God Loves… Himself

In the last Newsletter an effort was made to picture the belief systems of human beings. The two pictures were a web and then of a pile of wooden pegs. The bottom layer of pegs consisted of thick pegs and there were only four of them. On top of those pegs was a board and on that board were even more pegs with about eight. With each layer the pegs were more numerous until there were many pegs. Each peg represented a belief. On the top layer it is very easy to change a belief because it is not really attached to other beliefs and has no major impact on the belief system as a whole. The closer one got to the bottom the more difficult it becomes to change a belief or a peg because more and more of the other beliefs or pegs rest on and depend on those bottom pegs or beliefs.

The point is to picture what must happen in conversion and to use this as what may be happening in many churches. A truly converted person is one where the bottom pegs have been removed and replaced with core convictions about the true God in Christ. A person that prays a prayer and has a moral change of some sort may have many pegs removed and changed, but the bottom pegs are still the same. That person is not a new creature in Christ but is the same old person that has changed a few beliefs and a few things. Even if the person has changed many beliefs, the core beliefs or the beliefs that a person operates on are the same. People strongly resist having a core belief changed because all of life and love will have to change.

Let me use even another picture. The basic idea of this picture came from a book named Belief & Acceptance and was written by Jonathan Cohen who at the time was an Emeritus Fellow of the Queen’s College, Oxford. He is trying to show us that a person can have many beliefs but not all of the beliefs are accepted. In other words, human beings are those who constantly believe things and really don’t need to make choices about them. If I walk outside I will believe it is sunny or cloudy without even trying. It is virtually automatic and is simply how God has made people. But a belief that is accepted is one that takes root in the person and, biblically speaking, it is a governing factor of the heart. It is an operating principle of the soul. It is the most basic and foundational belief and love of the soul. All other things will be and are dominated by that belief and love.

Scripture teaches us that man can only have one master at a time and if he attempts to have two he will hate one and love the other (Mat 6:24). This teaches us that the heart of man is ruled by one dominant love at a time. We can have many beliefs that do not threaten or have much influence on our dominant love so they are in the belief system but they have no effect on other beliefs or life. However, to accept a core belief requires for that belief to fit with my chief love. If a belief does not fit with my chief love, then it will be rejected with many excuses while reasons will be found because it is actually hated. What Scripture calls a chief love Cohen refers to as a dominating thought. While he does not say that his beliefs were developed with or without Scripture, it certainly pictures Scripture. Unregenerate people are dead in their sins and trespasses and are governed by a love for self and a hatred for God. The regenerate person is one that is controlled and constrained by the love of Christ. When a belief comes in to a person that threatens the chief love which is the dominating belief, the dominating belief will dominate all other things and will find some reason to get rid of all other beliefs. What we love the most will dominate all of our other beliefs and will find excuses or reasons to hang on to our real and chief love.

Now, let us look at a church in light of these analogies or pictures. A church is not an organization or a business, but it is the body of Jesus Christ. No matter the organizational structure the real church consists of those people who are united to Jesus Christ and He is united to them. The true believer has Christ as his or her life and all else will be dominated by the life of Christ and love for Christ in the soul. The unbeliever, regardless of how religious s/he is will have all beliefs dominated by a love for him or herself and hatred (though not necessarily recognized as such) for the true God. A church cannot have true peace or true unity as long as there are people in leadership without a true love for Christ that dominates all the other beliefs. A church cannot have true peace or unity as long as there are several people whose beliefs are dominated by a love for things and people other than Christ. What happens is that some of the people have a basic or core belief of love for Christ that dominates all other beliefs while another group has a basic or core belief that has a love for things that is hatred for Christ. Another option is all the people have a basic or core belief that leads them to hate Christ and spiritual things. As long as their chief loves do not conflict too much, they can get along fine. Surely this makes it obvious why evangelism must be biblical and it must look to seeing people become new creatures in Christ before they join the church.

For a church to seek true revival which is the life of God in the church through Christ, it must begin to seek God for a sight of its core and dominating beliefs and loves in order to seek the Lord in truth. If the dominating love of a person is not God, then all the religious things that a person does is not out of love for God but a love for self. If the dominating love is self, then a person will do all out of love for self. II Timothy 3 show this: “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” The modern professing church is full of things like this. These things are accepted in the professing church today and if not many of these things are easily hidden. They can even be baptized with verses of Scripture. But despite their religious outside, those things do not come from love for Christ.

When the church has people that are lovers of self, those people are dominated by a love for self and so the things of the church and of God are dominated by self. All the things that this person does are done from a dominating love for self rather than a love for Christ. There can be many things that can be opposed in the church and in committees that is a love of money in disguise. But whatever is done is dominated by a love for money rather than a love for Christ. A professing church that has many or even but a few lovers of self in the midst is a church that has a lot of squabbles and a lot of tension going on in some way. What many churches need is for many of the members to be converted so that the church as a whole can seek God in the unity of truth and love.

The results that we are seeing in the churches in the United States that come from a lack of true, biblical evangelism and discipleship is truly a massive departure from Christianity. The Pharisees were incredibly religious. They read their Bibles, memorized a lot, and they did a lot of something they called prayer. But their dominating belief still came from love for self displayed in doing what they did for the honor they obtained from others. A love of self as the dominating love is not inconsistent with a lot of Bible studies, prayer meetings, orthodoxy, and socially good works. If our evangelism only gets people to pray a prayer and our discipleship consists of getting people to doing religious things and outwardly good things, we have failed miserably. What must happen is for the beliefs that are pictured by the very bottom pegs or the belief that must dominate everything else and that must be Christ Himself.

It is not inconsistent with a dominating love of self rather than for Christ for people to desire some form of revival or desire for God to move. A dominating love for self can still desire to be part of a church which increases in numbers. But for true revival to happen and for God to come down, people must begin to seek the Lord for broken hearts and to be broken from all of their dominating loves and beliefs that are not of Christ Himself. When Scripture speaks of a belief in Jesus Christ, it is not speaking of a belief on the upper or even the middle tiers of pegs. It is speaking of the deepest belief and convictions of the soul. It is speaking of a belief that dominates all other beliefs and all other loves. Throughout the Gospel of John many people came to some sort of belief or faith in Christ. Very few of those people were actually converted. The rest went away when the hard teachings came from the mouth of Jesus. What happened to all of those that believed? They believed when it was convenient to believe or when the sight of a miracle made them believe something about Him. Others believed when He gave them free food. But their root beliefs and dominating loves were never changed. So when a tough teaching of Jesus came and certain demands were made upon them, their dominating love of self overcame any belief they had in Jesus. So they walked away.

In America we have many positive messages about what Jesus will do for people. Many hear that and believe in some way. In other words, the churches are being filled with people who are like those who believed in the time of Christ but fell away when the hard teachings come. So if they are in a church where there are no hard teachings or spiritual demands made upon them, they can continue in their delusion and religious practice while their dominating belief and love is self rather than Christ. II Chronicles 7:14 tells us to humble ourselves (emptied of self), pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. As long as people are dominated by a love for self, they are full of self and so are not humbled. When they are full of self their prayers are to self rather than God and they seek themselves rather than His face. If they are full of self, all that they do will be wicked because of seeking self in all. If the dominating love is not changed, there will be judgment rather than true reformation and revival.

As we look at some things that the churches must do in order to be churches that are seeking God, we have looked at how a church must become one that seeks God Himself first and foremost. It must not seek all the church things and the things of self; it must seek the presence of God. This is not something that comes easily if we think God is there to serve us. Even more beyond our strength is what is necessary to seek God. We must seek Him from the heart and with true love or we are not truly seeking Him. What this means is that we must seek God for hearts to seek Him. It means that we must repent of the sin that comes between us and Him. A church that wants to seek God must determine to seek God regardless of the discomfort and change. It must be willing to do things that it is not doing and it must stop things (even good things it thinks) that it is presently doing. As the church seeks God it must realize that the light will shine upon it in ways that require change. Some of those ways are not comfortable.

How people come to believe things and then the ways they hold on to those beliefs is a matter of great interest and speculation. One philosopher has dealt with this to some degree and has held that what we believe is likened to a web of belief. If we think of our beliefs as a web that is held together and each belief is dependent to a greater or lesser degree on other beliefs, we have something of a picture of how we develop beliefs. Another picture of that would be to look at all of our beliefs as resting on pegs which rest on pieces of plywood. The bottom layer of pegs would be larger and smaller in number. Let us think of the bottom layer as having four large pegs. There would be a two foot square piece of plywood laying on that. On top of that piece of plywood are eight pegs and then a larger piece of plywood. On top of that there are sixteen pegs and a piece of plywood. This goes on until one has a piece of plywood at the top with hundreds of very small pegs.

Now what I am saying may sound tedious, dull, or simply inapplicable to a local church. My hope is that you will hang on and see just how applicable this analogy is. The whole pile of pegs we shall refer to our belief system with each peg signifying an individual belief. It is not hard to replace a peg on the top row as it has almost nothing to do with the pegs around it and underneath it. However, as one goes down levels of pegs to pegs that are larger and hold more, it would take more and more to replace those pegs. A peg at the top may be a belief that it is 40 degrees outside and when we are told that it is actually 38 degrees we will believe that and no major change is involved. A peg on the very bottom may be a belief that God created the world. That is a belief that has effects through all of the other beliefs and a massive number of beliefs would have to be changed in order to change that one peg.

What we believe and how we come to have new beliefs can be pictured by those things. It is not hard to convince people of things that require no change. But think of all the beliefs that must be changed or must have some effect if some really foundational belief is changed. Thus we see why people are so resistant to a change in their fundamental belief system. It is not just one belief that must be given up, it is many beliefs and some of those beliefs are very important to them. Coming to Christ requires a whole new belief system in that the very foundational beliefs must be changed and that will influence all the other beliefs in some way too.

For a church to change its way of doing and its way of thinking requires a lot of lower level pegs to change. For a church to do this would require most if not all the people that the church consists of to change. In other words, one cannot just change a document to change something, but the belief systems of the people have to be changed. There are some people that some change will require a massive amount of change. If we look back at the web analogy, all of their beliefs are hanging together and support each other. To them it feels like they will fall from the web and have nothing if they change from one belief to another. There are some beliefs that require so many other beliefs to change that it takes a long time for those basic beliefs to change.

We can also look at the very bottom pegs that uphold the whole stack of pegs as all being centered upon God or centered upon self. If the very foundational pegs are those that are focused on self, then all the beliefs that are above them will also be all about self one way or another. There may be beliefs about God that are on the second level, but those beliefs about God will be determined by beliefs about self which are at the foundational level. On the other hand, if the beliefs about God are the very supporting or foundational beliefs then the beliefs about self will be determined by beliefs about God. What we simply must understand is that our beliefs all fit together to make up some form of system or whole and that some of those beliefs are foundational. That is vital.

The importance of the previous discussion about webs of belief and of differing levels of pegs that support other pegs may seem rather silly to some. It is a rather long analogy to make a point. Our belief about conversion is a belief that is foundational for many other beliefs in the local church. We simply must go to Scripture and prayer in order to get this belief correct. If we view conversion as when a person prays a prayer or walks an aisle, then we will say things in order to get the person to pray a prayer or walk an aisle. The person can do those things from a belief from an upper level of pegs and still retain self as the god of his or her life. If our belief about conversion is wrong then church membership will reflect that as well. If our belief about conversion is wrong then there will be false conversions, false assurances, false membership, false hopes, false teaching, and a false witness to the world. Being Reformed in doctrine will not change those things either if the doctrine is just poured on the top of our pile of beliefs. A God-centered doctrine derived from Scripture must be the foundation of all of our beliefs.

The Scripture tells us that conversion is a person becoming a new creation in Christ (II Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10). The analogy we are using with pegs would then picture this as the foundational pegs being replaced with news ones and all the old ones being replaced or used in a different way. Notice, then, the tremendous difference this makes in the church. If the focus is simply to get people to pray a prayer or walk an aisle that will most likely just have to do with the upper pegs with the bottom ones left alone. If the focus is on a new creation, that has to do with the very bottom pegs that support everything else. The bottom pegs cannot be changed without a massive influence on the ones above them. When a person becomes a new creation in Christ, it is easy to see that this is a person that brings a God-centered focus into the church. When a person becomes a religious person with self as the real supporting pegs that determine all things, it is easy to see that this is a person that will serve self in the church.

We can see, then, how important it is to the true life and practice of the church to be diligent about the nature of true conversion in both how it practices evangelism and in how it receives and retains members in the church. If a church has many unbelievers in it, will God be dwelling there? The Gospel must be proclaimed in such a way that converts are found in the way of discipleship and are expected to be true disciples of Christ. A Christian is nothing more and nothing less than a disciple of Jesus Christ. If a person is not a disciple of Christ, then that person is not a Christian. The Great Commission does not tell us to go out and evangelize, but it tells us to make disciples. That is a very important point in evangelism. We are not to evangelize in a way where discipleship is an option, but to evangelize in a way where a person is not even considered a Christian if s/he is not a disciple. Perhaps it should teach us that those who profess a faith must be thoroughly instructed in the doctrines and practices of Christianity to see if they are true followers in Christ.

