Though it is frequently not recognized, it is easily established that father Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees by faith, Hebrews 11.8. However, that same father Abraham did not possess saving faith for another ten years until, in Genesis 15.6, he believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Both James and the Apostle Paul fix the time of Abraham’s justification on that occasion (James 2.23; Romans 4.3; Galatians 3.6). Thus, the Biblical prototype of justification by faith exhibited genuine faith when he left Ur of the Chaldees to live in the Promised Land, but it was not saving faith.
What does this have to do with diminishing the impact of the Gospel message that results in young people leaving our Churches and in some cases perhaps young men in the ministry leaving our movement? In my musings, it strikes me that it has plenty to do with it. It is not often recognized that Abraham had faith for a decade that was not saving faith, but such a reality seems in my musings to be vitally connected to our evangelism in two ways: First, if no attention is paid to the possibility of someone having faith, real faith, genuine faith that is not saving faith, then a sinner’s faith can be misread by someone as indicating the presence of spiritual life when in fact, there is none. Those few men in the Gospel ministry these days who pay careful attention to those who come under serious conviction of their sins and make professions of faith in Jesus Christ may injudiciously look for evidence of faith from someone who professes to have been saved (sincerely so in some cases) when they should instead look for evidence of life. Why so? Abraham had faith for upwards of ten years before his justification by faith. Had someone looked for evidence of faith in Abraham’s life he would have found it, though Abraham was not justified until Genesis 15.6. The implications of this are enormous, as the thoughtful pastor will come to see. Second, there is the serious matter of the sluggishness of the heart to believe.
No one denies that the human mind is very quick to change its focus, to alter its direction, and to rapidly address a multiplicity of interests in succession. Indeed, what can in some cases be a great asset can on other matters be a tremendous liability. For example, the incredibly short attention spans of the young reflect the lack of discipline needed to keep the mind focused on important matters that require more than a few seconds to grasp and fully understand. The quickness of their minds is invaluable when playing computer games, but woefully inadequate for paying attention when God’s Word is preached. To compensate for this shortness of attentiveness many who have devoted themselves to ministering to the young have pragmatically adapted their methodology to negotiate through the maze of inattentiveness they are compelled to deal with. They do this with music, with humor, with games, with visuals, with drama, and all sorts of means designed to hold the attention of those with very short attention spans.
However, when doing this, I have observed that a non-negotiable spiritual constant is too often ignored by those who minister to the young and difficult to hold. I refer to the sluggishness of the heart. Allow me to briefly explain. Every human being is comprised of that which is material and that which is immaterial, that which is flesh and that which is spirit. The immaterial part of man includes portions that are variously referred to as mind, heart, spirit, soul, conscience, etc., and anyone who is honest will admit that precisely how to distinguish one of those aspects of the immaterial from the other (where to draw the line between the mind and the heart, for instance) is quite beyond him. However, this we know: The mind is quick, abrupt, fleeting and flighty while the heart is very slow. The Savior made specific mention of this characteristic of the heart in Luke 24.25 when He said after His resurrection, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe.” Thus, the mind is quick, but the heart is slow. But how many men do you know who frequently speak to the young who are even aware of the disparity that exists between the mind and the heart?
This great difference between the mind and the heart has serious implications that are usually overlooked. Consider, for example, Psalm 119.11: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” How many children have memorized that verse only to then commit horrible sins, because they and the adults who exhort them to memorize have not understood the difference between merely memorizing a verse and hiding that verse in your heart? Memorizing is only hiding in your mind, which has an insufficient grip on you to much affect your conduct. To hide a verse in your heart. However, one must diligently work using prayer, meditation, reflection, consideration, and application of that truth, so it is absorbed in and embraced by your heart. Sadly, many people lose confidence in God’s Word because they fail to distinguish between memorizing a verse so as to store it in the mind and hiding that same verse in the heart. The fault does not lie with God’s Word but with a complete misunderstanding of that verse’s meaning.
Consider as well a typical youth rally or youth group meeting in which roughly an hour is spent cultivating hilarity, laughter, amusement, and everything else needed to create an atmosphere that is comfortable to those visiting and those in attendance who are shy. Then, after the skits, the poems, the games, the singing, and the food, the speaker does several things to settle his young listeners down. That done, he begins his message. He has a daunting task, bringing the young people around from laughter and silliness to seriousness and focused attention. How does he do it? He will use illustrations, stories, testimonies, and other techniques to produce a seriousness of mind, perhaps even resulting in tears as some of them reflect on their sins and shortcomings. As the speaker draws his message to a close his listeners frequently feel guilty, what they believe to be heavy-hearted, and aware of their need of repentance. If he is skillful, the young people will respond to his urgings by praying about their sins, by making personal commitments, and by praying the sinner’s prayer after the speaker’s recitation of that prayer to receive Christ. Afterward, they feel relieved; their heaviness is alleviated, the tears of sorrow are frequently replaced by tears of joy, and the youth rally is deemed a great success.
The problem, of course, is that none of the young people who prayed the sinner’s prayer were saved. They are told they were saved. They will think they are saved. But the complete absence of spiritual growth in their lives following their so-called conversion will be explained away as carnality and backsliding when the real problem is the direct result of an unobserved characteristic of the human heart. But what about their joy afterward and the thrill they felt about their new life in Christ? Oh that. Have you never read the Savior’s parable describing one still unsaved person’s reaction to the Word, Matthew 13.20-21?
20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
The emotional response that is sometimes produced by one’s reaction to the Word of God is clearly no certain indication of a real heart response to the truth. This is because the human heart, every person’s heart, is slow to believe. While the mind can flit about like a water bug on a pond the heart of each and every one of us, without exception, turns as slowly as a super tanker full of crude oil. Oh, you can play and horse around for an hour and then be brought to tears in a matter of fifteen or twenty minutes by a skilled speaker. But that is only the mind being redirected by various means, with some of those means being obviously manipulative. The heart, you see, was left behind because it is very, very sluggish. The Savior said so.
Why is this important to take note of? Romans 10.10 declares, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Impress the mind to the point that feelings of guilt and emotions well up into tears as much as you want. Coax the mind to burst forth in a flood of emotion and prayers all you want. But it is the heart that is the important thing, and the heart is said by our Savior to be slow. Want to know why very few members of our Church’s youth group from the late 1980s that used to travel the Western states winning souls, conducting youth clinics, and encouraging Churches everywhere, attend a Church anywhere that I know of today? Ministry to young people’s minds was conducted to produce decisions and commitments with no regard to the nature of the heart to respond only very slowly. Therefore, you can have all the fun you want for an hour and then turn to Gospel preaching at the end, but it will be only minds that are affected and not hearts.
I am not saying that the Gospel is not being preached. I am not saying that there are never real conversions. Some of the kids will remember what was preached at the youth rally and hours later, days later, or perhaps months later will trust Christ. But that will happen as the Spirit of God works to bring the content that is in the mind into the heart, where it will be slowly considered as the Spirit of God presses the truth home.
Thus, there are very sincere ministries and ministers who engage in methods that interfere with the progress of the Gospel applied by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of sinners. Sometimes evidence of faith is mistaken for evidence of life. However, faith can be possessed and displayed by the unsaved, as was the case with Abraham. Look for evidence of life, my preacher friend, not evidence of faith. As well, we think we can ignore the unchangeable nature of the human heart to appreciate, appropriate, and apply the truth first apprehended by the mind only slowly? Think again.
Thus, many of our young who have made professions of reach the erroneous conclusion that Christianity is not real (because they think they tried it), or that Christianity is for everyone but them (because they think they tried it), or worse yet, they continue living despicable lives that they think is the Christian life because their lives are so similar to the fake Christianity found so frequently in Churches today. Therefore, when God’s Word makes little impression on their hearts when their so-called Christian lives are without a victory, they frequently drift away and into completely secular lifestyles. Others, who go off to Bible college and end up in the ministry are prone to drift off into other movements where the emphasis is on emotion-charged services and “worship” that is almost completely geared to entertainment.
Regardless of what era we live in, and no matter how short the attention spans of young audiences, the human heart is and always will be sluggish and slow to respond. That is a factor worth considering when seeking to reach lost young people, in my opinion.
