God Loves… Himself

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

The clarity with which Paul set forth the fact that all are sinners and all fall short of the glory of God and then the doctrine of justification through grace alone by grace alone apart from works makes it hard for anyone to deny, though there are those who do. Part of the problem is that the full truth of a doctrine is not just an intellectual exercise. There is the intellectual truth which can be captured on paper and set forth in a creed, but the true acceptance in the depths of the heart is quite a different thing. The doctrine as set down on a piece of paper (or computer screen) can be grasped by the intellect, but the depths of the teaching cannot be taught in the depths of the soul by anyone but Christ by His Spirit. This is to say that a person can study a great doctrine for years in terms of classes in an academic setting and reading books on the subject and may never know the depths of the teaching. It is, to say the least, humbling.

When we think of what it means to be a sinner, it is easy for men to know that they have made mistakes and that they have sinned. But it is far harder to get them to admit that they are sinners by nature and from that nature nothing but sin can come. How hard it is to get men to bow to the teaching that the most righteous thing that they have ever done is as filthy rags in the sight of God. For those who pride themselves on doctrine and on being orthodox, they will accept that teaching and even teach it. But that is quite a different thing from having this teaching be brought home to the depths of the soul by the Divine Teacher. This is quite a different thing than the soul coming to the acute realization that it is a wicked and awful sinner, even a vile sinner in the sight of God. The soul constantly wants to find something in itself to find hope in other than in the grace of God and only in the grace of God. The soul will desperately look for something in itself even thinking that as long as it believes something it must be okay. The soul that really and truly sees itself as being nothing but a vile and sinful being will know and bow to the fact that is it worthy of nothing but eternal wrath. But again, it is one thing to say the words that one is worthy of nothing but eternal wrath, but it is quite another for one to know this in the depths of the soul.

In much the same way the doctrine of justification by grace alone apart from works can be grasped by the intellect without it reaching the depths of the soul. It is far easier to grasp this teaching with the brain and think that one knows it than it is to bow from the depths of the soul before the sovereign grace of God. There is a huge difference between knowing that the doctrine of justification by grace through faith apart from works is true and actually being justified by grace through faith apart from works. The devil and the demons know what the Gospel is and they know the facts about justification, but that does not mean that they are justified. The devil and the demons also know that those things are true and they believe that those things are true, but that does not justify them either. Scripture also calls unbelievers the children of the devil and so it is possible for the children of the devil to know the facts about the Gospel and to believe that those things are true and yet not be justified.

Knowing the facts of the Gospel never saved one soul in and of itself. Believing the facts of the Gospel never saved one soul in and of itself either. The message of the Gospel never saved one person, but it is the act of God that saves. It is not the message of what Christ has done that saves, but instead it is Christ working by His Spirit and applying what Christ has purchased that saves. It was not God declaring to the Israelites that He would save them from their enemies that He would save them that saved them, but it was when God acted that they were saved. His promise told them that He would do what He promised, but He had to do what He had promised in order to actually save them. It is not just hearing that Christ was crucified and was raised that saves, but it is when the blood of Christ is applied that a person is saved. Hell is full of people who believed that Christ was crucified, but heaven will only have those who actually have Christ Himself and the atoning virtue of His cross. It is not those who know that a person must be born again who will be saved, but only those who are born again are saved. We must go beyond the mere words and a belief in those words, but we must have Christ Himself.

God can save us only by His own power, for His glory, merely in a way of grace and favor, solely by Christ, to the end we may love, adore, and praise Him; and yet the wish and will of man, notwithstanding the peculiar discoveries of the Christian religion, and the fullest conviction of infinite defect, is to be independent and self-saved. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

When we see the clear teaching of Holy Scripture that God saves for His own glory, by Christ alone who is the shining forth of His glory, and by grace alone which is only given for His glory, it should be as clear as anything can be that man must repent of his independent spirit and his desire for self to do all or any part of salvation. As Adam notes above, it is the wish and will of man to be independent and self-saved. A mere moments reflection will show that if God saves to the glory of His own name and by grace alone that the will and desire of man to be independent and self-saved is nothing but a horrid wickedness to control salvation and honor self. Another moment of reflection will reveal that the wish and will of a man to be independent and self-saved is demonstrative evidence of what man must be broken from, granted repentance from, and to be saved from.

