Acts chapter 1 verse 8, But you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you, and you shall be witnesses to
me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Just for a moment, imagine that you were
a very rich person and that you owned
a factory, a very large factory.
And as a matter of fact, you owned
it recently because you purchased it, because you
had this great sum of money.
And your great desire was to produce a
quality, the world's best quality shoe factory.
And you wanted everyone in the world to
have a copy or a pair of these
shoes.
And you were so zealous about it.
So you hired a bunch of people to
run this factory that you had just recently
purchased.
And you picked them out, you hand-picked
these people.
And you very finely looked over their resume
and you brought them in and you gave
them, you spent time with them, teaching them
how to sell these shoes, how to make
these shoes.
But your main goal, you told them, is,
look, I want you to get a pair
of these shoes on every foot of a
person in America.
I believe in these shoes.
However, you had to be called away on
a trip.
And you had to go a long distance.
And you said, look, I want you, I'm
going to come back.
And I don't know when I'm going to
come back, but I'm going to come back.
But I want you to sell these shoes.
They say, OK, yes, sir, we'll sell these
shoes.
Well, you go away and then you leave
them in front of all your assets and
you hire managers and you appoint a chief
one to to look over the factory to
sell the goods.
And you come back some years later and
you ask them, you say, so how's it
going?
Tell me about show me the reports.
I've been gone for a long time.
I want to know how are things going?
And they say, well, great.
Yeah, we're so glad you're back.
Let us show you around and show you
what we've been doing.
So they take you over and they show
you this great big area with a great
movie screen.
This is where we do our training.
This is a great big screen.
This is so that people can come in
here and be comfortable, see these nicely padded
seats.
They're really comfortable.
And look, we got air conditioner in the
place and this is where we do our
training.
You say, well, that's great.
That's great.
Well, tell me about how many shoes have
you sold?
Well, they say, well, let's show you this
place.
We'll talk about that.
So they take you to the next room.
And what's in the next room is a
great arcade.
You say, well, this is for the workers.
So you know that their kids can play.
And at this arcade, you know, they have
a great time.
Everything is free.
You don't got to put any coins in.
They have a great time here.
As a matter of fact, there's laser tag.
So you can you can take the little
pretend guns and the kids can go around
and they can zap one another and things
like that.
OK, all right, well, this must have cost
a lot of money.
Oh, don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
OK, so you go to the next place
and you say, but I want to know,
you know, you're walking with your executives.
I really want to know how many shoes
that we've sold.
And they say, well, we want to tell
you some more things.
But you notice that they're starting to stutter
and you keep on asking how many shoes
have you sold?
But they're stuttering, they're stuttering.
And when you're talking to them, they say,
well, we want to tell you something.
We know you'll be happy about this.
We have a lot of people that we've
taught here of the people you've hired.
And I tell you what, our people who
work here, they know better about shoes than
anybody in the whole world.
Man, we give them good exposition of the
shoes, man.
They know about the sole.
They know about the padding.
They know the insides and out.
They know the beginning.
They know the genesis of the shoes.
They know the revelation of the shoe, man.
They know from A to Z, everything about
shoes.
We got custom designed shoes.
We got low end shoes, high grade shoes.
And you say, look, I want to know
how many shoes that you've sold.
Or else you're fired if you don't tell
me right now.
And they say, you know, really, we haven't
sold any shoes.
Can I see the hands of you that
would say, I need to fire these people?
How many of you would fire these people?
They've squandered your millions.
You've given them all these tools and these
abilities to be able to do this.
And yet they haven't sold a single shoe.
They've taught about the shoe.
They've they've gave great facilities for the shoe.
But yet their main business, they're really just
educating the people who work there.
And yet they haven't sold any shoes.
They've got people who are interested in the
shoes, but they haven't sold any shoes.
Their main business is not it has not
been to go out and get the shoe
sold.
And unfortunately, this is a parable of the
church at large today.
The church today and don't don't let your
hand be a witness against yourself.
The church today has failed its job by
and large in evangelism.
The church has not and I speak in
America primarily has not lived up to its
command of Christ to obey the Great Commission.
And I just want to tell you here,
I'm not going to pull any punches on
this.
You know, I've come here not to be
a soft peddling, fence straddling, one of these
cream puff pie preachers.
I've come here to tell people the word
of God.
And we're excited.
We're zealous to win souls, because this is
what the Bible says will happen.
If you have the spirit, you will be
a witness to Christ.
It's just going to happen.
So this is what has happened.
Christ has given us the gifts.
He's given some evangelists to bless the church,
to teach them how to evangelize.
He's given them pastors.
He's given them all these things.
And yet what is what do they do?
They do create big mega churches and great
areas for kids to be entertained and all
these things.
This is what they do.
They create, you know, these big centerplexes to
entertain people, but they haven't sold any shoes.
They're not creating genuine converts.
What are they doing?
They're creating people who are interested in Jesus.
They have good feelings about Jesus.
Jesus is their friend, but they're not creating
sold out followers of Christ.
And this is an issue for today.
Go to 2nd Timothy 316, if you would,
please.
And I want to start out with this
text because we have to ask ourselves, why
did the Holy Spirit inspire Acts 1 8?
Why did he want us to know that
when the spirit comes, we'll receive power?
Well, Acts 3 16.
I mean, sorry, 2nd Timothy 316 tells us
all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for what?
For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
and righteousness that the man of God may
be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So why did God give us Acts 1
8?
He gave it.
It's profitable to us.
It's not just the history of the church.
This is stuff that we can learn.
It says God gave us Acts 1 8
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness that every Christian may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This is why God has given us this.
So don't read Acts 1 8 and say,
yeah, that's the history of the church, you
know, and that was that time.
But God gave us that.
Well, for what?
Just so you could know the beginnings just
to know?
That's not the way God does things.
God does nothing that's superfluous.
That means God doesn't do anything that is
unneeded.
That is more than we need.
The Bible speaks with an economy of words.
And every word, every jot and tittle is
important for us to study.
So my first point is this.
We're going to have three points.
The first point is all true Christians evangelize.
Because all true Christians have the Holy Spirit.
My second point is all Christians witness, not
just the apostles or clergy.
Third point is if you do not witness,
you are not a true Christian.
If you do not evangelize, you are not
a true Christian.
And there is a fourth point.
If your church does not witness, you go
to a dead church.
If your church is not evangelistic, you go
to a non church.
You go to a dead church.
So point one, all true Christians evangelize because
they have the Holy Spirit.
And we're going to talk about this and
we're going to deal with it at some
length, because this is a huge issue.
Many Reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, people with sound doctrinal
statements, you know, they say, oh, yeah, we
should evangelize.
But when it comes down to when the
rubber meets the road, they do not evangelize.
And that is monstrous.
That they don't do that, they're failures.
We're not here just to teach people about
the shoes, right?
About the insides and outs.
We're not here just to teach people about
the soul, the beginnings, the genesis of it,
the ending of it.
It's not what it's primarily about.
Oh, yes.
You know, Aaron, but we preach exposition.
You know, we exegete the passage and we
rip it apart and stuff like that.
But you don't win any souls.
You're a whitewashed tomb, right?
Oh, we got good doctrine.
We look good on the outside.
Yeah, we got the 1689.
We got the Westminster.
We you know, we practice church discipline sometimes.
However, do you win souls?
When's the last time you won souls?
Well, you know what I do?
I stand in the pulpit.
That's when I evangelize.
Well, what do you that's not going.
He says, go, you get out, get off
your rear end and go go make disciples.
Right.
That's what we're called to do.
Go to First Corinthians 12, if you would,
because we're going to deal with this because
an exit says you shall receive power when
the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Right.
You'll receive power when you have the Holy
Spirit.
So the question we asked is, do all
Christians have the Holy Spirit?
First Corinthians 12.
Well, you know, the charismatic person says that
the Pentecostal, well, you know what you do,
you have to be baptized in the Holy
Spirit.
You see, you can be a Christian.
Yeah, yeah.
But you don't receive power until you're baptized
in the Holy Spirit.
All right.
First Corinthians 12, 13.
For by one spirit, we were all baptized.
Who?
Just some Christians?
No, it says we all were baptized into
one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves
or free.
And all have been made to drink into
one spirit.
So all Christians have been baptized in the
Holy Spirit, not all Christians.
We don't speak tongues today because tongues were
assigned to the Jews, to the unbelieving Jews
that God was going out to the nations.
This is what that tongues was for.
It's clear.
For by one spirit, we were past tense,
all baptized into one body, whether Jew or
Greek, whether slave or free, all have been
made to drink of one spirit.
First Corinthians 2, 14.
And I want to challenge you to to
write these down, to jot these down, because
you need to get this locked down in
your mind that evangelism going out and witnessing
to people, telling them about Christ, telling them
about the resurrection is essential to what the
Christian mission is.
This this topic gets me so fired up
because I interact with pastors and reformed Baptists
were reformed.
That all of that is is creedalism.
If you are have a creed, but you
yourself are not living it out, that's just
creedalism.
You know, you empty up, you go into
your life, you're a whitewashed tomb.
On the inside, you're stinking and filled with
rottenness.
Second Corinthians 2, 14.
But the natural man does not receive the
things of the spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, nor can he know
them because they are spiritually discerned.
All Christians have the Holy Spirit because man
cannot even become a Christian without the spirit
of God.
Coming to make him to be born again.
What am I saying that it manifests that
all Christians have the Holy Spirit and have
received the Holy Spirit?
Why?
Because you can't even become a Christian without
the Holy Spirit.
God has to open your eyes because you're
dead in sins and trespasses, as Ephesians 2
says.
You can't be risen from the dead without
the spirit.
So you can't even you can't even understand
that we can't even receive the things of
God without the spirit because they are spiritually
discerned.
It says in verse 15, but he who
is spiritual in Greek, literally a spirit man,
a spirit man, how do you be a
spirit man without a spirit?
You're void of the spirit.
If you don't have the Holy Spirit, how
are you spiritual?
You're not.
You are spiritual, literally a spiritual man appraises
all things.
Yet he himself is appraised by no one.
All Christians have the Holy Spirit because if
you don't, you're not a Christian.
Romans eight, verse nine, go to Romans eight,
verse nine.
So somebody says, you know, the reason you're
not empowered, you see, is because you don't
have the Holy Spirit.
He's not abiding with you.
You know, he's he's not really on you.
Well, if you don't have the Holy Spirit,
you're not a Christian at all.
Romans eight, verse nine.
But you are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of
God dwells in you.
Now, if anyone does not have the spirit
of Christ, he is not his.
If you do not have the Holy Spirit,
you are not a Christian.
If you don't have the fruits of the
spirit in your life, you are not a
Christian.
If you do not witness as a result
of having the Holy Spirit, it's manifest that
you are not a Christian.
What I mean by witness, I mean evangelizing,
I mean going making disciples, that's what I
mean.
John seven thirty seven.
All Christians are believers.
If you go there, John seven thirty seven.
All Christians are believers, therefore all Christians have
the Holy Spirit.
So if you turn to John seven, Jesus
says this.
He says.
On the last day, the great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If
anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink.
He who believes in me, as the scripture
has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water.
If you believe in Christ, you have the
Holy Spirit.
You can't even believe in Christ without the
Holy Spirit.
It takes the spirit of God to open
your eyes.
So therefore, look what it says.
He who believes in me, if you if
you can't be a Christian without believing in
Christ, as the scripture says, out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.
Oh, I know it's a spirit.
Verse thirty nine.
But he spoke concerning the spirit whom those
believing in him would receive for the Holy
Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was
not yet glorified.
So we see this, that acts one eight,
what happened in Acts chapter two at Pentecost
was referring to this.
This is act one eight when he's received
power to be my witnesses when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you.
And the fulfillment of that in Acts chapter
two is what Jesus was speaking about right
here.
But notice, he says, if anyone thirsts, if
anyone, anyone who believes on Christ with a
repentant belief.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
And he says, if you believe on Christ
with a repentant belief, receive the Holy Spirit.
All of them.
Every Christian.
So therefore, every Christian is a witness.
It's amazing, though, how people will deny this.
So we want to get this.
We want to lay this foundation.
And this is what we're doing.
First Corinthians six nineteen.
Go to first Corinthians six nineteen, if you
would.
Every Christian's body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians six.
Nineteen.
Paul saying.
Or do you not know that your body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit who
is in you?
Whom you have from God and you are
not your own.
Therefore, every Christian's body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit.
You understand that the Holy Spirit is within
them.
He says, well, someone says, you know, in
Acts 19, it shows that there were people
who were disciples and yet they didn't have
the Holy Spirit.
Well, let's look at that, because that comes
up someone in this.
Someone says that and they refer to Acts
19.
What they're referring to is verse two.
It says that it happened in Acts 19,
verse one, and it happened while Apollos was
at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the
upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some
disciples.
He said to them, did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you believed?
They said to him, we have not as
much heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.
And he said to them, and to what
then were you baptized?
So they said, well, in the John's baptism.
Well, then Paul said to them, John, indeed,
baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to
the people that people that they should believe
on him who would come after him.
That is on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, they were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands on
them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and
they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
What about that?
See, there you go.
They had disciples who didn't have the Holy
Spirit.
What do you say to that?
Well, what does a disciple mean?
Well, a disciple is a following learner.
Obviously, this text is not saying that they
were a following learner of Jesus.
They didn't even really know about Jesus.
They didn't.
Paul had to explain to them about Jesus.
They only knew about John.
So when it says disciple, you have to
read in what context that is in.
Remember the ways that rabbis would do things,
that a rabbi would bring someone along, most
more than likely they were someone who had
to be well off, a well-off young
man, and they pretty much became their slave.
That they would come to them with a
goal to be like that rabbi.
Well, they were disciples of John.
And remember, John didn't even know that Jesus
was the Messiah in his entire ministry.
It wasn't until God revealed it to him
that the Holy Spirit would come upon and
rest upon him.
This would be the Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world, right?
Well, can someone be saved apart from a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Can they?
Hello?
No.
The emphasis, if you look at this passage,
of what Paul is teaching to the disciples
is that Jesus was the Messiah that John
was foretelling of.
He was saying Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
is the Messiah.
He's risen from the dead.
This is the one that John was pointing
to.
It was Jesus.
That's the Messiah.
If you look, that's clearly the emphasis.
But once they understood that, then they were
saved.
They received the Holy Spirit, right?
The context must determine what words mean.
You can't just say, well, disciple means disciple
of Jesus in every context.
These fellows didn't know who Jesus was.
He had to explain to them that Jesus
was the Messiah.
Here, disciples does clearly not mean disciples of
Jesus because they didn't even know about Jesus.
So they received the Holy Spirit when they
understood about Christ.
Well, well, well, says the mocker.
He says, well, maybe in that instance I
can understand what you're saying.
But, you know, in Acts 8, you forgot
about this one, because in Acts 8, verse
4 through 17, the Samaritans believed Philip and
they were water baptized.
But it took Peter and John coming to
lay hands on them in order for them
to receive the Holy Spirit.
I got you there.
See, that's just it.
See, there goes your cessationist mindset.
There it goes.
See, one verse and I blew away the
cessationists.
Well, let's go look at that.
Let's go to Acts 8.
So we're dealing with right here in Acts
8, verse 4, with people are objecting to
say that not all Christians have or are
baptized in the Holy Spirit.
So let's look at that.
Acts 8, verse 4.
He says, therefore, those who are scattered went.
Well, let's just go down to verse 14.
When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard
that Samaria had received the word of God,
they sent Peter and John to them who,
when they had come down, prayed for them
that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
For as yet he had fallen upon none
of them.
They had only been baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them and they
received the Holy Spirit.
But if you look, go back to verse
five, it says, Then Philip went down to
the city of Samaria.
This is Philip down there preaching and preach
Christ to them.
And the multitudes with one accord heeded the
things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the
miracles which he did for unclean spirits, crying
with loud voices came out of many who
are possessed and many who are paralyzed and
lame were healed.
And there was great joy in that city.
But there was a certain man called Simon,
and he goes about the Simon, the magician.
But the point here is I want you
to see is that these people believe what
Philip said and were baptized in the name
of Jesus.
The other fellows in the passage we just
looked at in Acts 19 were baptized in
John's, a baptism of repentance, because John was
saying that the Messiah is coming, the Christ,
and you must repent, be ready for his
coming, turn from your sins.
And that's what Christ is saying today.
He's I am here saying to you, you
must turn from your sin, turn from your
false religion, turn from your apathy.
And Christ will come.
Christ is already come, but you turn to
him in salvation without repentance.
There's no salvation.
If they wouldn't repent, they wouldn't add Christ.
Well, you see here in Acts, these people
apparently heeded the things that were said by
Philip.
They were baptized in the name of Jesus.
Yet the people in Acts 19 were not
baptized in the name of Jesus.
They had to be told who Jesus was,
but you can't be saved if you don't
know who Jesus is.
Well, this is a different kind of scenario.
Remember here, the only time that they had
seen evidence of someone being saved was when
Pentecost, right?
When they all received the Holy Spirit, the
people in the upper room.
We're not really sure how many were up
in the upper room.
People say 120 from chapter 1, but it
doesn't explicitly say that those are the same
people that were there.
It could have just been the 12.
