God Loves… Himself

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.

Self-love in evangelism is the current topic. Last week we looked at the type of evangelism that starts with “God loves you’ and the terrible results this method leads to. Total depravity is still true and its affects and effects are enormous on those being evangelized. People who are dead in sins and trespasses are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Okay, but what does that mean? Without going into every issue of depravity and the nature of the fall, we can know that every unconverted person is fixated on themselves in self-love. The unregenerate individual does not have the Holy Spirit who pours out the love for God in the hearts of believers. This means that the person is moved by self as his or her chief love and goal in all things. The Great Commandment to love God is broken every moment. The Ten Commandments which hang on the Great Commandments (Mat 22:35-40) are violated when God is not loved. Conversely, the Ten Commandments are only kept when there is love (Romans 13:8-10). So, sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4), which is simply man not loving God. Man does not love God primarily because he loves himself and is the goal of all he does.

The unregenerate person in his focus on himself in selflove judges all things by whether it appears as good for himself or not. Something is not rational if it is not according to his self-love. Things are clearly immoral if they are not for the good of self. Yet, whatever fits with his goal of doing all for self can be rationalized to appear good to him. When an individual has self-love as the goal and standard by which all things are to be judged, self is really the god. So when Scripture is brought to bear on the sins of the person´s self-love, the battle for who is really God begins (though in a sense it is just heightened). While it is not a widely taught fact, this is one of the reasons behind the ten plagues that God sent on Egypt. “’For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments– I am the LORD’ (Exodus 12:12). Without going into great detail, in Exodus 7 we see a conflict between serpents. Moses, the representative of God, and Pharaoh, who was thought of as a god, squared off. Pharaoh had a symbol of a serpent (think of the serpent in the Garden who deceived Eve) on his headpiece. Moses threw down his staff and it became a serpent, but when the magicians mimicked this in some way the serpent of Moses swallowed up the others. The god of Pharaoh lost to God.

Without going through all of the plagues and the gods those represented, each plague that God brought on Egypt was a frontal attack on the gods of Egypt. The plagues were not just brought on to bring misery; they were brought on to show that God had power over creation and all so-called gods. When Moses called to God and according to his prayer the different plagues came and went, the gods of Egypt were shown to be false gods. The battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent was being carried on right there in Egypt. God won. In much the same way, then, evangelism is a battle between God and gods. Each individual is his own god and Christ must conquer that god for the person to be converted.

Since each person is his own god, the idolatry of that person´s heart must be seen. Each person carries within his own heart his own god. Each person walks according to the wisdom of his own god and obeys the god-self. At times, some people will become religious, but that does not mean that the god in the heart has changed. That person is still doing all for self-god. He goes to church and is religious for self-god. If praying a prayer is thought to be best for self-god, it is done. If following some form of outward conformity to God´s laws appears best for self-god, it is done. If he thinks that studying religion and becoming a pastor is the best thing that he can do for self-god, it is done. If he thinks that following unbiblical ways of “doing church’ is best for self-god, he does it. In other words, the very god within the person (self-god) reigns in the heart of each individual whether given over to outward sin or religion. That must be addressed for a person to be converted to the real God.

Now what I have described in the above paragraphs may appear harsh and over the top. How can it be, one might ask, that people who are so religious are really in the grip of self-idolatry? The Bible describes that quite clearly. Take the case of the Pharisees. Luke 18:11 shows a Pharisee who prayed to himself. Matthew 6:2 shows hypocrites giving to the poor in order to be honored by men. What is this but a man giving to that which is his chief love, that is, himself? In giving to the poor, he did an outwardly good thing, but in his heart, he only wanted to be honored by men. This was an act of love for himself rather than God, so his religious act was instead an act of idolatry as it was from self-love. He was his own god in terms of affection and primary purpose.

We can continue on in Matthew 6 and find in verse 5 a hypocrite who prayed long prayers in order to be honored by men. Who were those prayers offered to? They were offered with love for the main desire, which was self. When prayer is offered and man simply wants honor from others, that prayer is idolatry and is to the god-self and not God. Another way to look at this is to see that god-self tries to use God for selfish ends. This is using the name of God to serve the ends or purposes of god-self. Surely, that is taking the name of God in vain too. But what we see, again, is a person that has never been broken from god-self or self-love using religion as a way to gain honor for himself. Then, in verses 16-18, we see the religious hypocrite or the self-god exerted in a different religious exercise. This time the hypocrite fasts for the sake of gaining honor before men. This guy puts on a gloomy face and neglects his appearance so that others will see and know that he is fasting and honor him for religious sacrifice in fasting. Is this person fasting for God or for self-god? Is this person seeking to glorify God or self-god? Without question, then, a person can be outwardly religious to the extreme and still be in full worship of the self-god.

Now, how are we to evangelize people like this? After all, these are the only kind of people that we will ever evangelize. People will take whatever we say and twist it to fit with their self-love (self-god). If we tell them that God loves them, they will twist that according to their god of self and fit it very neatly in with their selfidolatry. Instead, I would think, we must understand evangelism as a battle between God and self-god. When we bring the commandments of Scripture to them, we are telling them that self-god is in rebellion against the true God. We must proclaim the Great Commandment, which demands that people repent of self-love and love God with all of their being. We must tell people that they must stop their worship of self and bow in obedience to the real God. We must proclaim the glory of God to them so that they will repent of living for the honor of their own name and live for the glory of His name. We must tell them that they must love their neighbor, not just be nice to them out of self-love. In fact, if I do something nice for my neighbor out of selflove, that is an act of idolatry for me in at least two ways. One, I am doing the nice deed out of love for myself instead of love for God. Two, I want my neighbor to honor me instead of honor God. Both of those acts are wicked in the heart. But beware; it is better to be nice to the neighbor out of self-love than it is to be cruel out of self-love.

Evangelism, then, requires good theology and the wisdom of Christ. We must learn to pierce hearts that are in full god-self mode. Hearts that love self view all things through the lenses of self-love. That is a heart that will deceive itself and others. That is a heart that will justify itself and seek refuge for itself as well. As those who truly want to see the reign of God in the hearts of people and not just gather “convert scalps,’ we must learn to love people and pierce through their self-deceptions and self-love to the core of the heart. We must learn how to show them that their self-love is enmity with God. We must learn that when they hate us it is really Christ that they hate and learn to accept the brunt of the anger of their self-gods with meekness. After all, the Golden Rule requires us to do this. We would want others to do this for us wouldn´t we?

As Moses was the representative of God and Pharaoh was the representative of the serpent in the battle of the gods in Egypt, so believers are to be Moses (in a representative sense) and view unbelievers as defending the self-god as Pharaoh did his god (himself) and the gods. We cannot allow an outward conformity be construed as true repentance and true belief. We know that until the god-self has died (death to self-love) and Christ is ruling over that person in the heart, true conversion has not happened. This is why we must show men their sin in order that they may see the godself that rules in them and deceives them, perhaps even with great religious devotion. The intents of the thoughts of the heart are only evil continually because man lives out of self-love and for god-self instead of the true and living God. No matter how religious or Reformed in doctrine a person may become, that person is not converted until that person is doing what he does out of love for God. I know that sounds hard and perhaps even harsh to many, but examine the Scriptures to see if this is correct. If the sign of conversion is love to God and our neighbor, how can we argue that a person who is religious out of self-love is truly converted? Can we argue that they need more teaching on how God loves them? Can we argue that they need more instruction in doing religious things? No, they need to know that god-self must be repented of or they will perish. If that is true, isn´t it time we rethink our methods of evangelism and make sure they are in line with our doctrine? “The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives’ (Phil 1:17). “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus’ (Phil 2:21).

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.

Evangelism is a vital but dangerous issue. God has commanded that His people are to take the Gospel to the world. However, the Gospel is under attack. The devil wants the Gospel to be diluted or misdirected. He works overtime to deceive people regarding the Gospel. He wants people to deny the true nature of sin and the need for repentance from the heart. He wants people to trust some in Christ, but not completely. He wants people to trust in Christ and believe in Him as Savior, but not as Lord. The devil is not bothered by people becoming religious and very moral. As long as self-love and selfcenteredness still reign in people, the devil has them right where he wants them. People deceive themselves with their outward morality, and it is a great deception.

