Evangelism and outreach

Twelve seconds in, that's when I say welcome to No Compromised Radio Ministry. My headphones seem loud. Austin, do yours? Are you okay? I think I'm okay. Doing good. All right. What's your favorite thing to eat?

My favorite thing to eat? You're going to say, as a newlywed, well Ashton's such and such.

Well, there's an amazing farm five minutes down the road, and they have ice cream. Ice cream from their own cows. Roto Spring Farm, and we go there once a week.

Nice. Well, I haven't been there, I don't think, let's see, once maybe this year. I get the geriatric flavor, Indian pudding. Oh, I actually like that one. That's pretty good. Uh-huh. So it's got molasses in it.

I think it's like a vanilla based, a white. Cornmeal. Cornmeal and molasses.

That's pretty good. I like it. I really do.

So when I told people I liked that, they, when I was sick and just out of the hospital from 16 days of COVID, they kept bringing me that. So I almost got, I was so happy because they were kind people, but I think I ate too much of it at the time.

And so now being on carnivore, I can't really do it, but I want to. Okay, wow.

You're young guys, you can eat anything. Yeah, Ashton and I, we used to eat ice cream like almost every night until we moved here. And so we just didn't like the ice cream we bought in the store. So now we just go eat ice cream once a week at Rota Spring.

Well, what probably some of our listeners don't know is here in New England, like other places as well, but there are seasonal things. So you only play hockey on the ponds in the winter and the dairies only open in the non-winter months.

And so you, with great anticipation in around January, February, you're thinking Rota's going to open. It's going to open up pretty soon. So you better stock up before the winter comes because they're not going to be open.

The Call to Evangelize the Lost

Oh yeah, that's right. Ashton will be sad. Today on the show, I'd like to talk about evangelism, proclaiming the good news to specifically the lost, right? Giving good news. We give good news to Christians as well, but we want to give good news to the lost.

So I know that's something on your heart if you're listening today. If you like No Compromise Radio, of course you have a desire for souls to be saved and people to be forgiven, family members, friends, relatives, enemies, etc.

And so today, evangelism. It stems, Ashton, from my sermon last week where I was talking about weeping. Well, Jesus was talking about weeping and gnashing of teeth in Luke chapter 13. Of course, the Jews, leadership, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, they're all after Jesus.

And Jesus heals somebody on the Sabbath and they don't like it. And there's a big brouhaha. And it's interesting. He said, Jesus said, you're going to say we ate in your presence and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets.

And he will say to you, I tell you, I do not know where you're from. Depart from me, all you evildoers. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, but you yourselves being thrown out.

So today, evangelism. Any ideas, big picture about evangelism? Let's maybe start, Ashton, with why is it important?

Well, it's important to evangelize because Jesus has called us to evangelize. He said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and preach the gospel to all nations. Jesus has ascended.

He has resurrected from the dead. He has all power and authority. And so that's that empowers us to therefore go and preach the gospel. And ultimately, the gospel is what saves all people are in Adam under condemnation, under God's wrath.

If they die without Christ, they will be in hell forever apart from God's presence. And you need they need to hear about Christ and that he is the only way to the father. He is that narrow door.

Human Inability and the Need for Christ

But what if you just don't know about Jesus, but you live up to the light given you, and then you'll get more light? What about that?

Well, it's just the problem is that, you know, there is, of course, you know, common grace that unbelievers, they can maybe obey the matter of the law as the confession of faith says. So there's kind of a pagan virtue, perhaps, but none of that can ever prepare you to receive grace.

None of that can make you more acceptable in God's sight, because ultimately all all works of the unbeliever are sin because it's done without faith, apart from the goal of the glory and worship of the true God.

Missionary Examples and Courage in Evangelism

It just dawned on me, Austin, as you were talking, this is only related tangentially. Some of our favorite biographies and autobiographies of Christian saints happen to be missionaries, right? Yeah, there are.