Well, it says here that in Acts 8,
you see that, well, yes, maybe in some
instance I can understand what you're saying, but
in Acts 14, Acts 8, 14, the Samaritans
believe that this is what the scoffers are
saying.
So what about them?
Why is it that the people in Acts
8 believe, but they didn't have the Holy
Spirit?
A portion of this may also be applied,
by the way, to the last scenario in
Acts 14.
So keep this principle because they're similar, but
not exactly the same situation.
But let's let's listen to what Matthew Henry
said.
OK, Matthew Henry was a Puritan preacher.
He lived in the 1700s.
So just, you know, you're listening to me,
but I want you to listen to someone
older and well-known.
OK.
There was none of them, quote, and this
is what Henry is saying, there was none
of them endued with this gift of tongues,
which seemed then to have been the most
usual, immediate effect of the pouring out of
the spirit.
This was both an imminent sign to those,
as we can see that he's referencing Chapter
10 of Acts with the Gentiles believed, and
that's how Peter knew they'd received the Holy
Spirit, right?
Because they gave him the same gift as
then he said this was both an imminent
sign to those who believed that believe not
and of excellent service to those that did
this and other such gifts.
They had not only they were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus and so
engaged in him and interested in him, which
was necessary to salvation.
And in this they had joy and satisfaction,
though they could not speak with tongues.
End of quote.
But we also must understand that what kind
of literature we're reading.
What kind of what kind of literature is
the book of Acts?
Historical narratives.
It's telling about the formation of the church.
So not everything is going to be the
same.
It's all good for training, reproof, training and
righteousness, right?
That we may be complete.
But when you read back in Exodus, do
you think that the Red Sea is going
to part every time you walk up to
an ocean?
No.
So you can't say that everything that happened
here is exactly how it's going to be
in our day.
So keep that in mind.
You have to understand that acts is not
a not a didactical epistle.
What's the word didactic mean?
Well, it means from the Oxford Dictionary intended
to teach particularly in having moral instruction as
an ulterior motive.
That's Romans.
That's Ephesians.
That's Philippians.
But the book of Acts is a historical
narrative.
Well, that's not always something that's meant to
be interpreted as normative.
Not everything in acts is normative.
Do we expect when the giving happens for
people to drop dead like Ananias and Sapphira?
No.
So not everything in acts is normative.
When's the last time you've seen that?
You never seen it.
And they haven't either.
They've never seen someone rise from the dead.
Benny Hinn's never seen someone rise from the
dead.
Jesse Duplantis is a liar.
He's never went to heaven and he ain't
going there next when he dies.
He's going to go to his own place,
though, like Judas.
So we can't, first of all, expect that
everything is going to be normal like we
see in the book of Acts.
But but by the very nature of the
word miracle, like I said a few weeks
ago, it can't be normative.
Miracle is something extraordinary, extraordinary.
It's not ordinary.
If they were ordinary, it wouldn't be a
miracle.
It'd be ordinary.
So speaking in a foreign language, which is
what tongues is, is a miracle.
When you don't know the language, you never
heard of it.
If you stand up, you start speaking Russian,
you never knew Russian.
And another guy over there knows Russian.
That's a miracle for you to have a
knowledge, a detailed knowledge of another language.
People take years to learn a language.
And yet you have knowledge right away to
to Russian, to German.
That's a miracle.
It's not a miracle, though, for someone to
stand up and say Shabba, Baba, Baba, Baba.
Anybody can do that.
That's normative.
My little two year old does it all
day.
I could tell you it's normative, such as
things as Paul being bit by a snake
and living through it, being a poisonous snake.
Some wackos up in Tennessee, they try those
kind of things, snake handlers.
And once in a while you hear about
them on TV and they drop over dead
for poisoning.
You got Peter rising the girl from the
dead.
It's not normative.
If it's so normative, why doesn't Benny Hinn
go down to every hospital?
And rise people from the dead.
Let me offer some reasons, then, for why
this occurred.
But John Wolbert and Roy Zook, some very
good exegetes, not great on everything, but very
astute, comes to many things in the word
of God.
Gives a few reasons.
One reason, Peter and John's prayer for bestowing
of the Holy Spirit.
And they're laying on of hands, resulting in
the coming of the spirit, confirmed Philip's ministry
among the Samaritans.
This authenticated this new work to the Jerusalem
apostles.
Reason to also this confirmed Philip's ministry to
the Samaritans.
This message Philip had preached was validated by
the coming of the spirit, a mark of
the coming kingdom.
You know, a mark of the coming kingdom
would be this in Jeremiah 31, 31, Ezekiel
36, 23, Joel 2, 28.
This is all a mark of the coming
kingdom.
Point three, reason three, perhaps the most important
aspect of God withholding the spirit to apostolic
representatives came from the Jerusalem church was to
prevent schisms.
Because of the natural propensity of division between
the Jews and Samaritans, it was essential for
Peter and John to welcome the Samaritan believers
officially into the church.
The contrast between John's attitude here and Luke
9, 52 is significant.
You know, when they said, let us call
down fire out of heaven, right?
But now here is something different.
So just think for a moment, put yourself
in the early church.
How were you to know?
Remember, the apostle had the apostles had a
special position.
They were actually with Christ.
They live with Christ.
They ate with Christ.
And now they are the official representatives of
Christ.
They are his messengers.
Apostles sent ones.
They saw the risen Christ.
That's why there are no more apostles today.
Mr. Charismatic, there are no more apostles.
Have you seen Christ?
Did you live with Christ?
Were you approved by the twelve?
No.
Well, you're not an apostle.
Listen, so you're in that day.
Put yourself in those positions.
You're in the day where the church is
being formed.
And you take your first missionary journey.
Jesus said, go to Samaria.
Some of you, you go to Samaria.
But this great thing just happened where everyone
was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
And it was seen that people were immersed
in the Holy Spirit.
So what is it that happened then?
Well, they had to, as a sign of
apostolic approval, go down to pretty much pass
along the Holy Spirit.
That was a medium for that at that
particular time.
But once the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.
Through an apostolic approval, there was no longer
a need for them to do that again.
They've already said yes.
A stamp of approval.
Samaritans, approved.
Same thing with Paul.
Gentiles, God-fearers.
And Acts 19, approved.
So remember, this is after the transitional period.
Transitioning from God primarily dealing with Israel.
Though He was not dealing with other people.
Nineveh, right?
Other things.
He condemns Egypt.
There's lots of woes to other Gentile nations,
included in the Old Testament.
Just take a concordance to look up the
word nations.
And see what God says, even to the
prophet, to the other nations.
What did He tell Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1?
I made you a prophet unto the nations.
So God did not leave them without a
witness.
However, this is a transitional period from God
dealing with Israel to the church.
Not forsaking Israel, but turning the bright light,
so to speak, onto the church.
So, here was an apostolic approval of that.
Now to the second point.
So after we've seen that all Christians have
the Holy Spirit, it's clear.
You can't believe without the Holy Spirit.
You can't understand without the Holy Spirit.
As I speak now, you think in order
for you to understand what I'm saying, you
have to have the Holy Spirit.
You can give intellectual assent and put 1
plus 1 together and get 2.
But you cannot have a saving knowledge of
Christ unless the Holy Spirit first comes to
open your eyes.
It's impossible.
That's why every person who we evangelize to
first has to be awakened by the Holy
Spirit in order for them to believe.
You can't believe unless God, the Holy Spirit,
enables you to believe.
So therefore, all Christians have the Holy Spirit.
And as Jesus said, you know, it explains
in that context, the Spirit was not yet
given.
But anyone who does believe in him receives
the Spirit.
And he was specifically referencing Acts 1.8,
prophesying what would happen.
And Acts 2 of Pentecost.
So anyone, point 2, all Christians witness, not
just the apostles or churchmen, clergy, preachers.
People who stand up at a pulpit.
Not just them.
Let's go to before the church was formed
in Luke 9.
Let's go to Luke 9 with me please.
In Luke 9, Jesus is there and he's
speaking.
And he sends out what?
Verse 1.
And he charged the twelve disciples.
Now, listen to this.
He said, well, you know, only evangelists are
called to be ministers.
Well, wait a minute.
I mean, only evangelists are called to evangelize.
Not a regular person.
I'm just a regular Christian.
I'm not called to go out and tell
people about their sin, to turn from their
sin.
That's a gift for an evangelist.
When was Luke 9?
Before or after the church?
Ephesians 4.12 said evangelists were given to
the church.
Right?
This was before the church.
So they weren't evangelists.
But yet he sends them out to go
preach.
And they do.
You say, okay, well, you know, that was
the twelfth.
Not regular disciples are not called to go
out and preach.
Regular disciples, you know, regular Christians are not
called to preach the gospel.
Liar!
That is not the teaching of the word
of God.
Go to Luke 10.
After these things, the Lord appointed seventy others.
