RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Evangelism – 6 Romans 3:23
Sammy Tippit: I want to welcome you back to this session where we’ve been talking about the work of the Holy Spirit and how he works to enable us to share Christ with others. In our last session, we talked about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and how our lives need to come under the control of the Holy Spirit.
We’re going to turn a little bit of a corner in this session and talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who do not know Christ, how he draws them to Christ and how it’s his work. I’m visiting here with Wayne Jenkins. Wayne, thank you so much again for being a part of this.
Wayne Jenkins: Thank you for letting me.
Sammy: Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of the people who need Christ and what needs to happen there. Explain that to me a little bit. We talked about how our lives need to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, but what about those people who we’re sharing Christ with? What happens there?
Wayne: Let me just say this at the beginning. What you said a while ago that was so important was that one of the things that keep us from sharing is our fear. One of the things that will give us a release is to know, “I can’t convert anybody. My job is to be the spokesperson in the power of the Holy Spirit, and he does the work of drawing people to Christ. I share in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results up to him.”
Sammy: Yeah. Let me share one really quick thing about this with you. I was speaking in Scotland one time at a large evangelistic meeting, and no one responded. People came out, and everybody felt bad for me. They were saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” I said, “Hey, don’t worry about it, because my wife told me one time a long time ago that if I don’t take the credit when people come to Christ, I don’t have to take the blame. That’s not my job. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit.” The only thing I have to be careful of is that I’ve been faithful to the Lord personally and faithful to his Word.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: Okay. Anyway… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stop you there.
Wayne: No, no, no. That’s a good example of what we’re talking about. Then what does he do in the life of this unbeliever? I think the clearest statement on that is John 16:8 and following, where he says the work is to convict or convince. There are several things he talks about, but that word is a courtroom word.
Sammy: The word convict.
Wayne: Yeah. It’s a word that was used in the courtroom. Here the case has been made. The lawyer has made the case. It has gone to the jury. The jury has made the decision, and they come out and say, “The man is guilty.” Then a sentence is given to the person. That is the kind of word it is.
Sammy: It’s a legal term.
Wayne: It’s a legal term. It is a work of the Holy Spirit to convict that man of several things. One thing is that he convicts that unbeliever of sin. I can’t convict him of that. I can say, “Here’s what the Bible says: ‘…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…'” but the Holy Spirit has to take that and then convict that man that he is a sinner.
It’s not that I’m a sinner because I’m an alcoholic or because I’m an adulterer. Those are sins, but the sin he convicts me of is the sin of unbelief. That is the sin he convicts us of. Then he straightens all of those other things out as we walk with him.
Sammy: When you believe, the other stuff takes the rightful place.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: So he convinces us that it’s our unbelief that has separated us from a holy God.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: I think there’s a sense of… You don’t understand all of that when this is happening, but there’s this work of the Spirit to show us, “Oh man, I’ve messed up. I am separated. I’m so far away from God. My sin…”
Wayne: Yeah. He explains it. He goes on to share in that verse when he says, “They are convicted of sin because they believe not on me.” So it’s the sin of unbelief that he is convicting him of, and that’s his role.
Sammy: They don’t believe in Jesus.
Wayne: That’s exactly right.
Sammy: What’s the second thing?
Wayne: The second thing is that he convicts an unbeliever of righteousness. It’s not his righteousness, for sure. He’s unrighteous. There’s nothing of righteousness in us. The Scripture says all of us are like filthy rags. We’re all sinners. The righteousness he convicts him of is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He was the one who was righteous. He was the one who went to the cross. He paid the price of us, so God convicts the sinner of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is what we need.
Sammy: This goes to the heart of the gospel. If we don’t get this down, when we come to the part of talking about sharing the gospel and what that is, we won’t get it. This is so important for us to understand. What we are sharing is not, “Okay, you need to be a better person.” No.
Wayne: No. That’s right.
Sammy: Or, “You need to turn over a new leaf in life.” What we’re talking about is coming to know God, a holy God. The only way we can come into his presence is because of what Jesus did, because of his righteousness and our trust in him. But we can’t convince people of that.
Wayne: No.
Sammy: That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
Wayne: He convicts us of our lack of righteousness, our sinfulness, our unbelief. He convinces us of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is what we need.
Sammy: So the Holy Spirit’s work is… Really, when we talked about clarity early on a little while back… He’s going to be clarity. The Holy Spirit is going to bring clarity. It’s the righteousness of Christ. What else?
Wayne: The third thing is he convicts an unbeliever concerning judgment, that he’s already condemned. Satan was judged at the cross, but there is coming a final judgment. But he convicts us of judgment, that we will face a judgment for our sinfulness if we reject Jesus Christ. That is a third thing he mentions.
Sammy: There is coming a day of accountability for every human being.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: You know, this is something that… In the world in which we’re living today, there’s not a lot of accountability. One of the reasons there’s not accountability for what we do is that we don’t have accountability, a sense of accountability, that there is coming this day in the future. But we can’t convince people of that.
Wayne: No.
Sammy: That has to be the Holy Spirit convicting them and showing them, convincing them, that there is coming a day of judgment. So do we need to be praying for these three things? Is that what we do?
Wayne: Yeah. That’s part of that prayer responsibility. I think we also come back to that definition. We share the gospel, we share in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we leave the results up to him. That releases us of our fear.
We just need to make sure that we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, that we are prepared to share with that person (which is what we’re going to be talking about from here on out), that we know how to share the gospel with that person, and then that we leave that result up to God. I can’t force him to come to Christ. I can’t make him realize he’s a sinner. The Spirit of God does that work.
Sammy: As you share that, I’m reminded of a Scripture passage in John 6 where there were multitudes following Jesus. Jesus made one statement, and the multitudes quit following him. The statement was this: “No one can come to me except the Father draw him.” If God doesn’t draw you, you can’t come to Jesus.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: People were following Jesus because of his miracles, but until the Holy Spirit really draws them to Jesus, it can’t happen. So we need to understand that. We need to pray towards that. That’s why this whole thing of prayer is so important in the work. Again, we’re not super salesmen. We’re asking God to work.
Wayne: Yeah. That’s why we go in the power of the Holy Spirit. We become sensitive to what he’s doing, because we may deal with a man who… At that point in the process of sharing with him, we realize, “Hey, he’s not listening. The Spirit of God is not working in his life. We just have to shut it down and come back to him. We don’t quit praying for him, and we keep working with him, and it comes over a period of time that he has that cultivated heart where the message becomes lodged.
Sammy: One of the things I have found in evangelism is that when you go out and begin to share Christ with other people, there are people who are ready at that very moment. There are people who… Hearing that is good because they’ll never forget it, but they’re not ready. Down the road, they’re going to remember what’s going on.
So we need to remember it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. We need to allow him. We need to pray for him to work in the hearts of people, so I want you just to begin to pray for someone you know. Just ask God’s Spirit to be released, to touch their lives, to show them their sin, and to show them the righteousness of Christ and the coming judgment. God will take you and use you.
Wayne: Amen.
Sammy: You will be a part of this, but it will ultimately be the work of the Holy Spirit.
Wayne: Amen.