We are continuing to think through the practice of evangelism in light of the depravity of man and his self-love. Evangelism is never really effective (actual conversion) when practiced upon the self-love model. Sinners will always believe that God loves them just as they are since their self-love and pride hides the true nature of their own hearts to them. They might be willing to change some outward behavior in the interest of self-love, but true evangelism tries to show the sinner the nature of the heart and what must be done to awaken the sinner from the slumber of death. Our culture and churches are so infatuated with self that they take it as a given that God savingly loves them as they are and apart from Christ. It is only when the hideous nature of sin as pride and selflove is pointed out as the nature of the sinful heart that people begin to see through their own self-love and see the danger that they are in. True repentance is being turned from self-love to a true love for God.
It has been taught for years and continues to be taught that Christians must feed and do good deeds for people in order that people will see the love of God in action. I am not totally arguing against that, but simply trying to show that there is nothing in that method that shows a person the nature of the heart. It might be true that the Holy Spirit might bring to mind a Scripture from the past when they saw a good work being done. However, in John 6, Jesus gave thousands a free lunch and they did not come to Him as the Messiah, but simply wanted more food. The mercy and compassion of God was in feeding these people and became the backdrop that Jesus used to proclaim that a person must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to be saved. However, it does not appear from the text that anyone was converted with the thousands of free lunches. They actually came to hate Him when He demanded something of them. This shows that they were never converted, but simply loved what Jesus did for them, that is, they loved Him only for what He did for them. That is just an expression of self-love.
Feeding people and doing good works for people are not necessarily wrong actions. After all, Jesus did them. But we must never think that people will be converted by those actions in and of themselves. Feeding people food can be doing nothing more than feeding their selflove unless we do like Jesus did and show them how much they loved themselves. Jesus used the situation to point to the sin of their hearts. “Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled’’ (John 6:26). People will usually be very nice and speak well of us if we feed them, which is evidenced by virtually every preacher in the world. However, sinners love those who love themselves. Feeding people in one sense shows them the kindness of God over the world, but they will never understand the true and saving love of God in turning them from their pride and self-love apart from the teaching of the Bible being applied to their hearts. Scripture must be patiently applied and driven to the depths of the heart.
Well, some might say, the practice of medical missions is surely good. Again, that is not a bad thing and is something that is good. However, no one is converted apart from the Gospel. No one is converted unless that person repents of a selfish and proud heart. No one really knows the love of God until the love of God is put in the person´s heart. All the outward things that we do for people have the possibility of hardening the hearts of sinners into more self-love and pride. People will view all things done for them through the lenses of self-love. They must be turned from that self-love in order to understand the truth of the Gospel, which alone is the power of God for salvation. We see some of this in Luke 17 where we have the story of ten leprous men. They cried out to Jesus for mercy regarding their leprosy. Jesus healed all ten, but only one man returned to thank Jesus and give glory to God. The others apparently had what they wanted and it was not Jesus Himself, they just wanted physical healing. If even Jesus was treated like this when He healed people and gave out free lunches, then we must beware of trusting in anything like that. The food and the medical help that people receive will not change their selfish hearts, so we must teach them these things. We are to strive for the welfare of people´s souls and tell them their true spiritual state. People need the Lord but they don´t know what they really need Him for until they see the desperate state of their selfish and proud hearts. People need to be saved from themselves. If they are not delivered from a prideful heart, then each of them is in the hands of a wicked and prideful person (self). People are not safe from themselves unless Christ delivers them from themselves. How desperately people need deliverance from self since deceived people guide themselves into all sorts of trouble.
Some might complain that the focus on self-love and self-centeredness has gone on too long. My argument is that we tend to forget the enormous ramifications of the depravity of the heart in evangelism. Scripture, on the other hand, teaches us something far different. We can look at how Jesus dealt with people and see that He was always dealing with the sin of the heart. This is not just a minor issue; it is vital. Why speak so much about selflove, self-centeredness, and pride? Well, it is because these are the issues that are at the heart of depravity and repentance leading to salvation and this is how Jesus did it. No matter what else we do in evangelism, even in telling the truth about the glories of the cross, no one will see those in truth unless the depths of pride and selfishness are pointed out. The cross will be viewed through the lenses of self-love and used to promote selflove unless faithful evangelists begin to point those things out to people. People will say prayers and make professions of faith, even with tears, but their stubborn and selfish hearts are still all about themselves. Judas and Esau wept with tears, but they were for selfish hearts and not because they had offended God.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love’ (I John 4:7-8). This text shows very clearly that a person must know and love God in order to be a converted person. This is in line with the Greatest Commandment. There is no love in a person unless that person has the love of God in him. That person and that person alone knows and loves God. If a person does not have true love, then that person is not a true believer. All who have true love know God. But we know that those who love themselves as their chief love do not have that love from God. So we can know that one who lives for self, even if it is a religious living for self, is not one who knows God and has the love of God in him.
Jesus taught us that we can only serve one master. We will be devoted to one and despise the other (Mt 6:24). People either love themselves or they love God as their primary love and master. We cannot love God and money, yet no one really loves money in and of itself. People love money because they love self and money is perceived as having the power to do something for self. So that leaves us with a few facts deduced from the previous two verses. A person who is not aware of his sin of pride and self-love will not turn from those sins. A person must turn from his idols (and in this case it is himself) in order to love God. True evangelism demands that we tell people of the true nature of sin in order for true repentance and true conversion to occur.
If what I have been saying is indeed biblical, then it should be clear that there is a huge amount of teaching and evangelism that goes on that is not Christian. All the teachings that tell people that God loves them as they are and all they need to do is pray a prayer is simply and utterly false. All the teachings to unbelievers that water Scripture and the Gospel down to where the unbeliever thinks that he is the center of the universe are false. The teachings that we give people within the four walls of church buildings that are focused on them in such a way as is conducive to selfishness is false. Christianity is built on the glory of God through Christ. Christ changes people when He lives in them so that they turn from self-love and idols to love God. All the health and prosperity teachings are aimed right at the selfishness of people who are then moved to be religious and serve God because of what they can get out of it. Much of the Arminian way of evangelism is aimed at promising people a good life now and then an escape from hell. All that can be based on self-centeredness and self-love too. The modern Reformed way, for some reason, is virtually the same as the Arminian model of evangelism. We must wake up and see that the doctrine of depravity is vital to evangelism and true conversion.
What we are seeing in America is a nation turned over to hardened hearts full of pride. We have much religion under the guise of Christianity, but it is not the real thing. Church buildings are full of people who are selfish and full of self-love who think that the decisions of the church should be centered on them. Those in the Reformed ranks are accused of being proud and argumentative. Without agreeing with all that is said, let us note that pride is a huge problem within the Reformed community and that is because of unhumbled hearts that have grown proud with knowledge of doctrine. In evangelism, we have forsaken the truth that depravity is of the heart and we can´t change it. When the truth of depravity is cast out in the practice of evangelism, Reformed people practice evangelism just like everyone else does. The effort is to get the sinner to pray a prayer, make a decision, or perhaps to agree with some doctrine. All of that can be done out of an unchanged heart full of self-love and pride. But people argue that people will ridicule and abuse us if we teach that. The fear of that shows our own pride and self-love in having more fear of man than love for God and man. God alone can grant repentance of the heart and we must teach that. Self-love does not want to be cast out and cannot cast self-love out. How hard that is for our pride to accept, but Scripture is clear that God loves broken and contrite hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment