Devotion for October 5, 2008

Convince

“Preach the word! Be ready in season [and] out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, [because] they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn [their] ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4 NKJV)

The believer is to be ready at all times, times of sowing and times of harvest, and he is to be engaged wholeheartedly. He is to pursue this by the means God has appointed.

The means mentioned here is clear, believers are to use the Word to convince, rebuke, and exhort. This is to be done with longsuffering and teaching. When I look at this passage I see a ministry that takes skill and time. This could be partially to blame for the quick and easy method of evangelism used today.

Unfortunately, the evangelism of today is for the most part not evangelism at all. It is more goat stealing than evangelism, and its converts are often made citizens of hell. Jesus warned the Pharisees of much the same. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15 NKJV)

Many modern Pelagianist have fallen victim to the pressures of self-conceit and congregational conceit, and have elected to fill their churches with the unelected. Rather than quarry their own converts by God’s means they follow the misguided steps of Charles Finney using every means possible to get people to pray a prayer so they can boast how God is blessing their ministry.

You say, “Brother you speak too harshly.” Let me remind you of the subject passage. Convince, rebuke, exhort is the command. I am convinced that many who use illegitimate means in evangelism do so in ignorance with good intentions. It is my soul’s greatest desire that if anyone suffers embarrassment by these words it is for his own good, and repentance. When I expose the sin of boasting it is not meant to be mean, but that the law of God might convict those who are guilty. Our unwillingness to confront sin has brought us to this desperate hour.

My dear friends learn how to use the Word of God to expose sin. People will never be saved if they don’t first see their need for a Savior. Evangelism is not learning some canned, high-pressure technique that allows you to be more comfortable witnessing. No, it is taking the Word of God and in a spirit of humility with great patience teaching someone about his sin and need for a Savior.