As God withdraws Himself from the professing Church, the nation and the professing Church are sliding into deeper and deeper darkness. Christianity is presented as nothing more than a few rituals to be endured. Recently I heard of a man that said from the pulpit that all a person needed to do to be saved was to be breathing and to say the prayer. In that and in rituals that provide salvation for people no account of pride and self-centeredness are taken. There is no real thought of what it means to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit. For a person to be truly saved, that person must be saved from the ravages of pride. But in the professing Church today, that is not taken into consideration at all. God resists and fights the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The soul that is proud does not, will not, and cannot receive grace.
“[Egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion] are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice…self can lie unrebuked at the very altar…It can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.” (A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God)
We have become used to thinking that if a man has been to seminary or has been ordained that he must be a Christian and is seeking the interests and cause of Christ. On the other hand, however, we see Paul warning the elders from Ephesus that wolves would come in among them and even from among their own number men would arise speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:29-30). We also read of Simon who was professing faith in Christ. He saw that the apostles would lay hands on people through that people were receiving the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw this, he offered the apostles money in an effort to obtain the authority of laying on hands and people receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17-19). Evidently he saw this as a way to make money.
Today we see the same attitude though perhaps with different circumstances. People claim to be able to lay hands on people and then others will receive the Spirit, be healed, or receive blessings that will bring money. Usually there is some financial benefit in it for the person laying on hands. The depth and darkness of such pride is not seen because pride and greed both blind people to the sin involved. How dare anyone think that they have the power of the Spirit in them so that they can dispense Him at all much less as they please. Sure the words are there that they are promoting Christ and His cause, but the self is more obvious than the truth of Christ.
But let us not always be pointing the finger at obvious things. How proud and full of self the Pharisees were for their orthodoxy, morality, and their religious practices. It is here that we must pay attention to the words of Tozer because they are backed by the evidence of Scripture. Self and pride can indeed lie unrebuked at the very altar. Self is the veil that hides the face of God from us and that in and with the very forms of orthodoxy. By nature of the case pride hides our sin from us. Self-centeredness is sin in all things, yet pride blinds us with the very self that is sin. Pride is the puffing up of self, so man is blinded by the self and cannot see beyond that self. Self will use the name of Christ to do something and yet the pride of self hides the motives of self from self. Men are going on in their orthodoxy and are blinded by self even more because now self thinks it is orthodox. We give men evangelistic things to do and they do them for self and are blinded by their works of evangelism.
Self, as Tozer says above, will fight for the faith of the Reformers and even preach salvation by grace and yet do it all by the power of self. Self can be more at home at Bible conferences; he goes on to say, than in the tavern. Why is that true? It is because pride delights in self-righteousness in all people. Pride is also such in some people that they find ways to exalt themselves at Bible conferences. They can get the attention that their pride craves. Let us not assume that all is well when men are orthodox at conferences. It may be nothing more than the expression of their self and pride. Let us each look in our own hearts to examine them carefully. Do we desire the glory of God out of love for Him or because we have earthly benefits to self? Beware of self-deceit as self will try to blind you to the truth. Beware of pride as it does not want to be exposed. But exposed they must be.
God Loves... Himself 
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