God Loves… Himself

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

The depravity of the heart is seen in that sinners loved Christ as long as He did what they wanted, but they hated Him and tried to kill Him when He manifested the glory of God and told them about their real nature. Sinners hate to be thought of and called sinners. In the modern day when it is thought that we are to build people up and only say positive things about them, telling people about the nature of sin is thought to be wrong and highly offensive. What it really does is to go after the self-righteousness of people and lift the lid off of the truth of God that they have worked so hard at suppressing. Men battle and battle to keep their naturalistic and humanistic way of looking at things and so they can dismiss and provide a reasonable justification for all that they do. When someone else comes along and cuts to their hearts, their selfish hearts respond with anger and jarred pride.

The glorious doctrine of justification by free-grace alone when set out and declared in truth will also set the selfish heart ablaze with enmity toward God. When preachers do as they almost always do and keep the edge out of justification then sinners will gladly embrace it. Modern preachers want to leave it in the power of sinners to say a prayer or make a choice in what they call justification by faith alone, but they leave out the issue of man’s depravity and the sovereign grace of God. When they do that they make faith out to be a work of man (though no always stated) and so men are left easy in their selfish hearts. When free-grace is proclaimed to be a real and true free-grace, the selfish hearts of the natural man rejects it with venom. Behind the truth of free-grace is that man is worthy of nothing but the wrath of God and can do nothing to move God to save him.

When the wrath of God is presented to man, and this is a necessary truth to set out free-grace, the selfish heart of man will see that God is opposed to him and intends great harm to him. The selfish heart which loves those who love it will respond with anger and denial. What we must understand, however, is that for the sinner to come to the point to understand justification by grace alone the sinner has to begin to understand something of the wrath of God. Free-grace teaches us that the wrath of God has to be satisfied by Christ and that only by Christ or grace is no longer free. This free-grace teaches us that for grace to be truly glorious, there is nothing good in man that would or could move God to save man. This free-grace teaches us that there is nothing that man can do to move God in the slightest to save him or this grace is not truly free.

As long as men think of grace as being more of a help that they cannot fully deserve, they will not understand the glory of God nor of the glory of the grace of God in Christ. As long as men think of grace as simply making up the little or even the lot that they cannot do themselves, they will not understand the true nature of the Gospel. The selfish heart of man will always love a god that will help him out as he wants, but the selfish heart will not love the true God when it is seen that it is God’s option to save or not save as He pleases. The selfish heart does not want to see itself as truly sinful and as truly helpless in inability. The selfish heart does not want to see itself as in utter and desperate need of free-grace in order to escape the fire of hell. The selfish heart, therefore, is full of self and that is precisely what the soul needs to be delivered from in order to be saved.

Until men understand the real nature of sin and that as selfishness (self-centeredness, pride, self-love), they will not truly understand the nature of grace alone and therefore the nature of the Gospel of free-grace alone. Jesus was truly kind, compassionate, and was true love incarnate at all times, so His provocative statements and opening the hearts of men to their sin was true love. Preachers and teachers show true love when they are willing to endure the anger of men to show them the truth of themselves and of free-grace. Without this showing men the truly selfish nature of their hearts, they will not understand the nature of free-grace.

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

When Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3 he had observed at least some of the miracles that Jesus had performed and was convinced that Jesus was from God. Jesus spoke to him clearly and firmly and told him that he must be born from above to see or enter the kingdom of God. This was a profound shock to the religious leader. Perhaps it was a shock to him for many other reasons, but he identified the kingdom of God with his nation and his religion. What he had not realized is that he had been steeped in tradition which missed some major teachings of the Scriptures. We can think of Paul and how he described himself and assume that Nicodemus was a lot like Paul. Most likely he thought of himself as the elect of God because he was born a Jew. He thought of himself as righteous because of all of his religious learning and activities. He was quite mistaken as are vast multitudes in the modern day. True Christianity (true religion) does not start with what to believe (as such) and what to do (be moral and good works), but instead it starts with the new birth.

