What is Evangelism?

[0:00] It's great to be in Christ. It's great to be in gospel churches. It's great to be in gospel partnership. And it's great to spend a day like this together rejoicing in our God and in the gospel. So welcome back. Hope you've been well fed in every respect. And thank you so much for being here today. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live in the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Yet actually he's not far from each one of us, being then God's offspring.

[0:54] We ought not to think of the divine being that is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

[1:24] That's our saviour, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we meet this afternoon. It's a very great thrill to have Philip with us today. I remember as a young guy, no longer can I say that about myself, but as a young guy, the EMA, hearing Philip just so benefiting from his ministry. All that God had worked in his life, much pain I'm sure, but it was for our benefit. And then coming here years ago when we were down in the other building and so greatly benefiting from that day. So it's a joy to have you back, brother. I'm going to pray, then we're going to stand and sing together, and then directly Philip will come and speak to us.

[2:07] Let's pray together. Our gracious God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for everything good that comes from your hand today, which is everything we have. We thank you that you're the God who gives to all men life and breath and everything else. No one anywhere in the west of Scotland today is enjoying anything good that failed to come from your hand. And we long that they would do as this text says.

[2:35] Know that you have appointed a day when you will judge the world. And you have given evidence of this by raising our Savior from the dead, the death he died to deal with our sin. Thank you for such a great gospel. We thank you that it is the very core of our relationship with you and with one another.

[2:58] So receive our praise as we stand to sing now and bless our brother for whom we thank you. Thank you for all that you've invested in him and for the blessing that he has been and continues to be to us. Give him the stamina and the strength and the grace that he needs to serve us and to serve your word among us today. In the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. We stand to sing together the beautiful Tron hymn on the Lord's Prayer, our Father God who dwells in heaven. We stand to sing.

[3:34] Amen. Amen. Well, as we work our way through 2 Corinthians, and we'll be looking at chapter 4 mainly now, we're looking at the second of those three questions I want to ask, that is, what is evangelism?

[4:06] Evangelism, of course, is a word that comes from our gospel word, from our angel. If you look at the word evangelism, you'll see angel is right in the middle of the word evangelism. And there's a series of words that are connected like that. That is, the gospel is the evangel, the good angel, so to speak.

[4:30] And preaching the gospel is evangelism. And believing the gospel is to be an evangelical. Evangelical. I wish the media understood. If we've got any journalists amongst us here, just please take note. I'm so tired of them getting confusing between evangelism and evangelicals. And the evangelist is the person who preaches the gospel. And even the word promise has connections with the concept of angel as well. That is, it's about the message and the message and the messengers.

[5:02] Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel. That's fundamentally what it is. There's a series of verbs that go around evangelism, but they're all the verbs of saying, preaching, proclaiming, declaring. They're verbal words. They're declaring the message kind of words as you look through them.

[5:24] Look at the other ones that I had on that list there. We've got preaching the gospel. We've got believing the gospel. And you've got, what's the next one? Preacher of the gospel is the event. See how angel is in the middle of all these words. And the last one is on the promise of the gospel. And the promise still has, because what we're doing is we give a message is we're telling you what of the future. We're giving promises to you of the future. It's all about message and messengers proclaiming. But because the message is God's message, because the message is a divine message. It is powerful. Powerful to save, powerful to transform. Look at this text that we have on 1 Thessalonians 2. We also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man, but as it really is the word of God, which is at work in you believers. See, because it's not just the word of man, but the word of God, it actually is at work transforming us, changing us, molding us, bringing us to repentance.

[6:40] It's at work in believers. So the first talk from 2 Corinthians referred to being letters of Christ, that we are the letters of Christ, that Christ has written on our hearts by his spirit, referred to being transformed from one degree of glory to another, and spoke of the message that we've got as being like the message of God who said, let light shine, and it did in the creation.

[7:10] It's the proclamation that changes the world in its proclaiming. But to this end, the proclamation requires us to live consistently with the message.

[7:23] The message is the message, whether we live with it consistently or not, the message is still true. But we should live with that which we preach. Turn with me just for a moment to Philippians, the opening chapter there.

[7:36] Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, chapter 1. Paul's in prison, and he doesn't know whether he's going to be released or not. To live is to Christ, and to die is gain for him.

[7:47] But he would seem to be troubled, but he's not, in chapter 1, verse 15. If you've got chapter 15 in Philippians, you've got a dud Bible. Chapter 1, verse 15.

[7:59] Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defence of the gospel.

[8:10] The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

[8:24] Not everybody in our gospel partnership is going to work with us in the preaching of the gospel. Some will even think that they will go out and preach the gospel of Jesus themselves. And if they do, praise God, pass the ammunition.

[8:36] Don't worry about it. Don't have to do it with us to do it. The gospel is the gospel. Whoever its mouth it comes from, out of Balaam's ass came the word of God.

[8:47] That gives me a chance. And it means I don't have to worry about who the mouthpiece is. I worry about the gospels being preached. And so here's Paul in prison, people seeking to be nasty to him by preaching the gospel, and he's rejoicing.

[9:05] You can't beat a good man, you see. There's no way you can hold a man down who doesn't care whether he lives or dies. It's very hard to persecute a person like that. And somebody who likes the gospel being preached, he won't care that it's being preached by his enemies.

[9:19] That Christ is proclaimed is what matters. I had a man come to me in 1979, referred to me from the Billy Graham crusade that was held in Sydney in 1979.

[9:31] I picked up the odd ones. They referred to me, all the odd ones from the eastern suburbs of Sydney. And if you know the eastern suburbs of Sydney, that meant I was very busy. A lot of odd ones there.

[9:42] Anyway, this odd one was he was a Greek lawyer. And he'd come to Christ. How would he come to Christ? Through the Jehovah's Witnesses. Isn't that bizarre?

[9:54] I mean, that is odd, isn't it? Where do you start with a man who says he'd become a Christian? You see, he was Greek, therefore he was Christian. And this Jehovah's Witness knocked on his door and started showing the Bible.

[10:05] And he'd always believed in the Bible because he was Greek. But he didn't own one. He'd never read one. But the Jehovah's Witness had one. So he started reading the Bible. Well, he knew the Jehovah's Witnesses were wrong because they were Jehovah's Witnesses and they weren't Greek.

[10:16] So therefore, they were wrong by definition. Can't be right, you see. And so he had to prove to them they were wrong. So how did he prove to them they were wrong? By reading the Bible.

[10:28] And as a result of that, he came to the conclusion they were wrong. And so he didn't join the Jehovah's Witnesses. But in the process, he'd come to the conclusion that actually the Orthodox Church was wrong too.

[10:39] So he went around the eastern suburbs of Sydney looking for a church that actually did what the Bible said. And he couldn't find one. And so he knew Billy Graham was a Christian, a Bible believer.

[10:51] So he went to the Graham Crusade and says, I've become a Christian through the Jehovah's Witnesses. Can you tell me where I should go to church? And so they sent them to me. As a result of 18 months, one-to-one follow-up, he never once came to our church.

[11:07] But that's all right. He's still converted, lives in Brisbane to this day, preaches the gospel as a graduate of Bible College, and he's still mad. I love him dearly. But he's full on, he's my dear friend.

[11:20] And you see, the power of God changes people by his word. It doesn't matter who preaches his word. The word is what changes it.

[11:34] The Jehovah's Witnesses don't preach the gospel. That was the problem. But they preached enough of the gospel to unearth this Greek Orthodox man out of orthodoxy because orthodoxy doesn't preach the gospel either.

[11:46] Yet they preach enough of the gospel that he knew Jesus had risen from the dead and that Jesus was God. Not bad. But he just didn't know anything really. It doesn't matter who preaches.

[11:59] The gospel is the gospel. If someone comes preaching a different gospel, says Paul, let them be damned. If I come back preaching a different gospel, let me be damned. It doesn't matter that it's the apostles.

[12:14] The truth of the gospel is the truth. But it's that gospel which is at work within us, transforming us to be more and more like Jesus, who is the very object of our gospel.

[12:27] And so the way we preach, and indeed the way we live, should be consistent with our message. We're preaching that God, by the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel, is making me more like Jesus.

[12:38] And I'm going to preach to people a different Jesus? That's absurd. I should live consistently with the message I preach and preach the message that the gospel is changing me into.

[12:52] And so in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, having this ministry, this transforming, powerful ministry by the mercy of God, we don't lose heart. Nor do we use underhanded methods.

[13:08] We don't have to use underhanded methods. What trickery, what naivory could be more powerful than the truth of the word of God? I don't have to exaggerate the stories and make them better.

[13:20] They can't be made better than the power of God's word. I don't have to hide half the truth because it's unacceptable. That's an irrelevance whether it's unacceptable or not.

[13:31] It's veiled to those who are unbelievers because the God of this world has veiled their minds. But I don't have to worry about that. An open statement of the truth is what we're engaged in.

[13:43] Tell it as it is, is really what we're engaged in. Because that's the power that will change people. And so there's no trick. There's no fancy mechanism.

[13:54] You don't have to have mood music and special ambience. You don't have to do anything other than tell the truth. Because the truth is the gospel that transforms the lives of people.

