The Center of the Lord’s Controversy

Micah 4

Note: I have never repeated a blog post before but I'm going to today. The bulk of this one originally appeared as the opening post in my series on urban ministry. However, I originally prepared it in the context of a sermon series I did on Micah. That sermon series is the foundation for this blog series, and I think it is important to include it here in context in the Micah blog series as well.

The phrase that best sums up the book of Micah is the Lord's controversy. (Micah 6.2) God's people were deeply disobedient, and thus the Lord hath a controversy with his people. (Micah 6.2) But where was the center of that controversy? Every movement has an organizational and motivational center. Every movement has a heart. The great sin that caused the Lord's controversy with Israel was no different. Where was the center of the rebellion against God? Where was its heart? …in the large cities.

Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Micah 1:5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

Large urban cities are the primary influence in setting the direction of a society.

Scripture shows us this. Every Sunday School child has learned the story of the Tower of Babel. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower. (Genesis 11.4) That city and the culture which flowed from it so influenced society in the wrong direction that God had to break it up. God, who originally put man in a garden, had Israel build His Temple in the highest spot of the greatest city in the land. Why? …because influence flows from cities. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5.14) When Israel was re-founded as a country after the Babylonian Captivity where did they focus? Jerusalem. It was the center of re-settlement, of government, of religion, of security, and of revival.

Observation shows us this. Wars almost always target the enemy's chief population centers for conquest. A hundred years ago the American economy was driven by the family farm. It has long since transitioned to be driven by the manufacturing and consumption in urban areas. In our day the media which so influences our American culture is driven essentially by three major cities – New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D. C. The large urban centers of America almost entirely set the tone for our country. We are politically liberal because the cities are. (A quick glance at a map of the United States broken down by county vote shows the entire country is Republican. The cities are Democratic and the cities constantly win.) We are ethnically diverse because the cities are. We are culturally filthy because the cities are. Large cities set the tone for America just like they did in Bible times.

This is why there is a clear and continuous pattern in Scripture emphasizing preaching in cities. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah essentially address God's people by addressing their chief cities. God sent Jonah explicitly to a large city. Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. (Jonah 1.2) Have you ever studied the geography of Paul's missionary journeys? All of the places he went were then major cities. Even Paul's epistles, other than Galatians and those to individuals, were all written to churches in major cities: Romans, I and II Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and I and II Thessalonians. John's letters to specific churches in Revelation? Yep, all to what were then major cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Failing to understand this, sound Christianity has increasingly abandoned large American cities and consequently is struggling.

I think this jumps out at me especially because my perspective is relatively unique. I grew up in a small Midwestern village of 4,000 people. For nearly seven years I pastored my first church in an even smaller town of 1,200 people. Now for over thirteen years I have labored smack dab in the heart of one America's great cities, Chicago. The difference in worldview, parenting, education, entertainment, crime, leisure, and religion is startling.

This difference, however, was not so startling at the turn of the 19^th century. Back then, as fundamentalism was birthed, it was noticeably led almost entirely by strong men who led strong ministries in big cities. R. A. Torrey led the Bible Institute of Los Angeles after years serving at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. James M. Gray pastored Moody Church here in Chicago. A. C. Dixon had pastored in Chicago, Boston, London, and Baltimore. A. T. Pierson pastored Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. W. B. Riley led Minneapolis' grand First Baptist Church. J. Frank Norris pastored just outside of Dallas. T. T. Shields pastored Toronto's Jarvis Street Baptist Church. T. Dewitt Talmage preached at Brooklyn's Central Presbyterian Church. Lewis Sperry Chafer taught at Dallas Theological Seminary. The foundational meetings around which the American fundamental movement was born were held in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., New York City, Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

Now, just over a century later, the largest fundamental meetings take place in country towns in North Carolina, Illinois, or Michigan perhaps, and in mid-size cities such as Lancaster, Lexington, Elgin, and Hammond. There are no more influential fundamentalist Presbyterian churches or leaders, and with a couple exceptions the influential independent Baptist ones are not in major cities. In my city alone – formerly the home of D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, James M. Gray, Paul Rader, Harry Ironside, and A. W. Tozer – the largest fundamental church runs maybe 200 in Sunday School. To the best of my knowledge there are no more than five good independent fundamental Baptist churches left in Chicago, one for every 540,000 people, and only two of these churches are growing. No, we are not the only ones preaching the Gospel in this city or in yours, but our doctrinal understanding and practice goes much deeper than the surface religion that represents so much of contemporary American Christianity. We are independent, fundamental Baptists for very good reasons. You can swing a dead cat and hit a dozen such churches in Greenville, South Carolina (population 61,000) but you will search high and low to find them in the inner cities of Houston, New Orleans, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Detroit, San Francisco, or St. Louis.

