J.I. Packer on "evangelistic" preaching and services

Here is an excellent quote from J.I. Packer in his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. I mention Packer often, and since I always like to put a face with a name, I thought I'd include a picture of him below. He's in his nineties and one of the most respected theologians in the world. He has been a great gift to the church world wide.

On evangelistic services and meetings:

"Insofar as the preaching at our Sunday services is scriptural, those services will of necessity be evangelistic.  It is a mistake to suppose that evangelistic sermons are a special brand of sermons, having their own peculiar style and conventions; evangelistic sermons are just scriptural sermons, the sort of sermons that a man cannot help preaching if he is preaching the Bible biblically.  Proper sermons seek to expound and apply what is in the Bible.  But what is in the Bible is just the whole counsel of God for man's salvation; all Scripture bears witness, in one way or another, to Christ, and all biblical themes relate to him.  All proper sermons, therefore, will of necessity declare Christ in some fashion and so be more or less directly evangelistic....If our churches "evangelistic" meetings, and "evangelistic" sermons, are thought of as special occasions, different from the ordinary run of things, it is a damning indictment of our normal Sunday services.  So that if we should imagine that the essential work of evangelism lies in holding meetings of the special type described out of church hours, so to speak, that would simply prove that we had failed to understand what our regular Sunday services are for" (bold added, p. 62-64).

(via the 9Marks blog)