1280. Why Do I Evangelize?

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today, we're concluding the series on evangelism. Yesterday, Pastor Tim Richmond of Grace Baptist Church in Queens, New York, preached a message titled, How Do I Evangelize? Today's message is the final in the series, and he'll be teaching us why we should evangelize. Alright, our questions. What is evangelism?

Evangelism is what you are as you share this good news of Jesus, this pardon, the how, you're thinking of the potted plants, these several folks that you've made relationships with, and then also your whole community as you're creatively considering ways to share this gospel message to the whole community. Why? Why do this? I had some great responses, a lot more responses of why here, and so I just love that so many of you responded, Matthew 28, 19 to 20. Absolutely.

Why? Because this is what Christ says, make disciples of the nations, right? This is our command.

That was a big one. Actually, a lot of you just responded with the reference. But also, they're obeying Christ's command.

Several of you had that. How will they hear without a preacher? That they may have eternal life?

This is another big theme. This is more a systematic theology conclusion that's very, very good, and one of the ones that I wrote down as well. To bring glory to God, right? We have 2.3 million worshipers in Queens, and my prayer is that by the end of my life, 2 million of them, at least, will be worshipers of Jesus, right?

So this drives us to share him with them. Alright, so you have like some of these big ideas and I'm just kind of summarizing them. Love for God, love for others, because Jesus died for mankind, the chief mission of the church, so some great responses there. Great responses there. And I'm going to focus on that one that we talk about.

Why? Because it's compassionate. It is, and you see this as something that comes up often as you read through the New Testament, that we share the gospel because we're compassionate for those who are lost. We want to show mercy.

We want to show mercy. And so you have obey, yes. You have this strong sense of the glory of God, yes. But also, there's several times Jesus looked on the multitudes with compassion. Paul said he would want to go to hell if it meant more people, his Jewish brothers going to heaven, right?

There was this compassion that drove him, and I think that's a very consistent biblical theme that drives our why, alright? So the card for you today, I want you to put this in your wallet and keep it in your wallet to remind you, right, this is, I have in my wallet as well, actually I gave my unlimited pass, my subway pass to somebody to use while I was gone, right? But this is mirroring the subway card. I need a subway card to get home. This won't work in the subway, but this is what that mirrors here, is we think of your life as a commute, 40, 60, maybe 80 years, not sure, four laps, 40 minute commute.

You've got to show mercy to those people riding that short time with you, okay? And so I'm going to encourage you to get in the spots of the world where there's more soil than sowers. Consider, because of God, because of the Gospel, because of the power of the message preached, perhaps you could consider going to spots where there's just a whole lot of soil and not as many sowers. And as you do that, the messages that you hear from others may actually be against the Gospel's message.

And you will see that, but that shouldn't disturb us, okay? And the text actually speaks to both of those things today. Why should I evangelize and then how can I continue to evangelize during a time or place that may be a little more difficult because the messages around me are so against the Gospel, okay? So, I want us to read this text together.

Let's do this. Can we read this out loud together? The first two verses talk about how we can stay in areas or spots, and actually as I'm encouraging you this summer to go out in places and meet people that don't know Jesus, you may think well, what if they try to influence me against Christ? Well, that's a question that we should address, so these first two verses address that. It's not to stay inside your house or stay where everyone's Christian. That's not the answer the Bible gives. Remain on at Ephesus, Timothy, young single Timothy, pastor, in that wicked city of Ephesus.

That's what the Bible says. But as you do that, you'll have this drawing, and I feel it, I feel drawn by the other messages around me, so you need these first two verses. So let's read the first two verses, and read the second two verses, and then jump right into the text. First two verses, can you read this with me? But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Alright, so we have two ideas here, commands, that help us with this. That first one is to help you go to spots that are difficult, where the messages you hear will be totally against the Gospel, consistently keep yourself in the love of God, and then the second one is as you are there with this Gospel message, you're to have mercy, compassion, compassionly extend the love of God toward others, okay? That's where we're going with this.