I have a couple of Charles Hodge biographies, a Princeton theologian, Spurgeon, of course. He's a, you know, he was a preacher. You have Machen, who was a professor. And so I don't want to discount any of them, but it seems like, and maybe I'm wrong, but it's the Hudson Taylors of William Carey, Aden Irem Judson, Jim Elliott.

I mean, to me, those are so fascinating. Tie that in, and I'm asking you to read my mind, but why would I be thinking those things along the evangelism line? Is there a correlation there?

Yeah, well, I think evangelism takes risk. I mean, these are men who left their homes to go out and preach the gospel in foreign nations, completely in an environment they're just not used to. So it takes a great deal of courage.

A lot of these men face persecution, even death. And we tend to admire men who are willing to give their lives for the sake of Christ. And it's wonderful.

It's what Christ has called us to. Well, I think when we do read those stories, that should bolster us a little bit, give us a little more courage. Most of us who are listening, and for me and for Austin, when we preach the gospel to people, we usually aren't risking our lives.

So the last time I talked about the Lord to someone was we went to Tim Pierce, and you and I went to Chick-fil-A the other day. And by the way, dear Christian, if you want to go preach the gospel, Chick-fil-A is like the easiest place in the world, because they're going to be nice to you even if they don't like the message.

They regularly hire Christian people. Last week I walked in, and there was Christian music playing, Fernando Ortega. And so I have this—she's not a waitress, but she's like a table helper or server, and, you know, can I get you a drink or whatever.

Her name was Grace. And I said, Grace, I love that name. I love what it symbolizes. And this was last week. My daughter's named Grace. And I said, there's an acronym for Grace, and it describes Christianity.

Do you know what that acronym is? And she said no. And so I said, God's riches at Christ's expense. And then one week later I saw her and asked her if she remembered the acronym, and she said no. But she sat and listened.

So, by the way, if you want an easy place for evangelism, just go straight to Chick-fil-A. That's right, that's right. Have you had any opportunities lately to evangelize, Austin?

You know, typically just family members through, you know, a vacation or me and my father-in-law and my brother-in-law, we're reading Jordan Pearson's Twelve Rules for Life. And so it's kind of a jumping off point to talk about morality, Christian topics.

And we can really—it's kind of this concept of the natural law, how people like Jordan Pearson who aren't believers, they can say true things, but then we have to ultimately point it back to Jesus. So, I mean, it's primarily family right now.

Evangelizing Beyond the Christian Bubble

Well, it's interesting, Austin, because in ministry we deal with—obviously there are people here that aren't Christians, and sometimes we know that, sometimes we don't know that, but we're living in a Christian bubble pretty much.

And so tomorrow night there's the baseball game—it's not the Red Sox, it's the B-League, what do they call that? Yeah, it's like, I think it's AAA? AAA, yeah, it's AAA. And so we're going to go together as a group, and then we've got home groups, and we've got college and career, and we've got Sunday night services, and we've got, hey, we're going to slip in on Iwana, and then we've got high school ministry, Cornerstone.

And we end up being around, at least professing Christians, most of the time. Yeah, that's right. And I think if you're in ministry, you have to make sure you go out of the way to evangelize, and then you evangelize, like you said, because we want to be obedient, and you want to evangelize because you want to lead the way and show the congregation what to do and how to do it, right?

Evangelism Does Not Depend on a Special Feeling

That's right, absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about being led. People will say in this area and others, but we'll stick to evangelism now. You know, I met somebody on the plane, and it was a six-hour flight, and I could tell they weren't a Christian, and I just really wasn't led to evangelize.

What do they really mean by that, and is that a good thing to say, or are we hiding? What are we doing?

Well, I mean, perhaps. I mean, that could be a way to, I guess, be lax, be complacent, not pursue evangelism. But hopefully, we can't wait on this feeling of the Spirit to evangelize because we're just simply called to evangelize.