Seventy others.
Were they the twelve?
No.
They were regular disciples.
Regular disciples.
Regular Christians.
What did he do with them?
And sent them out two by two.
These people were not clergymen.
They were regular disciples.
And he says, verse 1, after these things,
Luke writes, The Lord, that is Jesus, appointed
seventy others also and sent them two by
two before his face in every city and
every place where he himself was about to
go.
And he said to them, the harvest is
truly great, but the labors are few.
Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to
send out labors in his harvest.
You need to pray, Christian.
You need to pray every night, all the
time, as I'm speaking, that God would raise
up more labors on this side of town
particularly to go out and preach the gospel.
There's no reason why we shouldn't have more
and more labors all the time preaching the
gospel.
The harvest is plentiful.
There's sinners everywhere.
I don't know of a good church on
this side of town.
I don't know of a church that's lordship,
that's fervently evangelistic.
You say, well, what do you mean?
Do they have to do your style of
evangelism?
You know, you two, you go out and
you go knock on a door.
That's what happened here.
Two by two, that's what we do.
What'd they do?
They went house to house.
That's what we do.
Well, you know, we are reformed and, you
know, we like to make sure our preaching
is not pragmatic, you know.
So we don't do topical preaching.
We do exposition.
That's all you hear about these days.
Exposition.
We need to get back to expositional preaching.
Expositional preaching, that's the one thing that we
need.
But you know what?
They're all doing exposition now, but they're still
not evangelizing.
They're still not rushing out, attacking hell with
the Word of God.
They're not doing that.
Why?
Because they're lost.
I don't care how big their name is.
I don't care how big their church is.
I don't care how many books they wrote.
If they are not permanently evangelistic, they are
lost.
If you are not permanently evangelistic, you are
lost.
Matthew, right here, you know, in Matthew 28.
Let's go there.
You say, well, you know, in Matthew 28,
only the eleven were there.
So, clearly, Jesus only gave the great commission
to the eleven.
Because that's the only thing Matthew mentions.
You know, I'm an expositional preacher.
And you know, you're inserting here into the
text.
You're eisegeting, and we don't really like that.
So we're not going to associate with you
anymore.
Because, remember, we're exposition verse by verse.
Okay?
Verse 16.
See there, Aaron?
It says, then the eleven disciples went away
to Galilee.
To the mountain which Jesus had appointed them.
So, don't come to us.
The great commission was specifically for the eleven,
minus Judas.
When Jesus said, all authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore, verse 19, make disciples of all
nations.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Teaching them to observe all things I have
commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even
to the end of the age.
Well, we're going to make a couple of
points on that.
Keep your finger there.
Go to Acts 1.
Okay, well, Mr. Reformed Exposition.
You say, well, only the eleven were there.
Because Matthew clearly says, look, what he said,
the end of the eleven, right?
Now, this is Mark's account.
I'm sorry, Matthew's account of the great commission.
We also know at this very time, Jesus
ascended, right?
When he was there with them.
And this is the time of his ascension.
You see in Luke.
You see in Mark.
It's clear that this is the time when
Jesus gave the great commission.
Then he ascended, because Acts 1 gives another
rendition of that, right?
They're all complementary, not contradictory.
The Bible does not contradict itself.
It complements itself.
If I went in somewhere and we all
went to see a show, we'd all give
different highlights of what the show was about.
Would they be wrong?
No, they'd be complementary.
I'd get a better idea what the show
was about.
Same thing with the Bible.
So in Acts 1, I want to show
you, Mr. Dead Exposition.
Understand that you can have an interest in
the Bible and still be lost.
You can love the Bible and still be
lost.
You can read the Bible diligently and yet
still be an almost Christian.
How do I know that?
Just think about Zane Hodges.
Mr. Easy Believism.
Think about great arch heretics.
How about Wesley B.
Weatherhead?
You've probably never heard of him.
He was the president of the Methodist Convention
years and years and years ago.
President of the Methodist Convention.
How do you get to be the president
of the Methodist Convention without knowing about the
Bible?
Well, he knew about it.
But Wesley B.
Weatherhead, he's now dead.
He was an arch apostate.
He's now in hell.
He's went to his own place.
Listen to what he thought.
Wesley said that Jesus was the bastard child
of Mary because Mary and Zachariah got together.
And Mary was a temple prostitute and got
together.
And Jesus was the bastard child of Zachariah.
That's about a violent thing that someone could
say.
Yet he's in hell.
He studied the Bible.
What about the Pharisees?
Do you know they memorized basically the whole
Torah?
Do you know that?
How about you?
How are you doing on that?
Quote to me Genesis right now.
Whoever can stand up and quote all of
Genesis.
No.
Okay, you do Genesis, but can you quote
Exodus right after it?
No.
How about Leviticus?
Numbers?
Deuteronomy?
They could.
Yet Jesus said they were lost.
You can have deep knowledge about the Bible
and be lost.
Isn't that frightening?
Doesn't that grip you?
You can study the Bible for a hundred
years if you live that long and still
be lost.
But Mr. Exposition said that, you know, I
don't know how to interpret the Bible.
So clearly there were only 11 there.
You got to take the text as it
says.
All right.
Well, maybe there's something you overlook Mr. Exposition.
Acts 1.
Read verse 2.
He says, this is Mr. Exposition.
He rubs my face in it more and
he says, look, until the day in which
he was taken up after through the Holy
Spirit, given the commandments to the apostles.
See there, Aaron, you're not doing your exegesis.
What about your systematic theology?
You're not doing it right.
Well, keep going a little bit, Mr. Exposition.
Let's go right here.
Go to verse 15.
And in those days, Peter stood up in
the midst of the disciples.
Altogether, the number of names was about 120
and said, men and brethren, the scripture had
to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke
before the mouth of David concerning Judas, who
became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
For he was numbered with us and obtained
part in this ministry.
Now, this man purchased the field with the
wages of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst
open into the middle and all his entrails
gushed out.
And so he quotes, he quotes a text
out of the Psalms.
Go to verse 21, a few verses down.
And he said, therefore, these men.
Well, which man?
Remember, he was standing up in the middle
of the 120, right?
That's the antecedent to these men, right?
Of these men.
So he's quoting.
Therefore, these men who have been accompanied us
all the time that the Lord Jesus went
out and amongst us.
Beginning from the baptism of John to that
day when he was taken up from us,
one of these must become a witness with
us of his resurrection.
And they proposed to Joseph called Barsabbas, who
was surnamed Justice and Matthias.
So we at least know two other people
were there.
Because they were there.
They had to be there into the day
in which Jesus was taken up from them.
So we know that it just wasn't the
11.
We know at least two others.
And I think he's referencing also the 120
that were there.
So it's not just the 11.
So what happened there in Matthew and what
happened in Acts one?
So he said in Acts one, two, when
he says of the 12 apostles, he gave
them.
He was speaking to them.
Well, the Scripture is simply highlighting them.
That's not to the exclusion of the other
disciples.
They're just not being highlighted.
When you read a book, you highlight certain
sentences or phrases.
Is that to the diminishment or to the
exclusion of the other sentences or paragraphs or
chapters?
No.
So you see here it says that of
these men, verse 21, they had to accompany
us all the time.
The Lord Jesus went out not amongst us
beginning of the day of the baptism of
John until the day he was taken up.
Go there to verse two until the day
in which he was taken up.
Same event.
They had to see the ascension of Christ
in order to be picked.
The Great Commission was also given at the
ascension.
So obviously, there were more than just the
11.
There were at least 13.
But there was actually, I think, more than
that.
Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
Now, the majority of theologians believe this.
You look and verse six of chapter 15
in 1 Corinthians.
Paul was recounting what the true gospel is.
And he says after that, after what?
After he was resurrected.
He was seen by over 500 brethren at
once of whom the greater part remain to
the present.
But some have fallen asleep.
Some have died.
There are about 17, if I remember correctly,
resurrection appearances of Christ throughout the gospels.
And the only time that there would have
been a large enough space was upon what?
What was the name of the mountain that
Jesus ascended from?
You remember?
What was the name of the place that
Jesus ascended from the location?
Where was that's right.
Because where will he come back?
Well, when his feet are going to touch
the same place, that's right.
That's the only place.
It couldn't have been in somewhere else.
You had to house 500 people.
You had to house 500.
Now, in an open area like that, in
a mountainous place where Jesus often went to
get away from the crowds.
This was a perfect place.
The only place there could have been 500.
Matthew Henry believes it was there.
Many other old commentators believe it was there
because there would have been no other place.
There was 500.
Remember, a 500 is a lot more than
120.
That's three times as much about.
Yeah, right.
But 120, 120, 240.
But yeah, four times as much.
That's a lot more space.
If this room could fit 200.
What about 500?
