God Loves… Himself

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Is there any such thing as regeneration, or a change of nature, from sensuality to purity of heart, from flesh to spirit, from sin to holiness, from the world to God? So the Scripture says, and that nothing less is being Christian. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

If we think of repentance in accordance with the basic definition of it, then repentance is turning from one thing and turning toward another. One cannot repent, that is, turn from one thing without have another object to turn toward. This is very important. A person has not repented in the inward man if he has only turned from outward sinful actions. The reason a person sins is because of a heart that is full of pride and self, so when a person turns from outward sin and yet the heart has not been changed that person has not truly repented because the heart is still full of pride and self. The person sins outwardly because of a sinful heart and the person stops sinning outwardly because of that same sinful heart.

Now the sensitive soul that the Spirit has awakened and is working in to reveal sin will look at self and realize that he is full of pride and self and is moved to do a lot of things out of that pride and self. This can cause a lot of disconcernation and trouble of soul. What we must remember is that Christ came to save sinners and saved sinners are still sinners. Christ did not save sinners on the condition that they turn from all sin and become perfect, but instead He saved sinners with a full knowledge of all their future sin. Christ breaks His people from sin slowly and surely, but He does not remove it all until they reach glory. It is also true that those who are truly converted will see more sin in their hearts and minds than those who are unconverted will. The true believer has more light and so will see more of his own black heart than those without light can. Part of the sanctification process that Christ takes the soul through is to reveal sin and then to reveal Himself and His grace to that sinner. This is how we grow.

True repentance happens at regeneration when sinners are granted a new life and a new heart. Sinners are turned from the absolute control of pride and self to the kingdom of Christ. But again, sinners under the control of Christ are not perfected in practice but may instead grow even worse in their own eyes. However, the absolute power of sin has been broken over the soul. The unconverted sinner can do nothing but what is sensual, but the one granted real repentance now longs (imperfectly) for holiness in the heart. The unconverted sinner is nothing but flesh, but the one granted real repentance is now focused on spiritual things. A word of caution is once again needed at this point. A spiritual person lives in a fallen world and so there will always be things that will make a sensitive soul think that it is sensual, and indeed that soul may be sensual to a point. But that soul will not be controlled at all times by things that are sensual. It may not see much of a longing for spiritual things, but there will be a longing. In fact, the longing for sensual things may be greater much of the time than the longings for spiritual things. Some of this may because of remaining sin and some may be because sinners need to grow some in order to recognize true spiritual longings. The body has memories and those can be very strong. But as faith as a mustard seed is true faith, so true spiritual longings are evidences of true spiritual life and of real repentance.

Real repentance also means that the soul is turned from the world to God. We can see once again that the soul is turned from something and turned toward a new object of sight and love. The Scriptures tell us that love for the world is inconsistent with love for God, so we must be turned from the world to God. How can the love of (for) God dwell in those who love nothing but the world? This turning from the world is a turning from sin and this turning to God is a turning toward seeking true holiness. These are not all separate and distinct things, but instead all the negatives are one thing and all the positives are one thing. This is, quite simply, what it means to be a Christian. The heart must be changed and not just the outward behavior. Real repentance must include the heart or there is no real repentance at all. If the heart/inward person/soul/loves/desires/motives/intents are not changed and turned from, then how can one say that s/he has been turned to God and holiness? This is not to say that we must leave the world and use nothing that the world uses, but we use them for different reasons and with a different love. Real repentance is real and it occurs at the deepest parts of the soul even though that turning from the darkness to the light may reveal a lot of sin in us. Nevertheless, we have been turned.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

I should consider the Ethiopian’s skin and the leopard’s spots more than I do, that I may pray more feelingly, and cast myself wholly upon divine power. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.

The impossibility of changing our own heart and doing truly good works is set forth in the Scripture and by Adam by these two illustrations. Can a person change the color of his or her skin by simply deciding to do so? Can a leopard change its spots and become one color just because it decides to do so? Clearly, the answer to both is no. Without question neither the Ethiopian nor the leopard can change the skin by a simple choice or an act of the will. But the weight of the point in Jeremiah seems to have been lost at most points and times. Since the skin cannot be changed by a mere choice, can something that comes from the heart be changed without the heart being changed by God? Those whose hearts are used to doing evil and the heart itself is evil, can that person change that heart any easier than the Ethiopian his skin and the leopard its spots? No, it not easier but instead it is harder.

