No 5

(How the lost react to evangelism)

The mandate that the Church received from the Savior in Matthew 28 :19, 20 is, as we have seen, our raison d’être. There is no other more important task for us to accomplish here on earth except , of course, to glorify God; but when people come to the Lord for their salvation, God is glorified. In the years when I did door-to-door evangelism, one thing had always remained true.  No matter how hard we tried and no matter what system we used (The 4 Spiritual Laws, a survey, etc), God is the one who prepared the soil in which we sowed our seeds. Often, I have seen people very receptive to the Gospel at the outset, but manifest no real commitment to Christ. The reverse is also true when much opposition is at first demonstrated but then a true commitment in the way of repentance comes forth; only the Spirit of God can do this. In the parable of the sower, Jesus gave His disciples and us the best object lesson on evangelism any where in the Bible. In Matthew 13 :1-24 there are six types of soil : three that don’t commit to repentance and three that do. Our job is simple; we have to speak to people about Jesus Christ and then, when a person reacts favorably to the message, we are to disciple them in the ways of the Lord. We have no idea who is supposed to come to the Lord so we cannot pick and choose who we speak to. There are two types of people in the world : the saved and the unsaved; thank God that we aren’t that ones who decide who is and who isn’t. There is an evangelism crusade coming up this spring and summer; here is a great opportunity to see God at work in the hearts of people. There is no greater joy for a Christian than to see someone who we spoke to, come to the Lord.