[14:04] And so what we proclaim is spelled out in the passage I finished it just before lunch, verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4. Take verse 5. For what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

[14:22] Now let's take it phrase by phrase. What we proclaim is not ourselves. It's not about us. We're not the subject of the gospel.

[14:33] We're not the important part of the gospel. It's not my ministry. It's not my church. It's not my gospel. It's not about me.

[14:45] We are so self-centered in our sinfulness that it's very hard to believe anything is not really all about me. But this activity is not. It's explicitly not about me.

[14:56] I'm not going to gain my reputation by doing it. I'm not going to lose my reputation by doing it. It's not about me. I've got to be very clear. It's not about me.

[15:07] But it's about Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus. Jesus. The particular man of history. The Jewish man whose name meant Savior.

[15:19] Born of the family of David in the city in the town of Bethlehem. The man who went around preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and doing good and all kinds of goods such as the Old Testament prophets said the man would come and do.

[15:31] Teaching his disciples his imminent trial and execution as well as his resurrection and was so betrayed by wicked men and crucified by the Romans at the behest of the Jews.

[15:43] That Jesus is the Jesus the gospel is about. Any other Jesus it's that Jesus. The Jesus of history. Who's the Christ. Christ is not a surname. Do not go into the Jerusalem phone book and look up Mr. J. Christ.

[15:58] You won't find him there. It's not a surname. Christ is a title. It means Messiah. King. The long awaited Messiah who is coming to bring the kingdom of God.

[16:09] Just the one that Jesus was talking about. That kingdom. When he was accused of being the Christ. He started to tell his disciples. Not to tell anybody about it but that he was going to be suffered and cry and rise again.

[16:26] When he finally acknowledged that he was the Christ to his enemies. They crucified him. And what they put over his head was. This is the king of the Jews. Which is a way of saying the Christ.

[16:39] Which is why the Jews found it so objectionable. Jesus. Christ. As the Lord. The ruler.

[16:50] The owner. The master. The king. King. In the Old Testament. The word Lord has a certain overtones of Yahweh. Because they didn't like using the word Yahweh.

[17:00] The name of God. They used to talk about the Lord. So whenever you use the Lord in a Jewish context. You just have to listen carefully as to whether it's a master or Yahweh that we're talking about.

[17:12] But here I don't think it means anything more than king. Or slave owner. Or master. For that's what lords were in the first century.

[17:22] He's the Lord who by his death and resurrection has risen to the right hand of God. Having conquered the evil one. And his accusations against his people.

[17:33] Having paid for their sins. Having turned aside God's righteous anger against their sinfulness. And risen in victory over all. He's the ruler of all.

[17:44] Simply the Lord of Lord and King of Kings. The Lord is the one we're talking about. But the message is that Jesus Christ is both Christ and Lord of all.

[17:56] That's the gospel. That Jesus is the Christ and the Lord. And so we preach Jesus Christ as Lord. Come with me to Romans chapter 1.

[18:06] Romans chapter 1. Heading to the left in your Bibles. Unless you've got a Hebrew Bible. Romans 1.

[18:21] Paul. Verse 1 of chapter 1. Paul a servant of Jesus Christ. Called to be an apostle. Set apart for the gospel of God. Which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the Holy Scriptures.

[18:36] Concerning the gospel. He's concerning his son. Who was descended from David according to the flesh. And who was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness.

[18:48] By his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the gospel. The gospel is about Jesus. Descended from David.

[18:59] Because the Messiah had to be descended from David. The son of God. Because David's son was to be the son of God in 2 Samuel chapter 7. He is the Christ. He is the Lord.

[19:11] The gospel is about Jesus Christ. As Lord. And so the gospel proclamation is summarized there. As the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

[19:23] Some people preach Jesus as Savior. But if he's not the Lord. He cannot save. For he saves by conquering sin. Some people preach Jesus as Lord without saving.

[19:35] But if he doesn't save you from sin. Then his Lordship only means your condemnation. He is both Savior and Lord. Not either or.

[19:46] Both and. Can't be one without being the other. He is both and. But then he returns to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5.

[19:57] And ourselves. So he proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord. That's the summary of the gospel. But he also proclaims ourselves. As slaves.

[20:11] If Jesus is the Lord. The master. The owner. Then we are the slaves. Now notice. It's more than servants. It's slaves.

[20:22] We have a problem here friends. Problem number one. Massive guilt. Should we be guilty? Yes.

[20:34] What we did in the slave trade. Unacceptable. Totally. And completely. And our nations. Were built. On the wealth of it. And you can't ultimately distance.