Verse 20 and 21, consistently keep yourself in the love of God. I often run into Manhattan, I jog there from Queens, and as I'm going just see all these messages, but sometimes I'll end up in Times Square, and like it's message overload. Like seven to eight thousand signs and blasting messages. So I sit down and read all of them, one by one. You can't take them all in, there's just too many at once, right? We're bombarded with messages and I just feel like, I've got to get out of here.

And often I do, I'll just go and sit by a stream, and I love hearing that too, right? We can't get away from messages, they're on your phone, they're on the news, right? We just had messages given us today, I'm giving you a message right now, buy this, stop, go, yield, all kinds of messages around you, and many of them actually go against the Gospel, or perhaps they're just more secular and they're giving you all these messages that encourage you to live a life apart from God. Like, you can live any way you want, just don't think about God, and so it's not necessarily even anti-God, it's just messages to keep us from thinking about what's going on spiritually. And I'm going to encourage you to go where the messages are less like Christ, and more like Satan.

Go there. Because we need people sharing the message of Christ. We need you to be a billboard, we need you to be a part of the message, and all of you, right, I love C.T. Studs' quote, some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop, and what does he say? Within a yard of hell. And so Paul again says, remain odd at Ephesus, stay in that spot where the messages may actually be against the faith, but you're tempted, as you hear these messages, to live in a way that would be against the Gospel, right? And so you need verses 20 and 21, he says, keep yourself in the love of God. Consistently keep yourself, and I'll summarize it this way, you keep yourself understanding that God loves you and loving God. Keep a right relationship with your Heavenly Father in a hostile environment. Everywhere you go there's going to be a hostile environment, but as you continue in a secular society, as you take a secular employment, there will be this pull on you, and so you need to keep yourself in the love of God, or you have no sign at all. How do you do that? He gives three ING words after that command, by building yourself in the faith, by spending time in this Bible each day, building yourself up. If you don't, you will lose your signpost.

Your commute will be wasted, even maybe in a minute. Praying in the Holy Spirit. So you're in the Bible regularly listening to the words of the faith, and then you're praying in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is using you to pray to God. You're actually, this is what I have to do daily, I have to be in the Psalms worshiping God through the words that the Spirit inspired.

I have to do that living in New York City. I have to, or my focus like, I feel myself drifting on a daily basis. So I have to keep coming back to the love of God as revealed to me in the Psalms, and I just chew on those things that God is, and He has done, and it keeps me centered on the love of God and my love for Him. Praying in the Holy Spirit, and then looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ into eternal life. Nothing spurs my mercy to others more than recognizing that I have been shown so much mercy, and so I'm thinking about, I'm going to be with Christ one day, I get to fellowship with Christ today because of His mercy. Not at all because of who I am.

And this helps us, as we'll see. When I moved to New York, one of my secular jobs, I remember sitting in a break room there and I probably too quickly shared with this potted plant that I had met and started becoming, trying to be friendly too. She was a nice lady and so just like trying to interact with her over coffee there, and I talked to her about the Lord, and she yelled at me, and she cursed, and she said, never talk to me about that again, and she ran out of the room. I don't know what happened, but someone else who had come to that same job to be a gospel light had totally ruined his testimony with her.

Had been, I'll just say, overly flirtatious with her repeatedly to the point where, and he's a married man, totally ruined his signage. But he went there with the compassionate heart, went there wanting to be a light, but in a little bit totally ruined his testimony, and then ruined my opportunity to be a light. We have to be, as we enter these areas, and as you enter these areas where there's less light, we have to be continually refreshing ourselves in the love of God. You have to go back that daily in order to have a foundation on which, a platform on which to hang the sign that points to Jesus. So, as you're doing that, as you're reflecting on the gospel in your life, on the compassion of Christ, then you'll be able to carry out 22 and 23.