The whole notion of free-will comes from the desire of man to be independent of the will of God, yet it is only by the will and pleasure of God that men are created, have all things, and can possibly be converted. When the disciples asked Jesus with a great deal of astonishment as to who could be saved, Jesus replied that “with people this is impossible” (Matthew 19:26). He said nothing about how men should make a choice of in some way simply pray a prayer or will and act of some kind, but He told them that this was impossible. The Greek word translated as “impossible” has the idea of no possibility, unable, and powerless. The will is powerless and has no ability to save man, which should show that men are to repent of their independent spirit from God and any notion or concept that they can save or contribute the slightest bit to salvation. The Gospel rings with great clarity that God alone can save sinners and He does this by grace alone and for His own glory.

By this we can also see how wicked and awful it is for preachers and so-called evangelists to do what they do to their own glory and honor. Preachers can preach in ways that are attempts to gain honor for self, but in doing that they are not preaching the Gospel of grace alone which brings honor and glory to God. What a great judgment men will have when they use the things of Christianity to serve their own lusts for honor and glory. How can a man preach the true Gospel of the glory of God when he is preaching for his own glory? How can a man preach the true Gospel of grace alone when he is preaching for honor and glory himself? How can a man preach the true Gospel of Christ alone when that man is preaching in a way to get people to see him rather than Christ?

While the Gospel of grace alone seems so easy to people, it is actually a hated message when it is preached in truth. Some (many?) preachers also hate the Gospel of grace alone so they preach mostly grace, which means they give lip-service to something they term as grace. Even more orthodox (in creed) preachers preach in a way where men are not told that they must repent of free-will rather than trust in it, which is to say that those who preach that way also oppose the Gospel of grace alone. Preachers say that they are Reformed and yet they do not point men to Christ alone and grace alone but leave men in their own independent spirit and self-salvation way of thinking because they don’t teach them that they must be broken from that independent spirit and way of self-salvation.

If the wish and will of men is to be independent of God and to be self-saved, even when they sit under the preaching of some aspects of the truth of the depravity of man, then men must have this set before them with great plainness and clarity. But the men who preach for their own honor and love of applause will not do so because men will not honor them and applaud them if they do. However, if men don’t hear that then they will not hear the true Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone. Instead of bowing in submission to the Gospel, men will look to their own proud hearts to do what needs to be done. But the truth demands that men be broken from their proud hearts and even the desire to save self and become as little children before the living God. Jesus invited the weary and heavy-laden to come to Him and learn humility and meekness, not to learn how they can be self-saved and independent. The hearts of men must be humbled and broken from their desire to be independent of God and to be utterly dependent upon Him. The hearts of men must be humbled and broken from their desire to be self-saved or they will never look to Christ alone to save them completely by grace alone.

God can save us only by His own power, for His glory, merely in a way of grace and favor, solely by Christ, to the end we may love, adore, and praise Him; and yet the wish and will of man, notwithstanding the peculiar discoveries of the Christian religion, and the fullest conviction of infinite defect, is to be independent and self-saved. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

The fact that man can look at the freeness (without causation of any contribution by the man) of the Gospel of grace alone and still be obstinate in wanting to contribute something to his own salvation demonstrates the great evil of sin. The great evil of sin is not just that man violates a command of God, but that man lives independently of the goodness and will of God. The great evil of sin is seen in that man chooses what he says is good or evil for himself. The fact that man will not have God save man by grace alone and according to His glory shows that man is at enmity with the self-sufficiency of God who also does all things for His own glory.

It is true that many men will change some outward behaviors if they think they need to in order to be saved, though many will say that they are saved by faith alone and that their change in behavior simply reflects that. But the deceitful heart will deceive most at this point. The heart of man wants to contribute something at some point and in some way. The heart of man longs to be independent in some way in order not to be totally dependent. The heart of man longs to save himself in some way, but if it sees that is not possible it will settle for helping just a little in the matter. But what the heart will not settle for (apart from omnipotent grace) is to be completely dependent on God for all things regarding salvation.

Other things that the heart will deceive man about are the means of grace. Man wants to be able to read and study the Bible while depending upon his own intellect to understand, but that is once again a huge mistake. Apart from the Spirit enlightening the mind of man there will be no spiritual understanding at all. It is only to the degree that man is broken from self and utterly depends upon the Lord for grace to understand that a person will understand the Scriptures in truth. Regardless of how smart a person is or how academically accomplished a person is, apart from depending on the Spirit to enlighten the mind a person will be in spiritual darkness.

Men want to depend upon their own minds and wills to pray, but once again this is something that man cannot do apart from grace. How can a man who is flesh pray according to the Spirit apart from the work of the Holy Spirit? How can a man who is flesh love God with his own strength and power apart from the grace of God in working this in the heart of man? Prayer is not a work that man does, but instead prayer is a work of grace in the heart of man giving man the desires to pray as well as the content of prayer.

The heart of man is so wicked and absorbed with self in love and pride that it is blind to what it is actually doing in the realm of the Gospel and of the means of grace. Even the term “means of grace” is often twisted a little to the point where people think that God is obligate to give grace if people perform the means, but this is a great, great mistake that will bring men into bondage. The grace of God depends on God as the source and as the motive. The living and true God is never brought under obligation to the creature to show grace to the creature. At the point that God would be brought under obligation then grace becomes no longer grace.

God shows grace to the glory of His great name and He does not show it to the worthy, the independent, and to those who want to be self-saved at any point and to any degree. God will have mercy on whom He will show mercy and He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Instead of striving to maintain some degree of independency from God, men should seek the Lord for their hearts to be broken from such a horrible pride. Men fight to the death to maintain their illusion of free-will while indeed that is nothing but another concept for men to be independent of God and to save themselves in part. Until the wicked hearts of men are broken from their pride of independence and the gospel of self-salvation in part of whole, the heart of man will not love grace alone and Christ alone. It is really that simple and that plain.

God can save us only by His own power, for His glory, merely in a way of grace and favor, solely by Christ, to the end we may love, adore, and praise Him; and yet the wish and will of man, notwithstanding the peculiar discoveries of the Christian religion, and the fullest conviction of infinite defect, is to be independent and self-saved. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

It is not possible for the all-blessed God who exists in and of Himself as the perfectly self-sufficient God to save by any other power or for the glory of any other being. It is the holiness of God to love Himself supremely and do all for His own glory, and to this end the Gospel of all glory shines forth the glory of God in the face of Christ who is His perfect image. It is not possible for anyone to add to the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ because Christ suffered and satisfied the wrath of God perfectly in the place of all He died for. This perfect sacrifice cannot be added to. It is also not possible for anyone to add to the perfect righteousness of Christ in the slightest degree because no finite being can add to the righteousness earned by the infinite Son of God in human flesh. Justification by God is when He justifies apart from any work, worth, or merit in the person justified and He does this by declaring a person perfectly just on the basis of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, yes, but in line with that He saves sinners that they may love and adore Him which is also a way He manifests the glory of His grace. The greatest thing that any being can do is to praise and adore the living God. It is the very grace of God that takes a sinner who is at enmity with God and all true righteousness and holiness and grant that person the new birth, true repentance, and unity with Christ. In light of that, the person is a new creature in Christ and like Christ that person will live in love for God, will adore the living God, and will praise the living God. The Gospel of the Glory of God is the Gospel of grace alone which was accomplished by Christ and applied by the Spirit of grace. No man can glory in self and the Gospel of grace alone at the same time. No man can glory in self-sufficiency and in the sufficiency of God and His grace in Christ Jesus at the same time.

