Evangelistic Zeal
Winter 2025
Through various providences in the late 1990's, I am thankful I was led the Free Presbyterian Church—a denomination that earnestly sought the salvation of sinners. Those whom I heard preach did not simply pay lip service to the concept of being an evangelistic church. Their preaching manifested urgency as they pleaded with men to come to Christ. They epitomized the spirit of the apostle, “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11).
This spirit was present not only in the pulpit but also in the prayer meetings. Week by week earnest prayer was offered for men to be converted. Given the preaching and the praying, it was no surprise deliberate attempts were being made to win souls for Christ. Groups went door to door inviting people to come under the Word and telling them of the Savior. Open air preaching was conducted in many towns and almost every church would hold an evangelistic campaign at least once a year. It should be noted that the late ’90s were not marked by a great ingathering of souls. But the heartbeat of the denomination was obvious to a new visitor like me.
These early memories of my exposure to the Free Presbyterian Church have returned to my mind in recent weeks. Prior to our presbytery meeting in October 2023, I was present in, or made aware of, presbytery committee meetings where the subject of reaching lost souls was the main burden of the meeting. During discussion about the practicalities of committee business was the concern—how can we see sinners be saved from the wrath to come? This burden then came to the floor of the presbytery meeting. These meetings have been such an encouragement to my soul. Our denomination still longs to see souls converted. We have gone through testing times that could have had the effect of cold water on a fire, but by the grace of God it seems like the fire of evangelistic zeal has not been quenched.
We are united in our conviction that salvation is found in Christ Jesus alone: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). We are united in our conviction that faith comes by hearing the Word preached in truth: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:14,17). Our discussions centered around how we can reach people in a day of social media, reels, podcasts, and the like. People around us in Canada and in the United States are generally unaware that we are here preaching Christ. How can we reach them with the gospel? The answers to that question are not the aim of this article. My aim is to encourage you with the knowledge that we still long for souls to be saved. And along with that, I want you to examine your own heart. Do you know something of this burden for souls? If so, may God cause that burden to grow.
I trust and pray that the desire to see men and women come to Christ is an imitation of the apostle Paul, who was following his Lord: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Another thing that struck me in my early experience with the FPC was that the evangelistic heart was present accompanied with an understanding of the sovereignty of God in salvation. The pleading with sinners wasn’t coming from the thought of man’s free will. Rather it was believed and confessed that only God can change a man’s heart. There was also the open profession that God has chosen a people from all eternity to be the church, the bride of Christ. Again, the shared convictions of God’s sovereignty and evangelistic necessity arise directly in reflecting the heart of the apostle Paul.
Perhaps no chapter in the Bible more highlights God’s sovereignty than Romans 9. Think of verse 18: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Yet that chapter begins with the most heartfelt expression of love for lost souls. Indeed chapters 9 through 11 begin with a personal statement of the apostle indicating his concern for the lost Jews. These chapters highlight God’s dealings with national Israel, but the openings speak to us in general principles regarding evangelistic zeal.
A Passion for Lost Souls
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:1–3). The third verse is undoubtedly challenging to expound. To be accursed is to be devoted to destruction and this describes the state of the unbelieving Jew. To be “[apart] from Christ” is to be excluded from all saving graces. How could the apostle believe this is possible (Romans 8:38–39) or desire it (Philippians 3:8)? Professor John Murray is a help here. “The tense used in the Greek is well expressed by the version in the words “I could wish.” It is hypothetical to the effect that if it were possible and of avail for the salvation of his kinsmen he would be willing to be accursed on their behalf. The intensity of the apostle's love for his own people is hereby disclosed.” In a similar vein John Calvin states, “It was, therefore, a proof of the most fervent love that Paul did not hesitate to call on himself the condemnation which he saw hanging over the Jews, in order that he might deliver them.” Convictions about the sovereignty of God and holding to a Reformed faith should not quench our concern for the lost and our desire to see them saved.
Praying for Men to be Saved
Chapter 10 of Romans opens, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Romans 10:1). A belief in the electing purposes of God does not produce a freezing fatalism in the apostle’s heart. He understands that the God who chose men unto salvation also ordained that prayer would be a means to draw them to Himself in the power of the Holy Spirit.
When the Lord taught the disciples to pray, the first three petitions all have application in our praying for the unbeliever.
“Hallowed be Thy name.” The unbeliever lives in rebellion to God and despises God. Part of our petition for God’s name to be hallowed is that the rebel against God would be changed to one who rejoices in God, hence bringing glory to God’s name.
“Thy Kingdom come.” As our Shorter Catechism states, “In the second petition…we pray, that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and the kingdom of glory may be hastened.”
“Thy will be done.” Once more we think of the unconverted in terms of them being transgressors of God’s law. This petition is, in part, a prayer that God, by His grace, would make sinners “able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.”
My perception of the heart of the FPC was that the burden for sinners found expression in the place of prayer. That should always be the case. Our public and private prayers must pulsate with cries unto God for the salvation of the lost.
The Purpose of God to Save
Chapter 11 begins with Paul using his own testimony of grace to prove that God had not forsaken His people or forgotten His promises. “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1). The fact that Paul was saved was a proof that in his day “there was a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5). I use this to remind you that God has an eternal purpose of redemption that will not fail to be realized. Your longing for souls to be saved and your prayers to God to save will be futile or frustrated. Remember—Christ “shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).
By God’s grace may the FPC continue to sing:
Pity the nations, O our God! Constrain the earth to come; Send Thy victorious Word abroad, And bring the strangers home.
We long to see Thy churches full, That all Thy chosen race May, with one voice and heart and soul, Sing Thy redeeming grace.