Okay, so let's look at that. And you compassionately extend the love of God to others. Compassionately extend the love of God to others. Now there may be a little bit of a build-up of three sections here, and I'm not going to get into the details there.

We'll take two as the text stands here. Verse 22, of some have compassion making a difference. So we'll summarize that as a heart of compassion extends mercy, remembering God's mercy. And then verse 23, a heart of compassion extends salvation, remembering pending judgment. So this first one, this verse 22, a heart of compassion extends mercy, remembering gospel mercy. Of some have compassion. That's the same word, it's the verb form of the word that he just translated, mercy. We just saw was mercy.

You don't deserve this, Tim, you don't deserve this at all. None of us deserve this. Mercy has been extended to us, so out of that platform we want to show mercy to others. We want to have compassion on others.

This really helps us make a difference. Because I'm not looking down on anyone. And this is what you have to recognize as you go into a place where no one is Christian, no one's going to think like you. No one's going to talk like you. No one's going to act like you, and that is okay. We totally understand that it's actually very gracious, decent people, I'm not saying that, but the mindset, the thinking is totally different, and we don't expect someone to live like Christ until they take up their cross and follow Christ. Their political views may be totally different from you.

You're not going to bash them about that, right? You don't expect, like could you see Paul saying, Timothy, when you go to Ephesus, change everybody's views on this position of Rome. No, remain on at Ephesus, make disciples of the nations there. That is our calling. And so a heart of compassion is not looking down on others because they're a little different. It's saying absolutely, man, we're all the same at the foot of the cross.

All of us are on our knees, on our face, saying I don't deserve this. That's mercy. That is mercy. And then the second one really that fits with our theme of compassion here, this compassion number two, our last idea here would be, and others, right, so it goes, some folks need to show mercy, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. A heart of compassion extends salvation, realizing that there's judgment to come. And this is where the compassion really kicks in. This is why, one of the reasons why you go love for God, obeying his commands, but man, you just love people. You just, you're awakened to the sobering reality of the world today, that people are dying going to hell today, that shakes you. And so a real heart of compassion is going to feel like I got to do something.

Lord, help me, I'm so small. But you've given me some of these gifts, like I know you've given me a degree in accounting or nursing or whatever it is, but Lord, just send me somewhere where I can make disciples because I need to show the compassion that you showered on me in the gospel. And it seems as though, with verse 23, it enters this category where this may be a little difficult, a little more difficult of a situation, a little more difficult of a neighborhood, a little more difficult of a person, because this person, like it's intervention time, you save them with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. And so you're saving them.

That's what the text says. Often when people say, I was able to save someone, I'm like, okay, I understand, but God saves them, Jesus saves them. But at some point, the Lord looks at you as the agency that God used. You were the bait that got them to taste of Christ. And in one sense, God says, you save them.

You save them. James puts it this way, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way saves his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. It's our compassion that says, I need to be a part of this, but we do it with fear, right? Because it's a fearful thing to perhaps enter some areas.

And Queens is nothing compared to the places in the world of the 1040 window where my brothers and sisters are losing everything to do this. Praise God for you out there. But as you do, there's a possibility of getting burnt as you go or the smelling a little bit as actually look at the phrase there. He says hating even the garments spotted by the flesh as you go. There's this fear, there's this fire as you come to it, and it's actually fairly coarse language in the original. The idea is hating their soiled undergarments.

Nobody wants to be near that. But at some point, someone's got to have compassion and make a difference in that person's life. And you're actually hating the fact that sin has hurt them in that way.

It's only because they've desired to worship themselves and other things rather than worshiping Jesus. There's no difference between you and them. There's no difference between me and them. But the mercy of God. And so I need to reach out to them. And sometimes it hurts. We had a lady that as we were reaching out to her, she started going a little crazy. Sunday morning, she would post these horrible lies about me as a pastor around the subway.

Just tape them on the walls. I know I'm a bad guy. I realize that in my heart. But this thing was totally off, totally crazy.