Despite the fullness of the Gospel and the infinite defect of man, the vast majority of mankind are so filled with pride and self that they are at enmity with the Gospel of grace alone and they want to do it themselves. Men will fight to retain (in their own confused minds) their own independency. Men refuse to bow in humble submission to the living God and instead want to be independent in some way. Instead of grace alone, they want grace to help them and assist them. Oh how men want to save themselves, but some see that it impossible and want to contribute something. The proud heart of man will not bow in utter submission and helplessness to the living God. The proud heart of man still bears the image of the devil who was and is full of pride and rebellion against God.

The Law of God sparks enmity toward God and His perfect standards of holiness which includes or consists of love for Him with all of our being, but grace seems to spark an even greater enmity. The Bible is quite clear that God saves those whom He is pleased to save, yet man wants to make that decision himself. The Scriptures are clear that man must depend entirely upon Christ for justification, yet man wants to and demands to his damnation that he will trust in himself to some degree. The heart that was deceived by the evil one in the Garden to be independent of God and trust in self to decide what was good and evil is the depraved heart that has come from Adam to all his children. Not only, then, does the independent and proud heart reflect the nature of sin and self, but it is that independent and proud heart that despises the doctrine of grace alone so it can save itself.

Interestingly enough the same spirit that some say made this nation great is that spirit which hates and opposes the Gospel of grace alone. The independent spirit that will work for all it gets and provide for itself may indeed be helpful in winning wars and sticking things out in tough situations in a man-centered way, but it is precisely that same spirit in the things of God that makes salvation impossible for men. God saves the dependent (on Him) rather than those who depend on themselves. God saves the humble rather than the proud heart that looks to self. That independent and proud heart can be seen in many churches and in the ministry as well. There are many self-made men in the ministry, but they are wolves instead of sheep being guided by the Shepherd. God saves for the glory of His grace and solely by Christ alone and He will not allow one independent and proud heart to share His glory. Not only that, but the independent and proud heart hates grace which is the only way of salvation.

1 Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.

Romans 4:16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

One of the reasons that men hate true grace is because there is nothing that man can do to earn or merit the slightest bit of grace. While this is an established fact in certain theologies, that is different than saying that all men who hold to those theologies love true grace. It is far easier to hold to a theology of grace than to love the truth of grace. The doctrine of grace as set forth in Scripture teaches man that man must be emptied of all hope in self, the works of self, and the righteousness of self. The teaching of Scripture as to what grace really is sets out that man cannot do anything to earn any part of grace. The proud heart of man wants to do something to obtain or do something that would make God more likely to give it to him.

God either gives grace because of who He is or because of what man has done. God either shows grace based on Himself or based on man. God either gives grace because of the work of Christ or because of the work of man. God either shows grace based on the merit and value of Christ or the merit and value of man. God either shows grace to the manifestation of His own glory and pleasure or for the glory and pleasure of man. Now one can argue that there is no real “either” in the above scenarios, but instead there is a combination of the two. Romans 11:6 puts that point our of consideration.

Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Whatever is on the basis of grace is no longer on the basis of works, for that would make grace no longer to be grace. If something is on the basis of grace alone, that means that it is no longer on the basis of works at all. As Romans 3:28 sets out, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” The “job” or action of faith is to be turned from hope in self and trust in grace apart from works. This turning from self is humility because pride looks to self and seeks the exaltation of self. The Scriptures set out the great hope of the soul and it is in Christ alone by grace alone. A real and true grace can only be moved by God with the great intent and motive of doing it for the glory of His own name. The glory of true grace is that it is shown by a sovereign God and there is no basis in man for God to do so.

