What pains do many luke-warm professors take to keep themselves fast asleep in carnal security! If they see their wretched case laid open by any Christian writer, or faithful minister, either they are ready to carp or quarrel with such, of to conclude, that they themselves know better, that the man is mistaken, and that there is no need of so much strictness and preciseness, nor of that wonderful change of heart which only a few enthusiasts here and there make so absolutely necessary to salvation; but on the contrary, they hear any formal, daubing, unawakened minister preach, or read any dry lifeless (wrongly called religious) book, how eager are they to catch at whatever may sooth them in their delusion! and are as much pleased with those who help to lull them in their fatal dream, as a child is pleased to be lulled asleep by the fables and tales of its nurse. Sir Richard Hill.
What pains luke-warm professors take to keep themselves fast in carnal security? Can that be true? Jesus said that men hate the light and flee to darkness. We see very clearly that it seems so natural to man’s fallen condition in his great pride to hide his own heart from himself. We can see that Scripture teaches so clearly the great deception of the heart of men to themselves and others. But with so much at state, that is, eternity in hell, will men really take great pains to keep themselves fast asleep in carnal security?
Jesus taught that many have entered at the wide gate and are on the broad road (Matthew 7). Is that because all of these people are really stupid and just don’t know any better? It is safer to understand the words of Jesus in the context of false prophets and then a few verses later when He told the people (on Judgment Day) that they were very religious and yet did not do the will of the Father. The heart of man is full of pride and self and he wants to think that he can do what needs to be done to be saved, many times in being very religious. But being very religious is not necessarily at variance with being asleep in carnal security. People can give themselves to religion and yet it is a carnal religion in that it is fleshly and is not at variance with killing the pride of man and the basic self-centeredness and self-will of the fallen nature. Here is the real issue. It is not the choices that people make, though indeed those can be very bad and lead to much misery, but it has to do with pride, self-centeredness, and self-will. These are all things of the very self which is at the heart of the fallen nature of man.
Man can be outwardly wicked from a self-centered heart, but man can also be outwardly religious from a self-centered heart. Man can be very wicked in the outward sense or very religious in the outward sense from the very same principle, the fallen nature of self. A man can commit murder out of self-love or a man can refrain from committing murder out of self-love, but the principle is still the same. Neither man acted or was moved from love for God, but instead it was all about self. It is this self that men fight to keep. It is this self-centeredness and self-will that men will seemingly go to hell over in order to keep. Men don’t want the Lord Jesus Christ to rule over them because they would have to die to self and follow Christ rather than have Christ lay down His scepter and follow them.
Men work hard at deceiving themselves and to keep themselves fast asleep. They work hard to stifle convictions that come into their hearts and the rays of truth that come into their eyes. Oh how men love their carnal security because they don’t want to face the truth of their eternal destiny and they don’t want to face the truth of the things they should repent of. It takes many battles and pains for people to keep themselves asleep in their carnal security, but they fight to do so. This is seen in so many professing churches, conservative churches, and “Reformed” churches. Men love the world and will hang onto the world in carnal security until they are jolted awake and lift their eyes in hell.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment