It is the devil’s master-piece to make us think well of ourselves. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
It is hard to imagine it, but imagine a people that are deceived about an important part of Christianity. They are so deceived that what is an essential part of repentance toward God they now believe is the motive they must have to please Him. The deception is so great that they are in reality bowing to an idol and think that it is how God is really pleased. That is the situation with modern professing Christians. They have bought into the devil’s lie about thinking well of themselves. Ministers are trained in this (or at least it is a hidden part that supports much of what they do) and so it comes down to the people in the professing churches.
It would be hard to overestimate this. People would be up in arms if a minister brought an idol into the church building and tried to motivate people to serve that idol. People would rise up and kick a minister out if he tried to get people to bow down before and idol and worship and pray. What has happened, however, is that the idol of self has been brought into the sanctuary (so to speak) and it is bowed down before and worshipped. When self is the primary motive for “Christian” activity, self becomes the reason for what is done. While God may be brought up and told that it is to be done for Him, He becomes a secondary motive in the whole of the activities of the church.
If the devil has indeed made people feel good about themselves, it is not hard to imagine that professing churches would teach people to worship in ways that make them feel good about themselves rather than to see their sin and know and love God. But beyond the mere theory of the matter, it seems as if the professing Church in the United States has been given over to the worship of self rather than the worship of God. We want to worship in ways that make us feel good rather than in ways that make us bow prostrate before Him and His holiness. We want to worship in ways prescribed by us because they make us feel good and feel good about ourselves. When we begin to think that worship is about us, we have just brought an idol into the church just as much as if we brought in a totem pole or a metal idol and bowed down to it.
Oh how the heart is so ready and easily deceived into thinking that what pleases it must surely please God. How easy it is for hearts that don’t understand spiritual things to be deceived into thinking that as long as God is mentioned and the work is done in His name that it must be for Him and His glory. But the heart that does not truly love God as its core and central love is in fact doing all things for itself and as such all the good works are done for an idol. But then again, it seems to be quite easy for those who are the strictest in their adherence to what appears to be biblical to do those for self as well.
The heart is so deceitful and is the instrument of the deceiver of our souls. Once it is thought that attention must be given to people in order to make them feel good about themselves the idol has been set up and is an idol that must be served in all areas of the church. How easy it is to do religious things and think we are doing them for God when in fact we are trying to use God to make a name for ourselves or try to obtain some form of righteousness for self. When the self becomes my focus, I can focus on others in a way that makes me the focus of self in serving others. It is all so deceptive, but the analogy is something like a politician who takes an opportunity at a soup kitchen for the publicity. The politician has no real concern for the people that s/he is serving, though it may be done in the name of mercy and kindness, but the politician is really only concerned about self. Such is the people of the local church when self is not truly denied. Many good things can be done by self and said to be done in the name of God, but the reality of the matter is that self does them for self. This is self trying to use God for the purposes of self and to get honor for self. It can be self trying to obtain righteousness before God, or to enable self to view self as righteous, or perhaps to get others to admire him for what he does. But when self does something with the self as the real love, it is an act of idolatry and the devil has deceived that person with his master-piece.
God Loves... Himself 
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