“You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21).
In the last BLOG it was noted how it is pride that moves a person to love self rather than God. It is pride to be centered and focused on self rather than centered and focused on God. It is a blindness brought on by a great pride that hides the evil of a heart that does all that it does out of love for itself and still thinks that God should be pleased. The arrogant wander from the commands of God, but the righteous cry to God not to wander from His commands: “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:10). The righteous, even when tricked and tempted, still don’t go astray: “The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts” (Psalm 119:110).
We can see this principle in Nehemiah as well: “But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments” (9:16). “And admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances, By which if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen” (9:29). The issue of the heart is pointed to by Nehemiah. Their fathers had acted arrogantly. In their arrogance they had become stubborn and would not listen to His commandments. It was not that they could not listen, but they would not listen. An arrogant and stubborn heart will not listen to the commands of God. When the arrogant and stubborn heart hears the words of the commands of God, it wants to do what it wants to do. It does not want God to rule over it and to tell it what to do. It wants to obey self and follow what it thinks is good for self. That stubborn heart then turns a stubborn shoulder toward God and stiffens its neck. This is a heart that is following itself in pride and is not listening to God.
What happens when a stubborn, proud, and self-centered heart externally hears the Word of God commanding it to have no other gods in His presence (before Him)? It may not understand what it really means and so obey in an external way or it may simply ignore it. But that heart that begins to understand what the command means it because it is a command for the proud, self-centered heart to repent of its own I-dolatry and its own self-godness. That is exactly what pride and self-centeredness really are in the presence of the living God in all of its forms and actions. The heart that God is working on and in begins to see how awful its own self-centeredness is in the presence of God. That heart begins to see that all of its thoughts and desires have been proud and self-centered in the presence of the God who commands that there be no other gods in His presence. This heart begins to see that it is its own god and that all that it does is in violation of the First Commandment. The heart begins to be opened and enlightened and sees with horror that every time it has used the name of God in something less than a reverent way it has violated the command to use His name with reverence and awe (not use it in vain) which is also a violation of the First Commandment.
The heart then begins to see that when it obeys its own desires on the Sabbath day it is choosing self and pride over the clear commands of God and is violating the First Commandment. The heart begins to reflect back and understand all the times that it did not obey his or her parents and even more the times s/he did not honor his or her parents it violated the First Commandment too. Even worse, it begins to see each violation of the Fifth Commandment is also a violation of dishonoring “Our Father who is in heaven.” Each time the soul has stolen something, lied to another or to God, and has coveted that soul has lived for the I-dol of self and has had the god of self in His presence. This soul begins to feel the crushing weight of its sin and sees that it has violated the First Commandment with its thoughts, desires, bad deeds, and even its good deeds. This soul begins to see that even its religious actions were done out of self-love and in reality was exalting self in the presence of God. This soul begins to feel the depths of its depravity and helplessness before God. It loses all sense of the sufficiency and righteousness of self. It looks to Christ and to Christ alone. It now sees how arrogant it was in wandering from the commandments of God. Now it knows that it must be broken of its pride and arrogance in order to be a humble and lowly servant of the living God in which Christ dwells. It now knows the promise of the New Covenant in which God Himself promises to work obedience to His Law in the hearts of those He dwells in. But this heart must start by seeing the depths of pride and self-centeredness that it lives in so that it can see the arrogance of wandering from the commands of God. That is indeed to be cursed because it means that it does not have Christ.
God Loves... Himself 
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