We're called to preach the gospel. And so, of course, there is, you know, wisdom, like, you know, how much time do I have? Like, is the conversation going somewhere? Of course, we don't want to bind anyone's conscience that if you don't evangelize on a one-and-a-half-hour plane flight, then somehow you're being disobedient.

But whenever the opportunity arises, especially if they refer to something about morality, something about a worldview, something about a belief, I mean, that's a very easy jumping off point that you can just talk about Christianity, right?

So, if they talk about how maybe a mother has passed away and they're going to their funeral, I mean, that's a great opportunity to talk about the gospel. So, we don't want to squander those opportunities.

But of course, at the same time, you know, use wisdom, have their headphones on, looking out the window, not even talking to you. It may not happen that time. We just have to trust God and His sovereignty to bring about these conversations.

I think it was John MacArthur who said when he flew, he just wanted to cut straight to the chase. He had work to do, but if he had an opportunity to evangelize, that would supersede the work. And so, I think I remember John saying he would introduce himself and say, Hi, my name's John, and I'm a Bible-teaching pastor, and I travel around and tell people how to be forgiven for all their sins.

Are you interested? Kind of thing. And if they go, No, I don't want to know anything about it. Then he'd get back to work. That's great. Just goes cut straight to the chase. I think there's another story with John and Robert Shuler was on his flight.

Oh, really? And I don't think Shuler liked it too much that John was on the flight. So, anyway, and then, of course, the most infamous famous MacArthur flight was he was sitting next to a Muslim man, and they were just chatting it up, and he talked about sin or whatever, and John said, Well, where are you going?

Well, when I land in Houston or Dallas, wherever it was, someplace in Texas, I'm going to go to my girlfriend's house, and we're going to do some sins. John said, Well, will you be forgiven those sins with your religion?

And he said, I hope that God forgives me of the sins. And John said, Well, I know him personally, and he won't. And then the way MacArthur tells the story, he said, You know God, the guy looked at him as if you know God personally, and you're flying southwest.

Anyway, the point is, I think when we have an opportunity, and we don't take it, let's just not hide behind, I wasn't led. The illustration I use all the time, tell your children to clean up their rooms in the next 15 minutes, and then you're going to go out for ice cream.

You go back into the room, and it's dirtier than what it was, more cluttered. Kids, why did you not clean your room? And they look at you and say, Daddy, I wasn't led. Well, I don't care if you have a burning in your bosom or not.

I told you to do something. I have authority, and I've commanded you from a posture of love and care and everything else, and so here's the third use of the law. You can't say, I wasn't led. You can say, You know what?

The plane was landing, and it was loud, or they had headphones on, or something like that, where you just go, Ah, I'm just not going to do that today. But just don't say, I wasn't led. That's right. You don't need to be led to do something when the Bible commands you to do it.

Exactly right. Right. So if the Bible says, and first that's learning to be thankful for everything, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, well, you know what? I really didn't feel led to be thankful.

But don't we hide behind not doing the right thing in all kinds of ways? We rename sin, and I have a messy life, and I'm a victim, and I have a syndrome, and I have a disease, and I have, you know, like with AA, I have an allergy to alcohol or whatever.

Why do you think we do that?

I mean, well, ultimately, I think we try to hide. I mean, we resemble Adam and Eve in the garden by putting fig leaves on us. But of course, if we're living in the light of the gospel, how all of our sins have been forgiven for the sake of Christ, we can be honest with who we are and what our desires truly are.

And of course, as fellow Christians, we come alongside each other. We don't just guilt people for not sharing the gospel. We want to encourage people. We want to remind them of Christ's command, but we don't shame people for not evangelizing as much as they should.

But we want to make evangelism something that naturally flows from the heart as we obey God's commands.

Giving a Personal Account of Gospel Hope

What do you do when Christians say, well, you know what? I don't evangelize people because I'm too afraid or I don't know what to say. So I just invite them to church because then the pastor will evangelize him.

What's your take on that?

Well, you know, some people think they don't have great speaking gifts. They may not have great, you know, conversational, logical. Maybe they think, oh, apologetics, that's so heady. That's for the real smart people.

But, you know, Peter talks about in his epistle how we're all called to be ready to give an account for the hope that is within us. So you don't need to be this Ph .D. apologetics whiz. You don't need to be Wes Huff.

You don't need to be all these great apologists. But you just simply have to say, like, I believe in Jesus because he rose again from the dead. He's the only one who gives me hope. I know that when I die, I'll be in heaven for sure.

Any Christian can do that. Any Christian who understands the gospel can give that account. And then you just have a normal conversation with another person. That's all you really have to do. And just be bold, be courageous.

But it doesn't take a Ph .D. So if you're concerned that, oh, I'm not called to evangelism because I'm not smart or something, just know, hey, just give an account for the hope that's within you. That's all you have to do.

Amen. It's interesting, 1 Peter 3 .15 that you referred to. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Plural. That's important. Always be ye ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you. I believe that's plural as well, if memory serves.

To give an account for the hope that is in you. I believe that's plural as well, yet with gentleness and reverence. And so the message is the same. How can everyone, plural, give the same account of the hope that's in them?

Because everyone has a good testimony of who Jesus is, because it's the Jesus that has saved them and redeemed them, and who lives for them and prays for them. And so we all have a testimony we can talk about if we're Christians, right?

Law and Gospel in Evangelistic Proclamation

Mm-hmm. That's right. Absolutely. So when we evangelize, is there anything wrong with telling people, repent and believe? No, no. Anything wrong with that? No, no. It's pretty biblical. Okay. Is there anything wrong with telling them, God, the Creator, has required of you as a creature to perfectly love Him and perfectly love others like you love yourself?

Is there anything wrong with that?

No, that's the straight covenant of works, and we're all judged by that standard.

Is there anything wrong if we only tell them to repent and believe? That is to say, we don't say anything about the object of their faith, or we don't say anything about what they should repent of and from.

Yeah, you need to be clear. We don't want to make it seem like faith and repentance is just some arbitrary thing. Because it's funny, Mike, I saw this one meme about, oh, this caveman's going to hell 3 ,000 years before this religion he should have believed in.

Well, no, this caveman, all people are under the law. They're all under sin, under condemnation. And Jesus, He is the answer to that. He is the only way by His perfect obedience in His life, by substitutionary death.

He is the only way to be reconciled to God. And so we don't want to make faith in Christ this arbitrary add-on thing, but it is essential. He is the only way to heaven. So when you talk about people repenting and believing, like, hey, the object of your faith should be Jesus for you, Jesus in your stead obeying for you, and Jesus in your stead dying for you, and you being raised with Christ.

That's the object of our faith. So, of course, we don't fix our life, we don't stop sinning and come to Jesus. But really, we come to Jesus first, and He changes us from the inside out.

Explaining Who Jesus Is

Excellent. Mike Avinroth with Austin Hobbs today on No Compromise Radio Ministry talking about evangelism and our desire to evangelize more and better and to the glory of God. I talked to somebody here at church this last Sunday, Austin, and they said when they talk to their unbelieving husband about God, he's fine.

When she talks to him about Jesus, he doesn't really like that. And at one time when she said, well, you know, he died on the cross for sins and our sins, he said, what? Jesus died on a cross? And so that made me think we live in such a biblically illiterate society.

Mike Avinroth, don't forget to tell people about who Jesus is, and just don't say Jesus, although that's fine. Try to elaborate. So that's one thing that stuck in my mind. Another was, Austin, maybe you remember the story.

I've told it so many times. And maybe that's why I remember all the MacArthur stories, because he just told them all the time, and then I end up telling the stories all the time, too. So I'm in Dublin, Ireland.