The reason that Christianity starts with the new birth is because all human beings are born dead in trespasses and sins. This is utterly vital. We don’t start with sinners who only need to be convinced that they have sinned a little and so need to be saved, but instead we start with dead sinners who need to be made alive. We don’t start with sinners who can repent in their own strength and do some good things to make up for the past, but instead we start with dead sinners who cannot do one good work at all. Even the outwardly good things that sinners do come from a bad heart and as such they are sinful as well and instead of making up for past wrongs, they are wrong too. We cannot just inform them to read their Bibles and say prayers because they need new hearts. For the sake of clarity, unregenerate sinners should read their Bibles and they should seek the Lord. The point is that these actions cannot save them and that there is nothing meritorious about them, but instead this is what sinners should do in putting themselves in the path that God usually saves.

Selfish sinners will read the Bible and say prayers out of selfish heart and they will also interpret the Bible and say prayers in light of their selfish hearts. Should they go hear sound preaching, read their Bibles, and seek the Lord? Yes, they should. God saves sinners by giving them ears to hear and eyes to see (faith) as they are under the preaching of the Word. What we must say, however, is that it is the Spirit who regenerates sinners as He pleases. This means that selfish hearts that sit under preaching and read the Bible should look to God in His free-grace to give them understanding and a new heart. God is under no obligation to sinners to give them understanding of the Bible and He is under no obligation to give new hearts. There is also no way sinners can bring God into obligation to show mercy and grace to them, though their selfish hearts want to believe that. The new birth is by free-grace alone and that means free-grace that is moved by God and His glory and nothing else.

This should teach us a lot about evangelism and preaching. While the vast majority of modern people preach a God of easy love and an easy going, compassionate Jesus (their version of compassion), that does nothing to show men their real need of the new birth which only comes by sovereign grace. In our efforts to please men we falsely approach them in evangelism and preaching by wanting to please them and talk them into something. However, when we tell them truth of God and about themselves the enmity they have to God will come out. Men need to hear about the new birth which comes by free-grace alone and of their vile and selfish hearts that they need to be delivered from. Instead of encouraging that selfish heart with false teachings about God and them, they need to hear the truth even if they will get angry with the messenger. If they never get upset, most likely that means that they have not had their eyes opened to their exceeding wickedness of heart and their utter helplessness in sin. The natural man hates these truths when they are applied to their hearts. When man does not see these things, it may be that s/he is a religious person who needs a new heart.

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

In looking at selfishness as sin, there are several things to consider regarding the human heart and the nature of selfishness. The universe and all things in it were created from the vantage point of God, that is, God created them for Himself and to manifest His glory. The purpose for all things is the glory of God. Human beings were created in the image of God and were to manifest His glory in who they were and in what they did. In the fall human beings fell from their God-centeredness which was in the created order to a man-centeredness. The difference is huge. From the viewpoint of God all things are His, how all things relate to Him, and how all things are to manifest His glory, but in the fall man wanted to be as God (the lie and deception of the devil in Genesis 3) and so man now views all things from his viewpoint and how things relate to Him. As Romans 3:23 puts it, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23, NASB).

In understanding this verse (Rom 3:23) we can see that there is a past tense (all have sinned) and then a continuing sense in the next verb (fall short). The literal idea is that men miss the mark in all they do, which is to say that the moral goal that God has assigned to men is to glorify Him in all they do. However, in living a life of selfishness (self-love, self-focus) men miss the mark and so fall short of glorifying God in all they do. To quote an older thought, however, “we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners.” The first part of the verse speaks of “for all have sinned.” What does that mean? It means that in the past there was a time when Adam fell and in him the whole of humanity fell in him. Paul explains this and some ramifications of it later on in chapters 5-7 of Romans. Since Adam all are born in a sinful state with a sinful nature and are dead in sins and trespasses. All the “fruit” that comes from a sinful nature is a life that always misses the mark of doing all to the glory of God. The sins are the effect of the sinful nature.

When the proud and selfish heart of man hears this profound truth, he does not want to believe it and so hates it. The heart of man that is at enmity with the true God will now be exposed as the wrath of man is brought out. As long as men think that God is nice to them and will help them along in their sins they will love that god of their imaginations since they love those who love them. But when they hear that they have a sinful nature and are in bondage to that sinful nature the proud and selfish hearts of man hate that and they no longer love that idea of God. While God views all things with Himself as the basis of all things and the goal of all things, man has fallen and now sees himself as the goal or end of all things. The two are at enmity with each other as God is holy in doing all things for Himself and man is vile and wicked when man does so. Man hates the idea of God being God-centered rather than man centered, and clearly man loves a god who is centered upon man. But this is opposite of reality and while man is in an unregenerate state he will always be at enmity with the true God.

They say that there is honor among thieves on the one hand, yet a thief hates it more than all others when someone steals his possessions. This is explained by the fact that men in their selfishness love those who love them and yet respond in great anger when they think that others do not love them. The only thing that can make people love One who brings hard things and suffering on them is when their heart is changed and they love God and His glory more than their own worldly comforts. Man’s heart must be changed from being selfish to loving God, which is to say that man must love the true God which in his unregenerate state he is at enmity with. Nothing can make men love God apart from God giving them a new heart by free-grace alone and His Spirit to work His fruit of love in them.

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

A selfish love is simply to love ourselves as the center of all that we do and think. It is to make ourselves the goal of what we do, the motive of what we do, and something for self is our intent in what we do. This sinful nature which consists in selfishness, once again, must be changed in order for sinners to love God. Selfish sinners can become the most orthodox theologians, the most civil citizens, and the hardest workers in the church and that includes evangelism. But without the realization that the heart must be change from the control and bondage of self to the control of the love of Christ then evangelism and Christian living becomes nothing more and nothing less than making the right choices in our own strength.

When selfish sinners hear the truth about sovereign grace they hate it. While it would be rare for someone to admit it, the truth of the matter is that sinners want grace in their own hands to dispense it as they please. At the very heart of the matter that is what free-will teaches. We are either in the hands of sovereign grace to change our hearts or we are in the hands of our free-will to make a choice so that God will give us grace. Again, that is not what those who hold to free-will will claim, but that is a necessary truth of what they do claim. If the will is truly free, then it is free of depravity and it is free of grace. Therefore, the sinner is free from a selfish heart and is free from grace in order to make a choice where God is bound to give him or her grace. But of course no one is free from depravity and that is precisely why it is grace alone that must save sinners if they are to be saved.

The heart that is in bondage to self is a heart that longs to have the honor of others and God. The heart that is in bondage to self is a heart that desires to be free so it can determine all things for self. The heart that is in bondage to self is a heart that does not want to rest completely and trust in another. Selfish sinners (all of them) do not want to be saved to the glory of God, they want some of the honor in making a choice or several choices. Selfish sinners do not want to hear that their selfish hearts are so bound in sin that God must change their hearts by sovereign grace and that there is nothing that they can do to move Him to do so. Selfish sinners want control of who they are and of their destinies and they hate being out of control or the One in control.

Selfish sinners despise the doctrines of election and free-grace. Whether all admit it or not, they want to elect themselves and they want to be free of when to obtain grace and only if they want grace. The selfish heart hates the God who has to save it by free-grace and hates the idea that all the universe is centered upon God and His glory rather than the self of each human. Oh how sinners love to hear of Christ who saves them as they are, but when they see that God threatens them with hell if they are not converted they gnash their teeth in hatred of that. It should also be noted that accepting the doctrine of election in the head and/or by a creed is not the same thing as the sinner reaching a point (by the convicting work of the Spirit) where s/he knows in the depths of the soul that s/he is at enmity with God and it is up to God to save him or her as He pleases. The sinner cannot stand that thought and is at enmity with the God who is that way.

While many in our day think of differing theologies as having equal standing within Christianity, the older view is that selfish sinners are at war with the sovereign God and their enmity toward that is really sinners being at enmity with the true God and the true Gospel. Oh how God must break selfish hearts that they will lie down and with submissive hearts cry out that salvation is of the Lord!

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

Not only is it a problem to evangelize people with a winsome approach which makes them want to like you and do something to please you (such as pray a prayer like you want), but the concept of presenting to them all the good things in order to get them a choice is also a huge problem. But once again, the problems do not end there. If the sinful nature of man is indeed rooted in a selfish heart that loves self and is controlled by self, then even if we discuss sin with people and leave it with the external actions we will still be dealing with sin as a choice and men are left in sin without knowing of a sinful nature. Repentance from self-love by a simple choice of self-love is not true repentance from self and sin. One can turn and stop from outward sin which is motivated by self-love and do so by a higher motive of self-love. This is to say that one can stop forms of outward sin and never truly repent of sin, but instead they have turned from one form of sin to another by the inward nature of the sin of self-love.

