God Loves… Himself

To some who know neither their own deceitfulness and hypocrisy, nor the awful delusions of the devil as an angel of light, I may appear harsh, bitter, severe, bigoted, narrow-minded, and to deserve every other term of reproach which self-seekers and flesh-pleasers heap upon those who fearlessly hunt out their refuge of lies. To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY, to starve the real children, and feed the illegitimate, to beat the heir, and caress the dog, to call the children of God antinomians, and to call empty formalists decided Christians; to style opening up Satin’s delusions “preaching in a bad spirit;” and wrapping up hypocrites, impostors, Pharisees, and self-deceivers in their delusions, “not preaching in the spirit of the gospel.” This turning of things upside down, this calling good evil and evil good, and putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… J.C. Philpot

When men under the guise of being a minister comfort unbelivers by telling them that they are believers, there is an enormous amount of damage done to the souls of those encouraged unto damnation and the professing “church” at the same time. Jesus warned all who would care to listen to His words that there were many false prophets. He warned that there was truly a narrow gate and a narrow road and that but few would find their way, and then in that same context He told people that there were false prophets and that many would cry out “Lord, Lord” to Him and would be sent into the everlasting flames.
The damage that false prophets do is beyond the ability of man to calculate. Jesus said that the whole world is not worth losing one soul over, so how are we to calculate the damage that one false prophet can do to thousands of souls? Even if the false prophet “only” deceives a few people, can we set a value to that? No, false prophets are working an incredible amount of damage in the professing “churches” and in our nation today. False prophets cause damage to the souls of men and women by encouraging them that they are on the path to leads to heaven, but in fact those people are on the path that leads to hell. False prophets cause great damage when they confidently assert that formalists are Christians and encourage people in their formalism.
False prophets don’t usually know that they are false prophets, but that does not mean that they are less dangerous. These are the ones that will cry out “Lord, Lord” on judgment day and are amazed that they are not converted because they prophesied in His name. It would appear that these men will have great confidence in life because of the wrong things and are simply shocked on judgment day as well. This makes them very dangerous because people can be deceived by the great confidence of these lost prophets. These men can also be very dangerous because they to cast out demons and perform miracles (Matthew 7:15-23). The danger that they pose to others is that the apparent (perhaps real) casting out of demons and the performing of miracles impress others and make them think that the man is real, but we should be very careful at this point. Even the Egyptian magicians could do things that looked like they were of God and the work was supernatural. The real work of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit in working true humility and true love is far, far greater than all the miracles that can be done.
False prophets preach and teach using the Bible and try to show that how people are Christians rather than how people are deceived about being Christians. They will state how awful are those people who tell others that apart from the true Gospel and true holiness a person is not converted. They will state how awful and deceitful are those men who preach that settling for formalism or some form of being moral or a Pharisee is not enough. False prophets can be some of the nicest people in appearance and also be quite orthodox. In appearance, and perhaps in personality, it would appear that they are far kinder and more concerned about people than the orthodox are. But a major problem with that is that their kindness and concern is not about spiritual things in reality and as such this is one way that a wolf can hide in sheep’s clothing.
External things are simply that, external things. Self-love will always want to hear a preacher that is in accordance with self (whether outwardly kind or legalistic) rather than the preacher that preaches that one must die to self. The wolf may actually be concerned about people, but the wolf is only concerned about the outward aspects of morality and religion. Jesus told the Pharisees that God made the inside as well and that it needed to be clean. For those who are focused on the outer man, they are greatly deceived by others and themselves in terms of the outside. But God is not deceived and those inward  things will come into the light on judgment day.

