Why People Don’t Evangelize
When you woke up on your beds this morning, how many of you were worried about the millions throughout the world who opened their eyes at the same moment as they lay their heads on rocks and the cold dust of the earth? When you had breakfast this morning, how many of you thought about the many millions throughout the world whose wildest fantasies are the meals you take for granted everyday?
September 26th 2009, most of us did, when typhoon “Ondoy” (Ketsana) struck the Philippines. The tropical storm affected over 4,929,382 people across 1,987 barangays in 16 cities and 172 municipalities of 26 provinces in Regions I to VI, IX, XII, ARMM, CAR and NCR. Innumerable homes were devastated. And in the pride of the human spirit, men and women everywhere went out to the aid of their fellow man.
Churches all over did not hold back in helping in the relief operations. The devastation was reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, the spirit of human compassion exemplified in 2009 was reflected as well. Christians everywhere would almost endlessly donate rations and give themselves in the rescue and medical operations. The whole Christian community put the lives and homes of the hundreds of thousands of victims their top priority, more important than their Church expansion plans and any other local agenda.
As foreign reporters would even testify, what was displayed was a great testament to the human spirit.
Fast forward to the last-quarter of the year 2010, peace and comfort has returned to most areas. Though not fully recovered, many of the victims are able to move forward. The Christian community played an important role in that late event. And today we wake up from our beds in the morning without having to worry about all those victims. We have our morning breakfast and scarcely think of the recent tragedy where rations are found only in cans and plastic bags.
Indeed it was, by far, the greatest display of the human spirit, the atheistic humanistic spirit.
It is interesting to me that the so-called “human spirit” can give itself to untold bounds of compassion for the rescue of lives and property, but when the same “spirit” considers the real grave danger that the whole of the human race is under, it little sacrifices for it, neither does he think much of it.
Indeed, if we truly consider the declaration of Scripture about the human condition it is not as if the human spirit was so strong, or that our desires and our compassion are too strong and shining forth in all it’s glory, it would seem that the human spirit, as it were, is too weak, far too weak. Paraphrasing a quote from C.S. Lewis, “We are half-hearted creatures, concerned with food, clothing and ambition when the souls of men are rotting right in front of us. We are like ignorant children that cries at the thought of not being able to buy that candy bar, because we cannot imagine what it means when our parents are in a ten-year debt.”
But of course, we are Christians, we readily profess that we are not like that at all. But sadly, if we’re honest with ourselves, it simply is not the case. If we’re to be honest with ourselves, apathy and indifference is the default setting of our sinful flesh. We would be more concerned about food and clothing, for ourselves and for others, before we would be concerned about the state of the souls of men, even our own.
We are strangers. We are strangers to others and even to our own selves.
We go through the motions of life thinking that our giving of ourselves in our earthly pursuits has any value. We expend our energies for the sake of self and our loved ones, but in reality we are blind and deaf to the most important things in life that are staring at us in the face.
Why is it? Why is it that we cannot say with the apostle Paul:
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
—Acts 20:24
I’m convinced it is all rooted in the fact that we do not know what it means to fear God.
Why is it that, today, the masses are so utterly unconcerned about spiritual and eternal things, and that they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? Why is it that even on the battlefields multitudes were so indifferent to their soul’s welfare? Why is it that defiance of Heaven is becoming more open, more blatant, more daring? The answer is, Because “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18).
Again; why is it that the authority of the Scriptures has been lowered so sadly of late? Why is it that even among those who profess to be the Lord’s people there is so little real subjection to His Word, and that its precepts are so lightly esteemed and so readily set aside? Ah! what needs to be stressed today is that God is a God to be feared.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God’s majesty, that has had a vision of. . .
God’s awful greatness,
His ineffable holiness,
His perfect righteousness,
His irresistible power,
His Sovereign grace.
Does someone say, “But it is only the unsaved, those outside of Christ, who need to fear God”? Then the sufficient answer is that the saved, those who are in Christ, are admonished to work out their own salvation with “fear and trembling.”i Time was when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as a “God-fearing man”—that such an appellation has become nearly extinct only serves to show whither we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him” (Psa. 103:13)!
When we speak of godly fear, of course, we do not mean a servile fear, such as prevails among the heathen in connection with their gods. No; we mean that spirit which Jehovah is pledged to bless, that spirit to which the prophet referred when he said “To this man will I (the Lord) look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word” (Isa. 66:2). It was this the Apostle had in view when he wrote, “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Peter 2:17). And nothing will foster this godly fear like a recognition of the Sovereign Majesty of God.
—A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God
In the journey the Lord led me to, towards my understanding of the doctrines of grace, He has used this work of dear A.W. Pink much to the profit of my soul. Only a man brought low and broken by the Spirit of God can say that these truths are precious to him. Because the Sovereignty of God is a self-crushing thing, only a man with a new spirit and a heart of flesh could ever truly accept it.
Read/listen (to) the rest of this magnificent work here, in pdf, in mp3.
A similar thought from J.C. Ryle:
How is it that many who profess and call themselves Christians, do so little for the savior whose name they bear? How is it that many, whose faith and grace it would be uncharitable to deny, work so little, give so little, say so little, take so little pains to promote Christ’s cause and bring glory to Christ in the world? These questions admit of only one answer: it is a low sense of debt and obligation to Christ, which is the amount of the whole matter.
Let us daily pray that we may see the sinfulness of sin, and the amazing grace of Christ, more clearly and more distinctly.
The Motivation of Evangelism
I. Why People Don’t Evangelize
Footnotes
- I do not agree with the interpretation of this verse by many preachers in the evangelical world. The context of the verse speaks otherwise from the norm.
If we take that phrase by itself and isolate it from the rest of the passage, we can understand it to be so, that it is upon our hands to work our salvation—even though we adhere to the Sovereignty of God in salvation. To adhere to this thought is to adhere to a contradiction in wants to bind the conscience.
Consider the passage carefully: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ” —Philippians 2:12-13
Realize the emphasis in the passage:
“For it is God who works in you. . .”
Therefore it is to be understood, in context, that the Philippian church is to work out their salvation with fear and trembling because of this knowledge. Because it is God Himself who works in us. The Sovereign God of the universe. Having brought to light that reality, should they not tremble before this working? Fear and trembling—being at awe at the work of God upon them? [↩]
Great post, J.M. Thank you so much for sharing this, I really needed to be reminded of this. May the Lord grant me more godly fear and reverence for Him, and obedience in obeying His Great Commission.