True evangelism cannot be separated from the rest of the Scripture on discipleship and becoming new creatures in Christ. To go back to the analogy, the only way a person will become a true believer is if the bottom and foundational pegs of belief are changed. If our evangelism is focused on the upper pegs, we are not looking for the person to become a new creature in Christ and so one that is following Christ. We would also be practicing evangelism in such a way that people who express some belief in Christ will come into the church as an unbeliever. The church would then be greatly diluted and weakened when this happened.

If churches truly want to seek revival, then one step would be to go back and study the doctrine of conversion. Churches must begin to look at membership as something truly important rather than just a formality and a number to turn in to others. Seeking revival in truth is not just something that is attached to some high levels of the pegs; it is something that must be at the roots of the church. God will not dwell with those who have sin in their hearts and He will not dwell in the hearts of unbelievers. The effort must be for the church to be reformed (that is used in the older use of the word which referred more to the turning of a church to God in all of its ways) from the bottom up. A church cannot seek revival in truth unless it is seeking it from the bottom up. The very foundational beliefs of the churches must be built around God, His Word, and true discipleship. If our evangelism is not built on God Himself, His Word in truth, and be done in the context of discipleship, then the church will be built upon the foundational beliefs of self. Self will be king, the Word of God will be twisted to self, and self-centered people will be called believers based on self as well. True revival in the church will only happen when instead of using God and the Bible for the reasons and purposes of self, we seek to submit to God and bow to all He says in the Bible. That is the difference between a true church that is filled with new creatures and one that is ruled by self.

In the past several weeks we have gone through a portion of the book of Daniel to look at his heart in prayer and how it instructs us. If we think that we can just repeat the words of Daniel without having the heart of Daniel and that is enough in prayer, we have missed the whole point. True Christianity is an issue of the heart and not just the outward actions. If our hearts have not been changed and the very life of Christ is not our life, we have not been converted by and to Christ. We have also seen two testimonies of people who went along thinking for years that they were converted when in fact they were not. Could it be that the professing Church has many people in it that are saying the words of prayer and yet do not have hearts that mean the words? Could it be that many people are in conservative, orthodox congregations and are still lost? Could it be that the modern church is virtually set up in ways that make it easy for people to be deceived and to deceive themselves?

The reason that it sounds so plausible that so many people are deceived in the professing Church is because the professing Church is desperately weak and has no impact on the nation. Our theology has been greatly weakened and we have been turned over to pragmatic approaches. Evangelism appears to be the method of church growth and financial support rather than the means of displaying the glory of God. We can ask a simple question and ask what the devil would do if he wanted to deceive the most people possible. I believe the answer is that he would try to convince people of teachings and practices that were close to the truth but keep the life of it out. In this way he could deceive those who practiced it and yet to those on the outside it would appear false. In this way the professing Church could keep going and thinking it was making gains while it was in fact continuing a great deception. In this way the professing Church would not impact those around them in truth and it would be diluted with unbelievers itself. That would lead to a greatly weakened church (Mat 5:13-14).

A resolution was presented in the last year or so at the national convention of the SBC. It was a resolution that was intended to encourage local churches to only count those members who really attended and could be counted as true members. Another thing that we need to consider is how many of those who attend are really converted. A former president of the SBC was reported as saying several years ago that he thought that perhaps as many as 70% of members in the SBC were not converted. It is easy to smile at that and think that he was speaking to other churches and other people, or perhaps that he was simply having a bad day. But what if he was correct? What if that percentage is correct or perhaps even an understatement? One thing that would mean is that there are a whole lot of people who have prayed a prayer, been baptized, were accepted into membership, and yet are still lost.

If all that has been said is correct or even to a great degree correct, then what we must come face to face with is that the local church can be a place where many people are being deceived. In 1970 John Warwick Montgomery authored a book that was published under the name of Damned through the Church. It is a very provocative title, but not as provocative as the one he wanted. Could it be that the title of Montgomery’s book is in fact descriptive of much that is going on in our day? But again, it is so easy to think of it as always being the other guy. It is hard to think of it as being the place where I attend especially if it is conservative, orthodox, good programs, and perhaps even growing numerically. Why do people attend church in our day? Are many being lulled to sleep by the church as they attend for all the wrong reasons?