No way.
It couldn't have been simply.
And people think that they know where the
upper room was in Jerusalem.
So, 500 people together that he gave the
Great Commission to.
Mountaintop place would be a great place.
Go back to Matthew 28.
Matthew 28, Christ giving the Great Commission here.
So, Mr. Exposition was proved wrong.
There was at least two more that were
there, not just the 11.
So, one would think that there would need
to be more.
So, at least there were two more.
He says, go therefore, make disciples.
Go.
He doesn't say wait till they come to
you.
He doesn't say invite them to church and
let them hear preaching.
He says, go.
You go.
You, Mr. Exposition.
You, Mr. Baptist.
You, Mr. Presbyterian.
You, Mr. 1689.
Westminster.
Mr. Lover of Reformed Theology.
That's your horn that you toot?
You go.
Why don't we see you out there?
You have so much concern about the lost.
Why don't we see you out there evangelizing?
We've never once run into another church knocking
on doors like Jesus did in Luke 9.
Sent them out.
Luke 10.
Paul went out house to house.
He was there ministering.
For the first day that he went into
Ephesus, he told Ephesian elders.
We never see them.
You know what we do see?
The misnamed Jehovah Witnesses.
Or the Mormons.
Cults.
It's amazing that Satan took the very means
that Jesus used, going door to door, that
Baptistic believers have been using for 2,000
years, that John Calvin did, that many great
men of God have done throughout the ages,
going house to house, witnessing of Jesus going,
not just saying, Come.
Invite you to pick a big billboard.
Come.
Everything in the modern church today is, Come.
Come.
Jesus says, Go.
Go.
That's what we're supposed to do.
But you see there, he says in verse
20, teaching them to observe all things I've
commanded you.
How many things do you see that he's
commanded us?
How many?
All things.
What did he just do?
He just commanded them something.
He said, Go.
Therefore, make disciples.
That's a command.
So, command them everything I commanded you.
You go command them.
That would just include what he just said.
Right?
Would it not?
So, go.
He just commanded.
Teach them to obey all things I've commanded.
And I just commanded something.
Teach them to obey everything I'm saying right
now.
Tell them to go and make disciples.
If it just ended with the apostles, it
wouldn't have lasted 2,000 years.
Right?
After a generation, it would have died out.
If they were the only ones that were
allowed to make disciples, it would have died
out.
And I know it just wasn't for them
too, because look at the last few words
there.
What does it say?
How long for it?
Peter's dead.
John is dead.
All the eleven are in their graves.
Did they live to the end of the
age?
So, you know he was speaking corporately to
the church, to the assembly there.
I am with you all to the end
of the age.
That's why the apostle says, don't worry, he'll
never leave you or forsake you.
Right?
Where do you think he got that from?
Right here?
End of the age.
Is the age ended?
No.
Are the apostles dead?
Yes.
Well, then it becomes obvious that it could
not have been strictly an apostolic charge.
So, Luke 8.
Now, really, we're getting this down because I
think the distinguishing mark today, first, it's Lordship
Theology saying that in order to be a
Christian, you must turn from your sin.
You must live a repentant lifestyle, a lifestyle
of separateness, holiness.
That's what holiness means.
Separateness from sin.
That in order to be a Christian, you
have to turn from your sin and trust
in Christ alone.
Or you are not a Christian.
You can't be a Christian by trusting in
the sacraments.
You can't be a Christian by participating just
simply in the mass.
You can't be a Christian by saying a
prayer and asking Jesus into your heart.
That's not how you become a Christian.
It's not in the Bible.
There's no nuns in the Bible.
There's no popes in the Bible.
There's no confessional booths in the Bible.
There's no walking an aisle in the Bible.
There's no asking Jesus into your heart in
the Bible.
It is about repentant faith alone in Christ,
not by your works.
Trusting in Christ dying, rising from the dead,
right now in a body, seated at the
right hand of God the Father, coming back
to judge you.
That's what it's about.
And the implication of that is the mission
of the church is to preach the gospel
all the time, to go.
And so if you're living a repentant lifestyle,
you would obey that command.
But this is the most neglected command.
This is the great omission.
Open your eyes.
You're living in the great omission.
At times when hundreds of churches...
Let's go on 9marks.com.
Look up churches.
Type in a zip code.
See how many 9marks churches there is.
Call them on the phone.
Ask them, do they go?
Oh, we go.
You know what we do?
You know what a guy told me the
other day he does?
We go to the nursing home.
And we pray for the voice of the
martyrs.
What do you do at the nursing home?
Oh, we tell them how much we love
them, and stuff like that.
And what we really do is we pray
for the voice of the martyrs.
We pray for persecuted Christians.
That's our evangelism.
And we sponsor missions.
All of that is something else directed.
Is it good to go to the nursing
homes?
Yes.
But if that's the extent of your evangelism,
how's the kingdom going to expand much?
They're going to be dead in a few
years.
Do they need to hear the gospel?
Amen.
Yes.
But it tells me if their idea of
evangelism is giving the missionaries, they're probably not
preaching the gospel too well to the elderly
there.
That's the extent.
Oh, do we need to go door-to
-door?
You know what?
Why not?
You want to be so non-pragmatic about
preaching, saying we need to go verse-by
-verse like the Bible teaches us?
Why are you so pragmatic, Mr. Reformed Baptist?
Why are you so pragmatic when it comes
to evangelism then?
Why don't you take your people out?
Why do you just stand up in a
suit?
Why aren't you out there during the week?
Why aren't you out there?
What in the world is the ministry then?
If you want to get into the ministry,
are you a minister?
What are you a minister of?
Well, I'm a minister of the gospel.
Who are you ministering it to?
Well, you know, people come into my church
and they invite people.
Jesus said, go!
Not come.
Not wait for them to come to you
so they can come to your club.
It's not what it's about.
Teach them to obey all things I've commanded.
Go to Luke 8.
Back to that fellow who said that, you
know, not all people have to witness.
You know, evangelism is not my gift.
Right?
Evangelism, that's not one of my spiritual gifts.
Because, you know, the church was given some
people to be evangelists and I'm not one
of them.
So look down at Luke.
Luke.
Right there, Luke 8.
26.
Then they sailed to the country of the
Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
Stepped out.
I'm going to summarize this.
And he met a demoniac guy.
Go down to verse 42.
And he cast out the demons Jesus did.
I'm sorry.
Verse 39.
So this man wanted to stay with Jesus.
But what did Jesus say to him?
Well, evangelism is only for evangelists.
Church wasn't formed here.
He says, return to your own house and
tell what great things God has done for
you.
And he went his way and proclaimed throughout
the whole city the great things that Jesus
had done for him.
Well, why was this given here?
This was given as an example.
This is not just good history.
You know, you hear a lot of preachers
and they give great exposition.
However, they don't apply it to you.
Anybody can stand up and give an explaining
of the text.
But if they don't apply it to you,
they're not really bringing the word of God
home to you and say, this applies to
you.
Does your life represent the Gadarene demoniac?
When you got saved, did you go throughout
the entire city?
Are you going throughout the entire city now?
What about your work?
You doing that now?
Why else God got you there?
So you can make some money?
Who cares about money?
God has promised to meet your needs.
If your work is the consuming thing of
your life, you're an idolater.
Covetousness is an idolatry.
Your mission is the great commission, not making
money.
Whatever it is, oh, I've got a great
passion to give people pure water so that
they can do better in life.
That's not a ministry.
That's a means to an end.
God's put you there so you can witness
to the people that are around you.
God's put you there so you can make
money to further the great commission.
If you are wrapped up in your work,
you need to repent.
Your mission needs to be the great commission,
not whatever job that you work at.
It's not your main focus.
Get yourself focused.
What about the woman at the well in
John 4?
She went out.
She wasn't an evangelist.
In Acts 1-8, our passage.
Go back to Acts 1-8.
Acts 1-8.
But ye, all of them, that's plural, shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you.
And you shall be witnesses to me.
Really, in the Greek, it's my witnesses.
You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea,
Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
Any Christian, every Christian has the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, every Christian is a witness.
Let's give some more examples of people who
are not churchmen, who are not pastors, who
are not evangelists.
Go to Acts 8.
Acts 8, verse 1.
Now Saul was consenting to the death.
And at that time, a great persecution arose
against the church, which was at Jerusalem.
And they, who is that?
Who's the they?
In Acts 8, the church.
And they, the church.
So the church was scattered throughout the regions
of Judea and Samaria, except who?
Alright, keep reading.
Go to verse...
Let's keep reading.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial
and made great lamentation over him.
As for Saul, he made havoc of the
church, entering every house and dragging off men
and women and committing them to prison.
What's verse 4 say?
Therefore, those who were scattered...
Who was scattered?
The church went everywhere preaching the Word of
God.
