In our desire to win the lost we must never surrender this basic premise and presupposition of the Gospel: Christ died for the elect who, sooner or later, inevitably and inescapably, will listen to His voice – that principle is decreed and fixed by God. If, as we are convinced, the Saviour speaks through His Word, and especially through Truth preached, we need not be ashamed to abandon barren church-projects which do not bear fruit or result in abiding additions to the.

Introduction

How should the doctrine of God’s Eternal Choice in Christ shape the way we seek stray sheep, build disciples up, or evangelize the lost? It is my prayer, while certainly not the last word on the subject, that these musings may stimulate us to play our part and engage in this marvelous missionary task.

Seek opportunities to speak the Word of Christ.

No doubt there are many ways in which our Lord will bring people to Himself. His secret will has decreed an infinite number and variety of circumstantial coincidences – these either provide a setting for speech, or act as links in the chains, to bring about the final Christ-uniting event by grace, through faith.

A good example is the meeting Paul had with Philippian Lydia: it was fairly predictable, I would suggest, that serious-minded inquirers might be located, on the Sabbath Day, met for prayer, perched around the river bank, in this European city – this was, after all, where such women-worshippers, who were Gentile fearers of the LORD, used to meet. Had Paul prospected the environs and done a survey of this Via Ignatian roman colony? Did he inquire about where, or whether or not, such a worship site existed? That seems rather likely! Thus, abiding in Christ, led by the Spirit, after prayerful thought, he wisely made the choice to search-out an audience for Truth. It was this prudent selection that brought him into connect with the purple, Thyatiran, immigrant, worker: it was in this appointed place, through a fairly standard speech, that the Lord sovereignly opened the heart of one of His chosen sheep, who responded to His voice. Let this be a reminder that key soul-winning components are abiding in Christ, and being ready to reach out and seek openings for truth. Did Jesus preach in the open-air on hillsides and beaches and, in-doors, in houses and synagogues? Did Peter and Paul, declare the Gospel in streets, markets and Temples both sacred and pagan? Then, on our part, surely it would be rigid inflexibility, feelings of insecurity, or Bible-reading dullness (or something else) that strait-jacketed truth to four walls of God’s House or ducked behind a pulpit for cover in a sadly-secluded Gospel – it would be to do exactly what Jesus forbade, in concealing light under a bushel.

We would, however, be equally unwise to build a riverside ministry (where true worshippers might be absent) on the warrant of a descriptive text like this – if we only know of one stream-side convert (excepting Naaman in the OT and the disciples of John in the Gospels), then a biblical incidental circumstance is insufficient warrant or a passcode to lost hearts. In personal work,  as well as evangelistic outreach, we must not allow ourselves to be tied down to any individual time or place: every true believer has his or her own gift from God with opportunities to share Christ (at home, school, arena or work) that are completely unique to them; so, abide in the Word, keep a burdened heart, avoid a one-track mind, pray for when and where, obtain wisdom from above, and when the door swings wide, proceed to speak the Word – our only rule of faith and practice is to do what God commands and avoid what Christ forbids.

Use Means of Grace appointed in God’s Word.

There is no doubt, at all, about the primary means God has appointed, before the beginning of time, for the salvation of the elect. To err in this matter is to work in flesh not faith, dilute disciple understanding of our Great Commission task of His Church, and invite (or induce) a raft of false, manipulated, decision-based, conversions without conviction, however well-intended (yet, in spite of many mis-steps, God often gains glory for Himself in the salvation of the lost or edification of saints – yet that it not to be taken as a warrant for an unwarranted course). If employing carnal means has the allure of immediate, apparent, success, the long-term net-effect may be reversal of early gains and reduced confidence in God’s Word. Let us never forget, Christ offers Himself in His Word: it was just as Paul preached that the efficacious Word unlocked Lydia’s sin-bolted heart – just, as at Creation, daylight broke the darkness, the creature was renewed and Lydia was reborn.

For over four decades I have observed steady, then accelerated, church decline in the West (that may not be your own experience). It would be far too simplistic to identify one factor that accounts for the generalized emptying of God’s Church – the whole truth, doubtless, is deep, complex, multifactorial, and liable to differ on a local, regional, national or even denominational basis. Yet what I have witnessed, for now nearly half a century, is ever more innovative and desperate attempts by godly folk to win the lost with increasingly more miniscule aliquots of truth.

In our desire to win the lost we must never surrender this basic premise and presupposition of the Gospel: Christ died for the elect who, sooner or later, inevitably and inescapably, will listen to His voice – that principle is decreed and fixed by God. If, as we are convinced, the Saviour speaks through His Word, and especially through Truth preached, we need not be ashamed to abandon barren church-projects which do not bear fruit or result in abiding additions to the Church (how exhausting and inexplicable to repeat unprofitable mistakes when losses must be cut). Of course, we cannot see what God is doing behind the scenes in secret places of the heart. However, we should not cite the odd example of a “one-off” foreign missionary whose ministry bore much after death but no fruit in this life, as a standard evangel model – that might be valid in ground-breaking, frontier service, but is hardly justifiable if the Covenant vocation in Christ has called us to bear fruit. So, it is not unfair, I believe, to note, if the general approach to outreach has been largely energetic, zealous, prayerful and sincere, that passion for souls has not always been pursued along the Bible’s well-worn paths. If Paul could counsel Evangelist Timothy to devote Himself to public Scripture reading and exposition, this “Bible box” has all the power-tools to erect God’s Holy Temple, the pillar and buttress of the Truth, resting on Apostolic Foundations, united round Chief-Cornerstone Christ.

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