[20:48] Yourself. From your inheritance. We would like to. But you know. You are always willing to accept the money. From your. In your inheritance. Well you have got to accept the debt.

[20:59] As well. And. People are very happy. To receive. Lots of money. From their forebears. But they somehow. Don't want to accept. Any responsibility. Or debt. Of what their forebears did.

[21:11] To get that wealth. And you can't do it friends. That's not the case. And Jesus attacks. The Pharisees. And. Who pride themselves. On their.

[21:22] Their history. And he says. But you killed the prophets. They hadn't literally. Figuredly done that. Their forefathers had done it. Right. We Anglicans.

[21:33] Do forgive me. Don't you. I can't help it. I was born this way. We Anglicans. We locked up. John Bunyan in prison. For 12 years. For preaching the gospel. A person.

[21:45] Who is a proud. Anglican. Just knows nothing. We have got deep disgrace. In our hands. And we Westerners. It's a great plot.

[21:59] In our history. Isn't it? The African slave trade. We've got guilt. That's our first problem. Our second problem is. We Christian Anglicans. We. As Christian. British people.

[22:11] We've got great joy. In the fact that. We took the fight. Up to get rid of slave trade. And we have great heroes. Who fought the fight. Against that awful.

[22:21] African slave trade. And stopped it. And in stopping it. Kind of stopped slavery. All over. The world. And so. We rejoice. In being anti-slavery. But then we have the next problem.

[22:34] The Bible teaches slavery. And so what are we going to do now? So we get our scissors out. And cut those verses out. That we don't like. Or we.

[22:45] We. We. Re-translate them. Or we do what the translators here do. We use the word servant. There's a Greek word for servant. It's diakonos. There's a Greek word for slave. It's doulos.

[22:57] Because both words start with D. Doesn't mean they mean the same thing. It's like saying S and S. They both start with S. So it's the same. That's ridiculous. They're two different Greek words. Both slaves and servants served.

[23:10] That's what slaves do. That's what servants do. But all slaves weren't servants. And not all servants were slaves. The ancient world. You had a servant. You paid him a wage.

[23:21] He served. He went home to his own home. You had a slave. You didn't pay him a wage. And you provided his home. The two are different. The Greek word here is slave.

[23:33] That's the word. And that's because we have a Lord and a master. Namely Jesus. It was offensive in the first century. Just as it was offensive in the 21st century.

[23:44] Don't try and duck out of it. It's there. So in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5. You remember this wonderful passage. Have this mind among yourselves.

[23:55] Which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God. Did not count equality with God. Something to be grasped. But into himself. And took the form of a slave. Being born in the likeness of man.

[24:06] And being found in human form. He humbled himself. And became obedient to the point of death. Even death and a cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Enslaved himself to us. For our salvation.

[24:16] Remember Mark chapter 10 verse 44.

[24:30] And whoever would be first amongst you. Must be slave of all. For even the son of man came. Not to be served. But to serve. And give his life as a ransom for many. Remember Jesus. On the night he was crucified.

[24:42] In the upper room. How he took the towel. And began washing the disciples feet. It said that that was an activity. That a Jewish slave wasn't required to do.

[24:54] Only Gentile slaves were required to do that. He became the most abject of slaves. And of course Peter didn't want Jesus to be the slave for him. Until he found he had to have him as his slave.

[25:07] If he's going to have him as his saviour. And his Lord. We must not. Ever return to slave trading. Slave trading is always only ever condemned in the Bible.

[25:22] But we mustn't remove slavery language. Out of the Bible. Otherwise we won't understand. We're the slaves of Christ. And we will not think of ourselves properly. Because we haven't understood.

[25:33] We haven't embraced. What is being taught by us. In terms of slavery. But whose slaves are you to be? Whose slaves were Paul to be?

[25:44] He says. We are your slaves. Paul was the slave of the Corinthian Christians. He was now living for their salvation.

[25:56] He was now laying down his life. For their salvation. He was following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he sets us. That same example.

[26:07] Just turn back a couple of pages. To 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Right at the end of chapter 10. At the beginning of 11. So whether. Chapter 10. 31.

[26:18] 10. 31. 1 Corinthians. So whether you eat or drink. Or whatever you do. Do all to the glory of God. Give no offence to Jews or Greeks. Or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone.

[26:30] In everything I do. Not seeking my own advantage. But that of many. That they may be saved. Be imitators of me. As I am of Christ. Christ did not live for himself.

[26:42] He lived and died for others. And he set the example. For the apostle to follow. Not to live for yourself. But to live and die for others. And the apostle sets the example for us.

[26:55] That we must not live for ourselves. But we are to live and to die for others. You can't be like Christ. And not have a cross. Because.