Scripture and observation tell us that a nation is influenced through its large cities. We

My city, Chicago. Our church is off the left edge of the
picture toward the top.

routinely cry and moan about the condition of America these days but if we actually want to change it we must return in large numbers to the cities. We must motivate, finance, educate, promote, and pray young men into the inner cities to plant churches. We cannot change America in any real way absent this.

Micah was specifically sent with his message to the major cities of his day because that is where the decision for national repentance had to be made. It is the same in our day. We must bring our great message back to the great cities of this country if the country at large is to hear and heed it. If we are going to fix what is wrong it will not be done by tinkering around the edges; we must go to the center and attack there. We must go and cry to the city.

The Lord's voice crieth unto the city. (Micah 6.9)

The Grounds of the Lord’s Controversy

Micah 3

God is having a prolonged, public contention with Israel. They are unjust in forcing Him to do so for He has been nothing but good to them for centuries. In this we see applied two truths. First, our God is a demanding God, and second, it is not fair for us to give Him cause for a controversy with us.

In today's post we are going to examine Micah to see if we can establish the grounds of the Lord's controversy with them. What are His reasons? What support does He give to prove their error? What evidence of guilt on their part does He base this controversy on? Just what exactly had they done so wrong so as to cause this contention between them?

As I read Micah I found four basic causes for the Lord's controversy. First, they sinned with great calculation.

2.1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

It is one thing to "fall" into sin at a sudden opportunity, though often there is often a long process here as well. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say, "Behind every human tragedy is a long process of wicked thinking." Long before there was a sudden visible fall there was an abandonment of a personal walk with God, and a corresponding and growing internal weakness. But it is an entirely different thing to systematically set about doing as much sin as you are possibly capable of doing. The former is bad; the latter is awful.

In the past six months I have read two lengthy books detailing the history of the Italian mafia and the Irish mob in America. Many of these men began with targets of opportunity but as time progressed they shifted to cold, calculating, pre-meditated crime. They did not evolve – which implies accident – so much as grow their underworld empires. They sinned with great calculation. And when you get to the place that you plan your sin precisely, and plan it in such a way as to maximize it you are in an exceedingly dangerous place.

Second, they sinned with great energy.


2.8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

7.3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Some men sin simply because they are lazy. It is easier to sin than it is to do right. They do great harm, personally, to their own character in this manner but comparatively little damage to the rest of society in the great scheme of things. This path of least resistance makes them crooked, yes, but it does not make them criminal masterminds.

There are other men, however, who throw all their passion, ambition, and determination into sin. They dream of sinning bigger and better, and then they diligently labor to build a foundation of actions under the air castles of their sinful dreams. Hugh Hefner began "Playboy Magazine" with $1000 from his mother, mortgaged his furniture to add a few hundred more, and almost single-handedly launched the sexual revolution in America. That, along with growing rich, was his intent, and he gave his life to see it succeed.

This second cause for controversy often follows the first. If you are going to lose sleep studying and planning on how to expand your sin then you are probably going to go at it hammer and tongs when you are awake. Greed, lust, and pride initially are driven by yielding to the sudden urges of our flesh, but given enough time to develop they can harden into truly awful weapons in the devil's arsenal. Show me a world of misery and I will show you behind it men who are driven passionately to pursue their sin.

Third, they sinned with great damage to others.

Last month I finished Martin Meredith's classic work, "The Fate of Africa." It is an 800 page tome detailing the horror of a continent that lies prostrate at the feet of leaders marked deeply by greed and blood. Country after country after country lies in ruins fifty years after achieving independence precisely for the three causes God has laid out thus far in Micah.

2.2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

2.9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.

3.2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

7.2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

Such sinners as I have described are often in a great hurry to accomplish their sinful goals. In the process their ruthless attitude and energetic commission of sin runs people over like a steamroller. They do not care who they hurt. They have no conscience. Though they often have great affection for their own families they never transfer that to any of their victims. To them, society is simply a collection of marks, a herd of prey.

Such men cannot be reasoned with. Such men cannot be shamed. Such men cannot be charmed. They do not care about anything other than their own single-minded pursuit of their carefully crafted and energetically pursued sinful ambition.

Of course, in so doing, they unleash an attitude that devours the only thing left of any value and affection in their own life – their family.

7.5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

Josef Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, was his pride and joy. Amid the horror of blood and misery he unleashed on Russia and Europe she trundled along by his side, an innocent child. But when death took her as an old woman in 2011 it found her in Wisconsin, living a quiet life as far away from her father's memory as she could possibly get. She had run run as far and as fast as she could.