In the Greek, that word preaching means evangelism.
It's to gospelize.
Non-preachers!
Evangelizing!
The church, all the church, went everywhere gospelizing
people.
That's a bad translation saying preaching.
Look it up in the Greek.
It uses the Greek word euangelion.
The gospel.
The good news.
The evangel.
And the church went preaching.
Euangelizamai.
Gospelizing.
Isn't that something?
Why was that given?
What's 2 Timothy say?
All Scripture.
That's right.
It's given.
For our example.
For our proof.
For our correction.
Can we control miracles?
Can you control your own mouth?
You can open your own mouth.
So you can't say, well, you know, if
you're waiting on a miracle, you can't control
that.
God's sovereign over that.
But you can go, and Jesus told you
to go.
He said, go!
When you have the Holy Spirit, you'll be
powerful!
That's right.
You'll be powerful.
With a Superman kind of power?
No!
You'll be equipped!
If you're a Christian, there's no need to
fear.
You say, well, I'm afraid.
You'll receive power!
That word has used the word now that
we use in the Greek for knowledge from
where we get the word dynamite.
Now we can't say the explosiveness here because
that would be inserting the meaning of dynamite
back into this.
It just means power.
You'll receive the ability to evangelize.
Don't say, well, I'm scared.
So that's why I don't evangelize.
No, no, no.
When you receive the Holy Spirit, you'll have
the power to evangelize.
You say, I don't know what to say.
You will be my witnesses!
You say, well, I don't know what to
do.
You shall be witnesses unto me!
It's gonna happen!
It's gotta happen!
Go to Acts 11.
Turn the pages a couple.
Let's look at a few more non-clergy
evangelizing.
1120.
But some, there were some men from Cyprus
and Cyrene who when they had come to
Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord
Jesus.
They weren't apostles.
Acts 14.21 Acts 14.21 says, well,
read up to the preceding verse, verse 20.
However, when the disciples gathered around him, he
rose up and went to the city.
That's Paul when he was stoned.
And he rose up and went to the
city, and the next day he departed with
Barnabas to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to
that city and made many disciples, they were
turned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.
So it just wasn't the apostle.
It was Barnabas who was with them.
It was they.
So, Barnabas wasn't an official apostle.
He was someone who was sent, but he
wasn't an apostle like Paul was.
Acts 15.
You say, but you know, Barnabas, he was
a special guy, so I don't really buy
into that one too much.
Okay.
Verse 35.
Chapter 15.
Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching
and preaching the Word of the Lord with
many others also.
Okay?
Many others besides them.
You say, go to Philippians.
Let's look at this in the epistles.
Paul told them to evangelize in Philippians 1
.27. You may have read over this many
times.
Go to Philippians 1.27. He says, Only
let your conduct be worthy of the gospel
of Christ, so that whether I come and
see you or am absent, I may hear
of your affairs, that you stand fast in
this one Spirit with one mind, striving for
the faith of the gospel.
If you're not evangelizing, how are you striving
for the faith?
Why did we tell them to walk in
a manner worthy of the gospel and to
strive for it?
It's so that when they're preaching, they don't
look like hypocrites and they're striving for the
gospel.
If you don't talk about it with anyone,
how are you striving for it?
They were striving.
Ephesians 4.12. Go back a few.
Ephesians 4.12. Well, go to verse 11.
And he himself, that's Jesus, gave some to
be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors,
some teachers, for the equipping of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ.
Who's to do the work of the ministry?
The saints!
The body of Christ!
For the equipping of the saints!
God gave evangelists to equip the saints to
do the work of the ministry.
That means all saints are to evangelize.
Why in the world did He give evangelists
then?
So that they could do the work of
the ministry.
You do the work of the ministry.
He gave them so that they could train
up.
That's why in a congregation you've got a
few guys who are notches above the other
ones.
Man, they're always bringing in people.
Does that mean that other saints aren't supposed
to?
No!
That's so they're supposed to equip the saints
to do the work of the ministry.
Why in the world did He give evangelists
if He didn't want them to do the
work of the ministry?
He said He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor
-teachers.
In Greek it's pastor-teachers.
It's one person.
It's when someone says, I believe in the
five-fold ministry.
It's what the Holy Spirit tells me.
It's four.
It's a four-fold ministry.
So the Holy Spirit could have told you
that due to something called the Granville Sharpe
Rule.
This word here in Greek is pastor-teacher.
Pastors who are teachers, more clearly.
For the equipping of the saints for the
work of the ministry.
So we see that before the church they
evangelized.
You see the twelve.
You see Jesus outstanding up to seventy.
During the church, after Pentecost, during the church
time, they evangelized.
Even when the church is raptured, they evangelize.
Go to Revelation 17.
Followers of Christ, genuine followers of Christ do
evangelize, not just clergy.
Revelation 12.11 You see here that they,
the martyrs here, and they overcame Him.
Who's that?
It's the Antichrist.
And they, Revelation 12.11, overcame Him by
the blood of the Lamb and by the
word of their testimony.
What's a testimony?
You're testifying!
Testifying to Christ!
To the Gospel!
If you don't testify, you don't have a
testimony.
They were testifying.
They overcame Him with the blood of the
Lamb.
They had salvation in the word of their
testimony.
And then I love their lives to the
death.
Is that you?
Could that text be written about you?
What about if we had a hidden camera
and went to your prayer life?
Would it say that so-and-so did
not love their life until the end?
Could you die for Christ?
If you're not willing to die for Christ,
you're not a Christian!
Take up your cross, your electric chair, your
ax coming down to your head, the bullet
in your head, the .44 aimed straight at
your temple, and follow me.
Point three.
If you do not witness, if you do
not evangelize, you are not a true Christian.
If you are not evangelistic, you are not
a true Christian.
How do I say that?
See, that's pretty strong language.
You're judging.
Well, go to 1 John 2.
So listen to this, Mr. Pastor.
Even if you're not a pastor, you're just
a person who's a humble person and you
say, I don't want to be known.
I'm not trying to have any reputation.
But I don't evangelize.
You're saying I'm not a Christian?
I'm saying you're not a Christian.
That's right.
You're not a Christian.
You say, how do you say that?
That's pretty rude.
That's what God says.
I'm standing here delivering God's Word.
I mean, we just went over, googled those
Scriptures.
This is what God is saying to you.
1 John 2, verse 2.
1 John, I'm sorry, 1.
1 John 1.
And He says that, I'm sorry, I was
right.
1 John 2, 3.
Now by this we know that we know
Him, if we keep His commandments.
What's one of His commandments?
It's the Great Commission.
That's the Great Commission.
This day you don't see zealous evangelism.
You don't see zealous preachers.
You see scholars in the Reformed place.
You see seeker-sensitive pastors like Rick Warren,
Joel Osteen.
Or you see idiots standing on stage just
screaming, running around, running on the money.
They don't know anything about the Bible.
They're not qualified.
You see charismatics just screaming.
You know, they get people excited, playing the
organ.
But you don't see people going.
You don't see the pastors going.
If you are a pastor, and you're listening
to this through the internet or however, you
need to get out of the ministry, be
trained in the ministry, which is the Great
Commission.
And let another take your office until you
have been trained in the Great Commission.
Not just exposition.
Exposition is for the Great Commission, as we're
going to see.
So don't tell me you're a Christian and
you're not fervently evangelistic.
Don't say that.
If you are not evangelizing, you are not
a Christian.
Because it says here, now by this we
know.
You say, well, how do you know you're
a Christian?
Well, I love God.
I love God.
I love reading the Scriptures.
I love to worship.
I love to be around other Christians.
But it says, by this we know if
we keep His commandments.
Not simply because you've got good feelings about
God.
Not simply because you like Christian people.
Christian people are very nice people.
They're the nicest people you'll meet on earth.
So most of the time you'll like them.
If you're hard to the Gospel, you've gotten
your conscience seared and so you're used to
hearing Christian talk, you'll like them.
They're generous.
They'll invite you over to eat.
You'll be with them.
They'll help you change your tire.
Whatever it is.
Invite you into their home.
However, but it says now by this we
know that we know Him.
If we like His commandments.
If we keep His commandments.
And he goes on to say later on
that they're not burdensome.
Is evangelism burdensome to you?
Do you love to preach the Gospel?
Well then, have joy.
Because that's something that would have had to
come from God.
You don't like to evangelize in your heart
of hearts.
You don't like it if you're not a
Christian.
If you're a Christian, God has planted that
in there because without it you're dead.
It sends the trespassers, right?
So if you have that love to evangelize,
it's a strong evidence that you are a
Christian.
In Luke 6.46, we're talking about if
you do not witness, you're not a true
Christian.
Luke 6.46 says, why do you call
Me Lord, Lord, and not do the things
that I say?
