In the last BLOG we looked at many ways that people can have high religious feelings and yet be lost. This is not just an isolated sort of thing, but in our nation which is so focused on self the religion in America has taken on that basic thrust and is now the religion of self. This can be true in any denomination and any theology. The fallen heart and nature of the human soul has fallen from God-centeredness to self-centeredness. The heart is naturally inclined toward self and so it will be very religious for self without even thinking about it. This is how mega-churches come into being. They intentionally set out to give people what they want. They do what makes people comfortable at church and play the music that people like or are comfortable with. They don’t want to preach on sin because people will become uncomfortable. When this happens it is self-centered people planning services for self-centered people. The only One who is not comfortable at meetings like that is God. So the music and the preaching that are focused on the people to make them comfortable is actually idolatrous because it is not focused on God in truth.
The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.
“But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”
The writings of Edwards as he follows the depths of Scripture are devastating to the modern versions of Christianity. While modern versions pursue self with a version of a god that is focused on our self, Edwards teaches that God is God-centered and can desire nothing but His own glory. So the real God’s desire for His people would be to take away their wicked self-centeredness and give them love for Himself which is the greatest good. For God to give an unregenerate person all that the person’s heart desired would be to give them an awful judgment on them. An unregenerate heart will only desire sinful things for self and if they are religious it would still be self-centered. This is why the modern version of Christianity can be the judgment of God upon us.
If true religion only comes when the heart is truly humbled, then clearly a massive amount of false religion is sweeping the United States and the world. If in fact this is true: “This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect,” then the vast percentage of what we see going on in religion is false because it is based on self which is opposite of true Christianity. If all of what God does toward fallen man is calculated to bring man to an end of his self-love and self-focus, then the orthodoxy and good works of people that are moved by and focused on self simply are wrong from top to bottom. It is like a beautiful tree or house on the outside that has nothing but rotten wood on the inside. What does God require of human souls? “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). What is it that is at the essence of Christianity?
Isaiah 57:15 – For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Colossians 1:27 – to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Hab 2:4 – Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.
The essence of Christianity has to do with Christ living in souls, but God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble. He will only dwell with and in the contrite and lowly of spirit. Those who are proud and focused on self, despite elevated feelings and devotedness to religion, are opposed to God and the essence of Christianity.
God Loves... Himself 
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