Some people, especially those who have a name to live, and are dead, are so exceedingly averse to be brought to the knowledge of themselves, and to lose the good opinion they have formed of their own excellencies, that they cannot bear to see the corruption and rottenness of their own hearts, and are highly offended at the faithfulness of any minister who would strip off their varnish, and show them to themselves in their true colors. Sir Richard Hill
There appear to be many good Christian men and women who are moral and quite involved in their churches, yet they are lost as lost can be. They can be ministers, elders, deacons and any other position in the church, but they are still lost and children of the devil. These people are religious and moral, but they are full of self and pride just like the devil. They are religious and so are self-righteous and do all their religious activity to gain a good opinion of self from others, but also self. These people are upstanding in terms of morality in both the church and the community, but they do all they do out of pride and for self. So does the devil.
What these people don’t understand, however, is that they are sinners by nature and all that they do is sin. All of their religion and all of their morality is the religion and morality of self. They do what they do out of love for self and they do what they do with the intent and goal of it for self in some way. This is directly opposed to the Great Commandment which is to love God with all of a person’s being. They are dead in sin with their sinful nature and all of the religion and morality in the world cannot give them a new heart. They think they are serving God while they do nothing but serve self, so indeed they have a name to live while they are dead.
As this type of person grows in pride, self-righteousness, and knowledge of the Bible, instead of becoming godlier this person becomes more and more hardened to the truth of God and His Gospel. Their religion and morality are actually instruments which harden them in darkness and pride. When a faithful minister comes alone and begins to teach people the truth about themselves, these people will hate it. They love to think highly of themselves and their religion and morality, but that view of self cannot retained under faithful preaching. These people will almost always react with great vehemence towards those who faithfully tell them about their own wicked hearts even while they are held in high esteem by people in the professing Church.
This should not surprise us in the least. The Pharisees were the most religious people in their day and they hated Jesus and the apostles when they spoke the truth to the Pharisees. The Pharisees went after Jesus with venom when He exposed their hypocrisy, and the modern children of the Pharisees will do the same. How they will cry up all the rites and rituals of religion and cry up the importance of protests and moral issues, but they will not stand the test of the heart that true preaching will set before them. When a preacher sets out the rottenness of the natural man and how vile men are in the very best that they can do, how these people are highly offended and they will strike at the man who would dare speak to them in that manner.
In the quote by Hill above he shows what the issue really is like with his analogy concerning varnish. One can take a piece of wood that is rotten on the inside and yet put some varnish on it and make it look shiny. But the inside of the wood has not changed though the appearance of it looks much better. So men in their religion and their morality are pictured as putting coats of varnish on themselves and making themselves look better, but the reality of it is that they are just putting coats on top of that which is rotten. Only the appearance is changed. When faithful ministers strip off the varnish and show men how rotten and vile their hearts really are, instead of thanking them these people respond with anger toward the messenger. This shows the depth of the corruption in their hearts in that they will strike at others in anger and intend to do harm when they can rather than cry out for God to have mercy on them. It is far easier in this life to keep putting the varnish on rather than deal with the corruption and rottenness of the heart. But in the next life, which is for eternity, the hearts of men will be exposed and there is no Gospel in hell. There is no seeking of the Lord to have mercy there. Then men will know their own hearts and there will be no end to their weeping and gnashing of their teeth in hatred against God. Men should seek to be convicted of sin and broken for it now before they lift their eyes in hell and it is too late.
God Loves... Himself 
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