A moral conversion happens in different ways. One, the person has a conscience and knows that he must change. All have some inward knowledge of God and of basic right and wrong because God put it there. So many people who have lived to some degree immoral lives become moral and pacify their conscience. Two, many are raised in church and so have moral instruction. So they are able to say a prayer, make some form of commitment, continue in morality, and think that they are converted. Three, many seem to trust in their outward behavior as evidence that they are converted. Indeed James does teach that faith without works is dead, but does that necessarily mean that because works and morality are present that saving faith is there? Clearly not. There are other kinds of moral conversions, but these three examples can serve in a broad way as a picture of moral conversion.

In Scripture, the Pharisees are very moral people who are enemies of the Gospel. In fact, all moralists are enemies of the true Gospel. The Pharisees trusted in themselves, their morals, and their good works. They refused to confess their sin and thus resisted Jesus and His Gospel. They wondered why Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners instead of with them. But Jesus Christ did not come to call righteous people; He came to call sinners (Luke 5:30-32). Those who are well do not need a physician, the sick do. This is vital in evangelism. When people refuse to confess or admit their sin, we can know that Jesus is not calling them. They have no need for the good news and will in fact resist any message that tells them that they need it. The Gospel is only good news to those who feel the bad news of their hearts, are under conviction of their sin, and know their desperate need of a Savior. The Gospel is wonderful news to the person who has felt the flames of hell lapping at his soul. But those who are moral and think that they are good, the good news is not all that good at all. The Pharisees did not see the Gospel as good news, it just made them angry. Moralists are angered at the true Gospel and resist teachings of sin.

We see in Luke 18:9 that Jesus told a parable to some who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.’ The picture that He gave there is that of a Pharisee who prayed to himself (yes, the text says “to himself’). No one can really pray to God and thank God that he is moral compared to others as he looked down on others. People who truly pray to God are those who are humble in heart and not proud of their own morality. So selfrighteous people are like that when they trust in their own righteousness. They are not humble and do not really trust in the righteousness of Christ alone for salvation. They are lifted up in their own eyes, and even if they give Christ some of the credit, they don´t really trust in Him alone.

The evangelist, then, has to be careful not to breed this type of convert. Just because a person has some sense of sin does not mean that the person is really convicted of sin. “To err is human’ is known by many, but to make a mistake and to err is not the same thing as to be convicted of sin and broken in heart. David said that he knew his sin, but he only knew his sin when he saw that it was “against You and You only have I sinned’ (Psa. 51:1-4). The practice of true evangelism requires that we probe deeply in the hearts of people. A moral conversion is quite easy to accomplish and we don´t need a lot of help from God to obtain it. But if we are to deal with the hearts of people and go to a true conversion, the Spirit of God must work or there will be no conversion.

What is the real issue behind the three types (as set out above) of moral conversions? The problem with all three types is that these people have not been turned from their real nature of selfishness and pride. A person who sins out of selfishness can also be moral from selfish motives as well. A person who has some moral upbringing and prays a prayer at some point can also go on in selfishness and pride and be deceived about the nature of true conversion. Then the person who has perhaps gone through many things but now trusts in his works as evidence for salvation. Trusting in works is never safe since one is always to trust in Christ alone. Many people in the world who hate Christianity do good works. So, a person can see that Christianity is true and simply never turn from his selfish heart while doing good works. He is not able to see that his works are from himself and not from Christ.

One text (I Cor. 13:1-3) clearly teaches us the dangers of the moralist. It matters not how many good works the person does, there is no benefit without love. It matters not how nice, how religious, or even to what degree a person is given to good works, without true love those works are of no benefit. It does not matter how good a preacher or conference speaker a person is, if they do not have love, they have become “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’ It does not matter how much knowledge a person has or even how much faith a person has if he or she does not love. Without love, “I am nothing.’ Even if the moralist gave all of his possessions to feed the poor and gave his body to be burned in the name of Christ, yet without love “it profits me nothing.”

There is nothing that a person can do to save himself. There are no good works that in and of the works themselves that are demonstrative evidence that a person is saved. A person can give all that he has away and even give his body to the flames, but in the end is not converted. Works do not save and they cannot show a person with certainty that he is saved. The point, then, is that moral conversions are extremely dangerous and yet they are utterly worthless. The evangelist has to be ready to go to the issues of the heart and deal with people like this in truth. Until a person has been turned from self-love and selfishness, which means that all a person does is motivated by self, a person is not converted. Only those who truly love are converted.

The evangelist must be aware of how dangerous moral conversions are and strive to avoid the traps of them. Modern evangelism is ill-quipped for this because of the lack of the application of biblical theology to the practice of evangelism. We are told that we must get people to do many things, but we are not told to guide people to the place where they are humbled and broken from pride. If the real issue is that the nature of man is selfish and proud, then truly that nature must be changed to one of love. The only way this happens is if God changes the heart and puts His love in that heart. God is the only source of love in the universe and true love comes from Him alone. All works can be done by the natural man. Only true love cannot be copied in its true nature. Some of the kindest and nicest people in the world are not kind and nice out of a true love. Most of the good works in the world are done without true love. Let us beware.

How many people in our churches have simply undergone a moral conversion? How many people are there that truly love God simply because of who He is and not just because He is thought to have done something for them? How many people truly look after the true good of others and take joy in the good of the other people apart from selfish concerns (even religious honor and concerns)? How many people work for the glory of God and do not worry about which human gets the honor on earth? How many are willing to do good and do it solely for the pleasure of God and not so that they will be honored? Ah, how deeply the sword of the Word cuts.

Until pastors preach and teach the dangers of moral conversions, our churches will have deceived people in them. Even if we preach the Law and the standards of Christ the hearts of people might not see the depths of pride and selfishness. That leaves their chief idol untouched. There is nothing that a selfish and proud person cannot do in outward religion. The zeal of the proud person can burn hotter than the true believe which gives him who trusts in his own works (down deep) a lot false confidence. Until a person repents of selfishness and pride, a person is not converted no matter how moral he may be. This is a person who violates the two Greatest Commandments in the very best things that he does. This is what happens when the heart of the person is not converted. His very morality is used to deceive him. This must be pointed out or the deception remains.

Those who practice evangelism must realize that there are many who are deceived. There are many who will be evangelized with their hearts left untouched and as such utterly deceived by false evangelism and moral lives. They may weep out of a deceived love for Christ at times, but sinners love those they think love themselves. To be true to the Gospel, we must learn to undeceive people by reaching the depths of their pride and selfishness. Unless those things are touched and changed, all is truly lost. A changed life is good, but it is not always a sign of salvation. It can be nothing but deception. Children who are moral and well behaved is to be desired, but it can also cover up selfish and proud hearts. We must beware of these deceptions and learn how to deal with deceived people if we are going to be faithful messengers of the Gospel rather than contributors to deception ourselves.

Last week we talked some about moral conversions, that is, a person who becomes or remains moral but is never really changed in heart. The person’s very morality deceives him into thinking that he has been changed by Christ when in fact it is nothing but self-love that has caused the person to be moral. This week we want to look at intellectual conversion and the danger it poses to true evangelism and life in the church. This is, in one sense, a twin to moral conversion or the other side of the coin of the evil one’s work in the deception of souls.

What is intellectual conversion? It is when a person is intellectually convinced of the truths of Christianity or at least gives a mental assent to them. This can happen when a person is overpowered by the one doing the socalled evangelism or it can happen because the truth is intellectually satisfying. It can also happen because the unconverted heart takes pride in its own position regardless of what it is. So once a person takes on a Christian worldview of some sort, it is possible for a person to defend the truths of Christianity simply out of selfish reasons.

Or we could say that intellectual conversion has many facets to it. It can be the easy-believism way of evangelism, which is simply to get the person to assent to certain propositions and say a prayer in order to be converted. It can also be a long session where the evangelist wears down the other person with arguments and the person just gives in. It can be that people simply see the logic of a position and believe it because it answers the problems in the world better than the rest. It can be because a certain brand of theology is far more intellectually satisfying than others. It is even possible to agree with a position because several people that a person respects hold to a certain belief. But whatever the case, just because a person gives mental assent to a position does not show that the person is born from above and has a new heart.

An intellectual conversion is to believe certain things or doctrines without a change in heart. But they believe these doctrines because they satisfy the intellect and not because these things display the glory of God that all true believers love. The preaching and teaching within the Church must take note of what an intellectual conversion is and must preach and teach in a way that shows that the change of mind alone is not true repentance and is not true conversion. The core of the person is not converted. So until this basic truth is brought to the fore within Christendom, it will be a huge problem in evangelism and therefore in the churches. This shows the great need of the Church to focus on the heart and not just feed people information. But here is a huge problem. It is far easier for a pastor to remain deceived about himself and others if he does not strive to go after the heart. Sermons are much easier to prepare if it consists of information only. Sermons that drive to the depths of the heart and deal with men at the depths of their being require a lot more time and preparation. Sermons like that will also cause people to leave the church, even some of the most stalwart people in the church. It is not easy.

What does the intellectual convert look like? This person can be a very committed person in the church. This person can be a leader in the church and love theology. This person can be a very moral person, even taking part in movements against immoral activities in the community. But this person can cause a lot of trouble in the church. Since his own heart is not changed, he does not know how to deal with the hearts of people. An unconverted person is a person full of pride, though a person who is intellectually converted will usually learn how to hide that to some degree. After all, a person who studies the Bible or the giants of the past will readily see that pride is a problem. So, this person takes on a feigned humility of sorts. However, he is quite proud of his humility. The person who is an intellectual convert can be judgmental out of pride or he can be quite tolerant out of pride. Either way, an intellectual convert can cause a lot of trouble in the church, though he may be the hardest worker there.

An intellectual convert is most likely self-deceived, though there may be nagging doubts. He believes the things that Christians believe and he follows the same outward moral pattern that the Christian does. This person may be one who studies the Bible and prays on a consistent basis because that is what Christians do. His conscience may bother him if he does not keep up the daily ritual of study and prayer. But even the means of grace are used to deceive him. He does not realize that the purpose of Bible study is not for him to do his duty, but is the way to meet and commune with God. Bible study can be a means of self-idolatry to an individual like this. The only thing that will awaken a person like this is to hear the preaching of God’s Word in a way where his heart is pierced (Acts 2:37), though indeed this is exactly what he does not want and will fight vociferously.

While the signs and dangers of intellectual conversion are many, the basics have been set out. To put it concisely, the proud and self-centered heart of man will seize on many things to deceive itself. Intellectual conversion is one way that is obvious. The proud heart of man seizes on the truths of Christianity and holds to it with tenacity, though the heart has never been changed. It is ironic that the very thing that must be changed if man is to be converted is the very thing that deceives man as to true conversion. It is that proud heart that obtains knowledge and deceives the person into thinking that he is converted. It is that proud heart that is satisfied with outward knowledge of the Bible and perhaps a lot of Bible study. Knowledge does indeed puff up, even spiritual knowledge (I Cor. 8:1). It is possible for the deceived person who is intellectually converted to have deep feelings for self or for others, but these are still out of pride and self-interest. It is possible for the intellectually converted person to speak of the heart since he has a wrong idea of the heart too. But, as we have seen in previous weeks, the real problem with man is that he is self-centered and proud. Self-centered and prideful people will use religion to their own perceived selfish benefit as well (Mat. 6:1-7, 16-24). Some of the churches in Revelation were that way and so were the Pharisees. That spirit is still very much alive today.

The answer to this problem is simple, though carrying it out is hard. Leaders in churches must begin to examine their own hearts and practices. Interestingly enough, it is possibly easier to be deceived in this way in Reformed circles than in other traditions. The Reformed people stress the minds and intellects in theology along with a strict adherence to a creed. While these things may be good, they do lend themselves to believing people are converted just because they adhere to certain beliefs. This shows that even the most orthodox of leaders must begin to examine themselves and their own hearts. They must begin to rethink how to do evangelism and deal with people in the churches. Have people in our churches been properly evangelized? Do they think that all they need to do is state a belief in a creed or certain beliefs in order to be saved? Do they know (beyond an intellectual awareness) that they must have a new heart in order to be converted? Jesus taught that a person must be born from above to enter the kingdom. Do we stress that or do we stress agreeing to certain beliefs? Do they know that all their righteous deeds are as filthy rags (Isa. 64:7)? Do they know the difference between religious activities done in the power of self and those done in the power of grace? Do they know that all religious activities done apart from a true love for God and the neighbor (I Cor. 13:1-3) is of no benefit?

