It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adams, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
In the past Christian pastors and theologians wrote a lot about the need to deny self and the need not to think well of self. But things have changed. Indeed, the love of self is so widely accepted as orthodoxy today that it gives forth quite an ominous cloud concerning the Church. One reason that this is so ominous (even deadly to a great degree) is that this high view of self and love of self is what deceives people about themselves, their own sin, the nature of God and of grace. If it is a fact (and I think it is) that people basically believe what they want to believe, then a soul that is full of self and love for self has a belief system that is set on automatic to deny the truth about God and His glory. This is why people will not listen to sound doctrine and so gather teachers around them to tickle their ears (II Tim 4:3). People like that turn their ears from the truth in order to listen to myths (II Tim 4:4).
The declaration that God is holy, holy, holy does not allow room for a lot of comfort for self in sin, so people simply turn away from that in the name of orthodoxy or liberalism. The orthodox person can rest in his or her orthodoxy just as much as a liberal can rest in liberalism. Who wants to admit that s/he is in the hands of a holy God that demands perfect justice and there is nothing that s/he can do to satisfy His burning anger and wrath? Oh how self-love wants to believe that a loving God would never treat him or her like that! Oh how self-love has a hard time seeing that its little indiscretions (in its own deceived eyes) are worthy of eternal flames! What self-love does not want to believe self will fight and reason away. Self tells itself that it would never do anything like that and so self has convinced self that God would never do that. But again, that is self reasoning and trying to reason away the truth about God. Romans 1:18-32 is quite clear on this. People suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Those who love self (in reality, the love of self is an idol and is having other gods in His presence) serve self and develop belief systems that allow self to remain at the center.
Ministers will work and work to gain a large number of converts and build bigger buildings and will do that for the honor of self. Oh indeed they say it is for the glory of God, but down deep they are doing it out of self-love. They are able to maintain a form of orthodoxy while they deceive themselves and others in building up large numbers and large buildings. They are so blinded that they use their orthodoxy as a blinder to themselves rather than a guide on how to preach the Gospel. They will speak on the issue of depravity and feel good about themselves in doing so, yet they will deny the reality of depravity in the way they do evangelism (so-called) so they can get large numbers and fund large buildings.
Ministers go to ministerial meetings and conferences (even conservative ones) and there they are made to feel good about themselves. They are told that they are doing great jobs if they preach through a book of the Bible. They are told that they are doing great jobs if they are getting converts or baptizing people, though indeed they may be doing nothing more than deceiving people into thinking they are saved. Beneath and underlying much of what goes on in these conferences is making ministers feel good about themselves. How beneath the Gospel of grace alone these things are. In other words, this shows how the devil has brought his master-piece of getting people to think well of themselves in the Church. When the ministers are trained while in seminary and then taught in continuing education with methods that are built on the rotting foundation of thinking well of self, the devil has made huge inroads into the Church.
Ministers are taught to motivate people and to get people into “Christian” service by getting them to think highly of themselves. Positive speaking and praise is what gets people to move rather than love for self. But when that is the case, one can know that the devil has worked his master-piece deeply in the Church. When self-denial has become denying things for self so that self can think well of itself rather than the denial of self as a whole, the devil’s master-piece has taken root. It is a real and vital question to ask just how much of real Christianity remains in the United States today when so much of what goes on reflects the master-piece of the devil. An orthodox veneer cannot cover over such a rotten foundation. It cannot stand the eternal test and it will not stand for long in this world either. How we need a deep sense of our sin, unworthiness, and utter helplessness before God.
God Loves... Himself 
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