One Purpose

6 December 2009

Dear Phyllis,

 The other day Scott gave me a book of Charles Finney’s sermons. I have always been very fond of Finney, but I don’t know if I have ever read any of his messages. I have been genuinely surprised and rocked by these messages. The first five messages I have read are on true and false conversion.  If 50% of what Finney says is accurate, I fear there are an enormous number of professing Christians who are in very serious trouble. The main subject he has been striking at is selfishness and motive. He maintains any thing that is motivated by self-advantage is spurious and not the Spirit of Christ. Henceforth, anyone who is professing to be a Christian simply for what the can gain from it is laboring under a delusion and knows nothing of the genuine Spirit of Christ.

The first time I heard Joe Carroll preach he said, “You believe the Bible is the Word of God from cover to cover. You believe that Jesus died for your sins. You have accepted Jesus as your savior and are trusting exclusively in the merits of His shed Blood for your salvation; totally apart from any good works on your part; and there has not been a major change in your character or conduct; in all probability you are deceived an still on your way to hell.” Whee! Man howdy, that one rocked me! That was the only message I ever heard that made me search my own heart, and if I wasn’t saved I certainly would have been saved that day. That is Finney preaching.

 The thing that has shocked me so much about Finney’s preaching is that what he says strikes at the very core of 90% of today’s modern evangelism. The message that is so commonly presented today – which we never question it – is the thing that Finney warns is delusion. If he is right, there is something horribly wrong with the evangelical message today. Ninety percent of today’s message is what an advantageous thing it is to be saved. “If you accept Jesus you won’t have to go to hell; you will be marvelous blessed; it is the only way to have a happy life; He will save you from drugs, drink, and cigarettes; you’ll be more prosperous if you get saved; etc.” All of this is what I can get out of salvation.

Finney held up the standard of God and what I deserve. It wasn’t what I could get out of salvation, but the amazing miracle of the grace of God in not sending me to hell. He made God the center and the will of God the focal point. Today’s message makes man the center and the advantage of man the focal point. Reading Finney is so shocking I wonder how we could get so far off base.

 Without question this is what is wrong with today’s modern psychology. One hundred percent of today’s psychology is that they begin with a person’s problem and work towards a solution. “I have a lot of stress.” “I have a lot of anxiety.” “I am very unhappy.” “How can I improve?” The entire issue is the person’s problem. In secular psychology God is totally left out of the picture, but in Christian psychology God is brought into the picture to help solve the problem. But making God the focal point and the will of God everything is 99% excluded. When I was at Link Care no one ever suggested that the will of God was a factor.  It is astounding how many Christians consider their personal happiness as the criteria to determine the will of God. “God wants me to be happy. I am not happy with this marriage. Therefore that proves this is not the will of God and God wants me to marry someone else.” Oh my goodness, where does that wild horse carry us?!

Years ago I was building an elaborate custom kitchen for some missionaries. The job was taking longer than they expected and the missionary wife told her husband; “I am a gracious southern woman. I am used to gracious southern living. God does not want me to suffer like this. I am gong home until this job is done. Let me know when the kitchen is finished and I will come back.” Unbelievable! but that actually happened! Finney would absolutely place that dear missionary sister in the ranks of the deceived regardless of how evangelical they were.

 

There are extremely few – if any – that hold up a standard like Finney. But Finney had an impact on society that no one would think of today. When Charles Finney came to town, theaters closed, bars went out of business, vise disappeared, and jails were emptied.

 In 1965 Harry Stamm came to Japan and told an amazing story.

In upstate New York there is a small town of Houghton, NY. There is a fine Christian college there. In the foyer of the administration building of Houghton Collage there is a painting of a man out in the field praying on his knees. Stamm said the story behind that picture was the history of Houghton. In the early years of the colonies they dug the Erie Canal to make a waterway from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. They used mules to pull the barges along the Erie Canal and Houghton was a rest stop for the night. For entertainment, they started racing the mules at night. Racing brought in gambling, and gambling brought in vise. In time Houghton became so debauched that it was known as the Sodom and Gomorrah of New York State. There was a Christian farmer who lived in Houghton who pleaded with God for that town. Harry Stamm said he didn’t know when the transformation came. Presumably, it was due to the ministry of Finney. But in 1965 there were five churches in Houghton – all of which preached the Gospel – and you could not buy a can of beer or a cigarette in the city limits of Houghton. That is an example of God taking a town that was a moral sewer and making it to be a model Christian community – that lasted for 100 years.

Reading Finney has greatly challenged me. Where is the transformation in today’s preaching? Scott has a book, England, Before and After Wesley. I haven’t read it yet but I am sure it is a good one. Wesley had an impact on England like few men in history have ever influenced a nation. England was on the verge of chaos before his ministry. It has been said Wesley saved England from a revelation. France was in the same condition and had a revelation. England was in bad shape but major masses were converted, and that brought civil rest. Wesley probably made England to be the great nation that she was for over 100years, with the marvelous Christian culture that she enjoyed; sending out thousands of missionaries. To be honest, we can’t attribute all of that to one man. Certainly, it was a sovereign act of God making England to be the nation He could use; and He used many men to bring it about. But Wesley’s preaching unquestionably transformed masses of people.

 Where is that today? Billy Graham is universally acclaimed as God’s greatest prophet for the second half of the 20^th century. It would be interesting if someone wrote a book, America, Before and After Graham. In 1950 America still had the moral grounding of a Christian culture.  Sixty years later the most vile sin is commonly accepted as normal, and so political correct that it is almost illegal to speak against it. If America continues is moral decline at the present rate of free fall, in another 15 years it will be a prison sentence for preaching against sexual perversion. Canada is close to that now with hate legislation and America is right behind.

 

Finney never gave an invitation for salvation. If someone was concerned and wanted to get saved, he would offer an “anxious seat”, but he never told anyone that they were saved. Invitations for salvation began with Moody. Finney’s retention rate was something like 80%. Moody’s retention was considerably less, and Billy Graham’s retention rate was 1%.

It is easy enough to throw stones at others, but this has caused me to examine my own effectiveness. I have searched my heart to think of the last time I heard a life-transforming message or preached one myself. Thank God occasionally one soul here and there gets saved, but I wonder if we aren’t holding out to them more a free pass into heaven than expecting a radical change in the focal point of their life.

We don’t need to wonder what was the focal point of Jesus’ life. He only had one purpose for living – to do the will of the Father – and to give His life for our salvation If it is actually true that Christ is our life now, perhaps that should be more evident in us also.

 See you next week,

   bill