We must return to a true and experiential adherence to the doctrine of total depravity. This is the biblical teaching that man is dead in sin and cannot give himself a new heart. This is the teaching that man is born in a state of self-love and that all he does is for himself out of pride and self-centeredness. Combined with the teaching of the new birth, we can see how a person must repent of selfcenteredness, self-love and pride to a centeredness upon God and love for Him. Man can grasp many things by the intellect and love them for how they relate to self and pride, but that is not a true conversion. Intellectual conversion is simply one way of man deceiving himself and of pastors being deceived as well. We must teach this doctrine until man gives up all hope in himself and lays down at the foot of the cross asking only for grace. We must never settle for such things as intellectual or moral conversion or we will be part of deceiving the people we are to be spiritual guides for.

We must begin to deal with people as spiritual beings instead of just mental beings. We must be searchers of souls and not just informers of minds. We must learn what it means to get to the depths of the heart even when people call us names. Beware; to get to the depths of people’s hearts and self-deception is to tap into the power of self-love, which flows out in anger. Jesus was treated harshly and with anger when he exposed the heart sins of the Pharisees. We should not expect to be treated any differently. When the heart of man is exposed by the Word of God, especially people who consider themselves good and moral, the reaction is one of anger toward the one speaking the Word. The reaction is especially ferocious when a person who is deceived as to salvation begins to have that confidence cracked by a person who is dealing plainly with his soul. But a true concern for souls will not allow us to take an easier route. Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, did not take the easy route and those who are faithful to Him will not take it either. Evangelism is not easy when it strives to deal with the hearts of men as Jesus did. However, if we are to carry out the Great Commission, we must deal faithfully with the hearts of men. Jesus requires no less.

Two weeks ago we looked at the dangers of a moral conversion and last week we looked at the dangers of an intellectual conversion. This week I would like to continue to think through the dangers of intellectual conversion and its impact on the methods of evangelism. Clearly, I think, if we want to avoid the terrible danger of intellectual conversion in our evangelism, we must have certain things in mind when we evangelize. If we are interested in undeceiving people who are deceived, and possibly ourselves, we need to see how vital this really is along with some of the ways that this can function. The way evangelism is practiced determines in some way how many people view salvation and Christianity for the rest of their lives.We must ask ourselves if our evangelism is primarily the imparting of information that can readily be understood by the natural man. If so, what is there that would prevent our evangelism from being conducive to intellectual conversions? Paul spoke of the mystery of the Gospel (Eph 6:19) and the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:3-4). He prayed “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” and that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17-18). He said that “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God ( I Cor. 2:12). Clearly the Spirit is necessary in order to understand the things of God who is spirit. It is only if believers know the things of God given by the Spirit that they can speak with spiritual understanding. “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (I Cor 2:13-14).

Now if in our practice of evangelism all that we say is understood by the natural man, then what we are saying can be accepted by the natural man and turned into an intellectual conversion. To put this in a different way, we can say that the Gospel does have many things that the natural man cannot understand. So if we only preach and evangelize in such a way that the natural man can understand it, then the natural man might respond to it with his unregenerate nature. The natural man will respond to the Gospel if he is convinced that God loves him enough to die for him and give him eternal life. A man does not need a new nature for that; he can love those who love him from his prideful and selfish heart. The mystery of the Gospel is to be preached in such a way that the natural man does not and cannot understand it in a comprehensive way. This is why Paul said that the word of the cross was foolishness to those who were perishing (I Cor 1:18). We are to make the basics understandable, but that is not the whole of the Gospel. When we water down the glory of the cross and the Gospel to a set of intellectual propositions that the natural man can understand, we are not preaching the cross and the Gospel in its glory. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (I Cor 1:21). The wisdom of God must be preached if the Gospel is to be declared. The wisdom of God appears as foolishness to the natural man since it is so far above His natural mind that he cannot reach it. It is much like a person who does not understand something and laughs at the things that are above him rather than admit that he cannot understand it.