Montgomery quotes Stanley High who in 1937 wrote and article on why people go to church for the Saturday Evening Post. The Readers Digest condensed the article and ran it in their publication as well. He gives us five reasons to attend church: “(1) He likes the preacher; (2) He finds it convenient; (3) Habit impels him; (4) He “gets something out of it,” specifically, (a) historical perspective, (b) reverence for “a person that is bigger than we are,” and (c) morality; (5) He “gets along better” as a result of church going.” This list can be looked at for the things it says and for the things it does not say. How many people attend a church just because they like the preacher? Liking the preacher personally does not mean that Christ has saved these people. People attend a particular church because it is convenient rather than because it is a church that preaches Christ. People attend church out of habit rather than out of love for God. People attend church because they get something out of it rather than meet God. People attend church because things go better rather than going to hear the living God speak in His Word.

While it is true that High wrote his article over seventy years ago, human nature has not changed. Human beings will still find selfish and man-centered reasons to attend church and then rely on their attendance and some behavior modification to rest in for their salvation. Some might even have the name of Christ on their lips on occasion, but He is not in their hearts and they rarely think of Him at all. Others may speak of Christ a lot but not know the biblical Christ. In their case they have a god of their imagination and simply use the correct name. In cases like those attending church can contribute to being damned through the church.

If a church is going to seek the living God in spirit and truth, it must get beyond its man-centeredness and fear of men in order to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each church must realize that there may be some deceived people in the congregation and perhaps many. For a church to repent of its man-centered ways and return to God will require a time of searching hearts. There is no way to God but through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Going to church does not save and doing all the activities and programs will not save a soul either. A person must have Christ or that person will perish (John 3:36). If the church does not warn people of this, then no one will. When the church will not call people to examine themselves or warn people that they may not be converted, the church has stopped seeking God and has become a place that contributes to the deception of others. The natural heart will rest on many things but Christ alone and will go to great lengths not to truly repent. The natural heart hates God and is at enmity with Him. If we are nice and easy to get along with in all cases while we speak easy things to hear, people will not hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will just want to hear more easy or nice things.

One reason can be pointed at as a major flaw in many sections of the professing Church in our day. It is a misinterpretation of the Great Commission. In the latest SBC Life magazine the first article was a call for a Great Commission Resurgence. Here is one representative quote from that article: “When you win less people to Jesus, you are drifting from the Great Commission.” In this article the Great Commission was interpreted as going forth and evangelizing and winning people to Jesus. That is the typical interpretation of the Great Commission. But what the Great Commission actually commands is to go forth and make disciples. It does not command the Church to go out and get people to say a prayer and count them as converted, but instead it commands them to make disciples. It also does not command the Church to have a discipleship program, but instead it commands it to make disciples. Evangelism is always done in the context of discipleship or it is not grounded in Scripture.

Is this important? If we take it to mean evangelism only we ignore what it is really commanding. Another reason is that if we focus on evangelism apart from discipleship we will have a lot of false believers. In the Gospel of John many believed and followed Jesus until they heard His hard teachings. We see this in John 8:31: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” What is required to be a true believer is for one to continue in His word. If a person does not continue in the word, then that person is not a true believer as we see over and over in the Gospel of John. When the professing Church practices evangelism outside the biblical command to make disciples, it is not practicing what the Bible commands and becomes an instrument of deception. Going to church can hurt you if the Word of God is not preached in truth.

If you are thinking through this you will see a real problem in the professing Church of today. It practices evangelism apart from biblical discipleship. It takes people into its membership who have been “evangelized” according to a modern man-centered method rather than discipled in a biblical fashion. This essentially declares a person saved. It then teaches that person that s/he is eternally secure no matter how they live. It will not preach or teach things that would awaken a person to his or her lost condition because that is why people leave the church. What would the devil want us to do again? He does not care if people attend a church where they are not truly taught the Bible and evangelized in a biblical setting. In fact, he encourages that sort of thing. He would encourage those people to be taught that they cannot lose their salvation when in fact they are not saved to begin with. He would encourage preachers and teachers to water down the message to keep people comfortable in their unconverted state. In other words, what happens when the fox runs the henhouse? A church that wants to follow the Great Commission as it is given in the Bible will practice evangelism in the context of discipleship as the Great Commission states. The goal is not to get people to pray prayers; it is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The goal is not to get great numbers in a building; it is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Those that will not seek to make true disciples demonstrate that they are not disciples of Christ who commanded them to make disciples. Perhaps the false interpretation of the Great Commission reaches far and wide. It is far easier to go around and give a little message to people than it is to deal with their sin and urge them on to follow Christ in truth as true believers do. A church that does not practice the plain teaching of Scripture can contribute to the damnation of those who attend.