Kim and I are, I think, on our 15th wedding anniversary on our way to Rome, and I wanted to buy some glasses, some cool glasses like Bono had, I think. And I'm in Dublin, right, so I'm trying to find it.

And a guy was dressed up really nicely in a suit, and he was standing on a little box with a friend next to him holding the microphone or the amplification device. And he kept saying, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Turn or burn, flee from the wrath of God. And I thought, all true, important to say from the Bible, but all law, and nobody—and he's not telling me about the object of faith. He's just saying, run. Flee.

And again, all good things. So I walked up to him, not like brashly or boldly, kind of sheepishly, so he could tell I wasn't a threat. And I said, I teach preaching classes and I'm a pastor. Don't forget to tell them about who Jesus is.

And it dawned on him, and he started saying, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. God demonstrates His own love toward us while we are sinners. Christ died for us. This is love. Not that we love Him, but He first loved us.

Law and Gospel for Believers and Unbelievers

And all these things like that. And I walked away so happy. And the way I say it now to my students, with my theological training and his courage, we can go a long way. Right, right. So when you think about law gospel, we talk regularly about law gospel for believers, right?

We remember who we are in Christ, in union, what the Lord has done for us, duplex gratia, the Spirit of God dwelling in us, Christ not just for pardon, but for power. And then in light of that, the Lord Jesus, as it were, gives us His law, the law from the hand of Christ, the meroman would say.

And we, out of gratitude and adorning the gospel and having good works for our neighbor and assurance, as the confession would say, we want to do those things. So there's law gospel for the believer. But there's law gospel, my point is, for the unbeliever as well.

We give them the law to shut their mouths, show them God's standard, and then we give them the gospel, right? So wax a little bit more on law gospel for the unbeliever.

Right, right. So again, like you said, Mike, you preach that first use of the law, the law that condemns. And we have to understand that, especially in our culture, a post-Christian culture, Mike, as you've known that during Sunday school this summer, Corey and I, he's an elder at this church, and we've taught a series basically about the air we breathe, essentially how Christianity has shaped Western civilizations.

Just so we have this concept, all these shared concepts and values of equality, compassion, justice, maybe like learning, science, progress, you know, where do these values come from? The oldest we come from, Christianity.

And so we can start off there, like, hey, you have this principle of, say, equality or compassion, you know, that's good. But you have to show, well, here's how you're corrupting this good value, this good law.

So Dr. Fresco, you know, one of my professors in seminary, he wrote a book called Reforming Apologetics and how unbelievers, they can get the principle of the law or even the principle of the knowledge of God correct, but not the conclusion.

You know, they have the principle that we should pray to God, but maybe the wrong conclusion that we pray to these false gods. That's the same thing with the law. So you have to see how, you know, one, like, yes, you have this right understanding, like, what you should believe about equality, justice, compassion.

But here's where you're failing. Here's where you're falling short. Here's how you're twisting this. But here's ultimately, here's how Christianity is ultimately the right way, the true way. And Jesus, he has come to die for our sinfulness and, again, to be raised again from the dead and to give us new life in a way that if you want these values, these ultimately can only be lived in Christ.

And he has to live those for you. He has to be your substitute and your representative to save you from your sins. So that's law. That's gospel. Here's how we fall short. Here's ultimately how Jesus fulfills all this.

Contextualizing Evangelism for Roman Catholics and Mormons

Austin, as you were talking, it reminded me of the fact that we live in an area here in New England where 80 percent of the people, they'll identify as Catholic, Roman Catholic, even though they don't attend very often, married in the church, buried in the church, etc.

And let's say we were in Salt Lake City where 90 percent of the people would identify as Mormon. Don't these situations make it more glaringly obvious and mandatory that we define who Jesus is? Because the Jesus of the Mormon church isn't the Jesus of the Bible, isn't the eternal son of God who took on flesh, somehow subpar or whatever.