It is also quite easy to move some people to a choice or to say a prayer by telling them that God loves them or that Christ loved them and died for them. This is easily seen by the text (Luke 6) above. If you tell certain sinners under the wrath of God that God loves them, those sinners will be moved to pray a prayer or do certain things because self-love is responding to being loved by another. “For even sinners love those who love them.” Oh how a sinner may be moved by the message of the cross of Christ when the sinner is told that Christ loved him or her and did this for him or her. But that does nothing to address the real nature of the nature of the sinner in self-love, which shows us that even orthodox teachings (Christ on the cross) when applied wrongly (Christ died for you) can move sinners in the bondage of self-love to make a false choice. Their hearts have not been changed and a heart that is in bondage to self-love does not love God for who He is but instead only loves God for the sake of self-love. True love for God comes from God, but a self-love comes from the sinful nature.

John 6:43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me…65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

In the passage just above we see what happens when the truth is taught to sinners who love themselves. As long as Jesus fed them (early in John 6) and gave them free food, they loved Him. But when He began to teach hard things and to teach that no one could come to Him unless the Father drew them, this made them angry and they left Him. When the power of salvation is taken out of the hands of sinners which is a teaching that is disagreeable to self-love and the sufficiency of self, sinners will hate that teaching and flee from Christ.

As long as self-love is untouched in the hearts of sinners, they may do many things in the things of religion and say prayers and make professions out of that self-love. But when the truth is preached and God is set forth as glorious and sovereign over men, they hate what is taught and self-love will not tolerate such teaching. While it is true that external religion that leaves self-love untouched is capable of having many converts (false in the eyes of God) and of getting large amounts of money and huge edifices using the name of God, as long as self-love remains untouched sinners are still in the bondage of their sin.

We live in a day where self-love is used to get people to become religious rather than as something that needs the sovereign hand of God to repent of. We live in a day when instead of men needing sovereign grace to dispense grace to them, they are taught (by implication) that they can dispense grace to themselves. Self-love is on the throne of professing Christianity today as huge amounts of money fills the coffers, but the hearts of men are still filled with self-love instead of grace.

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

In light of the above text and enlightening quote, self-love and self-interest are the moving interests in the unregenerate sinner. As long as someone is nice to another person, it will move the person to be nice back. As long as one is thought to do good to another, that other will be good back. As long as one thinks that s/he is loved in some way by another, one will love them back. This is simply to say, once again, that the unregenerate person is regulated and controlled by self-interest and self-love. This is polar opposite to the Great Commandment which is to love God with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Instead of that, man loves himself with all of his being. Man loves others based on what he perceives will happen to him rather than being based on love for God.

When we view evangelism in this light, it changes everything. The Arminian tells us that we are to be winsome and nice to people and that makes it easier to talk them into a choice for Christ. The Arminian tells us that we present all the positives of salvation to people (which does not make the positives true in the context or perhaps any context) and that makes it easier for them to make a choice. It should also be noted that many professing Reformed people have the same practice. The point, however, is that being winsome to people and presenting the positives to people may indeed move a person to make a choice, but it will never show the person his or her sin and show the person that s/he needs to seek God for a new heart.

It is easy enough for a person to turn from external sin if we can present strong enough motives to self, but one cannot present enough motives to self to move the soul from loving self. As long as the self is the motive we are presenting enticements to, sinners will never see that self is their real problem. It is something like presenting adultery to a sinner as an enticement to stop adultery. It is something like giving a person a large piece of chocolate cake as an enticement to stop eating vanilla cake. Modern evangelism is based on giving enticements to self that are supposedly greater than other enticements to self and then asking the person to make a choice for Christ. Indeed the person may make a choice and decide that having Jesus is far better for self than all other things, but that is simply self-evident that the person has not received a new heart that loves God for who He is.

Sinners love those who love them, though indeed that is not divine love in the soul. As long as we are enticing enough with how winsome we are, we can convince certain people who have certain personalities to make a choice to follow Christ. But we can never change a person’s heart by our being nice and winsome. Instead of true evangelism, we will simply be manipulating people to make a choice from their self-love and ruling self-interest. How is that biblical evangelism? How is that teaching people the truth of their sinfulness and of then that of Christ saving sinners by grace alone? When we are able to convince people to pray a prayer or make a choice based on self-love, we can know for sure that we are speaking a gospel of self-love rather than one of truth.

If are can practice a religious salesmanship well enough, we can present heaven and hell and the wonders of having a God who will serve our self-interests in a certain light and get people to pray a prayer that is based only on their love for themselves. But again, this is opposite of the true Gospel of grace alone. God saves sinners based on His free-grace and not the sinner being convinced out of a heart of self-love what is good for him or her. Part of the salvation that God gives to sinners is to change their hearts from bondage to self-love to the freedom of loving God. When our evangelism is based on the self-love of the sinner, we are evangelizing in a way that leaves the sinner in the bondage of self-love. The devil couldn’t do any better. When our evangelism is as the devil loves because it is based on the sinner’s very sin itself and does not show them the nature of sin or of the true Gospel of grace alone, it does nothing but deceive others and perhaps ourselves. Those who practice such evangelism seem to be blind to the nature of sin and of what grace alone really means. We live in a spiritually desolate time.

Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.32 “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. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

When Christ first appeared in His public character, He displayed so much kindness, compassion and benevolence in healing the sick, relieving the distressed, and preaching the gospel to the poor, that He was almost universally beloved as well as admired…To anyone less acquainted with the human heart than Christ was, they would have appeared to be His real friends. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

As we look at this powerful text which explains so much to us about sin, we must proceed with questions and with care. We note first that there is no credit for loving those who love us. This is the same thing as saying (in context) if you love those who love you and even a sinful nature can do that, then that is nothing more than self-love. Look at the example of Christ as He went around with much kindness, compassion, and benevolence. Look at how Christ was loved when He healed people and relieved those who were distressed. Look at how the crowds followed Him when He did those things to them and that without charge. As long as Jesus was going things for people that were thought to be helpful to them they “loved” Him. The very people who would later hate Him and call for Him to be crucified loved Him as long as He did nothing but provide them with things they wanted.

A heart that is governed and controlled by self and self-love will indeed love what is done for it in accordance with self and self-love. When Jesus was healing the sick and relieving the poor, He was doing what selfish hearts want and desire. He knew what was in man and He knew that later on when He began to get into teaching the deeper things of God that those same people would hate Him, but we must know that His heart did not change as He told the people deeper truths later on. It was when Jesus began to tell people who God really was and what God would do to unrepentant sinners that the enmity in the hearts of people by nature began to show itself. It was when Jesus told these self-righteous men that they were vile and wicked sinners that the enmity that resided in their hearts against the true God burst out.

The commandment of God is to love our neighbor as ourselves (v. 31), but the command is far more than just be nice to those who are nice to us. The commandment of God is for us to love those who hate us as well. The commandment of God is for us to love those who are unkind and mistreat us as well. It is a command, then, to love God first and out of loving God we are to love our neighbors. We are to help those who hate us as well as those who are kind to us. We are to be kind and compassionate to those who are our enemies as well as those who are kind toward us. As we look at the comparison between those who love others only because others love them and those who love others based on who God is, a glaring difference is seen. One person is selfish (centered on self), full of self-love, and does all out of reference to self. The other is a person that is God-centered and does all out of love for God and out of reference to God. The difference is being the son of the devil versus the son of God.

