Could we turn tonight to 1 Thessalonians, chapter
2, and I'd like to read verses 3
through 10.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses
3 through 10.
Paul is speaking about his coming to Thessalonica
the first time and preaching the gospel there.
It says, For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but
as we were allowed of God to be
put in trust with the gospel, even so
we speak, not as pleasing men but God,
which trieth our hearts.
For neither at any time used we flattering
words, as ye know, nor a cloak of
covetousness God is witness, nor of men thought
we glory, neither of you nor yet of
others, when we might have been burdensome as
the apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, even as
a nurse cherishes her children.
So being affectionately desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you not the
gospel of God only, but also our own
souls, because ye were dear unto us.
For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail,
for laboring night and day, because we would
not be chargeable unto any of you.
We preached unto you the gospel of God.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how wholly
and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among
you that believe.
I'm thinking tonight with you about the subject
of New Testament evangelism.
This afternoon we were thinking about some principles
of the New Testament church.
You remember the Apostle Paul said that he
had a twofold ministry.
The first was to preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the second
was to make all men see what is
the fellowship of ministry.
The first had to do with the gospel,
the second had to do with the assembly,
with the church.
Well, I've got it backward.
We talked about the church this afternoon.
I'd like to think tonight about New Testament
evangelism.
And I'm thinking particularly of three methods that
I'd like to talk with you about.
I'm sure there are many more.
There's the method that's known as Scripture's preaching,
but that's what Paul is thinking about primarily
here in 1 Thessalonians.
Then there's a method that for want of
a better name I'd like to call the
cold turkey approach, and I'll explain what we
mean by that.
And it sounds ominous.
And then the third method is what we
might call personal witnessing through the context of
our daily lives.
First of all, preaching.
Of course, this was one of the great
methods that was used in the New Testament
times in the book of Acts.
It's very, very prominent.
You have men like the Apostle Paul going
forth, flaming fires for the Lord Jesus.
Their pulpit was wherever the people would gather
and listen, and they went forth heralding the
glorious news of salvation.
Really an awesome, a marvelous method to go
forth and proclaim such a savior to the
multitude.
Strangely enough, preaching has fallen on evil days
among many in the younger generation today.
It's really not a method that's very highly
appreciated, and personal evangelism has largely taken its
place.
I would like to say to some of
the young men to make themselves available to
the Lord for this glorious ministry, if he
should so call them.
The pendulum has swung away from it.
I believe that one of these days this
pendulum is going to swing back, and we'll
see men of God burning and flaming lights,
going forth for the Savior and preaching in
this way.
That's what Spurgeon said to his young men.
He said, Go forth, get on fire for
God, and the world will turn out to
see you burn.
And he was thinking especially in connection with
the public proclamation of the gospel.
Think of some of the men down through
the centuries, down through the history of the
church, that God has used in this way.
Think of the Spirit of God, really in
a sense the preaching of the Word of
God is a conveying of the Spirit through
the spoken message.
Paul says as much in his letter to
the Ephesians.
So that's one of the methods of New
Testament evangelism, and a method that certainly the
blessing of God will always be upon.
Now there's another method that's very, very common
among us today, and that's what I call
the cold turkey approach.
You know, we live in a very interesting
day in our country, and there's an awful
lot that we can really be thankful for.
Isn't it interesting that today the word born
again, or almost a household word, born again,
and now everybody knows about it.
Time magazine reports it, speaks easily of these
words and all the rest.
An interesting country, you see, you drive along
the freeway, you see the Ixos sticker on
the cars.
Now people in this country have a bold
witness for the Lord Jesus.
Personally, I don't know of another country in
the world where the Lord Jesus is made
known so publicly as he is here.
Filled with the gospel evangelism.
There are souls all over who have been
previously prepared by the Spirit of God.
I don't think there's any...
The Spirit of God is working today, and
he's working in my...
One of the problems in connection with this
method of evangelism, and this is often a
tendency...
Now this is something that we have...
It's a tendency...
It's a tendency to...
...of God in that person.
Where anybody, when
you speak to them about the Lord, and
when this pressure comes to pray the prayer,
as we say, and to make a profession
of faith in Christ, there are people, there
are multitudes of people all the time, there
are people who say things, and they have...
...in this regard, and
it didn't work.
Well, they really never got through to the
Lord Jesus.