The doing of good is far harder than the natural man realizes, even if the natural man is very religious. It is not only hard to do good works, it is impossible to do good works (truly good) apart from Christ working that in a person. As the Scripture says, “apart from Me you can do nothing.” This is to say that apart from Christ we can do nothing good or nothing spiritual. Now it is possible to do outwardly good things and yet since they are coming from a bad heart they have bad intentions and motives. That means that while the act is good in appearance it is not truly good. Those who are accustomed to do evil have hearts that are hardened and even their outward works may have little appearance of good.

An example of this could be the Chicago gangster of the early to the middle of the 1900’s. He was a man who could order or carry out the killings of people, perhaps several at a time, and yet he was a man known to help the poor and to be quite generous in giving. What this points out is that the man was the same man with the same heart in all that he did. All the outward good he did came from the same heart that did a lot of evil. Another way of looking at this would be from the viewpoint of God as set out in Scripture. Nothing that the man did was from love for God, but instead was moved and motivated by love for self. Even though the man did a lot of outward good, his heart had no love for God and so he could be moved to do outward good and evil from the same heart. Only a heart that has been granted repentance in regeneration can in fact do a good deed out of love for God.

We come face to face with the nature of true repentance when we look at things like this. Man fell from God in the fall and as such all he does is from self and out of self. Man’s heart is full of pride and self-love and all he does is from that heart, regardless of whether it is outwardly good or not. The heart is where the motives and intents of the outward good and outward evil come from, so all actions are evil that come from an evil heart. True repentance, then, cannot be limited to the outward actions or forced inward thoughts. True repentance must flow from a repentant heart or a heart that has been regenerated to where Christ is the life of that heart and the love of God can flow from it rather than love of self.

True repentance is radical, that is, it is the deepest part of man. Real repentance is when the very heart itself is changed and the heart is now inclined toward God rather than self-love. Though God does not completely deliver man from the power of sin in this life, by grace He is working in that heart and it will have an inclination toward Him. This is why His people persevere in this life. The Ethiopian does not need to change his skin, but he does need a new heart. But no human being can change his heart and this is why the heart must be turned from self-reliance and self-power to living on the power of God in grace. Real repentance is what God alone can do which is why salvation is by grace alone. Real repentance, however, while beyond the power of man to actually do, is not

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

As God looks principally at the heart, so it is there he carries on his saving work. We may polish our outward man, but what shall we do by it, but to get the name of whited sepulchers. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

The whole issue of moral reformation is pictured by Scripture and is what Thomas Adam alluded to. People can beautify the outside of a tomb and it can appear clean and shiny, but they can only touch the outside and the inside is still full of dead men’s bones and all sorts of unclean things. That is precisely what moral reformation is apart from a real repentance. That is precisely what repentance is apart from a real repentance. Apart from a real and true repentance in the inward man, all that a person is doing by a moral reformation is to shine up a tomb of bones.

Sinners are represented by hard words in Scripture. They are sick, naked, and blind, lost, enemies of God, despisers of Christ, and covered with filthy rags. They are self-destroyed, found in their own blood, without strength, ready to perish, sinners, ungodly, united to idols, lovers of pleasure rather than God, without hope and condemned. Sinners do not just need a little cleaning up here and there; they need to have a thorough cleansing of the inner man. But how many think themselves to be rich (spiritually) and have need of nothing? It appears that many do while indeed they are miserable, blind, poor, and naked in the eyes of God. In order to understand anything of real repentance concerning them, people must understand the nature of sin and the power of sin over them. If one thinks of sin as outward only, then the focus is on outward things.

