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WHAT'S WRONG WITH EVANGELISM pt 2
Jesus motive
Our Lord was motivated in His conversation by love and compassion for
the covetous youth. Verse 21 states explicitly that Jesus had a
conscious love for the man as He talked with him. When the youth
departed from Jesus, because he could not save his soul and his money
too, there must have been the gnawing pain of pitying sorrow in our
Lord's heart. He wept to see Jerusalem refuse His offers of mercy.
Similar emotion for this particular sinner was likely felt as he
turned away. This man was not merely a hopeful statistic, nor a trophy
of success to embellish His crusade reports. Jesus deeply loved the
ruler. Such love for sinners is an essential qualification for any
evangelist.
However, concern for the nobleman's soul was not the supreme motive
that moved Christ to witness to this sinner. Running even deeper
within His breast was a love of God. Though induced by a desire to
save men, Christ was primarily motivated by a longing to glorify His
Father. You cannot carefully read the Gospels and fail to see that our
Lord's chief aim in every act was to do the will of His Father and to
make His glory known to men.
Upon humbling Himself to enter this world Christ said, 'Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God' [Hebrews 10:7]. In life He reported, 'I do
always those things that please him' [John 8:29].
As He went to the cross, Jesus summarized His ministry thus: 'I
have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do' [John 17:4]. This burning passion consumed Him
throughout his life.
An evangelist of today must know what it is to be committed above
all else to glorifying God. Some who demonstrate a passion for
accurate doctrine, place a question mark over their love for God by
evidencing no love for lost sinners. This absence of missionary effort
is appalling. Nevertheless, if being moved by compassion for sinners
is essential, it is more essential to be moved more profoundly still
by a love of God.
Jesus' message
Such motivation and determination will display itself in the
evangelist's message. The questioner in this passage had centered
attention upon his own need )of finding a way to inherit eternal
life). Jesus, however, turned the primary focus of the interview upon
God and His glory. His entire message was structured to honour His
Father. The man wanted a solution to his fear of death and judgment.
Jesus would eventually address Himself with compassion, to this
concern but first a foundation had to be laid and a more important
issue settled. Jesus' answer indicated that He had come to exalt
Jehovah, to declare His name, to tell His unique goodness. His coming
to save men was rooted in this.
Evangelism always requires preaching on the attributes of God. When
Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well [John 4], He taught her
that God is a Spirit. When Paul addressed the heathern on Mar's Hill
[Acts 17], he had to devote even more of his evangelistic message to
the character of God, who was unknown to them. He began by speaking of
God as the Creator, as the Sistainer of all life, as the Mighty One
who raised Jesus from the dead. This element, of exalting God's
character, is essential to bringing honour to God in our preaching.
Much of modern preaching is anaemic, with the life-blood of God's
nature absent from the message. Evangelists centre their message upon
man. Man has sinned and missed a great blessing. If man wants to
retrieve his immense loss he must act thus and so. But the Gospel of
Christ is very different. It begins with God and His glory. It tells
men that they have offended a holy God, who will by no means pass by
sin. It reminds sinners that the only hope of salvation is to be found
in the grace and power of this same God. Christ's Gospel sends men to
beg pardon of the Holy One.
There is a wide difference between these two messages. The one
seeks to blaze a trail to Heaven for man while ignoring the Lord of
Glory. The other labours to magnify the God of all grace in the
salvation of men. The first would give a technical answer to, 'What
shall I do to inherit eternal life?', without an adequate foundation.
The last says,
Wait a moment. The God with whom we have to do
is thrice holy, alone good, unapproachable in
brilliant holiness! We will return to your question in
its subordinate place. But now take your eye from
yourself and behold the holy God of the Scriptures.
Then you will see yourself as you truly are - a
creature in rebellion against an infinitely pure God.
You are not yet prepared to discuss yourself and eternity.
This does not mean that preaching about the character of God is
isolated from seeking the salvation of a sinner. Preaching on the
attributes is essential to the conversion of man. Without a knowledge
of God, a sinner does not know whom he has offended, who threatens him
with destruction, or who is able to save him. Apart from some clear
apprehensions of God, there can be no personal approach to God, and
'personal Saviour' becomes a hollow phrase.
Jesus lifted the egocentric eyes of the wealthy ruler to One whose
holiness caused Isaiah to cry, 'Woe is me! for I am undone' [Isaiah
6:5]. Is that a secondary part of the Gospel? If you think so, you
don't understand the first things of the faith. The rich youth had
come running because he understood that he might mot inherit eternal
life. But he didn't understand why. Whom had he offended? There was no
remorse for having offended a holy God. He was prepared to talk of
religion; but he was ignorant of God. He was anxious to ask for the
joys of salvation; but he could not confess as David, 'Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned; and done this evil in thy sight' [Psalm
51:4]. He was not acquainted with the Lord.
When Saul was arrested by a shining light on the road to Damascus,
a voice demanded, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' [Acts 9:4].
Immediately Saul asked, 'Who art thou?'. Whom have I persecuted? How
is that? The one who came running to Jesus had the same question, for
he had never seen the transcendent holiness of God. Ignorant of
Jehovah's unspeakable dignity, he was unaware of the enormity of his
crime. Though he had not loved the Lord with all his heart, the youth
did not conceive of this as criminal neglect, because he had never
beheld the glory of God. He was unready to hear of the way of
salvation.
Although the inquirer was a Jew, and probably devout, Jesus did not
assume that he knew who God was. He needed catechizing on the
attributes of God. Evangelists today are making the dreadful
miscalculation that sinners know who God is. The sad truth is that our
age knows less than the Jews of our Lord's day. Nevertheless,
evangelicals plunge right in with 'five things God wants you to know.'
They all centre upon the man's eternal fortunes and utterly ignore the
question, 'Who is God?'. The sinners thus treated never realize the
gravity of their plight. They don't know whom they have offended. This
is tragic.
Jesus spoke to this man of God's holiness because it showed him
what great trouble had come upon him. It is the invariably pure God
who is your Judge. The note of holiness was particularly pertinent to
bringing a proper fear of God into this fellow's soul. He realized
before that God was a judge. Now Jesus impressed him with the holiness
of that judge, a holiness that 'will by no means clear the guilty'
[Exodus 34:7].
Today, we are told that witnessing is to begin with, 'God loves you
and has a wonderful plan for your life'. Love is set before sinners as
the foremost characteristic of God. But Jesus didn't begin that way.
And the Bible as a whole speaks more often of God's holiness than of
His love. This is probably because men readily remember all attributes
that might favour themselves and totally forget those which threaten
or alarm them.
Thousand of sinners think of god as having only one attribute -
'love'. Though that is part of the truth, when it is taken for the
whole truth it becomes a lie. When you tell a stranger, 'God loves
you,' his moind registers something like this: 'Yes, He loves me and
would never harm me. He loves me with forgiving and merciful kindness;
so, all is well with my soul.' In the concept of the average American,
there is no idea that God is holy; only a perverted concept that He
has a gushy, all-embracing kindness. Modern evangelism is helping to
foster this misconception of God by its silence and vagueness.
To say to a rebel, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life,' is terribly misinforming. The truth is that God is holy. Thus,
He is angry with the sinner at this moment. His sword of wrath already
hangs over the head of the guilty and will forever torment him unless
he repents and trust Christ. This plan is not so wonderful. God's
redeeming love for sinners is found only in Christ, and the sinner is
out of Christ. The modern approach is diametrically opposed to Jesus'
method with the young ruler. He did not soothe him in his ignorance,
but stirred up fear by preaching that God is essentially good.
Men today will readily use the name of God as would the rich man.
But it is disastrous to assume that men are speaking of the same
person as we are. When we say 'God' we mean 'Creator'. When our
contemporaries say 'God' they are often speaking of one who has little
to do with the world we see. When we say 'God' we mean 'One who is
sovereign in creation, providence, and in the redemption of His
creature, man.' When sinners say 'God' they usually refer to one who
has committed himself to honouring the sovereign will of man at any
cost to himself. Above all, when we say 'God' we speak of One who has
unflinching holiness, 'Who will by no means clear the guilty.' Sinners
frequently think of 'God' as flexible so that He will by no means
punish wonderful men.
Do you declare in your witnessing that God is holy? Every part of
your message rest upon the character of God. If you rush into four
easy steps to Heaven with a man who has a defective view of God, you
will deceive him and yourself. You may lead him to pray after you, and
you will be praying to the God of glorious holiness. But when he
repeats 'God' in his prayer, he will be praying to another god, or at
best to his 'unknown god'.
'How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard?'
[Romans 10:14] is a pertinent question for today's evangelist. Sinners
must know Him upon whom they must call to be saved. 'Salvation is of
the Lord' [Jonah 2:9]. His power and His grace alone can deliver from
destruction and lead to eternal life. Eliminating the doctrine of God
from evangelism is no innocent shift in emphasis, but is cutting the
heart out of our message.
'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' asked the religious
youth. You must apply to Jehovah for it. But before you rush into His
courts, let me tell you that He is so holy that if one ray of His
glory were to meet your eye, you would be cast at His feet with a
dreadful sense of uncleanness. He is a consuming fire, and you must
cry out to Him for mercy. Do not think that you do Him a favour by
'accepting Jesus'. The Holy One has done you a great favour in
commanding you to trust his Son.
Preaching several easy steps to Heaven is not evangelism. Preaching
the whole counsel of God is. Preaching the radiant truth of the unique
goodness of God especially is. Telling men that God is their Creator
may embarrass you with intellectual evolutionist, but it is essential
to the Gospel. Telling men that God is holy, wise and sovereign is
also vital. These are not unnecessary trappings.
Someone no doubt objects:
My mission board calls such doctrines 'unessential'
because they are divisive. Serious conflict would
arise if I suggested that dwelling only on the love of
God misleads sinners. And the pressure to get results
doesn't allow time for such preaching.
Where did any group of theologians or administrators get the audacity
to relegate the character of God to the category of the unessential?
When liberals said that the virgin birth was an unnecessary truth, men
left their churches and schools in droves. If 'evangelicals' say that
the holiness and sovereignty of God are subjects too sensitive to
preach, perhaps it is time to instruct others boldly at all cost, even
though it involves conflict and exclusion from their fellowship.
Paul was a missionary evangelist, not a settled pastor. He could
say to the Ephesian elders 'I am pure from the blood of all men' [Acts
20:26]. How could Paul make such a claim? Not because he had given
each person four spiritual laws. That was not the New Testament method
of evangelism. The next verse substantiates his claim. 'For I have
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.' In his itinerant
ministry Paul preached a through-going theology, not a denuded four
steps to eternal life.
Today mission boards are asking their missionaries to keep the
blood of men on their hands:
: Don't rock the boat by clearly teaching anything that
another evangelical will object to, even if it is in the
Bible. Don't cause trouble by demanding the clear
notes of the gospel from those who labour by your
side as fellow-missionaries. Stick to the main issues.
If someone cheapens the Gospel by boiling it down to a five-minute
sales pitch, that is fine. If another insists upon preaching the
attributes of God, that is Doctrinaire. Surely something is gravely
amiss in the church.
It is time to break with the neo-traditionalism of the evangelical
world. The mass of poor dying sinners need preaching like Christ's.
The world perishes for lack of a God-exalting declaration of His
nature. Let us follow Jesus' example with the rich young ruler.
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