What is set before us is the essence of holiness and the essence of sin. The essence of sin is not in the outward actions alone, but in the motives and intents of the heart. The sinful heart is always controlled by self and the love of self, so the sinful heart will do many outward things that appear good but will only do them as it appears good to self to do them. The sinful heart will only do what will bring what appears good in its eyes to self. The sinful heart is an unregenerate heart and as such is a natural heart or a heart that is not spiritual. This means that men can remain in an unregenerate and natural state and be extremely religious people. All the works of the natural man (unregenerate man) are not spiritual and as such are not done out of love to the true God. All that a natural man does will be from natural principles and all of his religion will be out of love for self. This natural man may indeed desire not to go to hell, but it will be from natural principles and self-love. The natural man may desire to go to heaven, but it will only be from natural principles and self-love. The natural man can be so very religious (as the Pharisee was) and yet do all out of self-love. The natural man can be quite scholarly and quite orthodox, but it is all out of self-love. The outward sinner who is so vile and wretched operates on precisely the same principles as the religious person who is but a natural man. Both are full of self and do all they do out of self-love. Instead of doing all out of love for God, both do all they do out of self-love. All that the religious person does who does all out of self-love is idolatry, which is to say that the person loves and serves self rather than God.

They love or hate God, just as He appears friendly or unfriendly to them. When He smiles upon them in His providence, and grants them the desires of their hearts, they are well pleased with Him. They rejoice that God is, that He governs the world, and that He fills the earth with His goodness. They have no consciousness of the least enmity against Him, but are disposed to speak well of Him, and give thanks at the remembrance of His mercies. This was the disposition of the Israelites at the side of the Red Sea . They could joyfully join in celebrating the praises of God, for their great and signal deliverance. They sang His praise with gladness of heart. And all other sinners would have done the same under the same circumstances. Their selfish hearts are always pleased with the favors God bestows upon them, and they love Him so long as they think He loves them. And they are no less pleased with spiritual, than temporal favors. When they imagine God is disposed to forgive their sins and admit them to heaven, they will sensibly rejoice in the hope of eternal life. In a word, they will always love God while they believe He loves them, and intends to do them good. But on the other hand, whenever He appears opposed to them, their hearts are opposed to Him. Their selfish hearts dispose them to hate God Himself, when He appears to stand in the way of their happiness. This was exemplified in the Israelites, who sang His praises, but soon forgot His works. As soon as they perceived that He was a holy, sin-hating and sin-revenging God, disposed to destroy them for their unholy, selfish affections, they turned against Him, murmured, complained, and expressed their bitter opposition to Him, by saying, He has brought us into the wilderness to destroy us. The selfish hearts of sinners always will dispose them to love or hate God, just as they view Him friendly or unfriendly to them. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

This thread of posts started off with the same quote (as seen just above) and then took off on a statement by Ronnie Floyd on evangelism. In the very last post (Selfishness as Sin 12) I returned to the quote by Emmons and tried to show how dangerous it is to have a selfish heart and be religious. The selfish heart can seek self in open sin, it can seek self in being very religious, and it can seek self in the most orthodox Christian ways. The selfish heart can do nothing but sin and seek self. It should be obvious that the selfish heart can never be a true Christian heart and as such for a sinner to become a Christian that heart must be changed. Nicodemus was a very religious man and Jesus told him that he must be born again. The Pharisees were very religious men and Jesus reserved His hardest words and condemnation for them. We may think that the main problem with the Pharisees was that they were hypocrites, but deeper than that they had selfish hearts.

Men will do anything but willingly give up self and self-love. They will fight to the death (literally and figuratively) in order to keep their self-love. At times men will die for their self-love and yet how many seemingly would rather die and go to hell than die to self. These things should show us how utterly dangerous the methods of evangelism that Ronnie Floyd was encouraging people to practice are. The evangelism he seems to espouse does not demand a denial of self and a death to self, but simply a change in behavior of self. It is true that most likely he would say that a person must be born again, but his evangelism does not demand it. A man or a woman that is presented with false evangelism may become religious and thus be greatly deceived by it, one could even say it is a far greater deception than that of open sin. What we must understand is that evangelism is not a righteous act which we do and it does not matter how we do it, but instead true evangelism is an intensely theological “work” and we are involved in idolatry when we evangelize if we ignore true theology. In fact, it is true that we are evangelizing for the devil if we do not evangelize in accordance with true theology.

Evangelism demands that we have true theology and that we evangelize with true theology. The evangelism that Ronnie Floyd was espousing is not based on true theology but instead is a practical approach, which is really under girded by false theology. The heart of sinners must be changed by the work of a sovereign God and cannot be changed by all the sinners in the world. The heart of sinners will always be selfish and full of self-love until that heart is changed by God and Christ lives in that heart. The heart of sinners will always be full of self-love until the mighty hand of God breaks that hard heart that is so full of self. An evangelism that does not take that into account is a false evangelism and the sinner will not even know that his greatest burden is his self-love. Therefore, instead of being delivered from self-love, the evangelism of Floyd simply turns people to a religion of self-love. That does not need a new heart given by grace alone, but sinners turn themselves and are therefore deluded.

They love or hate God, just as He appears friendly or unfriendly to them. When He smiles upon them in His providence, and grants them the desires of their hearts, they are well pleased with Him. They rejoice that God is, that He governs the world, and that He fills the earth with His goodness. They have no consciousness of the least enmity against Him, but are disposed to speak well of Him, and give thanks at the remembrance of His mercies. This was the disposition of the Israelites at the side of the Red Sea . They could joyfully join in celebrating the praises of God, for their great and signal deliverance. They sang His praise with gladness of heart. And all other sinners would have done the same under the same circumstances. Their selfish hearts are always pleased with the favors God bestows upon them, and they love Him so long as they think He loves them. And they are no less pleased with spiritual, than temporal favors. When they imagine God is disposed to forgive their sins and admit them to heaven, they will sensibly rejoice in the hope of eternal life. In a word, they will always love God while they believe He loves them, and intends to do them good. But on the other hand, whenever He appears opposed to them, their hearts are opposed to Him. Their selfish hearts dispose them to hate God Himself, when He appears to stand in the way of their happiness. This was exemplified in the Israelites, who sang His praises, but soon forgot His works. As soon as they perceived that He was a holy, sin-hating and sin-revenging God, disposed to destroy them for their unholy, selfish affections, they turned against Him, murmured, complained, and expressed their bitter opposition to Him, by saying, He has brought us into the wilderness to destroy us. The selfish hearts of sinners always will dispose them to love or hate God, just as they view Him friendly or unfriendly to them. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

When sin is taught to be nothing more than just action, the corresponding thought is that holiness and/or righteous acts are nothing more than just actions. At best this glosses over the real nature of sin and holiness. At best this glosses over the real nature of Christianity and of salvation. However, the reality is that when we teach that sin and holiness are nothing more than just acts, we deny the very reality of sin and of Christianity. We cannot preach a real Gospel if we do not preach the truth of the nature of sin. Christ did not come to take human flesh and live, suffer, die, and be resurrected from the dead just for the actions of men. He did those things in order that men could be born again and be given a new nature and thus have eternal life. The idea that sin and holiness are just actions is opposite to the Gospel and cuts the very nerve of the Christian life.

The nature of sin and of holiness is the motives of the heart and our real intent in what we do. This is to say that what we love as our primary love is vital to true Christianity. For example, a woman can be very nice and accommodating to her rich husband and yet only do it out of love for money which is a love for self. She could also do it out of love for a man other than her husband in an attempt to set her husband up for the other man to obtain money from her husband. When a professing believer does good things out of love for self, that person is not a holy person but an idolater as s/he loves self rather than God. The selfish heart (love of self as the motive of actions) is a heart that can be given over to sinful and vile outward actions, or it can be devoted to religious things and even be fervent in evangelism. It is not the actions in and of themselves that determine the real nature of a person, it is the core love that a person has in terms of motives and intentions.

This explains why unregenerate sinners will think that they love God when they think that He loves them and intends good things for them. The sinner that loves self will always love others who appear to love him or her. The sinner that loves self loves the praise and honor of men. The sinner that loves self loves it when people are nice to him or her and when others say nice things to him or her. But when sinners recognize that God opposes them and their sinful actions, even their very religious actions, their hearts will rise in enmity toward God. How strongly the religious person will rise up and fight the true God and the glory of the Gospel of grace alone when self and the righteousness of self is set out. Open sinners fight to keep the sins they love and religious sinners fight to keep the righteousness they love. Open sinners love their sin and will fight to keep the things they love in this world out of self-love. Religious sinners love their own righteousness and the great idol of self by which they think they have the praise of men and eternal life, so they seem to fight with more enmity and with greater energy to keep their religious idols than open sinners do. The selfish heart (a heart that is governed by self-love and self-interest) is perhaps at its most wicked when it is very religious and thinks that it pleases God. It will justify anything.