Why do you call Me your Master and
you don't obey Me?
You shouldn't call Me your Master.
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and
you don't go out to evangelize?
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and
you don't preach evangelistically?
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and
you don't study your Bible?
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and
you don't fellowship?
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and
you are not doing the things that God
has clearly commanded you to do?
You're so worried about the jot and the
tittle here, but what you're doing is you're
straining out a gnat and you're swallowing a
camel.
Trying to find out the fine points of
eschatology.
Trying to find out the fine points of
Calvinism, superlapsarianism, infralapsarianism.
What is it?
You sit around all debate and you'll debate
should it be presuppositional apologetics, Thomistic apologetics?
What should it be?
What's the matter?
You don't even evangelize.
I go on Facebook.
That's my evangelism.
He says go!
Posting a video is a nice thing to
do.
But it's not going!
Go and initiate conversations with lost people.
Tell them that Christ is the Lord, the
risen Savior, to become His slave.
He offers them forgiveness of sins by faith
alone.
He'll adopt them.
He'll take them as a son.
If you're not saved, you're not a son.
You're an enemy.
That's what the Bible says.
If you're not born again, you are not
a child of God.
You're an enemy of God.
You're actually a child of Satan.
Matthew 4.19 Go to Matthew 4.19
4.19 it says Jesus says, follow me
and I'll make you fishers of men.
Plain logic.
If you're following Jesus, you'll be a fisher
of men.
If you're not a fisher of men, are
you following Jesus?
I'll make you.
Say, yeah, I've got the personality to evangelize.
I'll make you.
You will be my witnesses.
It's going to happen.
It's got to happen.
Let God be true.
Let a man be a liar.
Matthew 10.
Speaking here of the context when these were
being sent out.
This is the context.
Remember, he's sending them out to go town,
subdivision to subdivision, house to house.
And he says to them, 10.32 Therefore,
whoever confesses me before men, him will I
also confess before my Father who is in
heaven.
Whatever denies me before men, him will I
also deny before my Father who is in
heaven.
He's not speaking about just some time in
your life when a Russian guy puts a
gun to your head and you say, do
you believe in Jesus?
Yes, I believe in Jesus.
That's not what he's saying.
Do you live an active lifestyle of confessing?
At any point that you don't, he's not
going to confess you before the Father who
is in heaven.
If you're not a confessor, you're not a
possessor.
I'm stating faith.
If you are not a confessor, you are
not a possessor.
Many will say to me on that day,
Lord, Lord, I posted up videos in your
name.
I blogged in your name.
I went to church.
I invited people to church in your name.
He'll say, depart from me.
I never knew you.
You workers of lawlessness.
One of my laws was to propagate my
gospel, to bear witness to me.
And you did not do that.
Go to the place prepared for the devil
and his angels.
The lake of fire.
Point four.
And our last point.
If your church is not an evangelizing church,
you go to a dead church.
If your church is not a witnessing church,
you go to a dead church.
You go to a synagogue of Satan.
And you're applying for a job.
And you say, well, I'm a computer technician.
You say, well, let me see your skills.
You say, well, I can do a crossover
real good.
I've got a great jump shot.
And I'm great at running suicides up and
down the court.
You know?
I've got really low body fat.
And you show them that.
You show them your resume there.
And you say, help me to understand.
I'm looking for a computer technician.
Yeah, I'm going to be a computer technician.
You say you're a computer technician, but you
have none of the attributes of one.
You've got the wrong job description.
And you've got the wrong job title.
You're a basketball player.
Right?
So you say, I'm a minister of the
gospel.
Well, tell me your job description.
I exegete the Bible.
What else?
Well, I give an exposition of the Bible.
What else?
Do you have this one about...
This is the big one.
This is the biggest one we're looking for
here.
Do you go and make disciples?
No, I don't do that one.
Well, you see, people come to my church
and I preach, but I don't do that
one.
But did I mention I do exposition?
Because I don't know if I told you
about that one or not.
But here's what I do.
I leave four spiritual laws places.
When I'm on a plane...
When I'm on a plane, I do do
that going thing.
When I'm on a plane, you know, I'm
real nervous.
My hands are sweaty.
You know, I'm sitting in the plane.
And the guy's next to me.
And I wait until the whole plane is
over.
I'm looking at my thing and I'm like...
You know, I'm real scared.
And I finally say to him, Do you
go to church?
And then I give him a gospel tract.
I do do that.
You know why you're so afraid to evangelize,
Mr. Reformed pastor, when you're on the plane?
Because you don't evangelize in your own life.
If you did, that'd be a piece of
cake.
You condemn yourself by your own stories.
I don't care how nice of a guy
are you.
I don't care how big the conference is.
You're scared to witness on a plane because
you're a fraud.
You don't meet the job description.
You say, I'm a computer technician.
Well, I could turn on the computer.
I'm a minister of the gospel.
I open the Bible.
A lost man can do that.
A lost man can tell you the Bible,
can explain to you the Bible.
There's many of them doing it every day.
All over.
Just turn on the television.
You'll see them doing it.
A minister of what?
Supposed to be of the gospel.
How are you ministering the gospel to people?
One day a week when you stand up
in your pulpit.
Is exposition good?
It's the only way to go.
You've got to do exposition.
Yes, I'm for it.
But it's not the only thing.
That has become an idol.
Anything good can even become an idol.
That's all they have conferences for.
They have this conference for.
What we're going to talk about is why
no one else does exposition.
I don't know where they've been.
Do they get out?
Most Reformed churches do exposition.
I mean, what are they doing?
They're not out because they're not out evangelizing.
They go from one conference to the next
conference to the next conference.
And so that's all they talk about.
You know, how can we be faithful to
God?
We must be faithful to God.
So we must do exposition.
You know what?
Tell that to a Pharisee.
He'd say the same thing.
Yes, but we live very moral lives.
So in many instances of the Pharisees.
That's why Jesus said, your righteousness might exceed
that of the scribes and the Pharisees.
And to that audience, that was eyes wide
open.
They traveled land and sea to make one
proselyte.
When was the last time you traveled land
and sea to make a proselyte?
You ever did that?
How often?
To make one.
To go for one guy.
Go to 1 Corinthians 9.
1 Corinthians chapter 9.
Look at Paul's attitude.
Verse 15.
He says, But I have used none of
these things, nor have I written these things
that it should be done for me.
For it is very far from me to
die and make my boasting void.
Because I preach the gospel.
Verse 16.
I have nothing to boast of.
For necessity is laid upon me.
It's put down on me.
It's necessary for me.
Rose me!
If I do not preach the gospel.
For if I do it willingly, if I
get up in the morning, I'm like, man,
I can't wait to preach.
I can't wait to go knock on that
door.
Can't wait to go into the shop and
go start a conversation with people.
If I do it willingly, I have a
reward.
But if I do it against my will,
I've still been entrusted with a stewardship.
What is my reward then?
That when I preach the gospel, I may
present the gospel of Christ without charge, that
I may not abuse my authority in the
gospel.
For although I am free from all men,
I have made myself a servant to all,
that I may win them all.
To the Jew I became as a Jew,
that I may win the Jews.
To those who are under the law, as
to those under the law, that I may
win those from the law.
To those without the law, as without the
law.
Not being without the law towards God, but
under the law towards Christ.
That I might win those who are without
the law.
To the weak I became weak, to win
the weak.
I have become all things to all men
and that I may by all means save
some.
How about that?
Do you think Mr. Exposition does that?
Mr. Newthetic Counselor?
You think he does that?
No, he's wanting them to conform to him.
He's wanting them to come to him.
Come on my terms.
Come to my church.
I invite you to my event.
Come to my Bible study.
All good things.
All things we must and we should do.
Yet not to the neglect of going.
Come on!
I mean, why do I have to have
this sermon, you know?
This is insane!
That you have to like defend evangelism?
That's because these men are lost.
You are lost if you're not evangelistic.
Just face it.
Go back and listen to this a thousand
times so you can get all these Scriptures
and you understand.
Woe to you!
That means damnation on you if you preach
not the Gospel.
I preach the Gospel in my pulpit.
Is that what Paul meant?
Was he waiting for the heathen Gentiles just
to come into the place he was preaching?
No, he meant I go.
And I become to a Jew, to a
Jew, to a Zatholah, Zatholah, Gentile, to the
Gentiles.
He was going.
It doesn't make any sense to say that
they would come to him.
That's them coming on his terms, not him
going to them.
You already saw in Ephesians 4.12, so
we're not going to turn to that one
again.
Go to 1 Timothy 3.
1 Timothy 3.
This is the job of the church in
1 Timothy 3.
Verse 15.
Paul say, But if I am delayed, I
write to you so that you may know
how you ought to conduct yourself in the
house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and the ground,
the foundation of the truth.