And the Jesus of the Roman Catholics, while we would agree with their catechisms in many ways on the doctrine of God, their Jesus is not the same Jesus because he needs to be slain every week, every day, Hebrews 9 and 10.

And so we have to remind people, this is who this Jesus is. And by the way, he doesn't need a mediator, an extra mediator, Mary. So what do you think about that?

Right, yeah. So evangelism will be context specific. You know, your evangelistic conversation with a diehard atheist is going to be a little bit different than a lot different than the conversation with a Mormon.

So with the Mormon, they'll have these, I mean, a lot of Mormons can have good socially conservative values, which is a good jumping off point to say, at least you have some concept of the law. And now I can see how far you fall short of that.

But again, you have to have, you can talk more specifically, well, you know, Jesus, he's not like the spirit brother of Satan, but he's the eternally begotten son of God. Like he is always is the eternal God.

So again, you can talk more, the kind of like religious, like the specific ways, I guess correcting errors about who Jesus is will be more, I guess, pronounced in like a Mormon conversation than an atheist conversation.

Maybe an atheist will bring up, well, did Jesus ever even exist? So Mormon would obviously confess that Jesus existed, but maybe some atheists may say maybe he didn't exist or his apostles corrupted the real Jesus.

So it's going to be very context specific. But yes, with Mormons and Roman Catholics, you will get into more of like, here's what grace is, especially if a conservative Roman Catholic who he has moral law down, but doesn't see how far he falls short and then see how grace, how scripture defines grace.

So you have probably more scripture centric conversation with Roman Catholic than perhaps you would with an atheist.

The Gospel of Grace Versus Trust in Works

What if somebody comes to you and says, Austin, I am a Roman Catholic and I do believe in Jesus. I believe he died for me. He lived for me. He was raised for me. And I go to mass every week and I was baptized as a Catholic and I was married.

I hope to have last rites. I believe in Jesus.

What do you say? Well, I'd say, well, you know, of course, Paul says, I mean, he's addressing Christians and his epistle to the Galatians, people who confess that they believe in Jesus. The Judaizers, they are all for Jesus.

They say Jesus plus circumcision. So it's Jesus plus a good work that we do. And Paul says that if anyone preaches you to a different gospel than what I preach to you, that'll be anathema. And he's talking about people who are going to be cursed to say they believe in Jesus.

There'll be people who say, Lord, Lord, you know, bring me to heaven. And he's going to say, you know, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So we have to understand, like, you have to get grace, right?

You can't trust in any of your good works, but it has to be all of Jesus. So with a Roman Catholic, we have to get down to, well, how does God define his gospel? How does God define his grace? Because it's not enough to say you believe in God's good law or you believe in Jesus, broadly speaking.

But what do you believe about Jesus? Like, are you going to nullify his work on the cross? Are you going to nullify his perfect life? Are you going to nullify that God's covenant with the Son that he would be the representative of all who believe?

Those are pretty, those are essential to the gospel. So, again, you have to talk with basically on the basis of scripture, what grace is and who Jesus is.

And of course, we realize that some people who are attending Catholic churches are real Christians. Some people that attend Baptist churches are not. But if I meet someone who identifies as Roman Catholic, I go into evangelism mode, right?

The Final Call to Repent and Believe in Christ

And I try to extricate them from that situation. Well, today we're talking about evangelism. I think it would be apropos if I said to you, Austin, if there are unbeliever listening, we have a message for you.

And what's that message? That message is to repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus is the only way. He is the way and the truth alive. No one comes to the Father except through the Son.

And we want to remind you that it's an essential thing, as we've been talking about it and implied with Ascension and intercession, that he literally was raised from the dead, a real resurrection. Can you imagine Jesus raising himself from the dead?

How do you do that? Right? That's John chapter 10. So, thanks for listening today. Mike Abendroth with Austin Hobbs, No Compromise Radio. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Starting back up again with shows regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, video and audio on Wednesdays.

Thanks for writing.