Deny it though you may, this is your actual condition. As to any holiness and strength, heavenly wisdom, spiritual purposes and desires, your soul is an empty vessel. Not a solitary ray of Divine light illumines your understanding, not one pulse of spiritual life throbs in your soul, nor one spark of heavenly love glows in your heart. Nay, more; there is not only absence of all moral good, but there is the actual existence of all moral evil. The mere negation of holiness, if we can suppose such a state, would be less gloomy and appalling than the positive indwelling and supreme dominion of sin. Sin dwelling in you, Satan lording over you, and hell gleaming in your face, presents a picture of woe which baffles all description. You are a moral suicide, for you have destroyed yourself. You are a moral homicide, for your influence has destroyed others. You are a moral deicide, for the tendency of your sin is to annihilate the existence of God. Thus are you at war with universal being. Such is the power, and such the tyranny of that monster evil—sin! Startle not, my reader, at the application of this appalling description of fallen nature to you. Read it not for another, but read it for yourself. Turn not away from it in unbelief and scorn. It is needful that you should recognize in yourself the moral image of the first Adam, that you might be led to seek a transformation into the moral image of the Second Adam. Your soul—I reiterate the truth—your soul is this empty vessel, God has gone out of it, and as to the existence of any holiness, it is a vast and gloomy void. (Octavius Winslow)

The previous quote sets out the great need for a real repentance and the many ways the soul needs it. The soul is full of darkness because it has no Divine light. The soul is full of the power of evil, but it has no spiritual life. The soul is full of hatred and envy, but it has no heavenly love at all. The soul is not just guilty of some external things, but it is at war with all beings in the universe because of sin. The soul is under such a dominion of sin that it can turn from all of that it thinks is outward sin but it will still be a slave to sin even while it is undergoing moral reformation. Without any holiness or heavenly love in the soul, all the external good that a soul does is idolatry. Without any holiness or heavenly love in the soul, all the moral reformation is like dressing a corpse in better clothes. Real repentance has only happened when the love of the soul has changed from self and sin to love for God and holiness. Real repentance has only happened when the soul is turned from darkness to Divine light shining in the soul. Real repentance is a real change in the inner man and it is a change that God must do.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

As God looks principally at the heart, so it is there he carries on his saving work. We may polish our outward man, but what shall we do by it, but to get the name of whited sepulchers. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

The outward things of Christianity are stressed and stressed (in many if not most places) and the inward things are given lip service at best. The appearance of things seems to be more important than the reality of them. In contrast with that, however, God is more concerned with the inward man. It is the heart of man where His eye is and that is where His principal work is. The heart of man is where man is either proud or humble. The heart of man is what is united to self or Christ. The heart of man is where motives and intents flow from. The heart of man is where love of self or love of God flow from. It is the heart of man that is either unregenerate or regenerate. As fallen people, however, we are quite satisfied with the appearances of things.

The outward things can be counted and defined. The outward things can be judged and improved in ways that can be seen. The flesh of man can work and work on the outward man and the flesh of man can be pleased with what the flesh polished up. The flesh of man can come up with stringent rules for morality and religion and be pleased with self and pride as it keeps those things. The flesh of man can be satisfied with stringent rules or lax rules as long as man is the one who makes the rules according to his fleshly desires. The liberal wants lax rules so as to be happy with self as a religious person and the conservative wants stringent rules in order to maintain a form of self-righteousness. True enough not all liberals and not all conservatives fit the above description, but it is simply setting out in general terms how all men can be pleased with rules as long as they are external.

The spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well in the modern day, though those same people might be hard on the Pharisees in word and in teaching. John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and no doubt many today think that they are bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. But they are looking at external fruit or at the things they don’t do. Some will stop some gross outward sin (at least for a time) and will give themselves to good works and to duties at the local church. They stop the outward sin out of self-love and by the strength of self and they do good works and the duties at the local church out of self-love and the strength of self. This is simply to say that their repentance was outward only and the heart was not changed.

Men and women can and do work and work hard on their physical bodies (exercise, cosmetics) in order to appear a certain way, but they can also work hard at appearances in terms of who they are. They can work hard at being nice and being helpful, but that is nothing but polishing the outward man. They can work hard at doing things at a local church, but that can be nothing but polishing the outward man. They can work hard at either not sinning in private or simply keeping it out of the public eye, but that is nothing but polishing the outward man. They can work hard at public speaking and at learning much of the Bible, but that can be nothing but a preaching polishing the outward man. Once again, all of that can be done and the person be nothing but a whitewashed tomb full of dead bones inside.

