How to Witness B

You know, you can't preach the good news until you tell the bad news, right? You can't preach grace unless they understand law, and they'll never understand mercy unless they understand judgment. So you have to talk about the law, then you talk about the grace of God.

Now you affirm then, having talked about that, the need that they should repent of their sin. Jesus came and His message was, repent, for the Kingdom is at hand. When a coworker asks about your faith, when a neighbor wants to know about your church, when a friend invites you over for dinner, how do you make the most of those opportunities for evangelism? If you ever worry about your witness, if you're not sure how to share the gospel, you don't want to miss today's broadcast. It's a unique edition of Grace To You that's going to answer some of the most common questions people have about evangelism, questions that may come up when you talk about your faith. It's part of John MacArthur's current study called Spiritual Boot Camp. Now, to field the first question from his audience, here's John.

Another question. Well, it's obvious we're supposed to witness, but what are the elements that make a witness effective? Well, that's an important question, Paul, because some of us have tried to witness, and we walk back from that occasion and we say, there must have been a better way, right? I mean, there must have been another approach.

I got turned off when I was only on step one. What do we really need to understand about witnessing? All right, let me give you a broad picture first of all. Basically, the corporate testimony of the church is foundational. For example, you attend a church, right? And the reputation of that church in the community really sets the foundation for whether anybody's going to listen to what you have to say. For example, let's say you attend a church where they are having a fight. The church is split, the pastor ran off with the secretary, it's chaotic, it hits the newspaper, everybody knows, and you go down and you're from that church and the people at your school or your work are in your neighborhood and you say, I just want to tell you the Lord is wonderful and we all live for the Lord and I want you to know Jesus Christ. And he says, you go to that church down there where the pastor just embezzled all the money, you know, end of testimony, right?

I mean, it's the corporate community that sets the foundation to make individual witness meaningful and believable. I remember one of the attorneys in our church came to me one Sunday and he said, I just had a terrible experience. I said, what was it? He said, well, I was in court this week and I was working with this other attorney and I invited him to church. And he said to me, what church do you go to? And he said, I told him.

I said, I go to Grace Community Church and John MacArthur's a pastor. He says, you go to that church? He says, yeah. He says, I'd like you to come. He says, are you kidding?

I'd never come to that church. He says, the most crooked attorney in the city goes to that church. Well, this lawyer came and he said, that just broke my heart. So I got up in the service that morning and I told that story. And I said, I don't know which of you attorneys that goes here is that crooked attorney, but I wish you'd get your life cleaned up because you're making it very hard for the others to witness. You understand the point? I mean, you know, you're out there and you're going to have to defend the Christianity you belong to. It's tough sometimes, isn't it?

Newspapers like to play up, you know, the bad things that happen to Christian people and the media loves that kind of thing. And so, we have to live that life. We have to be that salt and that light, that consistent thing. So, Paul, in answer to your question, some of your effectiveness in witnessing is dependent on other people.

It is. And the foundation of believability that they have laid. Have you ever gone in to witness to somebody, to share Jesus Christ with somebody, and they've already met so many dear, good, solid Christians that you just, the slide is greased.

I mean, you just go sailing on through. And that's very important, that corporate testimony. And again, we're back to John 13, aren't we, where Jesus said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, when you have love for one another, and when you see the purity of the church. Peter exhorts, have your behavior honest among the pagans.

Right? And when you come into the Pauline letters to Timothy, and he's telling how the church ought to be organized, and then to Titus, and he says, boy, when you start picking leaders, pick leaders whose lives are blameless in the world. Because if they can shoot down your leaders, they'll wipe out your whole movement. You'll lose your testimony. So, in a very real sense, we're dependent on each other. And what you do in your life may affect my testimony.

You know, you meet someone, you try to share Christ, ah, I met a Christian, and they were such and such and such and such, and I'm not interested. So, that's a very important element of it. Now, let me talk a little bit about another thing. You go from the corporate testimony to the individual testimony. And this is essential, too, that your life be right. The place you're going to have the most impact in your witnessing is the environment you live in all the time. I mean, that's where you sink or swim, right? We say, oh, it's so hard to win my family to Christ.

That's right. Because unless they see day in, day out the virtue of Jesus Christ coming through you, it's going to make it tough. And we're talking from the human viewpoint. We know that God is at work, but nonetheless, from our side, there's a pure life that lays a foundation. 1 Peter 2.15 says, by doing right, you silence, you remember that verse?