Just so we can have the truth and
keep it to ourselves?
No, it doesn't make any sense.
So we are the propagators of the truth
of the Gospel.
That's what this is.
Because look what he goes on to say.
Yes, and without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Who was that?
Jesus Christ, his almighty God.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in
the spirit, seen by angels, preached amongst the
Gentiles, believed on the world, received up into
glory.
See, in that context?
So if that's the church's job, what do
you think then the church is?
That's its job.
So I ask you, when you think of
an evangelist, think of an evangelist in your
mind.
What does that person act like?
What do they do?
What kind of things does an evangelist do?
Think about that, Mr. Reformed Pastor.
Or should I say Goat Herder.
Club member.
Bible scientist.
What do you think about when you think
of an evangelist?
Go ahead and think for a minute.
What kind of person are they?
What do they do in their life?
Alright, you thought about it?
Think about some more things.
What kind of person are they when they
go to the grocery store?
When they go somewhere?
Do you think about someone who travels around?
He's a fiery creature!
Think about that.
I'm a pastor, not an evangelist.
Okay?
Go to 2 Timothy.
What are these called, by the way?
The Pastoral Epistles?
2 Timothy 2.
What was Timothy?
Pastor, right?
2.15 Be diligent to present yourself.
He says, be diligent to present yourself.
Approved of God, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed.
Rightly dividing the word of truth.
And, I think I found the wrong text.
I'm trying to look.
Let's see.
Looking for the text.
Someone know, you can shout it out.
When he says, do the work of an
evangelist.
4.5 Yeah, I put it on there.
Yeah.
But, you be watchful in all things.
Endure affliction.
I wrote down the wrong reference.
Do the work of an evangelist.
He was a pastor, right?
But, he's supposed to do the work of
an evangelist.
So, when you thought of that evangelist, Mr.
Pastor, that's what you're supposed to do.
2 Timothy 4.5 Do the work of
an evangelist, Pastor.
Fulfill your ministry.
So, you say, well, if the church is
the pillar and support of the truth.
Supposed to do the work of an evangelist.
Go to Ezekiel 3.
So, then if I'm supposed to propagate truth,
if that's the church's mission.
And, I don't do that.
I'm not warning people's souls.
Because, Christ clearly says that we're supposed to
tell people to repent or perish.
We're supposed to go preach the gospel.
That's my job.
You've convinced me.
I'm supposed to do the work of an
evangelist.
And, I'm not doing that.
I'm not following the model of Jesus by
going door to door, by open air preaching.
I'm not following the model of the apostles
by going door to door, by going open
air preaching.
What does God say to you?
He says, verse 17.
Son of man, I have made you a
watchman for the house of Israel.
Therefore, hear a word from my mouth and
give them a warning from me.
When I say to the wicked, you shall
surely die.
And, you give him no warning, nor speak
to warn the wicked from his wicked ways.
To save his life, that same wicked man
shall die in his iniquity.
But, his blood I will require at your
hand.
Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he
does not turn from his wickedness, nor from
his wicked way.
He shall die in his iniquity.
But, you have delivered your soul.
Your soul.
Again, when a righteous man turns from his
righteousness and commits iniquity.
And, I lay a stumbling block before him.
He shall die, because you did not give
him warning.
He shall die in his sins.
And, his righteousness, which he has done, shall
not be remembered.
But, his blood I will require at your
hand.
Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man, that
the righteous should not sin.
And, he does not sin.
He shall surely live, because he took warning.
And, you also delivered your soul.
Speaking about, if you do not be the
pillar and the support of truth.
If you are not the propagator of the
truth.
If you don't do the work of an
evangelist.
Tell the wicked to turn from his wicked
way.
You have lost your own soul.
What does it profit you to gain the
biggest church?
What does it profit you to speak at
all the conferences?
What does it profit you to write books
on sovereign grace?
On Calvinism?
What does it profit you to do that?
And, to not be an evangelist, going out
and evangelizing.
And, losing your own soul.
Why?
Why would you die?
Why would you be a bad witness to
God?
Why would you not love souls?
Because, you are lost.
I don't care how many books you have
written.
I don't care how many people you have
talked to.
I don't care what you have done.
I don't care who you speak to.
How many people are in your congregation?
How many people come to your conferences?
If you do not warn the wicked, you
are lost.
You say, well, I evangelize once a year.
That's not a habit of evangelism.
That's a habit of non-evangelism.
What if I told you that, you know,
for 364 days of the year, I get
drunk.
But, only one day I don't.
Would you say I'm a drunk or not?
So, if I said, I don't evangelize 364
days of the year, but one day I
do.
Am I a drunk still?
Of course.
You say, but how do I know?
That's the Old Testament.
How do I know you're referencing that right?
Well, shouldn't you know by now that the
Word of God shuts your own mouth?
That's why you can't answer the things that
the Word of God is saying.
That's why you can't answer this message right
now.
Because Jesus said, I'll give you a mouth.
I'll give you words that none of your
enemies will be able to gainsay or contradict.
That's why right now your mouth is stopped.
That's why right now the Spirit of God
is convicting you of your apathy, of your
deadness.
That's why.
That's why the Spirit of God is convicting
you.
Do not harden your heart.
You're being convicted.
You're feeling that little prick.
Don't turn it off.
Embrace the conviction.
Be saved from this wicked and perverse, apathetic,
Reformed movement.
Do I love the doctrines of grace?
I'm a five-point Calvinist.
Amen.
I believe in sovereign grace.
Do I believe in expositional preaching?
Amen and amen.
But all that means nothing.
It's just a facade to get people away
from that if they are not evangelizing.
Man, I'll take a room full of Arminians
if they're evangelistic and preaching the gospel of
repentance, rather than a room full of dead
Calvinists.
Calvinism should make you more evangelistic, not less.
Don't go to another conference.
I don't want to see anyone at another
conference until you've knocked on 200 doors.
Give that a challenge to yourself.
You say, I don't know how.
There's plenty of resources.
Call us up.
We'll teach you how.
We're willing.
We want to get the gospel out.
Go to Acts 18.
I'll show you a New Testament reference.
Acts 18, 6.
But when they opposed him, that's Paul, and
blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said
to them, Your blood be on your own
heads.
I'm clean.
From now on, I'm going to the Gentiles.
And let's look at this last scripture verse.
This is the last text we're going to
look at.
Take heed to this.
Acts 20, 26.
Paul's speaking to the Ephesian elders.
And he says, Therefore I testify to you
this day that I am innocent of the
blood of all men.
His blood I will require at your hand.
That's what God said to Ezekiel.
Paul uses the same reference in terms of
evangelism.
Did he not?
He did.
And he says, You know what manner of
life I lived amongst you every day?
He was preaching, right?
Verse 21, testifying to Jews and also to
Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what he did day to day.
Paul did that every day.
It's amazing, though, to see.
That people will turn away from the Great
Commission.
You know, you don't want to do door
to door.
Go do something else then.
Not saying you have to do door to
door.
I think it has a great biblical precedent,
but go do something.
But it has to be initiating conversations with
lost people.
Check yourself.
Are you just going through the motions showing
up for evangelism?
Or is it begotten of the spirit?
Is it your consuming passion?
Can you say with Paul, that's his chief
desire, that he could see his brethren saved
according to the flesh?
What about you Gentiles?
Your brethren according to the flesh.
Is that your chief desire?
Two greatest commandments.
Love the Lord your God.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
If you truly love God, you'll want to
see his name glorified amongst everyone.
How do you do that?
Through means.
Through evangelism.
To realize your neighbor as yourself.
You don't want to see him go to
hell.
It's the biggest thing.
He'll be in hell forever.
He'll only be alive for a few years.
Give him a cup of water.
He'll be thirsty in ten minutes.
So what?
The best thing you could do, the most
loving thing you could do, is share the
gospel with your neighbor.
That's the most loving thing.
To fulfill the two greatest commandments, the best
thing you could do is to evangelize.
So don't say you love God.
Don't say you are a minister.
Don't say you are a Christian.
Don't say you love your neighbor as yourself.
When you do not do the very job
that Christ has told us to do.
Father in heaven, I ask you, oh Lord,
that you would cause a great awakening, even
amongst Pharisees who have good doctrine, but are
disobedient to your commands, Lord.
I ask that people who are professing Christians
would hear this.
That they would be convinced that they have
no burden for souls.
They don't look out like our Lord did
and weep over Jerusalem.
They don't weep over their own Jerusalems in
their backyard.
What does it profit them, Lord, to gain
the whole world and lose their own soul?
I pray that you would give us wisdom
to pray all the time for a revival
in true biblical evangelism that propagates the true
biblical gospel.
That we would take these words to heart
and do them and be doers of the
truth.
For Jesus' glory, Lord.
Amen.