Other men find not only that their families abandon them but that their families turn on them. Herod the Great ended his life in bizarre paranoia, competing with his own sons to see who would manage to snuff out the life of the other first. Herod the Great "won", and so viciously murdered his children that Caesar Augustus said he would rather be Herod's pig than his son for he treated his pigs so much better.

People often seek to justify their sin by saying, "I'm not hurting anybody but myself." Of course, that is not true, by a long shot, for everyone has some influence over others around them. But even if it were true it would not stay true long. Sin is a highly contagious disease that refuses to stay quarantined. Your own sinful pleasure is not enough. Now you must take what someone has or involve others in order to maintain the same level of enjoyment in sin. Sin breaks down your own internal rules, and eventually brings you to the twisted place of enjoying the pain you cause others. It is no coincidence that the evil that is ISIS actively recruits new soldiers from among inner-city Europe's rappers and gang members. Given an opportunity to wreak havoc on a wide scale appeals to many such lost souls.

Fourth, they sinned right through the preaching. I do not mean they sinned during the preaching. I mean they sinned through it as a weapon cuts through a shield put up to stop it.

It is one thing for a remote tribal culture to be steeped in sin that has never seen a Christian missionary. It is quite a different thing for a people who have long had the light of the glorious gospel of Christ to turn from Him to the idols of humanism, paganism, and hedonism. It speaks of a people who have become completely callous to the awfulness of sin.

There are two steps to developing the hardened attitude of this fourth cause. First, the people scorned preaching.

2.6 Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.

They sought to quieten the God-called preacher, to get him to pipe down, to stop naming sin, to stop preaching righteousness. But they did not stop there. They co-opted the preacher, pulling him into their orbit, getting him to proclaim as good all that was previously preached against as bad.

2.11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

"Drink up! Enjoy yourself and your life to the fullest. I am not here to judge but to love, not to hinder but to condone. Especially when in so doing I stand to profit financially."

3.11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

We can thus see that we are dealing with a people who are calculated in planning their sin, they are energetic in the commission of that sin, they are heedless of the damage they cause in pursuit of their sin, and they are blowing right through the stop sign of preaching that God has put up to slow them down. Truly, God had great grounds for a great controversy with such great sinners.

What is the application for us today? History shows us that great sin brings one of two things: great grace or great judgment. John Newton, the ex-slaver gloriously transformed into a preacher of the Gospel said on his death-bed, "Although my memory is fading I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour." Such a man it was who gave us the immortal strains of "Amazing Grace."

To the contrary, I bid you notice the book of Revelation. It is filled with judgment and the wrath of God. There is no more room for grace. It has been refused too long, men are too confirmed in their sin, hardened in it. They will not repent so God cannot longer stay His hand.

As I write this my mind and my heart are screaming, "America." Corporately, as a culture, and willingly, as a people, we have furnished God each of these four grounds for controversy just as long ago Israel did. We give ourselves diligently to become better and better at more and more sin. Along the way the misery of violence and suicide and assault and depravity and corruption rise like flood waters. Preaching? Who pays it heed anymore except for those preachers who sell us a lie while the ones who speak the truth are increasingly attacked.

His hand of mercy and grace is yet held out still. But for how much longer?

The Injustice of the Lord’s Controversy

Micah 2

6.1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

Welcome to our discussion of the little known and studied book of Micah. Last time we saw the theme of the book is that the Lord has a controversy with His people. In today's post we will clearly see the injustice of the Lord's controversy. I do not mean by that statement that God was unjust or unfair to Israel in having a controversy with them, but rather that Israel was unjust to God in causing Him to need to have a controversy with them.

Let me reach into my own life for an illustration of what I mean. Seventeen years ago Mandy took my hand and we entered life together as husband and wife. The truth is she loved me before I loved her. She gave up her name and her life, essentially, to take mine. She accepted my offer of marriage when I was living in the office at church, pastoring fifteen people, and driving a car that was four different colors. She has born me four children. The first five years we moved repeatedly with nary a word of complaint from her, including to the inner-city here thirteen years ago. For all these years she has washed my clothes, cleaned my house, cooked my meals, nursed me in sickness, and partnered with me in ministry. In short, she has been good to me. It would be a grave injustice for me to run off with the piano player. Well, she is the piano player, but you get my drift surely. I should give her no cause to have a great controversy with me. She has showered me with blessings, and consequently she ought to be immune from me causing her grief.

This is exactly God's thinking in relation to Israel.

6.3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.

Has God done anything to cause Israel harm? Has He been unjust or cruel or even mean to them? Has He wronged them in any way? Of course He has not.

6.4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

Micah preached in 800 BC, over three hundred years before Israel's deliverance from the Babylonian Captivity. This mention of deliverance is in reference to the events of the Exodus six centuries before. The fact of the Exodus and the method of it are eternal proofs of God's design to be good to His people. Not only that, but He gifted them with Moses et al, who was perhaps the greatest leader in all of human history.

6.5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.

God through Micah is referencing the story of Balaam found in the Torah.

Numbers 22.4 And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.
5 He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:
6 Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

Balaam was not a Jew but he was nevertheless a prophet of God. The king of Moab was concerned about all the immigration <ahem> into his area via an Israel escaping Egypt. Knowing Balaam's words had power he sought to persuade Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam asks God if he can go and God says no. (Numbers 22.12) Undeterred, the king of Moab raises his offer to Balaam and thus seduces God's prophet. Happily, God prevents Balaam from pronouncing curses on Israel and instead places words of blessing into Balaam's mouth. The king of Moab, sputtering with anger, responds, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. (Numbers 23.11)

God's point here, via Micah, is that the interaction of Balak and Balaam proves His everlasting intention of pouring out on Israel numerous blessings. Like Mandy with me, God had a track record of blessing His people. Furthermore, He had promised them that He would continue to bless them. Why in the world, then, were they living contrary to Him like they were? It was unjust of them to put God in the position of needing to have a controversy with them. It was not fair. It was not just. It was not right.

What is the application for us today? Has not God been as good to you and I, as His people, as He was to Israel? Has He not promised us perpetual blessings, as His people, like He promised them? Then why in the world do we give Him cause for controversy with us? It is unjust. It is unfair. It is not right.

I think of this in relation to some preachers I have known. God blessed them richly. He let them be born in America. He drew them to Himself as Christians. He gifted them with lovely wives, precious families, and thriving ministries. And then they throw it all away in pride, in lust, or in greed. Now God has a controversy with them, and it is not fair.

I think of this in relation to some young people I have known. God blessed them richly. He let them be born in America. He drew them to Himself as Christians. He gifted them with a godly heritage, a loving church, and with all the health and strength and energy of youth. And then they spit in His face and walk away from all they have been given. Now God has a controversy with them, and it is not right.

I think of this in relation to some spouses I have known. God blessed them richly. He let them be born in America. He drew them to Himself as Christians. He gave them a good church, a measure of health, and a precious, unselfish, loving, caring, dedicated, faithful spouse. And they turn up their nose at God's gracious marital provision, abandon their family, and lose themselves in selfishness. Now God has a controversy with them, and it is not just.

I think of this in relation to some church members I have known. God blessed them richly. He let them be born in America or emigrate here. He drew them to Himself as Christians. He placed them in a good church, one with correct doctrine, the right spirit, affection for one another, and a culture of pursuing both God and sinners. Yet someone or something in the assembly gets in their craw and they walk out on God and on church for the rest of their life. Now God has a controversy with them, and it is not warranted.

The simple truth is God has been, is being, and will continue to be an incredibly good God to us, and this ought to drive us to Him in humble adoration rather than away from Him in stubborn self-will.

Eight centuries after Micah Paul expressed it this way:

Romans 2.3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

It was not fair of the Israel of Micah's day to cause God to have a controversy with her. After centuries of God's blessing, it was unjust for her to give Him cause for grief.

…and it is not fair of us either.

The Lord’s Controversy

Micah 1

One of my frustrations with so much that passes for good writing in the Christian blogosphere is that it is dedicated to simply reacting to the issues of the day. Look! Starbucks is attacking Christmas! I must respond! Look! Target is attacking my daughter! I must respond! Look! The Democrats are attacking prayer! I must respond! Such blogging satisfies a temporary emotional urge to vent, and gets attention if it is inflammatory enough and I understand that, but I desire to be different. I want to write something worth reading (whether anyone bothers to read it or not) and I want it to still be worth reading twenty years from now.

Because of this I tend to write connected series. I want to explore issues and topics in some depth. That is usually best done in a book but it can be done (carefully) in a blog as well. Further, in a blog it is free to one and all; books are not. Thus it is that I have written series on music, alcohol, urban ministry, soul winning, how to respond to hypocrisy in leadership, worship, how to pay a pastor, etc. as well as the gigantic series on the life of Christ that birthed this blog.