That still hurts a little bit. Thinking to myself Sunday morning before preaching and smiling at people go around 30 minutes and taking all these signs off the wall. But sometimes if you're wanting to make a difference in people's lives, it can get hurtful, it can get dangerous, it can get yucky, it can get stinky.

But the compassion in our heart continues to reach out because God's mercy is real and his gospel is so powerful that it can take anyone and totally transform them from Saul to Paul. And this is what our commute is all about. It's seeing that person. Just talk to Sadie about this. Seeing that person on the subway and you never know what mission field is going to sit down next to you.

And you're able to share about the love of Christ with them. The subway has gotten a little more difficult recently. I think the last two years have been, definitely with COVID it got worse than it's ever been since I've been there. A few weeks ago you saw the shooting in the subway station in Brooklyn and the scenes there were horrible. But to be honest, every time I go down there, the last three months have been better, but it's like I hope this works out okay.

Because it's almost every time something happens I'm like this could go really bad. I'm sitting E train from Forest Hills to Roosevelt Avenue. I'm sitting there this gray blue E train and across from me is this guy, definitely Middle Eastern guy who looks really rough. Over here is an older black gentleman. Over here is a younger lady.

And we're just sitting there, not many people over here. And then this lady over here starts beating the wall. And I'm thinking well this is probably a seizure, what can we do? And then she gets up, starts walking around and like we're afraid she's going to hurt herself by bashing into things. And she ends up laying out on the bench across from me with her head on the lap of this big burly Middle Eastern man. And I saw his eyes look down on her as she's drooling with such compassion.

It was like the three of us men are very different backgrounds but there's something in of us in human nature that's just like I got to have compassion. She gets up and she starts doing this again and she no doubt something with drugs really really hurt her, messed her up. And she opens the door in between the two subway cars and we get up and we're trying to help her and she tries to throw herself off into the tracks between the two trains. And I grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the subway.

Laid down on the ground, finally get to the next subway car, the subway station and paramedics come. And I just look at these two guys. We just like so different but we just had to do something.

Compassion drove us and it really really made me think of this in a spiritual setting if we could we could open our eyes to the to the commute that God has placed us on. That's where you are. And it's it's just like how could we not do something? How could you not do whatever you can? You say I'm not very good at this.

I am not either. But I can be there and I can try to snatch someone back from a destructive life of sin and teach them the glorious life of worshiping Jesus Christ that that is not only joy in this life but joy forever. If you see something you say something. And I just want our eyes to be open to the needs and I just pray that God uses you this summer in such a way. Please email me if you find someone this summer and it's this potted plant that comes to know Christ.

I really want to hear that. Keep this card with you throughout the summer and remember I am on a very brief commute and God wants me to be compassionate and reach that person and you will be the means. God is sovereign and he sovereignly uses means like you and me to snatch them out of destruction. Let's pray. Oh Lord we need your grace for this. I do pray for this student body. I pray Lord that they would you would well up in them a heart of compassion. Lord Jesus the compassion that you had that cried out for labors in the harvest after seeing the needs to your missionaries your signposts sharing the glorious gospel. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever.

Amen. You've been listening to a sermon by Pastor Tim Richmond of Grace Baptist Church in Queens, New York which concludes the four-part series we've had on evangelism. If you would like to learn more about his ministry or have any questions about what he's preached the past three days you can email him at tim at nycgrace.org.

That's tim at nycgrace.org. I'm Steve Pettit president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. I'd like to invite you to attend one of our summer camps for both middle and high schoolers. BJU has over 50 camps to choose from so there is one for you. Here's just a few aviation astronomy cinema computers culinary criminal justice media music nursing theater robotics soccer basketball volleyball golf and there's many more. Come explore your future during a week of what we call EduCamp. For more information about our camps visit our website go to EduCamp that's educamp.bju.edu. Thanks for listening and join us next time for another sermon preached from the Bob Jones University Travel Platform.