While the flesh works on the outward man and takes pride in its whitewashing activities, God works on the heart. Indeed the outward man must be controlled, but it must be controlled by the work of God in the heart and not by the pride of man. There is nothing that man can do apart from love for God that is acceptable to God, but the flesh of man changes love into being nice and doing outwardly good things. The repentance that is acceptable to God is the repentance that God works in the soul Himself. How religious people must be so careful not be satisfied with an outward turning from sin and then doing nice and religious things. How ministers must be careful not to preach in such a way as to preach little more than a reformation of the flesh followed by external works. The external things do not prove the internal things. The inward man must take the priority and men and women must be taught how depraved the heart is even in the midst of outwardly good things. Then we can talk about a real repentance.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

No man has the least glimpse of the inside of truth, till all conceit of merit and self-power is annihilated, and he is pierced through and through with a sense of his vileness and unworthiness. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

The Scriptures in all places condemn pride, self-love, and haughty eyes. It is pride that is idolatry itself in man choosing himself and loving himself supremely rather than God. It is that pride that works in man and makes man to think that he can work righteousness and that he has the ability to do things apart from Christ. It is pride that puts blinders on men and keeps them from seeing that they are proud and full of self. It is pride that blinds men from the understanding of humility and the real truth of God and so proud man lives in a perpetual lie about reality.

It is no wonder, then, that for there to be a real repentance that man must be pierced through with a sense of his vileness and unworthiness. What can man repent of unless he knows what he is repenting of? How can man repent of all conceit of his merit until he knows and understands that he has no merit? Here we see some experimental teaching that reaches the depths of our souls if the Lord is pleased to open our hearts to it. How can we truly rest in Christ and His merits and righteousness alone if we have not repented of our own merit? But our pride hides some of the secret spots and hiding places where our heart grasps at our own merit and righteousness. Surely it is self-evident that as long as we are holding to our own merits and righteousness that we cannot hold on to Christ alone and grace alone. Surely it is clear that we cannot see and understand from the depths of the soul about the Gospel until God has rooted up our conceit or merit and leaves us naked and ashamed in His presence.

The Gospel is the power of God for salvation, but in no place do we see that the Gospel leaves some room for the power of man to contribute to his own salvation. If man is to really repent of sin, then man must repent of the sin of trusting in his own power and not looking to the power of God alone. How crushing this is to the pride of man to stand annihilated before God and have no power and no righteousness, but if man is to really repent from the inward man he must repent of all self-power and look to the power of God in Christ for grace alone. As Paul put it in II Corinthians 12, it is in our weakness that we are strong. Another way he put it was that in our weakness it is His power that is perfected in us and it is the power of Christ who dwells in us. Until that power or self or self-power is annihilated (real repentance) there will not be the power of Christ in the soul. Until Christ kills the power of self in the soul He will not reign in that soul by grace. This is to say that there will only be one, true reigning power in the soul and the one must be repented of.

A real repentance will necessarily be preceded by a person being pierced through and through with a sense of his vileness and unworthiness. God works a sense of vileness and unworthiness upon men before they are converted and this conviction does deepen as the sense of conviction goes on. If once we think about it, we can know that our repentance will not be any deeper than the sense of conviction that precedes it. Our repentance from self will not be any deeper than our sense of the vileness of self. It is interesting to note that in Acts 2:27 some who heard the sermon of Peter were said to be pierced to the heart. Peter had just finished telling them that they had crucified Jesus. John 19:34 has the account of Jesus on the cross and a soldier pierced his side to show He was already dead. The Greek word used for piercing there (John 19:34) was nusso. The word in Acts 2:27 is katanusso. The end of the word is the same in John 19:34 and Acts 2:27, but there is a preposition added on front of the word used in Acts. It adds a more violent aspect to the pricking or piercing. The point is that the word for the conviction (piercing) brought on the people in Acts 2:27 is that used of what they were guilty of, the crucifixion of Jesus where He was pierced through with a spear.