The ignorance of foolish men. You know, people want to slander Christianity, they want to put it down, they want to knock it. But it's your right living, your virtuous life that shuts the mouths of the critics. I mean, we all long for a Christianity that's blameless, don't we? I mean, wouldn't we love to be demonstrating to the world the blamelessness of a Christian's life?

Not perfection, but just that honest, upright integrity that says, sure, I fail, but I go to the Lord and he helps me with those things. That's really what we want as a foundation. Very, very important.

Now, just another thought along this line. As you witness now on that individual pure life, we've talked about the corporate foundation, the pure life. As you move into witnessing with those as the basis, I think it's essential that you articulate your testimony. In other words, that people be hearing about how Christ has changed your life. Because most people that come to the gospel, that come to Christ, come from the standpoint of feeling a need. They feel incomplete, they feel lonely, they feel depressed, they feel unfulfilled. That's basically where men are. They're looking for pleasure and they're not finding it. They're looking for love and they're not finding it. They're looking for freedom from guilt, believe me. Guilt is very difficult to deal with.

You wonder why the mental institutions are packed with people. I think primarily it's due to guilt. They can't throw off anxiety built upon them by guilt. Then there's this whole thing of purposelessness. Edna St. Vincent Millay, you know, says, life must go on, I just don't know why.

And Arthur Miller says, life is deteriorated to the miles we get on our Volkswagen. I mean, there's nothing there, no purpose. And then there are those people who are literally victims of their own passion and they can't rise above it.

They just can't rise above it. And here's this meaninglessness of life. And so when you witness to somebody and you come at them and say, hey, peace in life, purpose in life, this is in Jesus Christ, right? And that's the initial, but it can't stop there.

I mean, that's not enough. I think the rich young ruler came to Jesus because he had a felt need. He comes to Jesus and he runs.

I mean, if a guy's running, he's got some problems. He's hurting. And he slides in on his knees and looks up and says, you know, panting, what do I have to do to obtain eternal life? That was a felt need, wasn't it? But the Lord didn't say, hey, sign on the dotted line, guy, and you're in.

Hey, believe, you know. The Lord hit him with something that was absolutely unbelievable. He said, keep all the commandments. Keep all the commandments? Which commandments? God's commandments. Remember he listed some of them there in Matthew? What was the Lord doing?

The Lord was taking them to the next step in evangelism. It's got to be beyond a felt need. They have to realize that they're living in sin and rebellion against God. And sometimes that is the hardest thing to tell someone. You can find a person searching for purpose and they can get all excited about that. Oh, man, meaning and purpose and value and life and fulfillment and potential.

And then you say, but wait. You see, the real issue with you is the reason you don't know those things is because you're living in rebellion to the God who gives those things. And you'll never know them until you come to grips with that rebellion. You're living in violation of God's law. You're a sinner. You have broken God's commandments. And then you can name those commandments.

And you need to bring them to the point where they admit it. Now, Jesus gave all those commandments to the rich young ruler and what did he say? All those things have I kept.

What am I lacking? It's possible to bring that guy to conversion because he didn't admit that he was what? A sinner. I mean, he wouldn't admit that he was out of sync with God. Therefore, all he was looking for was a placebo.

All he was looking for was a panacea, a temporary relief from the symptoms, and he wouldn't admit that there was a deeper problem. And so you have to take people to the point where they really affirm the fact that they are sinful. And that sometimes is hard to do.

And then you take them one step further, I think, and that is you take them to the point where they will acknowledge that they need to submit their life to the control of God. Remember the rich young ruler? Then Jesus said to him, I want you to do something. Sell everything you have.

Give it all to the poor. Come follow me. And the Bible says he split. He was going to be the Lord of his life. Sure, he wanted eternal life. He wanted peace. He wanted freedom from anxiety. He wanted all of that stuff. But he wasn't willing to do it on the terms that he had to admit he was a sinner because he desperately needed to preserve his own sense of self-esteem.

And secondly, there was no way he was going to subject his life to the lordship of somebody else. And those are conditions we have to bring people to. And that means you confront people with the Word of God. And the Word of God says you're going to have to deal with sin and the lordship of Jesus Christ. Now, there's another thing you need to do, too, in the elements of effective witnessing, and that is this. You need to recognize that you're dependent on the power of the Spirit of God. You say, well, why is this important? Because it keeps you from manipulating people. It's very easy sometimes to get somebody who's emotionally agitated and really in desperate need to sort of manipulate them into doing something.