[27:08] That is who our Lord is. He came into the world to save sinners. But I don't care about sinners. He came into the world to die for sinners. But I'm going to hang on to my own life. And not put myself out for any sinner.

[27:21] It doesn't make sense. Notice this Paul. For Jesus sake. We are your slaves. That's how 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5 puts it.

[27:33] You see. We proclaim as ourselves. As your slaves. For Jesus sake. Because he is the real Lord. He wants us to serve.

[27:45] Other people. Most people think they come to church. To serve God. But if you really serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

[27:56] You'll be serving the other people. Who are there. There's a vertical dimension to church. It comes downwards. That's like the gospel itself.

[28:08] You see. You don't climb to heaven. God sends his son down. And there's a horizontal attitude of church. It's not people coming in. It's us going out. The gospel comes down that we may go out.

[28:23] Jesus is Lord. So that we will serve other people. For then we follow our Lord. As we enslave ourselves. For the benefits.

[28:34] For the salvations of other people. So it is in obedience to him. For whom we live. That we give ourselves to others. And that helps.

[28:47] Understand. Why we. Do not lose heart. In chapter 4 verse 1. Or in chapter 4 verse 16. And indeed. As he goes on. In chapter 5. We are always of good courage.

[28:59] In chapter 5 verse 6. So we are always of good courage. Or verse 8. Yes. We are of good courage. We are of good courage. We are of good courage. Are you of good courage?

[29:11] Or are you like me. Terrified. After afternoon tea. I'll talk about it. But we are of good courage. He says. Why? Well because. We are doing the Christian thing.

[29:22] We are serving you. Paul had a dreadful life. You see. Look at the dreadful life he had. Chapter 4 verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay.

[29:34] To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way. But not crushed. Perplexed. But not driven to despair. Persecuted. But not forsaken.

[29:45] Struck down. But not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake.

[29:57] So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us. But life in you. We had a pretty dreadful life.

[30:10] If your child came home and said. I want to be an apostle like the apostle Paul. Well there's nice three bedroom homes just in the suburbs. Just south of the river aren't there? And there's a good steady job that you could get after you finish university.

[30:23] But do you really want your child to be beaten up? Shipwrecked. Put in prison. Stoned. And I'm not talking about drugs. Whipped and beaten. Do you want your child to go through what the apostle went through?

[30:35] Because that's following the Lord Jesus Christ. That's following the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's following Paul. And he had a dreadful life.

[30:46] You can see even more of it in chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians. But we won't. But notice what he says here in chapter 4 verse 7. That is. We're like clay pots. It's the power.

[31:01] The glory of the gospel. The thing that is changing the world through his preaching. is not him. It's the gospel within him. It's the bearer of the gospel.

[31:14] It's not important. It's the glorious valuable thing inside. And so if we were great. If we were magnificent.

[31:25] If we were wonderful. We would get in the way of the gospel being seen for what it is. But because we're just an earthen plot of no value and significance in itself. Then people don't say.

[31:36] Paul is a great evangelist. They say that gospel is a great message. The bigger the better the greater the evangelist. By and large. The less gospel is actually going to be heard from him.

[31:50] For the true evangelist. Will be forgotten. Because the gospel has changed the lives of people. Some of you are preachers.

[32:01] And some of you are not. And some of you are really nice. And no one's done this to me today. So it's alright. I can say it. But when people come and say to me. Oh Philip you're a wonderful preacher. I know that I'm not.

[32:13] Because they've heard me. When they come out from church and say. Isn't Jesus fantastic? Isn't that wonderful? I think yeah. I'm a great preacher. I've actually achieved it there you see.

[32:26] Because I am. They have so. They've looked through me. They've seen past me. To see the one that matters. The truly great preacher. Changes hearts and minds.

[32:38] Because he preaches the gospel faithfully. The great rhetorical preacher. Who everybody speaks about. Oh you've got to go and hear him. He is really so clever. So able. So.

[32:49] The Lord Jesus. Is not coming across. Big difference isn't it? You see. We're very worried when we preach the gospel. Aren't we? We're scared. We're afraid.

[33:00] We're. We're timid. We're impassioned about what people would think about us. We're concerned about how we'll come across. We're. We're. We're all about me. Forget me. Not about me.

[33:12] It's about Jesus Christ as Lord. I'm a bumbling idiot. Yeah. That's a good. Good first qualification for being an evangelist. That.

[33:23] You know. No one's going to come away saying. Well I'm converted because. He's such a great evangelist. Wasn't it Spurgeon? I think it was Spurgeon. If it wasn't it should have been. Who went attacked.