To some who know neither their own deceitfulness and hypocrisy, nor the awful delusions of the devil as an angel of light, I may appear harsh, bitter, severe, bigoted, narrow-minded, and to deserve every other term of reproach which self-seekers and flesh-pleasers heap upon those who fearlessly hunt out their refuge of lies. To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY, to starve the real children, and feed the illegitimate, to beat the heir, and caress the dog, to call the children of God antinomians, and to call empty formalists decided Christians; to style opening up Satin’s delusions “preaching in a bad spirit;” and wrapping up hypocrites, impostors, Pharisees, and self-deceivers in their delusions, “not preaching in the spirit of the gospel.” This turning of things upside down, this calling good evil and evil good, and putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… J.C. Philpot

When the true Gospel is held back for fear of offending people and the desire to please everybody, the true Gospel is rejected and denied at that point. This leads to men preaching the things of self rather than the things of Christ. Where this is happening, which appears to be in the vast majority of cases in the modern day, ministers are more concerned for themselves and their own interests than they are for the true and spiritual welfare of the people. If true believers are present in cases such as those, then they are starved and do not find what is good for their souls and the truth of Christ. When men in their own wisdom desire to please everybody and hold the hard edges of the Gospel back for fear of offending people, they offend God and displease Him. While they may please sinful men, they are actually doing great harm to them. The true Gospel will offend and when ministers desire to please men at the expense of the Gospel, true harm is being done to the ministers and those who listen to them.

20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. (Phil 2)

The focus of professing “churches” at this point is on earthly things (money and numbers of people, buildings, honor and glory of the minister) rather than on spiritual things. But, of course, that will be denied and spiritual reasons will be given. After all, who will be reached with that money and look at all the people that can be reached with those new buildings. But again, the true Gospel is not being preached and so the real reason for all the activity of these places is not truly for Christ. It is nothing but people getting excited over the forms of Christianity and is not life itself. The flesh can get excited over getting more people in the door and building programs. The flesh can get excited over larger amounts of money. But the flesh cannot get excited over the denial of self which is needed to truly follow Christ.

It is interesting to note, as Philpot pointed out in the quote above, that when men teach a false gospel they will attack the true Gospel and true ministers. When men preach a false gospel, they will blast away at the true Gospel from differing angles depending which heresy they hold. Rome blasted away at the Gospel of justification by faith apart from works by saying that it would lead men to lead godless lives. On the other hand, those who preach that while men are justified by faith alone they are not justified by a faith that is alone are blasted for legalism or as being Pharisees. The Gospel is like a narrow road with precipitous falls on either side. Those who proclaim the true Gospel will be blasted at by those on both sides of that narrow road.

While men cry down the preachers of the true Gospel as being harsh and mean spirited, the ones who are crying down the preachers of the true Gospel are in fact those who are being harsh and doing the real harm to eternal souls. Those who preach a false gospel, which is anything that is a different gospel than what Paul preached, are in actuality teaching things that deceive men and increase their own damnation as well as that of others. If that is pointed out, even with the greatest amount of concern, those pointing it out will be blasted at for lacking in winsomeness and in tact. Pointing out to men that they are not preaching the Gospel will be perceived as a personal attack that is delivered with an unkind and censorious spirit. But of course the prophets of old suffered greatly and were killed for proclaiming judgment on the false prophets and telling people the truth that they did not want to hear. The same thing is true today and will always be true. Men hate the true teaching of grace and the God who gives that grace at His sovereign pleasure. It should be of no surprise that men will attack those who teach such things.

To some who know neither their own deceitfulness and hypocrisy, nor the awful delusions of the devil as an angel of light, I may appear harsh, bitter, severe, bigoted, narrow-minded, and to deserve every other term of reproach which self-seekers and flesh-pleasers heap upon those who fearlessly hunt out their refuge of lies. To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY, to starve the real children, and feed the illegitimate, to beat the heir, and caress the dog, to call the children of God antinomians, and to call empty formalists decided Christians; to style opening up Satin’s delusions “preaching in a bad spirit;” and wrapping up hypocrites, impostors, Pharisees, and self-deceivers in their delusions, “not preaching in the spirit of the gospel.” This turning of things upside down, this calling good evil and evil good, and putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter… J.C. Philpot

While Philpot wrote that a few hundred years ago, it is no less true today, and in fact may be more pertinent than in his own day. A faithful minister, though hard to find, is certainly thought of as harsh, severe, bigoted, and of all things narrow-minded. A minister that will dare to search the hearts of the people with the spotlight of the Scriptures is sure to be reacted against with the self-righteous anger of those who cannot bear the light. This was true of the prophets in the Old Testament and this is true of the apostles of Christ, but more than all it was true of Christ Himself. He was hated because of His searching style of preaching. He was hated when He told the religious people of His day (while on earth in bodily form) that they were hypocrites and then pointed out the reality of that by His teachings.

