Evangelism is serious business. It should not be done without much thought and study of Scripture. While evangelism does not have to include a study of the depths of theology, it is based on theology. The more correct our theology is, the more correct our evangelism will be. Evangelism is a telling the good news, but what good news? It is the good news about what God has done through Christ and continues to do through the Holy Spirit. So the more we know about God the more accurate our information will be concerning the truth about Him. The good news does not come in a vacuum, it comes to people who are sinners and have certain dispositions because of that sin. So the more we know about the sin of man and those dispositions, the better we will be able to evangelize. The heart is the spring from which dispositions flow.
Let me be crystal clear, man´s problem is a prideful and selfish heart that loves itself. We can preach to men and tell them about the truths of the Gospel and they will only hear with a heart where every intent of the thoughts is for self (Genesis 6:5). The self-love in them deceives them and twists the messages they hear. One of the most dangerous things we can do is practice evangelism based on the model where we tell them that God loves them. We never see the love of God set out in Scripture as a motive in evangelism. Until men are actually converted, the love of God is not in them. We must practice evangelism in a way that takes the depravity of the heart seriously and know that men must turn from that selfish and sinful heart that loves self to a true love for Christ in order to be converted. No matter what else a man may do, he is deceiving himself if he does not love Christ in reality. Man only loves God when He loves God for who He is and not just for what man thinks God has done for him.
Man is only truly evangelized when he is taught about his wicked and selfish heart. It is only when he sees that heart and sees that he can never do anything to save himself will he truly cry out to God for mercy and grace. It is only when a person reaches the end of self-effort and all that self-love can do is a person ready for the Gospel of sola fide (justification by faith alone). False evangelism leading to deceived hearts starts with “God loves you.’ Man´s love for God must not come from a selfish love, but from a new heart which has reached the end of self so that the love of God dwells in man. Whatever else we do, our evangelism must be in line with sola fide which teaches that a man must trust in God through Christ alone. There is no room for self-love or selfishness in that “alone.’ For that, man must be humbled to the point of self-despair. All of the thoughts of the unbeliever´s heart are for self. Instead of evangelizing according to that selfish heart which deceives the heart, people must be broken from that selfishness and self-love. That is why the Law is so necessary in evangelism; it breaks the heart by showing it the holiness of God and His standards are. Self-love is seen in light of that.
We can teach many things including a strong form of repentance, become Reformed and zealous for religion, and even be theologians and pastors. But until the heart is broken from self-love, nothing is being done out of love for Christ. We can lead many people in prayers and stir up a lot of religious activity, but until the heart is broken from self-love and pride, not one individual will be converted. The very intent of the thoughts of the heart, if every intent of the heart is evil and that continually (Gen 6:5), must be changed or all religious activity is simply an activity of self-love intended for the purposes of self-love. The intent of the thoughts of the heart must be changed or our morality is simply like the Pharisees. The intent of the thoughts of the heart must be moved by the indwelling Spirit who works true love in His people or all we do will be from self-love. The intent of the thoughts of the heart are either moved from self-love and toward self or they are moved from the love of Christ and toward Christ. This whole issue is that serious. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is at stake.
Now, we need to closely examine a main problem in evangelism. It is the heart of self-love in man. Understanding the heart of man and how it is approached is vital. Luke 6:32-34 is an important text in showing the heart of the unbeliever and how the unbeliever responds to information that God may love him: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.’ Here we see that sinners love themselves and love those who love them. But this is not a true love for others, it is simply an extension of the love they have for themselves. Man is born in sin and loves himself as the center of all things. He is insulted for self and loves only that which is good for self and self-love. So, when man hears a message that God loves him, he responds with a heart of self-love. It is of no surprise that God would love him, he already loves himself. It is not hard to love God who loves him so much; he already loves himself and all those that love him.
So, it is easy to see how many people will respond to the message that God loves them so much that He sent His Son to die for them. How that feeds their self-love and nothing really has to change in their heart. They can still be religious for self and serve God for self. Since God loves them and is focused on them, they can love themselves and focus on themselves and in that be like what they think God is. But the Gospel does not save men in their self-love and leave them there; it must take them from themselves and give them a love for God. Paul teaches that if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ he is to be accursed (I Cor 16:22). Surely Paul is talking about a true love for Christ and not just a love moved and motivated by self-love. This requires that a person be born again and receive a new heart from God. This is the work of the Spirit, not the work of man.
A message in evangelism that leaves men the room to have Christ as Savior and yet for them to still be moved by a love for themselves is a false evangelism. People will gladly hear that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives and respond with a return of affection that they say is toward God. They will pray a prayer, start attending church, and even become teachers or people who “sacrifice’ a lot. But are they delivered from self-love to where they do those things out of love for Christ? If not, they are only doing those things out of idolatry with themselves as their own chief love and idol.
Luke 6:32-34 surely teaches us something about evangelism if man is so centered in his self-love that he only loves those who love him. Let´s look at vv. 32-33 a little closer, section-by-section. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?’ What credit is it to love God or man if the so-called love for them is only because of self? If a person has love for God based only on self-love, is that of any credit or benefit? Clearly, it is not. So, if we evangelize people based on this model, are we really evangelizing them in a way that is based on truth? “For even sinners love those who love them.’ In other words, they do not have to be converted in order to love those who love themselves. A person does not have to change anything to be “converted’ (by this method) if he thinks that God loves him, even if the saving love of God is not in him. How deceptive, then, is the practice of evangelism that starts off with a “God loves you.’ How deceptive is it because the person can look at other Scriptures and think that he can have assurance because he loves God. But in fact he does not love God, he only loves himself. How terribly deceptive! The devil couldn´t devise a more clever plan to have people evangelize for him in a way that deceives people and fills the churches with unbelievers.
33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.’ This is essentially saying the same thing as v. 32, though in a slightly different way. A person who begins to go to church and do good because he falsely thinks that the saving love of God is on him has no credit at all. Even sinners and unbelievers could do that out of the love they have for themselves. The good that is done is not out of a true love for God, but out of a love for self in thinking that God has done good for him. This is tied in with much of the so-called prosperity Gospel and the easy-believism of today. These people think that God has done good for them and so they do what they think is good back. While many can see through the errors of the prosperity teaching and see that it is really selfishness in the sinner that is being moved, do they also see that the same root of self-love is in the “God loves you’ method of evangelism? All of these movements have the same root and that root is the self-love of the sinner.
True evangelism must focus on the need of a changed heart. The heart must be changed from a heart that does all out of self-love and defends itself based on that same self-love. The sinner´s heart hates the truth about God who loves Himself primarily and will punish all who do not love Him with all of their hearts. They reject that teaching out of self-love and want to hear the message that God loves them. But sinners must have a heart that takes the side of God out of love for Him against themselves if they wish to be converted. No one follows Christ in truth out of love for Him if he or she does not deny self even to the point of hating his or her own life (Luke 14:26. Christ does not come to save us and then leave us in our self-love where whatever we love is only loved for self´s sake, but to deliver us from that bondage and give us a heart that loves all things for His sake. Our evangelism must reflect the truth of what Christ came to do. That alone will be true evangelism.
God Loves... Himself 
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