A Christian Witness to the Whole World
I am involved in something that will still be worthwhile a
million years from now because God has not revoked the great commission.
Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end
shall come” (Matthew 24:14).
Today the kingdom of God is realized as we proclaim the
crucified, risen, and returning Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God that has
come in the person and work of Jesus Christ. How do we enter into the kingdom
of God? There is only one way. “Repent of your sins and believe on Jesus
Christ.” That is the message we preach.
Our message is the gospel of free grace. It is what God has
accomplished for us in the sacrificial substitutionary atoning death of Jesus
Christ for our sins. We offer the gospel freely “without money and without
cost” (Isa. 55:1).
John Ryle once said, “Men are apt to forget that it does not
require great open sins to be sinned in order to ruin a soul forever. They have
only to give hearing without believing, listening without repenting, going to
church without going to Christ, and by and by they will find themselves in
hell.”
It is imperative that we make the message of salvation
crystal clear in our presentations. Salvation is the gift of God and it is “by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.” God has
provided everything we need in order to be saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). But also be assured, “Reject Jesus
Christ, and you will perish forever.”
Every time we share that message we are personally involved
in what God is doing in building His eternal kingdom.
What can we expect as we take the gospel out of
self-edification and share it with others? We can prepare for and accept
hostility from some listeners (Matthew 10:16-18, 21-25). There will be men who
“will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues, and
you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a
testimony to them and to the Gentiles (v. 17). The history of Christianity is
the history of persecution and martyrdom for the cause of Christ. More people
have been persecuted and died for Christ during the last hundred years than in
the previous two thousand years.
We can expect God’s power and sustaining grace to meet all
of our necessities as we take the good news to a lost world. Jesus said, “When
they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak;
for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak” (v. 19). Those
are instructions for martyrs and Christians under persecution, not preachers
getting ready for Sunday morning without doing their homework. The Holy Spirit gives boldness to testify
under all circumstances for Christ. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the
Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (v. 20). Success in personal
witnessing is simply sharing Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and
then leaving the results up to God.
Our job is to be faithful to Christ under all circumstances
(vv. 26-27). The only person we are to fear is the LORD God “who is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell” (v. 28). The worst thing a man can do to us
is to kill the body. But “for me to live is Christ and to die is better yet”
(Phil. 1:21).
The Lord is sovereign in His kingdom (vv. 30-33). There is
nothing that can happen to His faithful servant who is not fully known to Him.
Whatever we experience as His servants is fully known to Him and happens
ultimately for our good and His eternal glory. The responsibilities are great
for all believers (vv. 34-39).
However, the rewards of being faithful to the Lord Jesus
Christ are eternal (vv. 40-42). “He who receives you receives Me, and he who
receives Me receives Him who sent Me. . . . And whoever in the name of a
disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink,
truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward” (vv. 40, 42).
A Good Clear Conscience
One of the greatest blessings for the born again Christian
is the deep sense of peace with God (Phil. 4:7, 9; Col. 3:15; John 14:27).
The apostle Paul wrote, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I
am not lying, my conscience bearing joint-testimony with me in the Holy Spirit
. . .” (Romans 9:1).
Paul takes a triple oath here because of deep convictions
regarding the salvation of the Jewish people. He makes a strong, positive
affirmation in Christ, a negative statement that he is not lying, and the
appeal to his conscience as a co-witness “in the Holy Spirit.” Paul looked to
Christ and rejoiced; he looked at the Jewish people lost in sin and wept. Paul
was willing to go to hell for the sake of his lost Jewish friends.
The conscience is that faculty of man that evaluates our
actions, along with our thoughts that either accuse or excuse us of sin. Our
conscience is an important part of human nature the world over. It is not an
absolutely trustworthy indicator of what is right and wrong. We can have a
“good” conscience (Acts 23:1); 1 Tim. 1:5, 19), a “clear” conscience (Acts
24:16; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 13:18), or a “guilty” conscience (Heb.
10:22), a “corrupted” conscience (Titus 1:15), a “weak” conscience (1 Cor. 8:7,
10, 12), or a “seared” conscience (1 Tim. 4:2).
The marvelous thing about the gospel is that “the blood of
Christ” cleanses the conscience. The writer of Hebrews says, “How much more
will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?” (Heb. 9:14).
The conscience is the remains of God’s image in man after
the fall of Adam. The universal fact of this inner voice is important. It is a
divine law. Because we are sinners obedience to the voice of conscience must
always be tested with an acceptance of the revealed will of God in the
Scriptures (John 8:7-9; Rom. 2:15-16; 9:1; Titus 1:13-15).
The apostle Paul warned, “Nothing is wholesome to those who
are themselves unwholesome and who have no faith in God—their very minds and
consciences are diseased” (Tit. 1:15, Phillips). The conscience is defiled
because the light from both it and the Holy Spirit are refused.
