It is much easier to join one’s self to a sect than to God…The soul is naturally frightened, and shrinks from the thought of living only upon God and to God. (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)
A sect may offer much for the natural self of man. It is easy to respond in a positive way to those we think like us and will comfort the self when it is bothered in some way. On the other hand, God is determined to do what is good for the soul and that will require much suffering of self and even death to self. A sect will accept a person if they follow certain rules which the self can usually do fairly easily, but God will only accept a person if that person denies self, takes up the cross, and follows Him. This is why there may be more people in sects and people will fill the mega-churches and the buildings where error is taught. A sect is easily joined and easily impressed, but God alone can change the heart to where it can enter at the narrow gate and follow the narrow road. A sect can be joined with little commitment, but to be joined to God requires the submission of the whole soul.
The soul does indeed shrink from the thought of living solely upon God and solely to God. It not only shrinks from that, but it utterly hates the idea unless it is born from above. It is hard for a proud heart to even think of totally living upon God and to God much less actually step out and try to do it, but doing it is far harder than thinking about it as well. The soul is faced with many conflicts within and without day after day and it forces it beyond what it can do in the natural man. The natural man can try to be religious and it can try to rely upon God for all things, but the natural man cannot rely upon God for grace in all things. The natural man will find that he will always be excusing himself for trusting in himself, but the true believer finds that the battle must continue. This is a fight for holy thoughts and holy desires. This is a fight and a battle to the death over self and pride.
The thought of living totally upon God is devastating to the proud man and to the self-reliant. The thought of having to receive all by grace is more than the proud and self-reliant can handle. No, they think, they can do this themselves. But reality will set in sooner or later if they really and truly try to rest in grace alone for all things. Admittedly this is a foreign thought among professing Christians in the modern and self-sufficient world, but God does not desire for us to live for self because that is to the glory of self which is to be like the devil. The believer is to receive all from God on the basis of grace so that the glory of God will shine forth from Himself and then to Himself before Himself, the angelic realm, and the human beings who see.
It is also impossible for the fleshly man or woman to think of always living to the glory and honor of God rather than for self. The Great Commandment teaches us that all we do is to be done out of love for God. We are even commanded that whether we eat, drink, or whatever we do we are to do all to the glory of God. This appears so daunting and overwhelming, not to mention undesirable, that it is thought that surely God cannot mean that. So we think we are to do the best we can. But the commands of God should teach us what we ought to do and not what we can do in our own strength. The commands of God teach us to live by grace rather than to live by the strength of self. The command to do all for God teaches us that we must live totally upon His grace in order to do all for His glory, which is again so hard for proud and self-sufficient people to consider.
The proud and self-sufficient heart has a totally different conception of Christianity than does the Bible which teaches dependence upon God, humility, and brokenness. The proud heart will be religious as long as it can gain honor and have people watch the religiosity of it, but true Christianity teaches that we can only believe if we seek the honor God rather than the honor for self. The proud and self-sufficient heart wants people to look upon it as self-reliant, as strong, as moral, and as determined and tenacious. But the humble heart wants people to see its weakness so that whatever it does the glory will be God’s. The self-sufficient heart is really religious based on the fleshly nature, but the humble heart seeks Christ by grace and also for more grace. The soul is frightened at the thought of living only upon God and to God because it wants to trust self and do what self wants which is easy on self in reality. The cross calls us all to death to self that we may live in dependence on God and unto God.
God Loves... Himself 
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