While I am not dealing directly with the quote by Emmons as I have been, for the next few posts under this heading I will be dealing with an article published in Baptist Press and other SBC magazines. It is a very clear example of what happens when you push evangelism without dealing with the sinfulness of souls and without taking the character of God into account. It was written by Ronnie Floyd who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a pastor in northwest Arkansas. http://www.bpnews.net/45850/firstperson—what-happened-to-evangelism-in-the-sbc

What happened to evangelism in the Southern Baptist Convention? It was our commitment to evangelism in the past that set us apart from all other denominations. The events and experiences churches offered to their community were done with the specific intent of winning others to faith in Christ. What happened? Where did this go?

What our pastors and churches can do
The real issues of evangelism lie with our pastors and churches. It is on us, not our Southern Baptist structure, regardless of how they could be or should be assisting and helping our churches. Therefore, pastors and churches, please consider these things to see more people reached for Christ and baptized by your church:

7. Renew your commitment to develop, equip and empower people to share their faith with lost people regularly.
8. Create a specific strategy to reach your community or city with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let’s not be paralyzed. By no means do I believe I have all the answers, but I do know: It begins with us. It begins with our churches.
Do something. Do more than you are doing now. Take a risk.
Return to the importance of reaching and baptizing people.

The first thing to be noticed is that people do not need to share their faith with lost people at all. Instead, they need to teach sinners of their lost condition and proclaim the true Christ to them. Lost people are lost and as such they need to know the depth of their lostness and just how unable they are to rescue themselves. Lost people need to know that other sinners (no human being) can rescue them or even help rescue them, but instead lost people need to hear of the One who alone can rescue them and bring them life. People should be equipped to teach people about their sin and inability and then proclaim Christ and His free-grace to them, but there is also nothing we can do to empower people to do that. Only the Holy Spirit can empower people to do that and He will only do that in those who have utterly lost all their own power and look to Him alone.

Where would a specific strategy come from to reach our community or city with the Gospel? Does the Bible prescribe that? We know that Paul was even told not to go to certain places. What in the world can it mean for us to come up with a strategy to do this? It sounds like there is a theology that undergirds the whole process is Arminian at best. We must come up with the strategy, we must come up with the means, and we must come up with the message. We must equip people and we must empower people. While that sounds like what may be a good business model, it is not Christianity. The power of God to save sinners is the true Gospel. The true Gospel comes to helpless and broken sinners. As Jesus said, unless you are converted and become like a small child you will not be converted (Matthew 18). Does Floyd have classes on how to help people be broken from their pride and become like small children? Does he have classes on how bad the bad news is so that people can understand just how good the good news is? The local church is God’s primary method for proclaiming the Gospel. We are to lift up Christ and we are to love one another (as the Bible says, not according to man’s way of loving). If we have love one for another, then others will know that they (or we) are His disciples. It is easier to carry an easy message to the world than it is to truly love believers.

The Gospel and reaching out with the Gospel does not begin with us, but instead it begins with Christ. It may be important to do something, but there is no risk for those who love Christ and follow Him. We are to live by grace alone instead of taking risks. We are in the hands of the sovereign God and there is no risk in following Him and bowing to Him and utterly giving up all into His hands. Instead of returning to the importance of reaching people and baptizing them, we should return to God in a broken-hearted repentance. Our first duty is to God and only when we are broken and humbled by Him will we really be ready to reach out to others. Proud and selfish religious people may have a way of reaching out to proud and selfish non-religious people, but that way is that the proud and religious people have constructed an idol of the true God in their own hearts and that is the one they will go out and tell non-religious people about. It is the “god” that the selfish religious people love and so it is the one they will tell selfish non-religious people about and they will all love those who love them, but that is not biblical love at all. In fact, the love of the world and of selfish religious people is really hate in the eyes of God. The selfish hearts of the religious world want an easy message they can tell others and they will all be deceived and perish in hell forever. It is not a game, it is that serious. Talk selfish people into praying prayers and getting dunked in water without their hearts being broken and God giving them a new heart by grace alone and that will be nothing more and nothing less than having their blood on the hands of those who did so. It is that serious.