We can read the words above and also from our Bibles and be thankful that we live in a day where people are nicer and not as mean, but we must confront ourselves with reality and remember that Jesus told us that if the people hated Him they will hate His followers as well. Perhaps the real issue is not that people are nicer today, but that the preaching does not search hearts and expose hypocrisy today. Perhaps the words of Philpot about what it meant to preach the Gospel in his day is even more true today: “To preach the gospel in our days is to preach to PLEASE EVERYBODY AND OFFEND NOBODY.”
How many times have we heard men with silky voices say that we should be more winsome in order to win more converts? How many times have we heard others condemned for being too harsh, censorious, or perhaps judgmental? How many times have we heard that preachers should not be so hard on people but instead be kind and loving? It may be the case that preachers are to be kind and loving, but it is also the case that the very concepts of “kind” and “loving” have been twisted to mean something far beyond what they mean in the Bible. It was a kind thing for God to speak through His prophets and point out to men how vile and wicked they really were. It was a kind thing for God to warn the nation of Israel (and others) that judgment was coming upon them.
We are told that ministers should be less offensive and should not offend people if they want a successful ministry. But again, who gets to define success? What did it mean for Isaiah to have a successful ministry? What did it mean for Jeremiah to have a successful ministry? What did it mean for Jesus to have a successful ministry? What did it mean for the many martyrs across the centuries to have sucessful ministries? Perhaps the real question has to do with whether a man can even be a true minister if he is not preaching in a way that offends people. We are told by Paul that he preaching nothing but Christ crucified, but we are also told that there is an offense of the cross (KJV) and the stumbling block of the cross (NASB). Can it be that the cross cannot be truly preached when people are not angered by the necessary teaching of the cross?
It may also be the case that those who are afraid to offend men will instead offend God, yet if we preach to please God we can be sure that men will not all be pleased. Paul put it this way in Galatians 1: “As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! 10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Those who strive to please men in their preaching are not true servants of Christ. The goal must be to preach the truth of God, but in doing that we must realize that men are at enmity with God and they don’t want to hear the truth of God preached. Men hate the true teaching of grace and they will oppose it when it is preached. We cannot please God and preach in such a way that men are not offended.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

Pride is such a horrible thing that it takes spiritual things and turns what is truly good in reality and makes it appear as if it is not all that important. On the other hand, pride will also take what is not important at all and make it appear as if it is the greatest good. This is to say that the proud heart is so blind that it will not view eternal things as of the utmost importance and yet it will view earthly things as if they are the greatest good. Pride views all things as they relate to self and the loves and desires of self, though it views that in terms of this world for the most part. Pride will take eternity into consideration, but the present time consumes it and so it will not view eternity as that important but is simply an afterthought.

Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The heart that God in His great mercy has broken from a ruling pride has a proper view of eternity. The humbled heart sees the kingdom of heaven like a great treasure and will give all of its earthly goods and earthly honors in order to obtain that field. This parable is not intended to show that a person must sell all he has in order to purchase the kingdom, but more like what a person must repent of in order to have a proper view of the kingdom. The Gospel is not to purchase the eternal glory of God, but instead it gives this as a free gift. But the person that sees the glory of eternal things will turn from worldly things and that repentance is seen, but also that repentance is absolutely necessary. The repentance does not purchase eternal glory, but it shows that one has seen eternal glory by faith. The soul that is blinded by pride does not see eternal glory as what is the most important, though it may see it in some dim way for a short time. But the proud will not continue in that and will not persevere in seeking eternal glory, but instead worldly things take the attention and distracts from what is truly important.

The point of both parables is quite clear. The person that truly sees the true kingdom is one that gives up all worldly things in terms of trust and affection. The proud, however, value the esteem and honor of the world more than eternal things, though many seem to think that they can have both. This is a great deception and even delusion. A person will leave the world in terms of affection and in view of what it is if that person has a true sight of eternal things with eternal values. The proud self, though, will seek religious things in order to obtain honor for self even now. The proud self may seek religious things with great energy and devotion but only in order to obtain the honor of men.