Whatever else happened, whatever else profession there was,
one thing in this, in regard to this
method of evangelism, of
the personal worker, doesn't seem...
In other words, a person can be really
as carnal and go out and carry on
a program like this, how
wholly and justly, real
way, and there's no advertisement for
any method of evangelism where this is not
emphasized, and where we have the idea that
we can live the routine and get results
for God.
Another type of thinking that we want to
avoid in this connection, and
it's not something we do for something we
do, but
praise God, God is sovereign in all of
these things.
Apart from the preaching back there in the
Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the
book of Acts, what was the New Testament
really like?
And as I envisage it, and this is
what I'd like to share with you tonight,
as I envisage it, it seems to me
that it was a matter of Christians living
in fellowship with God, and witnessing to the
people in the context of their daily lives.
That means that here is a believer and
he works down in the local carpentry shop.
He's got his parish.
He has his parish there.
Here's another one, and this one is just
a homemaker in the community.
She has her parish right there.
She has her neighbors.
And here's another one, and he's going to
school.
And each one is expected to reach those
whom he contacts day by day.
Now, this is really marvelous when you start
to think of it, because those people will
reach folks that nobody else in the world
can quite reach.
They can reach folks that Billy Graham would
never reach.
They'll never turn on their radios or anything
of the sort, but they're watching you day
by day as they live close to you.
And they do watch us.
I had lunch recently with a friend, an
unsaved friend whom I see infrequently, and he
said to me, I see one of your
people has reached the presidency at last.
They know.
They're watching us all the time and reading
our lives, personal witness within the context of
our daily lives.
But the important thing is this, the people
get to know you and me, and they're
watching you and me, and they're looking for
a life that's different from theirs.
And I have to stop and ask myself
often, MacDonald, how is your life different from
the lives of those people you're among in
San Leandro, California?
You see, our lives are supposed to be
different.
Our lives are supposed to be otherworldly.
And when people see us, they should be
reminded of God.
Really.
And this is very sobering.
In this method of evangelism, the personal life
is very, very important.
And it's very, very easy to blow it.
Let me give you an illustration.
I have a friend out there, and we're
having a drought, as you probably know in
California.
Very serious.
We would have welcomed the rain that fell
here this afternoon.
I have a young friend that I've been
trying to disciple, and he just moved into
a new neighborhood.
And he went out one day, and he
saw two of his neighbors watering their lawn.
Well, that's really verboten, you don't water your
lawn.
And what did he do?
Well, I'm afraid he went and cut their
ears off, really.
I'm afraid he did.
And he was telling me about it afterwards,
and he said, what, did I do something
wrong?
Well, I said, look, Frank, those people were
candidates for a home Bible study.
I think they are now.
He just went after them.
You see, his life in that community, and
he's new in the community, is so very
important.
New Testament evangelism.
And so what it really boils down to
is that I, as a believer in the
Lord Jesus, must show the people around me
the life of Christ so that their appetite
is whetted, so that their thirst is stirred
up.
Really, I think if it works right, I
don't have to say too much to them.
They'll come and open the door.
They'll come and say something and give me
the opportunity.
And what it means is that I, as
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, should
always be looking for ways of showing love
to these people.
Brother Bramall was speaking to us this afternoon
about love, and you know, the world today
is dying for a little bit of love.
It really is.
It breaks my heart, really.
The only heaven a lot of people in
our neighborhood is ever going to know, they're
ever going to know, is right now.
And they're looking for us to extend ourselves,
to stand ourselves and be steadfast, and show
them the Lord Jesus in all that we
do and say.
We had a dear girl baptized at Bethany
a couple of Sundays ago, a girl saved
out of the Roman Catholic Church, the greatest
mission field in the United States today, say
it without hesitation.
And she came and she took her stand
for the Lord Jesus in the waters of
baptism, and afterwards the Christian sisters came and
they kissed her and they hugged her, and
the Christian brothers.
She said, she said, I've never had so
much love.
A girl brought up in modern America, and
there on the day of her baptism, that
was the greatest display of love.
And one of the, one of the Christians
said to her, too bad your family couldn't
be here today.
And that goes back to what we were
saying this afternoon about the body of Christ.
What a wonderful family.
I'm so glad I'm a part of the
family of God.
But the world is looking for love, and
they're looking for us to act differently from
themselves.
