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)

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.

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:

4. Highlight baptisms in your worship services weekly.
5. Creatively offer ways for people to begin to follow Christ; we did this recently and 74 people came to Christ and are being baptized as a result of a unique Sunday morning emphasis.
6. Add outreach events or experiences to your church calendar that are solely committed to reaching people with the Gospel.

Why should baptisms be highlighted in the weekly services? Do we see anything like that in Scripture? Where do we see baptism highlighted at all? It is Christ who is to be exalted and highlighted, not baptism. While Paul thanked God that he had baptized none but a few, the counsel here is to highlight baptisms. What is the stated purpose again? It is to reach people for Christ and increase the number of baptisms. When a person is baptized simply because that person confesses faith in Christ, it is often nothing more than a means to deceive the person. Jesus commanded that disciples be baptized, not those who have prayed a prayer. The focus on baptism takes the focus off of the glory and grace of God in Christ. We must also remember that sinners are always selfish and will do what appears best for them at that moment. Sinners are not Christians because they have decided at one moment to pray a prayer, but instead by self-centered evangelistic messages and a focus on baptism the selfish sinner does not need a changed heart to make a profession and start on a religious road to hell.

Once again, we are to creatively offer ways for people to begin to follow Christ. Does the Bible tell us how sinners begin to follow Christ or does it tell us to find creative ways to do so? Could it be that people who “come to Christ” because of creative ways are not coming to the true Christ but one created by those who are looking for creative ways? Oh how selfish sinners who are driven by self and the love of self may make religious professions and be dunked in water simply because things are presented to them in a way that is pleasing to their selfish hearts. How does Floyd know that 74 people came to Christ? John wrote the book of I John so that people could know, yet Floyd seems to know that all of the people who came as a result of a creative event truly came to Christ. Jesus Himself tells us that a person must deny self and take up his cross before he can follow Christ. The very self must be denied before one can follow Christ. Was this mentioned during the creative events?

We are also told that outreach events or experiences should be added with the sole intent of reaching people with the Gospel. What should be clear at this point, however, is that people need to know their own hearts and their poison of their selfish hearts before they will understand what repentance is and their true need for the true Gospel. As long as selfish sinners do not understand the true nature of their sin, they will not hear the true Gospel even if it is proclaimed to them. Instead, sinners are in bondage to selfish hearts and the so-called gospel of the day does not conflict with those selfish hearts at all. A so-called gospel that does not bring out the enmity that is in the selfish hearts of men is not the Gospel of the Bible.

Beware of easy gospels, easy baptisms, and easy repentances. While selfish hearts love those things, that is part of the deception of them. The professing churches (regardless of theological commitment) seem to have been taken over with a so-called gospel that is fit for sinners who are in the bondage of their selfish hearts and do not require them to have a new heart. They can just continue on in their selfishness and simply exchange one set of ideas for another and one morality for another. But they continue on in their unregenerate hearts and in the ways of natural men. What good does it do to pray a prayer and be dunked under water when the heart is unchanged and at enmity with the living God? Oh beware, beware!

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:
1. Through each event or experience you offer as a church, regardless of the audience, strategically use it for evangelism.
2. Preach each message and plan each service with the eventual goal of calling people to follow Jesus Christ.
3. Offer a public invitation weekly. If not a “walk down front” invitation, use other ways to call people to follow Jesus weekly.

In the last post (Selfishness as Sin 8) I tried to deal with what is really going on with point 1 just above. There was no effort to be thorough, due to the nature of the BLOG. One point that I did not touch on how one is to use all events for evangelism. This sure seems to leave the people of God hungry for solid food and ignoring the Great Commission which commands us to make disciples. Even if one says that evangelism is implied in the Great Commission, if all one does is to focus on evangelism above all else that does not leave us with time to feed the flock. It also leaves the churches quite vulnerable to false teaching. Quite simply, evangelism happens within the normal works of a biblical church. It happens when there is biblical preaching and teaching. True enough there is little of that in our day, but that is the perfect standard. If one cannot find biblical preaching and teaching, then it will do not good to practice false evangelism. What must happen is that people start Bible studies and begin to teach people in that way, teaching them the sinfulness of their hearts and the great truths of God and the Gospel.