John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

The point of the teaching of Jesus is quite clear. Unregenerate men cannot truly believe when they seek glory from one another and yet not the glory that is from God alone. The Pharisees were men who sought the honor of men in all of their religious rigidity. As Jesus taught about them in Matthew 6, they did all of their religious deeds in order to be seen by men. They prayed in order to be seen by men, they gave alms in order to be seen by men, and they also fasted in order to be seen by men. This is to say that they did all of their religious deeds for themselves and their own pride because they simply wanted men to think highly of them and to honor them. They sought glory from one another and did not seek the glory from the one and only God.

At the root of this enormous pride is a very vile and wicked heart that desires to use God and the things of God for the honor and glory of self rather than being humbled before reality and seeking to be an instrument of the glory and honor of God in this world. Living for the honor of self in the things of religion is a monstrous evil and an incredibly proud thing to do. However, the pulpits in our land are full of people seeking to be exalted in the eyes of others. Our seminaries are full of those who are teaching and writing for their own honor. Our churches are full of those who are “serving” for their own honor. The spirit of the Pharisee, which is a horrid pride, is alive in our land.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

In the triune Godhead we can see the very glory of the living God through the lenses of the second Person of the Trinity it taking human flesh to Himself, living in perfect humility on earth, and then dying on the cross in perfect humility. It is in this great and wondrous humility of Christ that we behold the Gospel of the glory of Christ. It is in this perfect humility of Christ that we can behold the glory of God in the face of Christ. It is in this delectable humility of Christ that we behold the very grace of God and indeed it took this perfect humility to purchase the grace of God for proud and sinful men.

If it is the case (and assuredly it is) that the very brightness of the glory of God is only seen in and through the humble Savior, it should be no wonder to anyone that God hates and opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. This should show us that absolute need for the people of God to seek humility and also for the lost to be humbled before God. How much the great God must have been incensed to send His humble Son (King of kings) to the earth, but then for proud men to treat His Son with contempt. How detestable it must be for the infinitely self-sufficient God to send a humble Savior and have Him treated with contempt by the proud and self-sufficient religious people of the day. But if that is true of that day, it is also true in our day. How unlike the humble Savior are the proud religionists of our day as well. It is impossible for those without faith to please God and faith and pride are opposites (Hab 2:4). A humble Savior will only dwell in those who have true faith and only the humble have true faith. Those who are proud in their religion are opposed by God rather than being His favorites.

The Lord of glory will not dwell in proud hearts and He will not live His perfect and humble life in anyone but the humble. Some of the reasons for this are found in the very nature of God who loves Himself and His own glory. This God always does what is to the glory of His own name and in that His holiness is seen. God is only holy to the degree that He loves Himself and to the degree that He does all for His own glory. So this great God cannot and will not shine forth His glory in men who only want to live for their own glory. The God who shows grace to the glory of His own name will not give grace to those who only live for their own glory. God will not show His love for Himself in men who only love themselves. The holiness of God which consists in His love for Himself and living for His own glory cannot be seen in men who love themselves and live for their own glory.

The Pharisees assumed that holiness could be attained by living according to a set of external standards, but they were damnably wrong. God had told them that they were to walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8), but they wanted salvation and holiness to be in their own hands in their own power. The Pharisees assumed that they would be heard because of their prayers with many words, but they were not heard because they were seeking themselves rather than seeking God with their prayers. It is plainly taught in the Scriptures that one must be humble in order to pray and seek the face of God. A proud man will only use the name of God to seek things for self. A proud man will only love God for what he can get from God. There is no walking humbly with God when a person has a proud heart and simply desires to get things from God by all of his religious activity.