[33:36] And they said. Oh Mr. Spurgeon. I saw one of your converts the other day. Lying drunk in the gutter. He said. It must have been one of my converts. Because if it was the Lord. He'd be standing up and sober.

[33:48] It's good. It's worthy of Spurgeon that one isn't it? I don't know whether I've even made it. Is it Spurgeon? It is Spurgeon. Good. Thank you. Good. That's a relief. Because it's as clear as a bell isn't it?

[34:03] Many of Spurgeon's illustrations are as clear as a bell like that. That's what we need to be. So it's not about us. It is about him. And we are clay pots. And in a sense the more incompetent we are.

[34:16] The better. In one sense. Because it's more clearly his power. That has led to people changing. So Paul says. I teach like the psalmist.

[34:28] Chapter 4 verse 13. I'm up to. We have the same spirit of faith. According to what has been written. I believed and so I spoke. Which comes from Psalm 116. We also believe.

[34:41] And so we also speak. Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus. Will raise us with Jesus. And bring us with him into his presence. For it's all for your sake.

[34:52] So that as grace extends to more and more people. It may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. The psalmist. If you read Psalm 116. Was very concerned. Worried.

[35:02] He prays to the Lord. The Lord saves. He believes the Lord. And so he just can't. He can't shut up about the salvation that he's just had. And Paul says. Well it's like that. I've been saved. How can I shut up about it?

[35:13] I just speak. Of the one who has raised me from the dead. And goes on rescuing me. Goes on resurrecting me. And so I keep on speaking about the saviour. And this of course.

[35:24] Means his life now exemplifies the gospel. So verse 10. He's always carrying in the body. The death of Jesus. Or verse 12. Death is at work in us. But life in you.

[35:35] And in propagating the gospel. He was bringing people to believe. And thus more people to give thanks. And therefore more people to bring glory to God. As we preach the gospel.

[35:46] We glorify God. As people believe the gospel. More people glorify God. And so the whole activity is an activity that glorifies God.

[35:57] What is the chief end of man? To enjoy God. To glorify God. And to enjoy it forever. Isn't it? Here is the activity that glorifies God.

[36:10] It's preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So his whole life was to live the gospel. Being renewed daily. He looked to the eternal.

[36:23] Rather than the present. Pick it up verse 16. We don't lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

[36:35] Isn't that a lovely idea you see? The transforming power of the gospel keeps changing me more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Sure I've got all kinds of opposition.

[36:46] Sure I've had all kinds of failure. And I'm not going to lose heart. Because the inner work of the spirit is continuing to change me. I'm older.

[36:57] I'm bagging, sagging, wrinkling, balding. The eyes don't work as well. The heart doesn't pump as fast. I could go on and on for considerable time. This is one of my favourite subjects as a hypochondriac.

[37:10] That I actually now have enough to be hypochondriacal about. It's really quite interesting. I made a terrible mistake at the cathedral. I was at Jeff. It was one of my big mistakes of Christian ministry.

[37:21] I told them I wasn't going to shake hands at the door anymore. Because I got arthritis in my hands. Why was that a big mistake? Every person in the building had another cure for arthritis.

[37:34] The next few months I was bombarded with all kinds of... Please don't. I prefer to live with the pain and shake hands. And go through some of the cures for arthritis.

[37:48] I've lost the place. Here we go. Verse 16. See the old outside. It's all wearing away. And I'm being beaten up from all sides. But so what? I don't lose heart.

[37:59] Because the inner work of God's spirit is still going strong. And more. For this slight momentary affliction. Is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

[38:12] As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. But the things that are unseen are eternal.

[38:24] What we're going to receive far, far outweighs anything that we suffer now. The sufferings of this world, Romans 8, are not to be compared with the glories that are going to be ours in Christ Jesus.

[38:38] So keep your eye on the prize. And don't worry about the moment. For the moment will pass. The prize is for eternity. So I keep my eye on the unseen, he says.

[38:53] See here is the normal Christian life. It's not the fanatical life of an extreme apostle. It's the normal Christian life. My brothers and sisters. Living in this world.

[39:05] Longing for the next. Suffering in this world. Knowing the glory of the next. Which then introduces the discussion of chapter 5 verses 1 to 10.

[39:18] About longing for the permanent home. Not the transitory tent. Walking by faith in the promises of God. Not by sight in this world's burdens. And aiming to please God.

[39:29] Both in the present body, the tent. And in the eternal building. The life of heaven. For we know that we are. All will appear, chapter 5 verse 10. Before the glory.

[39:40] Before the judgment seat of Christ. Receive what is due to us. For what we have done in this lifetime. Chapter 5 verses 1 to 10. Needs to be set in the context. In which it is written.

[39:52] Too many people lift it out. To try and work out the nature of the resurrection body. And the timing of the resurrection body. And all kinds of theological issues. Which it's not discussing. What it's saying is.

[40:03] Keep your eye on the eternal prize. Because the present suffering. That you're going through. Is nothing compared to the eternal prize. And in the suffering now. Seek to please the Lord.

[40:14] And in eternity. Seek to please the Lord. So whether I'm in eternity. Or still here in this body. I aim to please the Lord. And in the end. I'm going to stand before the Lord. And give answer.

[40:26] For what I've done in the body. Let me read it for you. For we know. That if this tent. Which is our earthly home. Is destroyed. We have a building from God. A house. Not made with hands.

[40:36] Eternal in the heavens. For in this tent. We groan. Longing to put on. Our heavenly dwelling. If indeed. By putting it on. We may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent.

[40:46] We groan. Being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed. But we would be further clothed. So that what is mortal. Might be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared for us.

[40:57] This very thing is God. Who has given us the spirit. As a guarantee. So we're always of good courage. We know that while we're at home. In the body. We're away from the Lord.

[41:08] For we walk by faith. Not by sight. Yes we're of good courage. And we would rather be away from the body. And at home with the Lord. So. Whether we're home. Or away. We make it our aim to please him.

[41:20] For we must all appear. Before the judgment seat of Christ. So that each one may receive. What is due for. What he has done in the body. Whether good. Or evil. Not the easiest.

[41:31] Passage for people to read. And understand. Especially when you want to answer questions. As to what does it mean to be unclothed. Not wanting to be unclothed. You've got to hang to the theme.

[41:41] Of what the theme is about. Which is established in chapter 4. Verse 16 to 18. It's expounding that. It's the concept of living in this physical body. Longing for the heavenly body.

[41:52] Not loving to be unclothed. Not have a body. But to long for something. Which is even greater than the body. We have at the moment. The resurrection body. We're longing for the great permanent tent.

[42:03] A building rather than a transitory tent. That's our life now. Transitory tent. Do you want to live in a tent? Or do you want to live in a building? I hate camping. I know some of you are sick.

[42:16] In your minds. And think that it's a joy to go back into primitive existence. And live under canvas. More fool you. I hate camping.

[42:26] I hate camping. I am so glad for the privilege of civilisation. That has given us decent stone buildings. And brick buildings. And I'm not wet. And I'm not cold.

[42:37] And I'm not damp. And it's not going to be blown over in the middle of the night. Or washed away by the storm that comes. I actually like going to bed and feeling secure. Safe.

[42:48] Warm. Comfortable. And not have to worry about the ropes. And people tripping over them. And weather. I am. I hate camping. But sometimes you've got to live in a tent, haven't you?

[43:01] Sometimes you're poor. There's not much else you can do. There's millions of people on the borders of Turkey and Syria, etc. Who have canvas tents. The best thing they've got going for them. But I guarantee they all long for a building.

[43:13] I guarantee they're all looking and hoping and dreaming for the day. We don't have a home. A proper home. A house. Not a tent. Our life here is tent. Our life here is camping.

[43:24] We are camping here for a moment. Do not get attached to your tent. Do not think by putting on an annex you're going to make something permanent. An annex to a tent is just an annex to a tent.

[43:39] You're still in the tent. It really is still transitory. It's still going to blow down and you're going to suffer. That's the nature of this world and this life, friends.

[43:51] But Paul says, I keep my eye on the home. While I'm in the tent, I seek to please the Lord. When I'm away with home, I'll seek the Lord. I prefer to be away from the body.

[44:02] But as long as I'm in the body, I've got work to do. Because in the end, I'm going to be judged by the Lord for the work I do. In chapter 5, verse 10. I'll stand before.

[44:13] We will all stand before the judgment seat. So what is evangelism? It's the message to proclaim. It's the message to proclaim.

[44:25] It's the declaration that Jesus is Lord, King, Saviour, Judge. And with it is the message of the kingdom of God and of righteousness, of the mercy of God and the forgiveness that he brings, of rebirth and eternal life.

[44:40] Jesus Christ as Lord is a summary. But as you unpack the summary, it fills out with the crucifixion and the resurrection. It fills out with the forgiveness and the rebirth and regeneration.

[44:52] It fills out with how we live differently. It's summary Jesus. It's about Jesus. It's about him as Christ. It's about him as Lord. But it's all these things.

[45:04] But, see, it's the message we live and die by. For if we believe it, we must believe it. And if we live it, we must speak it.

[45:15] And therefore we make it our aim to please him. Walking not as seen, but unseen. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 3 to finish. Colossians chapter 3.