In our day we see people trying to simplify the Gospel so that everyone can understand it. In one sense it is commendable to make the effort to make things clear, but in another sense to simplify the Gospel so that the natural man can understand it is to essentially preach something other than the Gospel. When we have lowered the Gospel enough so that the natural man can understand it, we have essentially just given a false gospel and provided the opportunity for people to be deceived. I know that it hard, but I am not sure that the Bible allows us any other way of understanding the situation. Our churches are filled with intellectual converts because we have watered the Gospel down to where even the natural man can understand and respond to it in his own strength. Somewhere I have read John MacArthur’s words that we are not presenting the Gospel well enough for the non-elect to refuse it. Those are powerful words to meditate on.

Within the SBC there is a huge push for baptisms. The natural man can understand something of baptism and can be motivated to be baptized. But isn’t that a way of leading people to a state of deception? True evangelism is not focused on baptisms; it is focused on declaring the glory of God in the Gospel. Well, Reformed people say, that is atrocious (it is) and we need to teach people the truth (we do). But when we teach people the truth in a way that only the mind is changed, what are we doing that is accomplishing something that is substantially different? Intellectual conversions appear to be widespread in both Arminian and Reformed camps, though they are accomplished a bit differently. Even if the Gospel or doctrines of the faith are taught at a high intellectual level, they are still able to be understood and obeyed by some natural men. So some people have an intellectual conversion at a higher intellectual level than others. The difference between Reformed evangelism and others in terms of these results is negligible. A higher form of intellectual conversion is still an intellectual conversion.

Let us look at three examples where correct doctrine can be taught in a way that leads to intellectual conversions. The first example is the new birth. We can imagine a pastor who is preaching on the new birth and tells the people the utter necessity of being born again. The people listening hear his words and they believe what he says. In other words, they intellectually believe in the new birth. The next step in this is that they become intellectually convinced that a belief leads to a changed life. So the people know that they believe in the new birth and that they have become more moral. When these people are interviewed for membership they state that they believe that a person must be born again and this is evidenced by a changed life. These people are simply intellectually convinced of certain truths and have become more moral. What a great deception. The second example is justification by faith alone. We can imagine that this truth is set out with a great deal of precision in terms of forensic justification and imputed righteousness set out with clarity. The teachings of grace versus law are also set out clearly. So when people come to intellectually believe these things as being what the Bible teaches, are they really converted? Surely we must posit something other than an intellectual belief of a doctrine as needed for salvation. Nothing more is needed to believe this doctrine as true than the faculties that a natural man has. So are we sure that a person is converted who intellectually adheres to this truth?

Example three is that of faith in Christ. All across America people have been accosted in various forms and told that they must believe in Christ. Okay, but what does that mean? In Reformed circles we are told that people must pray a prayer and believe in Christ too. So many people are told Sunday after Sunday and at door after door that if they will believe in Christ they will be saved. In one sense that is correct. But have these poor people been told that to believe in the biblical sense is something different than to believe that it is raining outside? Have they been told that this is beyond their natural powers to believe in the biblical sense? Have they been told that they must repent and believe? Are they told that they are supposed to repent from outward acts of sin that any natural man can do if he really wants to?

In these examples we have seen the great danger of teaching the Gospel in a way where these doctrines are simply believed to be taught in the Bible and the person counted as a believer. Is there a huge difference between believing that something is true and being saved? Can one believe that these doctrines are true and not be saved? Jesus and Paul never taught that a person must only intellectually believe these doctrines are true in order to be saved. It is true that a person must be born again to be saved, but it is not true that the intellectual belief is the same as being born again. While it is true that a person must believe in justification by faith alone to be saved, it is not true that just because a person believes the doctrine is true that the person is justified.

To boil things down in an effort to end quickly, a person must be born from above to see and enter the kingdom and not just believe that one must be. A person must really be justified by a declaration of God based on Christ alone and that received by faith alone in order to be saved and not just believe that it is a doctrinal truth. To practice evangelism in a manner that is consistent with the Gospel, we must evangelize in a way that the natural man cannot accept. The heart is deceitful above all else so some will slip through. But to be faithful to the Gospel we must not present it in a way where the natural man can simply accept it as true teaching and become more moral on his way to hell. This is, as John Montgomery wrote years ago, to be “Damned Through the Church.” May God deliver us all from the practice of an evangelism that is conducive to that. Do you practice evangelism that is addressed to the mind alone and acceptable to the natural man? Remember, even the devil believes that there is one God and that the Gospel is true. An intellectual understanding is not enough.