How can I do it?
Well, I'm driving along the freeway.
That morning I got down on my knees
and said, Lord, open some opportunity to meet
a witness for you today.
I'm driving along the freeway, there's a fellow
with a flat.
Well, I suppose I can push on, I've
got a lot of things to do, 60
things going through my mind at the moment,
but I can also stop and help him.
And you know, I find it very, very
easy to speak for the Lord Jesus after
I've done something like that.
I don't know about you.
I find the cold turkey approach to be
cold turkey.
Myself, I'm not condemning it, just myself.
But if I can show the love of
Christ to someone, I'll tell you, it makes
it so easy to speak to them about
the Lord, and so hard for them to
turn your way.
I don't mean they all get saved, I
don't mean that, but at least you've given
them a demonstration of the Lord Jesus.
And yet, really, you don't have to have
divine light to do that either, do you?
I'm sure there are a lot of worldly
people who stop and help others with flats.
I guess we have to go beyond that.
I suppose we could lend our neighbors our
gardening tools and all the rest, the mower
and all the rest.
And that's good, and sometimes it really helps
to make an opening for the gospel, but
even then you don't have to have divine
light to do that.
There are an awful lot of nice neighbors
in the world, aren't there?
It saddens me to think of some of
these people who are really such fine folks.
It's just a pleasure to know them, but
they don't know the Savior.
So we've really got to go beyond that.
It means that we, for instance, have to
show hospitality to those who can't repay us.
And incidentally, I would just like to recommend
this as a marvelous way of New Testament
evangelism, the open home and the open heart.
Wonderful thing to get unsaved people at your
table.
Relaxed atmosphere.
No big deal.
You don't ram the gospel down the throat,
you do stop and give thanks, of course,
before you eat.
And maybe in the evening when you're through,
you say, well, we always read the scriptures,
you know.
Do you mind if we read the scriptures?
It makes me think of my dear young
friends out in Turkey, and that's what they
were doing, you know.
They would go out and meet these Turks,
and no way these Turks could ever repay
them, and they would invite them in after
they had made contact with them, and sit
around and have a nice meal with them.
Of course, they hear the Bible story, and
it really isn't hard to get the conversation
on a spiritual level, is it?
In fact, they open the door, and they
start asking questions.
They start asking questions about the Christian faith,
and you are off.
It means that I, in the context of
my daily life, have to show the long
-suffering of Christ.
Mr. Bramhall was mentioning this afternoon, love suffers
long, and is kind.
This is what the world is looking for.
It means that I'm going to repay every
discourtesy that has been done to me.
I'll tell you, we'll make an impact on
our community when we start that kind of
evangelism.
People will really start to talk.
Your children are out praying, and the brats
down the street get in a fight with
them.
They're your children, but they're brats.
And you know, it's quite a hassle, they
already put on quite a Donnybrook there.
And pretty soon, your neighbor lady, she comes
to you, and with a few well-chosen
words, she lays you out in lavender.
What do you do?
If we meet the world on their own
terms, we've lost the testimony.
That's not Christianity, that's the way the world
acts.
And if I try to just answer back
and argue and fight, no, no, that won't
do at all.
The best thing you can do is go
into the kitchen and make a couple of
apple pies and take one down to her
and say, look, I'm really sorry, what do
you think she'd say?
I think she'd get double-toned, but that's
Christ.
Brother Davies was mentioning about Yugoslavia, there was
a dear sister down in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, some
years ago, and she had a neighbor who
was weird, really, she was really repulsive, and
yet she longed for the opportunity to witness
to this neighbor lady.
And something very suspicious was happening at night,
you know, they had stones marking the borders
of their land, the boundaries of their land.
And she went out one morning, and this
neighbor lady had moved the boundary a foot
closer to the Christian's house, she got a
foot extra land just through the night.
And the Christian lost a foot of land.
And believe you me, I was going to
say it stirred up her Irish, but she
was Yugoslav.
But anyway, she went, the Christian went next
door and gave it to her.
And then went back to her kitchen and
said, well that, you know, the Lord really
got a hold of her there, back in
her own home, and he gently barbecued her,
you know, imagine, imagine, you were Christian, here's
a woman who isn't, and her pride was
really paining her.
But finally she did what she knew she
had to do.
She went next door, and she said to
her, look, I'm sorry, she said, I'm a
Christian, and I should never, never, never have
come to you and talked like that.
She said, I'm sorry, she said, I apologize,
and the woman broke down crying, she said,
I don't want the land, I don't want
it.
The door was open for testimony.
See, even when we blow it as a
Christian, we still have that wonderful possibility of
showing Christ through saying those words that are
so hard to come by, I was wrong,
I'm sorry, and incidentally, I believe that those
words are one of the greatest keys to
spiritual maturity.
And if you're not able to say those
things, if you never have to say those
things, I feel sorry for you.
I was wrong.
I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
That's God's way.
This is God's way of victory.
It was a wonderful, a wonderful testimony for
the Lord Jesus down there in Rheagan.
What we need to do is be innovative.
We need to be original and think up
ways of showing the Lord Jesus by the
gospel of the second mile.
When a person might slip on the left
feet, turn the right author.
They ask you to go in the mirror,
go with restraint.
Ask where your seat's up, give them your
little proposal.
That's it.
It'll make an impact for our blessed Lord
in this evil, cold palace world in which
we live.
I have a young sister out there in
the Fairhaven Assembly, and she didn't tell me
this, but I heard the other day that
she became burdened about an elderly lady in
a retirement home out there.
I'm saying this for the benefit of the
young sister.
Sometimes we complain, what do you know?
Well, you know what she did?
Jan was burdened about this elderly lady out
in the home there.
First of all, she makes some Danish cookies.
And then she got a thermos jug, and
she fills it with coffee.
She makes some coffee and fills it.
She got two old china cups and saucers,
and some Teflon napkins and a table cloth,
and some cream and some sugar.
And she put it all in her little
traveling bag, and she went out to the
home, and she set a table, and she
and this lady were talking together.
A lady who was probably being consumed by
loneliness.
Do you know what I mean?
Probably being consumed by loneliness.
And Jan went out there and showed the
Lord Jesus to her.
I'm telling you, that lady will never forget
it, and neither will the other people in
the home who heard about it.
That's beautiful, isn't it?
Beautiful.
I think this is evangelism in the New
Testament context.
I really do.
I love the story of a university student.
And on this university, there was a fellow
who was an alcoholic.
And he was one of those alcoholics that
when he got drunk, he was absolutely hopeless
and quiet.
Some people with a personality like a drill
pickle, when they do drink, they become very
depressed.
But he was one of those.
And nobody liked him.
He was really ostracized there at the university.
And finally, he was put out of his
door.
And there weren't any doors open to him
either.
And this Christian fellow heard about it, and
he thought, I wonder should I invite him
to come into my door.
I think I could think of 62 illogical
reasons why not.
But he couldn't think of any of them
for a few days.
So, he went to this alcoholic, and he
said, I understand you'd like to accord with
me today.
That's right.
I'll just be a little quiet.
Well, he said, I have room in my
place.
And he said, if you'd like to come
and live with me, you'd be welcome to
do it, the Christian said.
And so he did.
The alcoholic was the only thing available to
him.
So, he went in, and he tried to
live with this Christian fellow.
He'd come home at night to practice.
And that Christian fellow would have to shave
him, have to undress him.
There wasn't any of this practice that hadn't
been stained with a fellow's bonnet.
And that Christian really showed the Lord Jesus
to a very, very costly fellow.
And after the passing, the time had started
eating away at this fellow.
It started getting to him.
And one day, he said to the Christian,
what are you doing all this for?
What are you after?
The Christian said, I'm after your soul.
And he got it.
He wondered, he said, how to love love?
Not love in the strictly sentimental way men
think of it today.
Love, divine love, agape love, the love of
the Lord Jesus, let it rise in the
human heart.
You know, that's what brought us to the
Lord Jesus, isn't it?
His love.
He wants it to be radiating through us,
through others.
There was a young couple in the Sun
Valley assembly out there, just a lovely young
couple with several beautiful children.
They were American heathens.
They were living out there in Clayton, and
just American heathens.
They knew nothing about Christianity.
But they had some Christian neighbors, and their
name was Clifford.
And when this unsaved lady had to go
to the hospital to monitor her baby, the
Cliffords went over with all the meals for
the family.
No big deal.
They didn't say anything.
They just went over with the meals.
And Jay and Barbara's husband.
And Jay and Barbara, when they got together,
they talked about it.
They'd never done anything like that before.
They'd never seen people act like that before.
And they got close to the Cliffords.
The Cliffords were able to point them to
the Lord Jesus.
God's grace is a beautiful thing, but I
sometimes think it like that.
Beautiful vessels to shine in.
God, those two beautiful vessels, that day, really
did.
And Jay and Barbara came to the Lord
Jesus.
And I tell you, they've been through fierce
trials and afflictions since.
Jay's a pastor, and one day he was
out there.
And a steel hygiene came down on both
his arms.
Came down on both his arms.
He was shattered.
And he went to the hospital.
And they don't have anything in the way
of money.
But they have trust in the living God.
I went to visit Jay one time, and
he was telling me this.
And it really touched my heart.
Young believers, oh boy, don't allow that to
get into the life of young believers.
You're making your faith person sick.
They'll never be able to take it.
Listen, Barbara called him one day when he
was in the hospital and said, Jay, you
know, you don't have money to pay the
rent.
Well, he was so taken up with his
own troubles at that moment, he kind of
just turned it off.
Didn't bother him at all.
But a few days later, he said, hey,
you don't have money to pay the rent.
So he called Barbara, and he said, Barbara,
what shall I do?
He said, shall I call some friends?
And, you know, he said, Jay, the Lord
knows what we need.
Let's leave it with the Lord.
He'll take care of it.
And do you know that night, Jay's father
came and gave him three times the amount
of money he needed, not risking the hospital.
Young couples, how would they be sure?
First, their cookers went over and took their
meals to the family when the mother was
in the hospital.
Hospitality and kindness is like that.
What a wonderful thing, when some of our
neighbors go to the hospital, when that man
has to go to the hospital for surgery,
just to go down and sit with the
wife there while she's waiting, during those terrible
hours of tension, while her husband's in the
operating room, just to be there with her
and sit there and talk to her and
seek to be of comfort to her.
I think this is a new section of
evangelism, don't you?
I would tell you something to talk to
your husband.
There's a cost involved.
But anything that doesn't cost isn't worth very
much, anyway.
And this means that we're pouring out our
lives in the service of Christ, for these
people for whom Christ died.
I often think of this in connection with
Naomi and Luke.
They've already been alluded to.
In fact, it's rather interesting to me how
the Lord has opened the keys in the
conference so far.
Naomi and Luke have more to say.
Down there, all her idols, all she's ever
known, shrines and all the rest, I'll let
you imagine what her bedroom looks like.
And now Naomi's going to go back to
Bethlehem, Judah, the house of bread and the
house of praise.
And she gets the two daughters-in-law
and says, Lord, you can stay here.
You've got to stay here, you know, Moab,
your home.
Isn't that what we want to stay?
And Luke says, no, I want to stay
with you.
Now, I ask myself the question, why?
Why?
Did Naomi give Luke, of course, an evangelism?
Let me tell you something.
What was it that made Luke want to
go back to Bethlehem?
He saw something of Jehovah in the life
of Naomi, and he said, that's what I
want.
He went back to her.
Dear friends, you and I have a constituency.
God has placed you where you are, and
that's your destiny.
Don't call that creature from hush-hush Wisconsin
to come and do the work.
When you get a fish on the line,
you're the one.
You show the love of God, and you
show the kindness of God, and you startle
these people by the Christian life that you
live before them.
And they'll come to you and ask you
what it's all about.
It'll be easy to go through the door
when they open the door.
Mind you, this method takes longer, too, doesn't
it?
This method can last, folks, a long, long
time.
But I'll tell you, those people will never,
never forget.
And so by many waters, so besides many
waters, and God will attend your testimony with
gladness.
There are many different kinds of evangelism, but
I just wanted to commend this one to
you.
In a special way tonight, the evangelism of
Jan Porter, who is a firm throttle full
of offers.
The evangelism of that student in the university
willing to take in the alcoholics and show
him the love of the Lord Jesus.
And it's you, the innovator.
You think of what God will give you
to listen to, think of ways that you
can reach that neighbor who's been on your
heart.
What a joy it will be.
It's a great support to have them say,
thank you very much, it was you who
invited me here.
When in the mansions above the stage, all
around me appear, I want to hear somebody
say, it was you who invited me here.
May the Lord bless us in our evangelistic
efforts and speak truth for his eternal glory.
Hallelujah!