Grace shines forth in great beauty and glory in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Grace shines forth with the power and holiness of God in opposition to the helplessness and unholiness of man. Grace shines forth with perfect justice carried in Christ as opposed to the injustice of men toward God and other men.. Grace shines forth with the perfect love of God on display at the cross and in giving the sinner hope in Christ rather than the sins of self which man carried out in enmity to God and other men. The proud hate grace alone though they might accept some help from God as long as they can remain in control, but that very desire to be in control and to just accept help rather than have grace do it all is demonstrative evidence of a horrible pride and self-sufficiency. As God’s free gift of healing to Naaman was spoiled by Gehazi accepting clothes and a little silver, so men wanting to add to grace spoils the free gift of the Gospel.

What man could possibly think that Jesus the Christ would take a human body, live on this earth, and then suffer and die for sinners and then leave something left for them to do? What can it mean for grace to leave something for men to do to save themselves? What can it mean for grace to be unable to overcome all the sin of men but one and then leave men to overcome that sin themselves? What can it mean for grace to be unable to manifest the perfect love of God and yet for men to be able to do so? Christ died for the worst of sinners rather than just those who could make up for a few things themselves. Christ died for those who could not help themselves in the slightest. Christ suffered for all the sins of sinners who give up all hope of suffering for one sin. Christ earned a perfect righteousness for sinners who give up all hope of any righteousness in themselves. Why is that? It is because God saves by grace alone to the glory of His name alone.

Psalm 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? 2 In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.

One of the key thoughts in this text is that the proud (haughtiness in countenance) do not seek God. We may think that this is limited to the outwardly wicked, but it is not. What we see throughout Scripture is that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The proud do not seek God because they seek themselves, not only in worldly things but in the things of religion. Though the section of the text above does not specifically include the religious proud, if one goes on in the context of Psalm 10 it will be clear. The man not seeking God was really a man that had some belief in a god of some kind but it was one he dreamed up.

One of the hard things for religious people to accept (including those within Christendom) is that God cannot be sought in any way other than by grace alone. One cannot earn or merit or move God to show grace because of anything that the person does, but the only way that the true God can be sought in truth is by grace and grace alone. God is not moved to be kind and merciful to people because they are holy, but instead people grow in holiness because God is being kind and merciful to them. God does not love people because they are worthy or because they do something religious or good, but He loves because of who He is and not because of anything they have done. Keeping the commandments does not move God to love people, but people keep the commandments of God because He works love for Himself in them.

In essence, and boiled down, one can only seek God by grace and all other ways are efforts to seek God by works in some way and to some degree. If one can only seek God by grace, and clearly God only gives grace to the humble, the ramifications of this are simply enormous. All those who have proud hearts are not seeking God regardless of whether they recognize the pride in their hearts or not. All those who have proud hearts are not seeking God for God (regardless of their words) because apart from grace they will only seek self in some way. God can only be truly sought by those seeking to be emptied of self (humility) and pride.

Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him;
                                 But the righteous will live by his faith.

As can be seen from the text above, the proud one does not have a soul that is right within him. But in contrast to that we see that the righteous live by faith. This shows us again that pride and faith are opposites. When we see that a soul is declared just by God by grace alone through faith alone, we can see the great danger of pride. As long as the soul is proud, it cannot have true faith and as such a soul without true faith cannot have true grace. When people, therefore, read their Bibles and are moral and yet they do not do those things from humble hearts seeking grace and seeking God Himself, they are doing nothing but feeding their pride.

We are also commanded to walk by faith, but the reason that is true is because faith receives grace and lives by Christ alone. All the fruits of the Spirit come to the soul by grace and so the soul must live by what faith receives or it is not truly alive. Believers live by grace and not by their efforts and works, but instead efforts and works must come from grace in order to be right, true, and holy. The proud in heart cannot walk by grace and as such the proud heart cannot seek the Lord in truth and love. The heart that is greedy to get things from God does indeed spurn the Lord for it is not seeking Him but things from Him. That proud heart will not seek God on the basis of grace alone because it loves itself and is blinded by that love and so cannot see its pride and the real nature of God and His grace. God gives grace for His own glory, but proud souls don’t love His glory but instead seek their own.