And so you want to be sure you're not doing that. And so you depend upon the Spirit of God. Hey, nobody ever got saved by your cleverness or mine or anybody else's.

You don't con people into being Christians. That's a miracle, isn't it? And that miracle is a supernatural miracle. And so we're dependent on the Spirit of God. You know, I love that story in Acts 16 about Lydia. I call her Lydia, the liberated lady. And the Bible says that Paul came and preached the gospel, and I love this, and the Lord opened her heart.

Oh, isn't that good? The Lord opened her heart. You know, somebody said to me one time years ago, do you get distressed when people don't respond to the gospel, when they don't come to receive Jesus Christ? And I say, well, there's a sense in which my heart is sad, but God never called me to save people. He only called me to preach the gospel to them.

The saving is His business. And so I don't have a lot of anxiety about that. If I've been faithful to clearly discharge the presentation of the gospel, that's all I can do.

That's all I can do. I'm not going to manipulate them to do something that they're doing emotionally that isn't genuine, and I'm not going to assume that I'm the guy who gets people saved. Who is it that convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment? John 16, 7 to 11, it's the Spirit. Jesus says, when I send the Spirit, He will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. So, from the start, you're dependent on the Spirit of God to come through your life, dependent on the Spirit of God to come through the Word, dependent on the Spirit of God to convict. So, all of that is the Spirit. The second chapter of 1 Corinthians really brings this home.

Let me just mention it to you. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and draw your attention to what is a very familiar passage. But it says to us in verse 9, as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.

Now, you know what that's saying? Men on their own terms can't understand what God has for them. So, the unsaved person can't understand salvation and all its blessing and benefit. It can't. It says, eye hasn't seen it and ear hasn't heard it. That means it's not available objectively. You know, it's not empirically available. It isn't out there where you can grab it. And then it says, neither has it entered into the heart.

It's not available subjectively or rationally. So, he can't know it outside himself. He can't know it inside himself.

How's he going to know it? But God, verse 10, has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. So, when you're witnessing to someone, you really have to watch the Spirit of God do His work.

And that is such a wonderful confidence, isn't it? It's also a wonderful thing to be a part of that, to know that the Spirit of God will use us as we're involved. And that brings us to our responsibility. We're talking about the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. What is our responsibility? Now, let's get right into talking about the actual method. How do we go about it?

Let me see if I can sort of crystallize some of the things we've said. First of all, I like to suggest that you start with your personal testimony. How did Christ come into your life?

So that they don't see it as some very bizarre kind of far-out thing. You know, you went into some very clandestine corner of a cathedral and God did something to you mysterious, you know. So that they, you know, you hear people give their testimony all the time and say, well, the other day I was driving on the freeway and I was saved, you know. Or I was sitting in my living room and the Lord convict me. I was by my bed or I was talking to a friend or I was in a restaurant or I happened to be in a church service. And it's diverse, isn't it? I met all of you, probably different places, different circumstances.

So people aren't looking for some very mystical thing. Share your testimony. So when you witness to somebody, start with what Christ has done in your own life.

And I think that's a good starting point. And you might even bring into it, if you were old enough to know that, your former dissatisfaction and how Christ has transformed you. I'll never forget a little five-year-old kid praying a prayer one time in a prayer room. He says, and oh God, save me from being a miserable sinner, you know.

I mean, how miserable can you be at five? But basically, you've got to start there because that puts it into life with real people. And then as you explain your conversion, make a transition to the Scripture and let the Scripture speak. Hey, the Word of God is alive and what?

Powerful and living and powerful. So you want to use the Word of God. Get the verses in the right order that you need to to show people that they're sinful. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And as many as received him, John 1-12, to them gave he the right or the authority to become his children. You know, do it with the Word of God. Use the Scripture. You might even want to take him to John 3 and just go through the account of Nicodemus.

Or you maybe want to go to Matthew 19 and talk about the rich young ruler and why he didn't come to Christ, why he didn't become a believer. Use the Scripture. And then emphasize the law. Emphasize the law of God, the broken law of God, so that people see themselves as sinners in need of salvation, having violated infinitely holy God.

You know, you can't preach the good news until you tell the bad news, right? You can't preach grace unless they understand law. And they'll never understand mercy unless they understand judgment. So you have to talk about the law of God. When Romans begins, and Romans is the gospel, isn't it, the book of Romans, you've got chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and it's nothing but an indictment of the human race. And then when you're sufficiently indicted so that it says in Romans 3, every mouth is what?

Stopped or shut. I mean, nobody's got anything to say. You can't defend yourself against your violation of the law of God. Into that comes the gospel of Jesus Christ. So you have to talk about the law, then you talk about the grace of God. Now you affirm then, having talked about that, the need that they should repent of their sin. Jesus came and his message was, repent, for the kingdom is at hand.

Turn, the prophet said, turn ye, turn ye. And so we want to talk about that and submission to obedience to Jesus Christ. What you're saying is, I receive Jesus Christ, Romans 10, 9, and 10, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as what?

As Lord. Believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. You've got to believe the right stuff, but you also have to confess his lordship.

Now, I don't believe that you may understand all that. You know, when a person comes to Christ, I don't think they understand the full implications of his lordship. I don't think they understand the full implications of what it means to turn from sin.

But I think there is a willingness there. And I really want to tell you, I believe that that's worked by God. I don't think that a normal person by himself is going to turn from his sin. I think that's part of the saving work. And I don't think a person apart from Christ is going to affirm Christ's lordship. I think that's part of the saving work also. And that's why Jesus said, with men it's impossible, but with God what? All things are possible. See, men aren't going to turn, and men aren't going to affirm the lordship of Christ.

But God can work the heart around to do that. And that's necessary. Well, we have time for one more question, and maybe you have another one.

Yes? After you've been allowed the privilege of leading someone to the Lord, what responsibilities do you have in that person's life? Well, that's really important, isn't it? Now you're talking about follow-up.

What do you do afterwards? We've all had that opportunity maybe to lead someone to Christ, and they disappeared. We can't find them. We don't know where they are. And we thought they were so genuine. Well, that reminds us that we can't always tell the wheat from the tares, can we?

But how do you follow up? Let me just give you just some basic, simple things, okay? Some basic elements. And I think they're found in one passage, and it might be good to look at that. It's 1 Corinthians, chapter 4. And it just kind of flows out of Paul's relationship to the Corinthians. Now, he says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 15 this. He says, in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel.

Right? Okay, he says, I led you to Christ. You're my spiritual children. So, he's led them to Christ. Now, what's his responsibility? He's writing them back as the one who led them to Christ, and what does he do? Watch, first of all, verse 14.

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. There's the first thing. I think you need to love somebody. I think you need to demonstrate a genuine concern for that person.

And that's the key to follow up. They need to know you love them. And what does it mean to love somebody? Feel emotional about them? Get spiritual goosebumps?

No. God so loved the world that he what? He gave. And if you love your brother, 1 John 3 says, if you say you love your brother and close up your compassion, you don't love him at all. And Jesus said in John 13 that he wanted his disciples to love as he had loved, and he had just loved by washing their dirty feet, meeting their need. Giving service, sacrificial service, that's love.

And I believe the best way to follow somebody up is just to demonstrate that you really do love them, that you really love them by giving up some of your own time, your own priorities, your own enterprises to invest in their life. And that's where it starts. Hey, Paul continually said to the churches where he evangelized, I long to see you, right? I long to come back and perfect that which is lacking in your faith. And he says, though I love you more and you love me less for it, I'll keep loving you. See, he gave himself to those people. He offered himself to them, and love is the key to follow up. I think what I'm saying is don't hand him eight books of follow up and not give him your life and your heart. There's a couple of other things we need to talk about, and it's in this passage, too. Verse 14, I warn you.

I think that's part of it, too, don't you? You can't raise a child with just affirming love. You also have to warn them, don't you? Keep doing that and you're going to have a problem. That's what the Bible calls admonishing. That's warning with a view toward judgment. In other words, you keep going down that track, you're going to get into problems. So if you really want to follow somebody up, you've got to warn them about the way they're going. Warning is a key element. Now, there are some other elements in this passage that we need to talk about.

Let me show you this one. We need to be an example. He says in verse 17, I'm going to send Timothy to you, who's my beloved son, faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which are in Christ.

I'm going to send a guy to you who's just like me. You can follow him. Now, Paul said many times, and in the case of the Corinthians, he said it to them in the 11th chapter, be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. I think it's critical to be an example.

So what is an example? You get your life alongside theirs, right? And you just keep walking the Christian walk and let them see how it's done. And that is the most powerful follow-up there is. You're literally one-on-one teaching them biblical living, teaching them a sanctified lifestyle, and that's how you follow him.