It is a verity of Scripture that God opposes the proud. It is not just that He opposes those who are unreligious and proud, but He opposes all those that are proud. It is not just that He opposes the proud who do not know their Bibles, but He opposes the proud who know their Bibles and may even know them well. It is not just that He opposes those who do not give to the church and charities, but He opposes the proud who give to the church and to charities. It is not just that He opposes the proud who do not pray, but He opposes the proud even if they try to pray all day long. It is not just that He opposes the academics outside the realm of Christendom, but He opposes the proud even if they are the most conservative academic and write helpful commentaries. It does not matter how religious people may be and the degree or length that they may go to in their religious activities, even preaching, God will oppose the extremely religious and all their activities and sermons if they are proud. A proud person may indeed get all the honor from men that s/he desires in religious circles, but that pride will keep that person from the presence of God both in this life and for all eternity. We all need to search our hearts and ask God to reveal pride to us. It is a deadly poison that keeps us from the presence of God, despite all of our religious activities.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

James 4:6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

The pride of man hates true grace and hates being cast upon the mercy and choice of God. The proud heart of man wants to have his own choice and way and hates being in the hands of a sovereign God and in desperate need of sovereign grace (the only kind of grace that there is). God opposes the proud and certainly does not give them the grace that they hate, but in His kindness and goodness He does break the hearts of some of the proud and works the humility of His Son in them and so gives grace to the humble.

The Lord Jesus Christ was and is the supreme standard and example of humility. In that perfect humility, He was upheld by the Spirit and lived in perfect dependence upon God in all things and at all times. While we tend to think of His humility as having to do with His incarnation in taking human flesh to Himself, there was a lot more to it than that. When Christ took humanity to Himself, He did not view equality with God as something to be grasped or held onto, but instead He emptied Himself and took the very nature of a servant in taking human flesh to Himself. This was indeed a stupendous act of humility, but if we would think of the glory of God in His triune being it should not surprise us to think of such a great God acting in line with true greatness. We are told in the Gospels that those who are truly humble are the ones that are truly great in the kingdom, so it should not surprise us that the Lord of glory is the greatest and the most humble.

The Lord Jesus did not think of the eternal glories of heaven too much to give when He took the nature of a servant to Himself, so when on earth He was not born into a royal family. He was not born in a palace and in the lap of luxury, but instead He chose to be born in a stable and to common people (externally). The sovereign Lord of the universe took human flesh to Himself and chose to live in a way in which He had no pillow but used a rock for a pillow. He chose to live in a way that at times He had to do miracles in order to feed those who flocked to hear Him preach. He did not have a house, several items of clothing, and seemed to hunger and thirst as the poor. In all that He did He lived in complete submission to the Father.

Those who truly believe in, are united to, and have Christ as their life have access to true humility. The life of Christ in His people is a humble life that is lived in pursuit of the glory of God. It is not that the people of God must work up humility and do things that give them humility, but instead the people of God must seek the Lord for death to self and to have the life of Christ in them. When Christ lives in His people, then His people have a life of true humility in them. Those who do not have Christ in them live lives of pride which is really the proud devil working his nature in and through them. This is simply to say that as the devil is the father of all lies, so he is the father of all pride and all pride is a lie. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the father of all humility.

Jesus Himself proclaimed to sinners that all those who were weary and heavy-laden were to come to Him. Why were they to come to Him? What were they to learn from Him? “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mat 11:29). People are to come to Christ and learn from Him, and it seems clear that of the things that they are to learn is gentleness and humility because that is how Christ is. This also shows the horrible and despicable pride of man in refusing to come to Christ and learn humility which is to refuse to be like Christ and is to refuse the life of Christ. Men love their pride and hate true humility, though out of their pride they don’t want to appear proud and so will take a pseudo-humility to themselves. That actually condemns them.

The proud hearts of men resist and refuse humility and that demonstrates a monstrous pride. They refuse the Lord Jesus as their model and turn with disgust from grace alone which saves. The proud hearts of men would take Christ as Savior if all He would do is keep them from hell, but they will not have Christ as Lord and as their very life. The proud hearts of men fight and resist true humility and true resignation to God, though they will do things “for God” as long as they retain control and can do as their proud hearts desire. But the true Lord Jesus is the true Savior and He will save men from their pride or they are not truly saved. Hell is full of proud men and devils, but heaven is filled with the humble Savior and humble men that He has saved by grace alone. In the words of Zephaniah, “Seek the LORD, All you humble of the earth Who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden In the day of the LORD’S anger” (2:3). We cannot seek true humility unless we seek the humble Savior. We cannot live humbly unless we have the humble Savior living His life in us by grace alone. The Lord Jesus is Savior of His people, and that includes being saved from pride.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

Mat 19:23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The pride of man will exalt his own intellect to himself and the power of his own will to himself, but will also exalt them before others as much as he can. This can also be done under the guise of humility, which when self-exaltation happens under the guise of humility it is truly a great and deceptive pride. The pride of man loves money and exalts self when he has money. The pride of man thinks that God must love him when man has money and plenty of worldly things, but all of those things are really the pride of man and God hates pride.

The pride of man can blind man and man simply be unaware that he has blinders on, but the pride of man is so strong that it makes men fight the idea that they are blinded. The disciples of Christ had studied the Old Testament writings and had been with Christ for quite a period of time, but they were still astonished at the words of Christ. When the pointed words of Christ come crashing in on a person’s view of Scripture and of the world, they can create astonishment. In the modern day these words of the Lord Jesus are twisted, explained away, and simply ignored. However, treating them that way does not change the reality of them at all.

There are so many popular teachers today who tell people that they can get rich and that they are okay in seeking riches that people can hardly read this passage of Scripture. There are so many teaching a health and wealth gospel that the words of Christ are relegated to little or no account. What we must see, however, is that Jesus was so clear that He really cannot be mistaken. We might note that He did not say that all rich people cannot enter the kingdom, but what He did say that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven. Oh how that hurts the pride of man.

Those who have money love what that money buys for them, the power it has over others, and the esteem of others. We should be careful to notice that the real issue with money is the love of money and the pride that comes with having money. If we look at James 1:9-11 (just below), we can see that James sees some of the problems that come with being rich. The rich man tends to pride and as such should glory in his humiliation. The rich seem to think that they will live long lives, but the rich should focus on how much he is like a flowering grass which faces away. The rich man is taken up with his pursuits after money and perhaps pursuits because he has money, but that man should know that he will face away even in the midst of his pursuits. Oh how pride blinds people to the reality of the shortness of life and to true value.

James 1:9 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; 10 and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

The proud heart of man loves money, but true wealth is impossible to attain apart from grace. The proud heart of man thinks that his money will obtain a high quality of life, but eternal life cannot be purchased by anyone but the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The proud man loves the power that earthly riches bring, but the power of eternal life must come by and from the eternal and omnipotent hand of God and it only comes by grace alone. The real problem with all people (including the rich) is that they have a terrible value system. The proud heart of man loves earthly riches and power, yet those things are as rubbish in eternity. Those who by grace have the blinders of pride removed (not perfectly) see the great value of Christ and of grace. Man should pursue true humility and Christ Himself rather than worldly riches and power. Spiritual things are, after all, of eternal value beyond the powers of the human mind to calculate. All true riches are in Christ and are beyond our ability to assign a value.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

Mat 19:23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The modern day is a day where it appears that the vast majority of people are taught that if they will simply do an act of their own will and believe or perhaps say a prayer that they will be saved. When some harder teachings of Jesus are brought up, for example, the one above, it is said that Jesus was speaking Law here and not Gospel. There are other ways to get around the text if one tries hard enough, for example, Jesus lived under the Old Testament times and He was not speaking in a period or time of grace. Perhaps the real problem is that we don’t like what Jesus said and our proud hearts refuse to believe the real God-centered message that Jesus spoke.

It is true that Luther thundered forth the great teaching of justification by faith alone during the Reformation, but that message in its own context does not contradict what Jesus taught in the contexts He spoke in. It was true in the time of Jesus and it was true in the time of Luther that a person that truly believed was a person that was truly converted. But if we take the Bible as a whole in its own context, we have to ask what it means to truly believe and then what it takes for a person to truly believe. Jesus did not teach what people want Him to have taught in our day and Luther did not teach what people are trying to say he taught in his day. What we do see, however, is that in all ages there are proud people who don’t want to receive the true teachings of Christ.

The passage in Matthew 19, while not popular in our day or any day, is quite clear. Jesus had told the rich young rule to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, but the rich young ruler went away sad. Jesus turns to His disciples and tells them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But again, there are many explanations of this text for a proud heart to wrest the plain teaching of Jesus, but He clearly and specifically says these words and He says them in a context that leaves no real question as to the meaning. His disciples responded by asking with astonishment as to who could then be saved? Jesus told them that with people this was impossible.

I would argue that if we can read those words without some inner consternation we have not read those words with much attention. Read these words of the Lord of the entire universe again. When Jesus was asked, “then who can be saved?”, He told His disciples that “with people this is impossible.” It is impossible for men to save themselves. It is impossible for men to do what is necessary to be saved. As impossible as it is for a real camel to go through the eye of a real needle, it is that impossible for men to be saved by anything they can do. It is God alone who can save sinners.

Of the many things we should notice, we must notice that Jesus did not just tell the disciples that any one could be saved if they would just pray a prayer or if they would just make themselves believe. He told them that salvation was impossible with people. But He did not leave them there in utter despair, but instead He told them that it is possible with God. All the things that we are told that men must do in order to be saved are impossible for men to do. We are told that men must be born again. We are told that men must believe. We are told that men must be holy. We are told that men must persevere. We are told that men must love God. All of those things are impossible with people, but they are only possible with God. Each soul must see how impossible salvation is by his own faith and his own works and his own belief so that each soul can see the absolute glory of grace that it takes for the soul to be saved. Until a man reaches the point of seeing and bowing to the impossibility of salvation in his own strength, he will not see his absolute and utter need of grace. Oh how awful pride is that it would blind us to our own utter insufficiency and the utter sufficiency of grace alone. Pride will indeed keep a person from the presence of God no matter how hard it tries to do what God alone can do. With people this is impossible.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Pride, being a great blinder to the spiritual eye, will blind a person to the appropriate gate for entrance to life and death. One way that pride, which as Pelling says above, will keep us out of the presence of God, is to blind us to what the Word of God says on all matters. Each and every person in the world is blinded by pride to some degree, but to those who are interested in spiritual things (for some reason), pride is a horrible blinder. Oh how the heart fights the light and loves darkness. Oh how the heart hates to think that it is full of sin and spiritual disability. Oh how the heart longs to trust in itself and hates the idea of grace which God only gives as He pleases and completely apart from the worth and merit of those who receive it.

But joined with the heart and its opposition to truth and spiritual reality, are the false prophets. They come with the appearance of meekness and great learning, but they are in reality nothing more than ravenous wolves. But the eye that is blinded by pride and self can only see the sheep’s clothing and that blinded eye can only see the appearance of meekness. Pride blinds the heart and it is won over by the great learning and blinded even more by that. Could it be true that the United States has a greater number of wolves (vastly greater number?) in the pulpits than of true sheep? The nation of Israel was plagued when they had hardly any true sheep as prophets and virtually all the men in that office were wolves. The nation of Israel was plagued when the scribes and the Pharisees held the spiritual offices and ruled over them as wolves.

Could it be true that while the narrow gate and the narrow way are hidden to the proud heart, that it is even more hidden by wolves in the pulpits of the land? Could it be true that vast numbers of people are on the broad way and that their confidence is strengthened by men in the pulpit declaring that they have peace, peace when in fact they have no peace with God? Not only does pride blind a person to truth, it also blinds people to those who are telling the truth and blinds people to those who are teaching great error in the name of truth.

It is not that the wolves stand up and tell people that they are wolves, but they might even be deceived themselves and are trying to convince themselves and others that they are really sheep. Why is it that the Gospel is so rarely heard in our day? It is because there are so many false gospels running around with wolves declaring the false gospels as true. When the Bible is read with unspiritual eyes and preached by unspiritual men, the way of truth and of the Gospel of the glory of God is hidden. The Gospel is all about the glory of God in the face of Christ, but unspiritual men are able to twist the facts of the true Gospel and make it all about men. The facts of the Gospel can be related as true, but unspiritual men will always twist those for their own purposes.

