subject of the gospel because of all the
questions the unbeliever will ask that are not a part of the subject.
3. Whether or not the Bible is actually the Word of God is not the issue.
Be flexible when witnessing, do not limit yourself to one method or system. You
cannot superimpose your volition on others. Provide doctrinal facts so that the
unbeliever can make a decision. Provide information about the work of Christ;
make it simple; make it in your own language in your own way. 1 Cor 15:3‑4 is the gospel issue.
Compare with Eph 2:8 ‑9.
4. Anything added to faith is dead works, and dead works have no part in
salvation, Rom
3:20-28 ; Gal
2:16. Make the issue clear. Sin and changing your life is not the issue.
The issue is believing in Jesus Christ. Therefore, do not add to the gospel.
Nothing is accomplished toward salvation by persuading the believer to give up
his sins, to improve his personality, to feel sorry for his sins, to join the
church, to give money.
5. Remember that Divine institution number one is freedom of volition.
This includes the right of privacy in making a decision for Christ. It is not
necessary to make a public decision. Always make evangelism a private issue
between God and the individual. Provide gospel information but leave the
results in the hands of God the Holy Spirit. The gospel must persuade the
spiritually dead person to believe in Christ, nothing else. The persuasion must
come from the content of the gospel; it does not come from salesmanship,
begging, or emotional coercion.
6. Pitfalls in witnessing.
a. Avoid argumentation. You are
to give information, not argue over its validity. You are not trying to win a
debate. You are to provide information, not argue over the validity of that
information, and do not try to force a decision for faith in Christ; this is
the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
b. Do not be sidetracked by false
issues such as: is the Bible the Word of God, or what about the people who have
never heard?
c. Deal with the individual alone
wherever possible. Witnessing in front of others creates false issues by
producing embarrassment, loss of prestige, heckling, etc. The unbeliever may
think that he is losing prestige by hearing the gospel in front of others.
d. Avoid getting in a rut by
always using the same approach. No two people are alike and often must be
approached differently. Flexibility comes with maturity.
e. Avoid false concepts of
witnessing to a certain number of people each day, or that an evangelist must
have a large audience, or that your spirituality depends on witnessing to
people, or that you are not smart enough to witness to smart people or smarter
people than yourself. A high I.Q. is not necessary to witness to those with a high
I.Q.
f. Motivation must come from
Bible doctrine in your soul, not spiritual bullying, human pressure, or
approbation lust. Therefore, avoid bragging about your experiences in
witnessing and do not judge other believers for their apparent failure to witness.
Apply the privacy of the priesthood.
g. Human popularity,
attractiveness, or rapport will not bring the unbeliever to Christ.
There are many false systems of salvation, including.
1. Commitment salvation says that you must believe in Christ and commit
your life to him. Faith is receiving a gift from God; it is not making a
commitment.
3. Morality salvation says that you must believe and be moral in order to
be saved. This is legalism. Good deeds of the unbeliever do not provide
salvation.
4. Ritual salvation says that you must believe and perform certain
religious ritual works, e.g., baptism.
5. Emotional salvation says that you are not saved unless you feel saved;
you must believe and have some kind of emotional experience.
Acts 20:21, “Solemnly
testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
Repentance toward God is a change of mind about God which does not save
you; it is the faith in Christ which saves.
6. Psychological salvation says that you must believe and perform some
sort of body demonstration, such as raising your hand, walking to the front of
the congregation in church, weeping tears at the altar.
7. Salvation by works includes not even mentioning faith in Christ as
necessary for salvation.
8. Salvation by inviting Christ into your life or heart is a distortion
of Rev 3:20, which is an invitation
for believers to rebound, not for unbelievers to believe in Christ. The
spiritually dead do not invite Christ anywhere; into his heart or into his
life. You are not saved by inviting Christ anywhere. Jer 17:9 says that, “The
heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately wicked.” This
invitation bypasses faith.
John 6:40, “For this is the
will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may
have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:44, “No one can come
to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”
John 6:47, “Truly, truly, I
say to you that he who believes has eternal life.”
John 3:36, “He who believes
on the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Cf. John 3:16-18.
Phil 3:9, “That we may be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own, but that which is through
faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of
faith.”
Rom 4:5, “But to the one
who does not work for salvation, but
believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as
righteousness.”
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