There are some other things. Teaching, he talks about at the end of verse 17, his teaching everywhere in every church. I think follow-up involves input. It involves telling them the truth of God they need to hear. Then in verses 18 and 19, he goes on to talk about the fact that if they don't shape up, when he gets there, he's going to come with a rod. And that means discipline. That means discipline. There are times when we have to discipline folks. And how do you discipline somebody you're following up? I think verbally you confront them. You say, hey, you've got to stop doing that.

I want to help you to change that pattern in your life. There has to be a willingness to confront somebody. You say, well, I don't want to say anything about that. Those people just, you know, who am I to say I've got problems in my own life? Well, okay, you get the beam out of your own eye and then work on the one in their eye. But you can't leave them alone. You're not going to help them if you don't say what ought to be said.

Well, I hope those things kind of give you a basic start. We've talked about who can witness, and we've said basically that anybody who's a Christian can witness and must witness and does witness because you have had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We've said witnessing is simply giving testimony to the watching world of Jesus Christ being who He is, who can do what He says He can do. We talked about the fact that witnessing is essential, and there's a price to pay, right? There's a sacrificial price to pay. We've said it's necessary because we're commanded to do it, and we're equipped to do it.

After all, we know the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we've talked about some of the features that make it effective, and we've talked about methods, how to put our testimony into it and work through the Word, and we've talked about follow-up. That kind of gets it into one little package, and if we can work on these things and internalize these things, and maybe a little at a time put them into practice as we communicate Christ, I believe God will be honored in the way we witness. This is Grace To You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. Today's practical Q&A was part of John's classic study called Spiritual Boot Camp. Along with teaching on this radio station, John also serves as chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. Now John, in this series on Spiritual Boot Camp, you've singled out four areas that are vital to our Christian health—studying the Bible, our prayer life, our functioning in the church, and now evangelism. Does any of these stand out as being particularly undervalued, one of those that we don't pay enough attention to in the church? I have to say that prayer is the one that goes begging the most because it's hard work and there's no immediate response. Even studying the Bible yields an immediate response.

As you read the Bible, you study the Bible, your heart is enlightened, your mind is enlightened, and there's a certain joy in reading what you read and discovering spiritual truth. Prayer is hard work. It's sort of reaching out into the dark and not knowing exactly what God wants you to pray for and not seeing an immediate response. So I think the challenge for us is to live an attitude of constant prayer so that it's not that you're standing somewhere with your eyes closed or sitting somewhere with your eyes closed praying all the time. It's that your heart is so open to God all the time that prayer rises just constantly. There's a constant conversation with you and God. Do you think it's harder to do that today with all the distractions that get thrown at us, the internet and advertisements, television? Look, if you're sitting somewhere and your iPhone is on the table, how long can you pray before you pick up your iPhone?

Yeah. There are so many seductive things that pull you that it's more difficult today probably than it was in past generations to lay off the things that are distractions to prayer. This is why we're doing the Spiritual Boot Camp series.

We're bringing it to a close now. We've been talking about the four basic boot camp disciplines that are part of every Christian's life—studying Scripture, prayer, living life in the church, and evangelizing the lost. You can download all four lessons free of charge on MP3 on Grace Tiu's website, gty.org. And let me mention a new book we've been telling you about, the first in the reissuing of our study guide series, Spiritual Boot Camp. That's our first book based on the radio study you've just heard, about 100 pages, perfect for individual and group study. And for the Spiritual Boot Camp study guide or the audio lessons on MP3 or CD, contact us today.

Yes, friend, you will want to review this material again. It lays out a clear strategy for becoming more like Christ and serving the church that he is building. To get the Spiritual Boot Camp study guide or audio series, contact us today. Again, you can download all four messages from Spiritual Boot Camp free of charge in MP3 or transcript format at gty.org.

Or, if you prefer the four-CD album, we also have that available. And if you'd like a copy of the Spiritual Boot Camp study guide, it's the first of our relaunched study guide series, go to gty.org or call us at 800-55-GRACE. That's our toll-free line, 800-55-GRACE. And while you're at the website, gty.org, I would encourage you to download the Grace Tiu app. It gives you access on your phone or tablet to all 3,500 of John's sermons, including messages from popular studies like The Master's Men, or If God's Will is So Important, Why Can't I Find It?, or The Battle for the Beginning, and many more. Again, to download the free Grace Tiu app or our free Study Bible app, go to gty.org. Now, for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Make sure you catch the latest episode of Grace Tiu television this Sunday. Also, be here tomorrow when John begins a compelling look at biblical prophecy from the book of Daniel, titled The Rise and Fall of World Powers. Just another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace Tiu.