Psalm 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? 2 In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.

Why will men not seek God? Why will men seek God in their own imaginations but not truly seek the true God? The Pharisees thought they were diligent seekers of God, but in reality they did not seek the true God at all. Psalm 10 tells us the true problem, and it is one that should not surprise anyone. In reality, however, coming to the realization that men do not seek the Lord because of pride does surprise men, but primarily when they see this in themselves. It should be pointed out, though, that men will only see this in themselves when it is shown them by grace.

The text is so clear in verse 4 that the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD, but the wicked, from a haughty countenance which is pride, does not seek the LORD. The passion and great desire that greed is causes a man to curse the LORD when he does not get what his heart truly desires, but in the pursuit of the desires of the heart the greedy man spurns the LORD. The greedy man and the proud man are not two separate men, but in fact they are the same man. A greedy man is a proud man and a proud man is a greedy man, though greed can demonstrate itself in several aspects or ways. A man can be greedy for honor and glory in the eyes of men and that in worldly terms of in the terms of professing religion.

The proud heart exalts self and is blinded by what appears as good to self, so the proud heart pursues things that appear good to self and will run over other people to get what it wants. The proud heart will abuse other people in both words and actions in order to pursue and obtain what its greedy heart desires. When a proud heart spurns the LORD, it will also spurn those who are made in His image. This proud heart will also especially spurn and abuse those who are the true children of God.

The proud heart is so full of self and self-love that it is really a god to itself and is playing as God before others. The proud heart wants men to honor it, whether in the things of religion or in the things of the world. The proud heart will abuse some men in order to be honored by others, but the proud heart is playing God even if it does not recognize what it is doing. The proud heart is like Adam and Eve in that it has bought into the lie of the Devil and wants to be like God in knowing good and evil. It will decide for itself what is good and evil and it will do what it wants to do when it wants to do it.

The proud heart may be easy to see in other people, especially in the way they treat others if they are calloused toward others. But the proud heart is not so easy to see to those who have it. Pride works in that heart to blind it to what it really is and part of that blinding work is to justify itself to itself. What the proud heart does not realize, however, is that God is hardening that heart in a judicial judgment and the proud heart is growing more and more proud and at the same time is getting more and more blind to its own pride and its work in justifying itself.

But in getting to the things of religion, this is where the heart is in some ways more proud than at any other place. It is true that those who are criminals indulge the self and pride in gross criminal acts, but the religious person uses things that are even more specifically to be used for the glory and honor of God and uses them for its proud heart in order to exalt itself in the eyes of self and of men. Even worse, the heart of the religious proud will use the things that God has given to the humble in order to exalt itself in the eyes of God. Oh how deceptive the proud heart is and how men must be humbled by the Spirit of God in order to see this.

The religious proud seek themselves in their preaching and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their evangelism and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their praying and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their good works and not God. The religious proud seek themselves sin their reading and study of the Bible and not God. The religious proud can be great and exalted names in Christendom and yet not seek God in what they do. The proud do not really seek God and that includes the religious proud who may be worse than the rest.

The world is totally backwards when it comes to what human beings are to love supremely and what they are to hate. This basically means that people love self and hate God. But why do people find it so easy to love self and hate God and so hard to hate self and love God? In the modern day the love of self is thought to be at the root of all proper behavior and it is simply denied that people hate God. The Bible, however, is quite clear that men are at enmity with God and that the love of self is at the root of sin.

Ex 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Romans 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

Colossians 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

The passages above show that the sinful heart is at enmity with and is hostile toward God. The passage from Exodus is part of the 2nd Commandment and gives the punishment for violating the 2nd Commandment by the worship of idols. Those who worship idols are said to hate God. The Matthew passage shows that for all people God is either served or He is hated. Those who are devoted to self, wealth, sports, or any other devotion that is not God are devoted to that and despise all that opposes that. Those who love self supremely, which is all those who don’t love God supremely, hate God because He commands them to die to self and deny self in order to love Him. When self-love is the supreme love, all that stands in opposition to self-love is met with enmity and hostility. Yet God views self-love as idolatry and idolatry is a form of hatred against God.

The Romans 5:10 passage shows us that all men were enemies and so all must be reconciled to God or they will remain enemies, but indeed some are truly reconciled. The doctrine of reconciliation should teach us that only those who are enemies of God need to be reconciled to God, so this great doctrine demands that those who are reconciled actually be at enmity with God prior to reconciliation. If they were not at enmity with God, then there was no need to be reconciled to God.

The Romans 8:7 passage is a very powerful passage in that it points out when a person has his or her mind set on the flesh, that is, the unregenerate nature which is the fleshly nature, that person is hostile to God. The sinful nature which is a selfish nature which is the fleshly nature is by definition a nature that is focused on self and in fact self is the idol. When one looks at it that way, we can see the enmity toward God is over who has the ultimate right over self and over the worship of self. The problem with human beings, however, is that they think of worship as limited to one hour or so on Sunday. But with God, however, man bows in worship at all points of life. Man lives in the worship of self or he lives in the worship of God. People who have a mind that is set on the flesh are people who are in worship of self and so are at enmity with God. When those people see or hear the commands of God against self, they hate it and fight against Him.

The Colossians passage shows us that there were those who were alienated from God and hostile in mind and that entailed the fact that they were engaged in evil deeds. When people are engaged in evil deeds, that shows that they are hostile to God and need to be reconciled to Him. In fact, evil deeds are demonstrative evidence of hostility toward God and His holiness exhibited by the Commandments and Christ Himself. When Jesus walked on this planet He was hated because men were hostile to God. This shows that men love self and hate God.

When people think of what is the worst of  sins, few think of something like pride, but perhaps even less think of the great evil of grumbling. We have one book of the Bible which stands firm against grumbling and sets it out as a very wicked act against God. Grumbling is a vile and wicked act against God which He hates, and yet it seems to be practiced with scarcely a thought about it.

Exodus 16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 Moses said, “This will happen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD.”

Numbers 14:28 “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; 29 your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.

When people grumble about things and other people, many times (most if not virtually all) the grumbling is in reality directly against the first Cause of all things. Grumbling is the opposite of contentment, humility, and a meek spirit before the Lord. When people grumble, they usually think that they are greater than they are, that they deserve something that they are not getting, or perhaps that things are just going against them and they have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them. People will say that they don’t mean anything by what they are saying, but the Lord hears what is said by both the mouth and the heart.

Grumbling is a heart that is not content with what God has ordained in His perfect wisdom and holy plan from all eternity. The people that God brought out of Egypt gave themselves to grumbling very quickly, but they grumbled against Moses. But Moses was the man that God had brought out and set as their leader and Moses was simply doing what God had commanded him. When the people grumbled against Moses, therefore, in reality they were grumbling against God.

Ephesians 1: 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him…11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

If men could get the true sovereignty of God into their heads and hearts, it would help them to see the great evil of grumbling. Humility and contentment are so lacking in our day and part of that is because of the great shift from being God-centered to being man-centered. Instead of praying for His will to be done and for men to be changed and turned from self to please God, men pray for God to change and do what they want. God is seen as one who answers the prayers of men if they have faith, which in reality changes God (in the minds of men) into One that is supposed to do what they want if only they can believe it. But God has ordained all things from eternity and men are the ones who must have changed hearts in order to bow before the eternal and thrice Holy One. Men should not pray for God to change, but for their own hearts to be changed so that they would not grumble.

It is in light of the eternal God who in perfect wisdom and knowledge has ordained all things from eternity that grumbling should be viewed. This grumbling is so great that the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6) has the antidote to it. We should pray for His name to be glorified, His kingdom to come, and His will to be done. We should be content with how God does those things to the glory of His own name. That would be contentment and not grumbling.

Eternity,—that solemn word soon passes from the lips; but who can grasp the mighty, the immense idea which this word ETERNITY conveys? All thought is lost in its immensity, and swallowed up in its fathomless abyss. The mind may conceive, though faintly, of millions of ages heaped upon millions, till numbers lose themselves; or rather, till we are lost in the vast calculation. But who can measure eternity; compared with whose everlasting lines, myriads of years are infinitely less than atoms floating in the mid-day sun? All men are hastening to eternity. All are standing upon the brink of and interminable state of being. Yet all, except the little flock of Christ, are living as if life would never end; and die as if beyond the grave there was nothing to awaken their solicitous concern. Awful insensibility! How fatally has sin blinded the mind of them that believe not! Men are willing to believe that which they wish to be true. They flatter themselves that all will be well at the last, though they follow the corrupt desires of their hearts, in direct opposition to the revealed will of God.        (Thomas Reade)

Human beings live for but a moment and then they enter into eternity. It seems so absurd for vapors to live for the moment, but there is a blindness that causes these vapors to focus on the things of the moment. It appears so absurd for human beings who are like the flowers that bloom for less than a day (the desert, for example) to focus on themselves and live as if they were going to live forever, but a blindness keeps them from a focus on eternity. This blindness is sin and it seems to blind people and make them insensible to the awful reality of eternity.

Human beings are finite and as such cannot possibly understand the depths of eternity in one thought, but the mind can conceive of such a thing in a chronological and mathematical way of thinking. When the mind easily skips past the word eternity, it shows that the mind has not taken the time to stop and grasp what the word means. The moment that the soul dies, which the time of that has been ordained by God, it passes into eternity and its location will never be changed. The soul that enters eternity under the wrath of God will never know the smallest joy or rest from the unmitigated wrath and endless torment that it will be under. The soul that enters eternity with eternal life will never know anything but the fullest joy from the weight of eternal glory and love. But can anyone live in this life under the weight of such reality?

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke much of eternity, though not using that word as such. It should determine our view of sin, though we think of sin as having to do with ourselves. When the Lord Jesus spoke of sin in the language that it is better for a man to have a huge rock tied around his neck and then be tossed into the ocean rather than causing a little one to stumble, it makes sense in light of eternity. The weight of the rock around the neck is far less than the weight of eternity being upon the whole soul for sin. It is this truth about eternity that should encourage people to flee from sin because of the true nature of sin and of God.

What are we to think of those who have suffered much in this life for the name of Christ? Nothing they have suffered in this life (small afflictions for a short time) can compare with the eternal glories of being in the presence of His glory forever (eternal weight of glory). How this great truth of eternity should instruct sinners to seek the things of the kingdom because it is what determines the value of things on earth. Those who seek the things of this world show that they do not value the things of eternity as they should.

The vastness and greatness of the value that eternity puts upon life should penetrate the hardest of hearts, but it does not seem to do so. Perhaps this is because eternity rests upon spiritual teachings and those who are spiritually dead view eternity with spiritual death. Surely, we would think, that a person “standing upon the brink of and interminable state of being” would wake up to eternal realities. Surely, we think, since all men are hastening to their eternal destination they would be awakened to eternal realities. It must be that those who are hastening to eternal destruction would listen to those who try to speak of those things to them, but it seems that people are so hardened to God that they don’t want to hear about eternity. Men are hastening toward eternal damnation and yet they are so blinded by their sin and of this world that they “flatter themselves that all will be well at the last.” Surely the truth of eternity is so vast and so weighty that we should spend much more time thinking about it and dwelling upon it. We should also spend our short time on this earth as vapors knowing what is truly important.