The Scriptures are so clear that the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. It is so clear that there are few that find it. This should awaken souls to the reality of the situation, but proud hearts will blow the words of Scripture off or wrest them to their own destruction. But the situation is made even worse because there are so many wolves around trumpeting the way to life when in fact they are trumpeting the ways of death. There are so many wolves around crying out that one must be on a narrow path, but in fact they are trumpeting the broad road in reality.

The proud hearts of wolves are too proud to admit that they are wolves, so they keep trying to convince themselves and others that they are really nothing but meek lambs. These proud men (wolves) may proclaim a lot about Christ, but they will not declare the truth of the sovereign Lamb of God who must open hearts Himself. These proud wolves will speak much of grace, but they will not speak of the sovereign grace of God who saves to His own glory. These proud wolves will speak of repentance, but not a true and thorough repentance that God alone can work. They focus on the worth and ability of men, but not of God. The wolf does not want men to look to the Shepherd, but instead to look to themselves.

“Pride, we may be sure will keep us out of God’s presence, because it would not suffer angels themselves to stay in it” (Edward Pelling, 1692).

Isaiah 2:17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.

God loves the glory of His grace and all that is of man that does not come from His grace and by His grace comes by pride. If we claim to love God, then we must love Him with all of our being and hate the things He hates which stand against Him and His glory. What we don’t realize, however, is just how much pride is in our hearts when we quarrel with God in our dissatisfaction with Him in His sovereign dealings with us. When events happen to us regarding our possessions, jobs, status in life, and health our hearts murmur. Why would God do that to us? People think that they are great buds (pardon the irreverence, it is to make a point) with God and that surely He would not do anything that is not in their self-interest (determined by them, of course).

As we think of numerous events in Scripture and the severe trials God brought upon men, we can see how wicked our hearts are in comparison to them. Scripture gives us the account of Job and of all the sufferings that God brought upon Him, but Job is never given a clear reason why those things happened to Job other than God is simply God. That was enough for Job and he bowed low before the living God (Job 42:1-6). What would have been the case if Job would have murmured and complained that God did not love Him and had no right to treat him that way? It would have been proud and wicked.

We are also told of how God revealed to Samuel what He was going to do with the sons of Eli and the house of Eli. When Samuel told Eli what was going to happen, Eli simply responded with “It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him” (I Sam 3:18). But what would have been the case if the heart of Eli rose against the LORD and became angry for what God was going to do? But again, that would have been a very wicked thing to do and certainly have demonstrated a heart full of pride.

The Scriptures teach us that God has ordained whatsoever will come to pass and that we are His to do with and dispense with as He pleases. Who are we to complain that God is treating us unjustly or perhaps without true love? Who are we to raise the voices of our self-centered wisdom against the eternal wisdom of God? Who are we to complain that the eternal God who has existed from all eternity in perfect and infinite love does not love us in the right way? Oh what wicked hearts we have to murmur against the living God for what He has ordained from all eternity for His own glory and the true good of His people.

We can compare the nation of Israel with the Lord Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel began to complain against God quite quickly as they longed for tastier food that they had had back in Egypt. They forgot that they had been delivered from a brutal oppressor who had enslaved them and set up cruel standards. They murmured against God and against Moses and brought judgment upon themselves because God viewed that as a great sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, when He as a perfectly innocent and holy being was faced with going to the cross for the sins of others, He said “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The Lord Jesus knew what the Father was going to do in that the Father was going to pour out upon Him a fiery wrath for the sins of all His people. While this was repulsive to His soul and His flesh screamed out against it, He did not murmur or complain against God and His eternal decree to carry this out. Instead, we are told that He was meek as a lamb and did not complain. The humble Savior had no pride and so there was no murmuring against God.

A humble heart can only be obtained from the humble Savior, so a true humility will always mirror His in some ways. True humility will seek to be low before the Almighty and in the dust regardless of what He has ordained. The greatest battle there is in our day is for hearts to be willing to bow low before His eternal will and seek Him for grace to stand firm that He may be glorified in it. This is not to say that it is easy, but that it is right.