[45:28] If then you have been raised with Christ. Have you been raised with Christ? Not if you will be raised with Christ. Have you already been raised with Christ? That is, have you already been born again?

[45:40] You were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God has made you alive in Christ Jesus. If you have been raised with Christ, then what should you do? Seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

[45:56] Set your mind on the things that are above. See, I haven't been raised from death to life in order to go on living in the grave. To go on aspiring for the things of this world.

[46:08] I've been raised from death to life to seek the life that God has in Christ Jesus. I've been raised out of this world to sit in the heavenly places.

[46:20] Not to sit in the world. We Christians are already in heaven. We've already seated in the heavenly. You thought the chairs would be more comfortable, didn't you? No, no.

[46:31] Spiritually we've been raised to spiritually sit in the heavenly places. That is where we are now. Receiving all the blessings, all the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus are ours now.

[46:42] Adoption and election and redemption and the knowledge of God's plans and purposes. This is all ours now because we have been raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly realms.

[46:53] That's where we are now. Well, if that's where we are and that's where we're going for eternity, then stop thinking about the world. Stop worrying about the world.

[47:04] You see where he goes on? Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. Because you've died, he says, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

[47:19] See, when Christ died his death, he died my death. I've died. When I repented, I denied myself, took up my cross and followed Jesus. I declared myself dead. We've died with Christ.

[47:31] We've risen with Christ. Well, put to death the old and put on the new. And so, chapter 3, verse 5, Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

[47:44] Chapter 3, verse 12, Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. It's my experience of the death and resurrection of Jesus that puts to death and raises to new life.

[47:58] And the new life that I've been raised to is the eternal life. And so, therefore, my heart, my hopes, my aspirations, my minds, my desires are for the things of heaven.

[48:11] How do you raise your children? What do you hope for your children? I had a grandson born just three weeks ago. What am I going to pray for my grandson? Very good looking.

[48:26] What am I going to pray for the little boy? What do you pray for your children, for your grandchildren? I ask it that way because, you see, What do you want for your children seems unselfish, doesn't it?

[48:41] I mean, if I said, Well, I want to have a good education, a good career, a good job, it sounds very selfish. But when I say, Well, I want for the children that they have these things, it sounds unselfish. Because the problem with that is, I want that for my children.

[48:55] I don't care about your children. You children can be all unemployed, uneducated, on the streets. I want for my children. And so I actually find out what I think matters when I ask what I'm going to pray for my children.

[49:10] I met a lovely old missionary friend who's now in glory. And she rocked me. Because she said when she prayed for her children, and she had several in the mission field. In fact, she was having twins, but she didn't know it until the first one came out.

[49:23] It was the back blocks of India. She said when she prayed for her children. I thought, Well, I know what I prayed. I prayed for a healthy baby. Do you pray for a healthy baby? Of course you do.

[49:34] Who doesn't pray for that? It was one of the books I read that said, The first question every mother asks when the baby is born is, Is it normal? When they're assured that it is normal, that is the last time they want a child that's only normal.

[49:49] There on, then you're above normal in everything, aren't you? You pray for a healthy child. Of course you do. If you're a Christian, you pray that they come to Christ and know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

[50:00] Is that right? There's the Christian desire. No, not this lady. She said, I prayed they'd be missionaries. Terrifying.

[50:13] She wasn't interested in raising boys and girls, even to raising Christian boys and girls. She was actually producing missionaries. Day one, she was praying that her children would go on the mission field of the gospel and where she meant by mission field were the back blocks of India, where you didn't even know that you're having twins until they popped out.

[50:33] She wanted her children to be missionaries. That rattled me, I must confess. I thought I was doing well praying that they'd be Christians. But as soon as she said it, I knew she was right.

[50:47] See, she set her heart and her mind and her aspirations on the things that are above, where Christ reigns, rather than the things of this earth from which we've actually died.

[51:01] It's a different mind frame, different mindset, isn't it? And so Paul, in his 2 Corinthians, he's explaining why he doesn't lose heart. How can you be involved in evangelism in a godless society like Scotland is today and not feel beaten, discouraged, disheartened, down?

[51:27] The answer is because the gospel is the power of God for salvation and God is working his purposes out through the gospel being preached and because we're not judging by these worldly standards, we're judging by the eternal standards and because we will endure any suffering in this tent as we work for the building and because one day we will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give account of how we have used the years that he has given us since he's called us into his kingdom.

[52:05] Therefore, therefore, he says, therefore, come back after afternoon turn, I'll tell you about it. Więc.

[52:16] Więc. Hmm. Dann. Yes.

[52:26] Like. Efforts. Close. To be.