How can the local church grow with respect to evangelism?

Joel Beeke explains in this video that there are several sins that the contemporary church falls into in regards to evangelism. The first is prayerlessness. We must cry out to God Almighty. We should never evangelize someone without first spending time in personal prayer. Second, there is a sin of the lack of zeal. Life and death is at stake.

Third, there is this sin of accommodating the Gospel to man’s desires. To make unbelievers comfortable or to minimize sin. Fourth, there is a lack of clarity in presenting the Gospel. This is because of a misconception of who God is, the seriousness of sin, and salvation being only through Christ alone. We need a stronger emphasis on the justice of God and the concept of substitution.

Revelations 22:18-19 (NKJV) – “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. Well I think there are several sins that the contemporary church falls into in evangelizing or in not evangelizing. The first one would be the prayerlessness of so much evangelism.

It begins in the inner closet feeling the burden, crying out to God Almighty. We should never go evangelize someone without crying out to the Lord to bless it. And I think that's what the Puritans have to teach us first and foremost. As John Bunyan used to say, you can do more than pray after you pray, but you can't do more than pray until you pray. And then secondly, I think there's this sin today, and I call it a sin, of the lack of zeal.

Realizing the importance of the gospel, realizing the life and death issues that are at stake. And the Puritan was a man who was full of zeal. In fact, at least six different Puritans wrote entire treatises on the necessity of zeal. And then thirdly, I think today there's this great sin of trying to accommodate the gospel in some way to modern man's desires, to make it user-friendly, to make him comfortable, to soft-pedal the radical demands of the Gospel, to minimize sin, to tell him in one way or another he doesn't have to cut off his right hand or pluck out his right eye in order to come to Christ. Trying to get people to say yes to the Gospel without enabling them and showing them they have to count the cost.

I think that's a really big issue. And then fourthly, whether you call this a sin or not, there's a lack of clarity in presenting the Gospel today. I suppose it's a sin in this sense that we have a misconception of who God is, a misconception of the heinousness of sin, a misconception of the necessity that justice be satisfied through the passive obedience of Jesus, paying for our sin, and the active obedience of Jesus obeying the law for us. And through that double obedience, the justice of God is satisfied on our behalf so that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And we need today in evangelism a stronger emphasis on the justice of God and this tremendous concept of substitution.

Jesus taking my place and bearing my sin and me receiving His gospel graces. You