While the previous paragraph is a critique in some ways of statement #1, it is also a severe critique of point #2 above as well. In order to be clear, if a person practices numbers 1 and 2 above, they will not preach a true Gospel and they will not preach a true Christ. In some ways the evangelism that Floyd wants to set out is seen in #3 above as well. If his idea of evangelism is to give an invitation that people have the ability and desire to respond to, then he is not preaching the true Gospel. The true Gospel does not teach people that they have the love of God in them and the ability to respond, but in fact it teaches them that they are at enmity with God and that He must show grace to them. Their walk up the aisle can come from nothing more than self-love. Their walk up the aisle does not demand a changed heart or a new nature; it can be nothing more than a selfish heart. Evangelism which focuses on the selfish heart of men and gets them to make some action based on that selfish heart is a false evangelism based on a false idea of God.

If the true Christ is not preached, then people will not be following the true Christ. If the true nature of sin is not preached, then people will follow their own wicked and selfish hearts as they are deceived into following a false christ. We must not be deceived and we must never back down on issues like this. Those who preach false gospels and false christs are lost themselves. It does not matter how many souls the preacher says have prayed the prayer and it does not matter how many the preacher has dunked, a false gospel and a false christ leads others to false professions and false faith in a false christ. We must stand for the true Gospel and the true Christ even when the most popular preachers of the day are preaching false gospels and false christs. We have no option but to stand firm for the truth of the Gospel. It may not be politically correct and it may not be thought of as winsome, but it is what we must do if we have an ounce of the love of God in our souls.

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:
1. Through each event or experience you offer as a church, regardless of the audience, strategically use it for evangelism.
2. Preach each message and plan each service with the eventual goal of calling people to follow Jesus Christ.
3. Offer a public invitation weekly. If not a “walk down front” invitation, use other ways to call people to follow Jesus weekly.

The real issues of evangelism are not with pastors and churches, but with the triune God. It is true that Floyd’s statement is in the context of how the issues of evangelism are with the local churches rather than the SBC structure, and that is correct. However, the real issue is whether evangelism is done in the context of God-centeredness of man-centeredness. The push for people to become evangelistic to the extreme as Floyd’s article sets out is without question one that is focused on the ability of men to evangelize and the ability of men to respond to that form of evangelism.

We must always remember that there is only one Gospel and if people (ministers and so on) are not preaching that Gospel Paul says that they are to be anathematized (eternally cursed). There is no true evangelism apart from the one and true Gospel, so all evangelism in name apart from the true Gospel is false evangelism. It is not only absurd to send people and churches out to evangelize without knowing if they have the true Gospel or not, it is unthinkable and perhaps even blasphemous. If people are not going out with the true Gospel, they are going out with a false gospel and they are deceiving themselves and others. If a person is not preaching and teaching the true Gospel, then that person is also preaching and teaching a false Christ. We must not back away from those points and we must not back away from the implications of those points. If we are to be faithful to the true Christ and the true Gospel of Christ, then we must point to false gospels and false christs.

Floyd says the pastors and churches can do this: “Through each event or experience you offer as a church, regardless of the audience, strategically use it for evangelism.” Okay, apart from the true Gospel each event and experience that the church offers will be nothing more than an event and experience that deceives professing believers and unbelievers alike. In putting out event and experience evangelism the focus is on the sinner in the sinner’s self-love and selfishness rather than on the sinful nature of the sinner and the absolute necessity for God by grace alone to rescue that sinner quite apart from what the selfish prayers of that sinner. This is why event and experience evangelism is a denial of the truth of the selfish heart of the sinner and of the sovereignty of God and His grace who alone can bring life to dead sinners. No appeal to the selfish nature of the sinner will cause the sinner to reflect upon his need to have his nature changed, but instead the evangelistic appeals are for the sinner to accept Jesus, walk an aisle, pray a prayer, or at least do something in that sinful nature which hates the true God. The only thing a sinner who is at enmity with God can do is act within that nature. When the true God is preached the sinner will respond with that nature of enmity. True Gospel preaching will get people mad and angry at God. True Gospel preaching focuses on the sinful nature of men and the sovereignty of the grace of God which people hate and will respond with enmity toward. True Gospel preaching is dependent upon God for grace and not the prayers of men. True Gospel preaching will show men that they are helpless and unable to do one thing and that they must seek the Lord for Him to perhaps show mercy to their souls. Floyd’s methods fall short of the glory of God in evangelism and as such fall short of a true Gospel.