In this vein I begin a new series today, yet one that is different too. For the next three or four months on this blog I am going to walk you through a small, rather obscure book of the Bible. In a sense this will be like my first book, though substantially shorter. It will not be controversial. It will not be inflammatory. It might not even be interesting, frankly. What it will be is scriptural and helpful, if you care to read it. It will also give you a much better understanding of one of the books of the Bible that you probably don't have a clue about. Thus it is that I invite you to join me for a while as we explore the book of Micah together.

The foundational thought establishing Micah is that God has a problem with His people, Israel.

6.1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

In this we notice two things. First, we see the depth of the problem that God had with them. The dictionary defines "controversy" as a prolonged and public contention. The original language has ideas behind it such as strife, quarrel, and legal dispute. This is not a light word. It is not a simple disagreement over something relatively minor. Additionally, God uses this strong word not once, but twice. In essence, then, we see that God has a big problem with the behavior of His people.

Understand this – that the Lord has a controversy with Israel, and that Micah is God's messenger attempting to deal with it – and you understand Micah. Over the course of 105 verses Micah will logically explain that there is a controversy, Who it is that has the controversy with them, why they cannot counter-claim against Him, what exactly the controversy consists of, who God blames for the problem, what will happen if they do not fix it, how they can fix it, and how God will ultimately deal with His people.

The second thing we notice immediately is Who exactly has this controversy with them. This is not just some quarrel between women at the market, or even between Israel and some neighboring political power. It is the Lord Himself who has a problem with their action.

1.1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

The Lord GOD is Jehovah Elohim, the incredibly all-powerful and completely righteous and holy God that has a problem with them. And whatever they thought was going to protect them from such a one as Him was not going to stand a chance.

Does this not, then, reveal something to us that is critical to understand about God? Does not this, then, have some bearing on our lives nearly three millennia later? It must, beloved, and for me it is this: our God is a demanding God. If He gives us a set of directions or commands He expects to be obeyed. In the fullness of time He will not let the world get away with any sin, but beyond that, He will not even let His own slide. He is too good a parent for that. What He requires of His people will be required, not ignored. He will call us to account for our actions. We will not get away with it.

The Lord has a controversy with His people now and again. Wise would we be to heed it.

What is Love?

Poetry 3

I do not speak about this publicly very often but I went through a lengthy period of depression as a young person. In retrospect it was actually good for me for a number of different reasons. One of those reasons is that it developed in me an appreciation for poetry. Out of that appreciation grew a desire to write some of my own. From time to time in this blog I will bring you one or two of those. Today is one of those times. 

What is Love?

What is love? 

Love is not like. 

Love is not lust. 

Love is not infatuation. 

Love is not passion. 

Love is not a feeling. 

Why? 

Love is an attitude.

Love goes deeper than lust, passion, like, or infatuation. 

Why?

Love is an attitude.

I work on a bus route. 

I love my bus kids. 

That doesn't mean that I always like my bus kids. 

That doesn't mean I always feel love for them, but I love them.

Why?

Love is an attitude.

Why isn't love a feeling?

Because feelings come and go.

Love isn't a feeling but love has feeling. 

People confuse the feelings of love for love itself.

There are times when feelings of love will leave, but if it's true love the love remains.

Why?

Love is an attitude.

-Tom Brennan, A Teenager's Heart

December 14, 1988

Five Limitations of Personal Evangelism

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 9

I am for every kind of scripturally appropriate evangelism. I wish there were more of it, not less. But I also believe that the only kind of evangelism that has the potential to reach the entire world is personal evangelism. That last sentence is the the philosophical heart of this blog series but I would remiss if I did not admit that personal evangelism has its own challenges. Personal evangelism has the most potential usefulness for the cause of Christ but there are a number of things that limit that potential. Understanding those limitations I think can help us to minimize them, and thus maximize our application of confrontational soul winning.

The first limitation is simply this: not enough Christians do it. I pastor an average sized

church with an above average number of soul winners. I would estimate that 30-40% of our average attendance personally witnesses at least once a month. But, transparently, I have had to fight and claw and scratch and bleed and pray and beg and preach myself half to death in these thirteen years to get those percentages that high - and they still are not a majority. Additionally, I recognize that the average church is in worse shape than mine. Various studies I have seen assert that in the typical Gospel preaching American church of all kinds less than 20% of the people attending ever personally witness.
What does that mean? Well, in practical terms, in a city the size of Chicago, if there are 250,000 people attending a Gospel preaching church (generous numbers here, too) that means less than 50,000 people will be personally confronted with their need of Christ this year – in a city of 2.7 million! We can shade those numbers a dozen different ways for better or worse but the stubborn truth is clear: personal evangelism is hamstrung because the vast majority of American Christians refuse to do it.

Secondly, personal evangelism is limited because many Christians have the wrong concept of what it is. Inviting your neighbor to church is good but that is not personal evangelism. Putting a tract in with your check when you pay your electric bill is good but it is not personal evangelism. The biblical illustrations of personal evangelism – Jesus with the woman at the well, Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, Paul and Silas with the Philippian jailer, etc. – all involved one person talking to another person about his need for Christ with the view of bringing him to an immediate decision. In the book of Acts the early church went house to house seeking to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
This limits personal evangelism because many a Christian has silenced their conscience by convincing themselves they are being evangelistic when in fact they are not. They have not clearly presented the Gospel. They have not engaged anyone in a conversational give-and-take to assure understanding. They have not pressed any individual to the point of decision.

Third, personal evangelism is limited when we motivate Christians to win souls on the basis of results rather than the basis of obedience. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16.15) That verse does not say "…and win them to Christ." That verse does not say, "…and build a big church." It says go and it says preach.
When we motivate people to be soul winners so that we can see or experience a good result they will stop if and when those good results stop. I went to a Bible college that emphasized personal evangelism to the max. In its forty year history it has matriculated thousands of soul winners who long since gave up the practice because it did so largely on the basis of results. Those results dried up so the soul winning inevitably dried up too. Soul winning is not a church growth method; soul winning is being obedient to the command of God to take the Gospel to every creature.

Fourth, personal evangelism is limited because some soul winners sell Jesus rather than offer Him.
When your motivation is results oriented you will automatically place pressure on people to produce those results. That pressure at some point always causes an appropriation of worldly methods of getting someone to say "yes" when what they really want is to say "no." At this point, soul winning has become salesmanship rather than a Gospel presentation.
For years I made my living as a salesman. I have sat through dozens of hours of sales training and application. I am more than familiar with phrases such as it's a numbers a game, "no" just means I need more information, abc – always be closing, somebody is selling somebody in every conversation, don't be an order taker, make them feel bad about theirs, and what is there to think about. I have used the Socratic method and the power of positive thinking. I extensively developed my product knowledge. Etc. etc. etc.
I was good at what I did, and the things I learned transferred across industries because the principles work. Sales is push, push, push. It is out thinking the customer, and in a sense manipulating their mental outlook into spending more than they want on things they do not really need sooner than they think feasible.
For me, selling was a selfish thing. I got a commission, and the more I sold the more commission I made. Soul winners who sell Jesus are no different. I get a number, I get a result, and I get to feel good about myself as a soul winner. This only comes through results so I am motivated to push the envelope in order to obtain those results.
Beloved, motivation is just as important to God as the outcome is. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed into a mountain himself alone. (John 6.15) The people had the wrong motivation in offering Him the crown and so He wisely refused it.
We cannot justifiably manipulate someone into Heaven. Likewise, it is unscriptural to browbeat or intimidate a person into making a decision for Christ. In such cases all we really do is manipulate someone into praying a prayer and that does not accomplish anything. Manipulation produces no understanding. Manipulation produces no conviction. Selling Jesus produces statistics that please the soul winner and his peers but it does nothing to advance the cause of Christ.

Fifth, personal evangelism is limited because oftentimes the training is suspect. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (II Timothy 2.21) Good works require training and preparation, and there is no work better than the work of saving souls.
In some cases there is no training whatsoever. "Here is a New Testament. Here is a fistful of tracts. Now go get 'em, tiger." What is the result of such foolishness? There is rightly little boldness in such a person's witness for they have none of the knowledge necessary to inspire confidence. There is little clarity in such a person's witness because there is no carefully prepared plan to put into execution. There is little personalization of in such a person's witness because the best they can do is read a tract.
In more cases there is bad training. Let me reach to my wife by way of example. For more than 15 years she has taught piano to numbers of people. Those lessons have always been conducted one-on-one. On the other hand, there is a piano store in our area that conducts free lessons for everyone who purchases an instrument. But those lessons are done in lecture style to a group. Guess which approach actually develops effective musicians?
In my twenty years as a pastor I have spent hundreds of hours conducting one-on-one personal evangelism training. I want to develop a church that believes deeply in soul winning but that does so in a careful, thorough, scriptural manner. Anything less fails over the long term and is an injustice to the cause of Christ.

It is fairly common for the average Christian to believe at a higher level
than his practice. He readily admits he should read his Bible but he often fails. He knows he needs to pray but neglects his spiritual duty here too. In the abstract he is for a vigorous church attendance; in the concrete he finds all manner of other things pressing upon his time. The same is true in relation to witnessing. Nearly all genuine Christians freely confess their responsibility to share Christ with the lost yet the vast majority of them never do.
I think perhaps an argument could be made that the last example is worse than all the rest. If I fail to read my Bible, or to pray, or to attend church I hurt myself; if I fail to witness I hurt the entire world.
Jesus died for that world. He died for you and me. The least we can do is open our mouths and speak a word for Him.

A Defense of House to House Personal Evangelism

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 8

Last week we laid out for you a brief case for the nearly unlimited potential for personal confrontational evangelism. I would be remiss if I did not admit that the majority of American Christianity disagrees with me. This is seen in the fact that so few churches have an active, organized, vibrant personal soul winning program, but it is also seen in the sometimes sincere and sometimes snide criticisms leveled at soul winning. I plan a much longer blog series dealing with many of these objections but I want to briefly address them today.


"You will never reach everybody."

I know. I agree with you. But that is not our aim. Our aim is to fulfill the Great Commission which tells us to preach the Gospel to every creature. (Mark 16.15) And personal evangelism is the method that offers the greatest opportunity to personally offer Christ to the greatest number of people.

"That might have worked fifty years ago but nowadays people don't want anyone badgering them. Our culture isn't like that anymore."

I've got news for you. There's never been a culture where people liked people badgering them. People are people, and they largely share similarities across cultures and generations. The church in Jerusalem didn't start practicing house to house evangelism because the Jews welcomed it so eagerly, and we shouldn't stop it when people don't. 

…and I might also add I routinely have precinct workers, alarm salesmen, Jehovah's Witnesses, plumbers, and school kids selling all manner of things ringing my doorbell in 2017. It's funny; apparently the only group that thinks it is inappropriate to ring a doorbell anymore is evangelicals.

Some days I just want to shout at American Christianity, "Stop being culture driven; be Scripture driven!"


"Well, confrontational evangelism always results in false professions, and you ought to be concerned about that."

Actually… you're right. Yes, I can hear your gasp all the way over here in Chicago. Confrontational personal evangelism results in false professions – and so does every single other method of evangelism. But the solution to false professions isn't to stop witnessing. The solution is stop being pushy, to teach soul winners to look for people with whom the Holy Spirit is dealing, and above all to emphasize a detailed, thorough presentation of the Gospel.

False professions don't make soul winning a bad thing; they make badly done soul winning a bad thing.


"Confrontational. Do you understand what that word means, Tom? You're going to run people off with such an approach."

Um, they are already on their way to hell now. Where are you going to run them off to? Hell number two? He that believeth not is condemned already. (John 3.18) I'm being a little snarky, and I realize that but I'm still right. If we allow ourselves to become concerned about not offending people we will close our mouths for Christ and never open them again. I am not advocating that we purposely seek to offend, but I am advocating that we ought to purposely seek to confront. And that is entirely scriptural.


"You soul winners are plucking green fruit. Those folks aren't ready to get saved, and your premature efforts are causing much harm."

How do you know that? Is there some waiting period in the Bible I've missed somewhere? To the contrary, behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (II Corinthians 6.2) I realize that the Holy Spirit must convict the sinner in order to prepare him to be regenerated, but there is no reason the Holy Spirit cannot convict him today. Scripturally, there is a sense of urgency both explicitly stated and implicitly referenced in relation to witnessing all through the Bible. Jesus led Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the thief on the cross to Himself in the first conversation. 


"Witnessing is not a set time scheduled on Saturday morning. It is a way of life."

I could not possibly agree with you more. If you preach that in my church I'll sit on the front row and holler "Amen" as loud as I can. …but thirty years of experience in soul winning and close observation of churches has proven one thing to me: the only Christians who actively incorporate witnessing into their daily life are those who first incorporated it by schedule.

The truth is our flesh fights witnessing more than any other spiritual activity besides prayer, I suppose. Building an evangelistic culture is the single most difficult thing to do in any church. If we do not purposely and regularly schedule a time for soul winning we will rarely witness. If we leave it there we are remiss, but if we do not begin there we seldom if ever progress to an active life of witnessing.


…so take the Gospel to someone this week. Better yet, do it today. Step out in compassionate boldness and speak a word for Christ. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10.2)

Go into it. I don't mind if you put up a sign with the Gospel on the edge of the field. I don't mind if you play the Gospel on a PA system aimed toward the field. But get up from the table and walk out into that field. That's where the harvest is.

The Potential of Personal Evangelism

A Philosophy of Personal Evangelism 7

 
This is a series that attempts to explain why our kinds of churches emphasize personal evangelism, and why we are right to do so. Thus far we have discussed both good and bad motivations to witness. We then briefly sketched for you a history of evangelism. In the process we discovered that there are really only two kinds of evangelism, personal and impersonal, and that impersonal evangelism is limited in its effectiveness primarily because it calls for men to come to church rather than calling for them to come to Christ. 

Personal evangelism, on the other hand, has more potential than impersonal evangelism. This is because soul winning takes Christ directly to the lost where they are at.

The first part of the book of Acts records the staggering rate of growth of the Early Church. How were they able to reach so many people with the Gospel so quickly? There are several answers to that question but one answer is that the Apostles placed an emphasis on taking the Gospel to every home in Jerusalem.

Acts 5. 14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
…
17 ¶ Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,)and were filled with indignation,
18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,
…
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
…
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

I have met those who maintain that in every house was not evangelism but rather the 1^st century equivalent of home Bible studies or house churches, but the context does not bear this out. From verse 17 to verse 42 is one story. In that story the Sanhedrin is not attempting to stop sermons to the saved but rather the Apostles' efforts to give the Gospel to the lost. Some of this was done via public preaching (daily in the temple) but some of it was also done personally from house to house (in every house).

This emphasis on a personalized individual presentation of the Gospel at each house was not just modeled in Jerusalem by Peter. It was taken up by Paul and used in his church planting efforts.

Acts 20. 17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
18 And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
19 Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
20 And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Clearly, this is not a Bible study for those who are already saved. I am not against that, by any means, but going house to house and preaching repentance and faith in Christ is explicitly connected with soul winning. In other words, both Peter and Paul, and the churches they influenced, believed in preaching the grace of Christ corporately but also in taking the Gospel to the lost where they were at.

Acts 17.16 ¶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.

Potentially then, personal evangelism is the only form of evangelism that can reach an entire community. Indeed, both in Jerusalem and in Ephesus they took the Gospel house to house and this is precisely what happened.

Ac 5:28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
…
Acts 19. 10 And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
…
Ac 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Jonathan Goforth was a Canadian Presbyterian. The Lord moved on his heart to take the

Gospel to China and then used him in a wonderful way. In his wife's short biography of him she tells of his days as a Bible college student in Toronto in the late 1800s.

On weekdays, Jonathan spent much of his time visiting in the slum district. His strategy was to knock at a door, and when it opened a few inches, he would put his foot in the crack. He would then tell them his business and if, as was usually the case, they said they were not interested and went to close the door, his foot prevented the proceedings from being brought to an abrupt end. As he persisted, the people of the house almost invariably gave way and let him in. Of all the many hundreds of homes that he visited during his years of slum work, there were only two where definitely failed to gain an entrance. While visiting in slum homes, Goforth would sometimes lead as many as three people to Christ in a single afternoon. Dr. Shearer, who accompanied him in his visits one day said, as they parted, “Goforth, if only this personal contact could have been made with every human soul, the Gospel would have reached every soul long ago.”

I don't advocate this approach to soul winning, but look past that to the fact that Bro. Goforth was using confrontational soul winning long before its so-called heyday in the 1950s and 60s. This is because he found such an approach to personal evangelism modeled in the Word of God. Nor was Goforth alone in this. The oft-quoted C. H. Spurgeon said in his 1863 sermon, "Am I Sought Out?":

There are thousands in London who never will be converted by the preaching of the gospel, for they never attend places of worship. Some of them do not know what sort of thing a religious service is. We may shudder when we say it: it is believed there are thousands in London who do not even know the name of Christ - living in what we call a Christian land, and yet they have not heard the name of Jesus. Thank God things are better than they were, but things are bad enough still. Brethren, you must go and see these things and mend them. To the lodging-houses, young men, you must carry the gospel, and to those thickly-peopled habitations, where every room contains a family, and not one room a Christian. I believe there is very much good to be done by house-to-house visitation - not by City Missionaries and Bible-women only, may God speed that noble body of laborers - but by all of you, by you that have position in society among your neighbors. Make yourselves free, and go and talk to them of Christ in the little houses that are near to you. As far as your time allows be a visitor, and if there be one dark part of the town known to you as the haunt of sinners, make it a point to use this agency of visitation from house-to-house. Let the lost sheep of Israel's house be sought out.

Peter and Paul, Goforth and Spurgeon, why even D. L. Moody understood the importance of personally confronting the lost with the Gospel. In Richard Ellsworth Day's biography of him he describes Moody in 1860s Chicago as "…this man who rushed through life making felonious assaults upon total strangers with his rude challenge, 'Are you a Christian?' "

I am not saying impersonal evangelism is wrong. It isn't. It just isn't as effective at reaching the entire community as confrontational soul winning can be.

…and that position is not one invented by the independent Baptist movement of our father's generation. It has a long and storied history for very good reasons.