A conviction of sin that brings about a piercing like that of a spear is one bought about by a sight of sin by the work of God. These people felt a deep and piercing conviction and it certainly appeared to lead to a deep and real repentance. These people went from mocking the apostles to following the apostles. They went from being part of having Christ crucified to a real repentance where they bowed before the crucified One as Lord. No longer did they have the illusion that they had merit, but their conviction was deep and thorough. They did not just need a little help to be converted, they needed a Savior who would do all the work. They had no merit to add to the merits of Christ and they had no self-power to trust in. They needed a Divine power and they looked to that alone. This piercing conviction brought them a sense of how vile they really were and they were turned from their pride and righteousness to Christ and Christ alone. Real repentance of the inner man requires a real conviction in the inner man.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

No man has the least glimpse of the inside of truth, till all conceit of merit and self-power is annihilated, and he is pierced through and through with a sense of his vileness and unworthiness. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

Here is a truth that seems to be lost in our day. Here is what used to be known as experimental Christianity or experimental religion. It was not enough to know that Scripture tells us that we have no merit or self-power, which is seemingly rare today, but one must feel the weight and the arrow of those truths in his or her own soul. I must be rid of all conceit that I have any merit before I can truly look to the merits of Christ alone. I must not only believe that, but I must be rid of all hope and all trust in my merit from my inward man. But even more, I must know that not only do I know that I have no merit, I must feel the weight of being before a thrice holy God with nothing but demerit. Oh how the soul must fight through self-love and pride to arrive at that in the intellect, but that is nothing compared to the battle of the soul that comes to this realization from the depths of the soul. A real repentance is when I am turned from looking to my own merit to looking to the merit of Christ alone. The soul that has been changed by the Spirit will not only turn from looking to its own merit, but it will turn in disgust and loathing at the thought that it might have merit. It will then be turned to the merits of Christ and love and boast in His merit alone.

Not only must I come to the intellectual awareness that I have no merit and not only must I come to the experimental knowledge of that in my own soul, but I must also come to the point of having all of my self-power annihilated in my own eyes and in my own heart. Once again, it does not good to hear those things or read those things as long as I secretly trust in my own power in my heart. A real repentance is being turned from any hope or trust in any power or strength I have in the spiritual realm to looking to grace alone to work in me all that I can possibly do in the spiritual realm. Once again, the soul that has truly been changed will have disgust toward the idea that it has any power in the spiritual realm. Oh how this soul will fight against the through of free-will or the power of man in spiritual things and point others to the glory of free-grace in the spiritual realm. The soul that has tasted of its own depravity and the goodness of the Lord knows that apart from Him it can do nothing.

It is an interesting point to think of people seeing inside the truth as Adam says. The other side of that is people looking upon the truth from the outside and thinking that they know the truth because of their intellectual grasp of it. This provides us with an excellent picture of reality. Man stands outside the truth looking upon it until the truth works itself in him and he sees how he is utterly without merit and utterly without self-power. It is only when man sees that and that by Christ opening his eyes to see that man begins to see the inside of truth. It is no longer just the subject of the mind, but truth becomes part of the person and truth becomes the light by which a person sees all things. Christ Himself, of course, is Light and Life, but until a person has reached the end of any hope or illusion of merit or self-power that person cannot see with Life and Light.

The soul will not know the truth from the inside until that soul is “pierced through and through with a sense of his vileness and unworthiness.” Now this is not a popular teaching in the modern day, but it was a few centuries ago. It was thought that man must come to the point of seeing himself as vile and unworthy before he could understand the nature of grace. As long as a person thinks that s/he is not vile and has some worth, that person will have no real understanding of grace. This is why the doctrines of grace (experimentally) are at best shallow in our day if not virtually gone. It is easy enough for the intellect to grasp the doctrines of grace and view them in a logical order from the outside, but it is hard to grasp them as beautiful and glorious apart from Christ teaching the soul how vile it is and how unworthy it is. How the pride and self-love of the heart fights to maintain some worth, some righteousness, and some power of its own, but in doing so it only keeps looking upon the doctrines of grace from the outside. In order to understand grace one must understand what makes grace necessary and in order to understand grace from the depths of the soul one must understand the depravity of the soul to its depths. In order to taste the glory of grace shown to sinners, one must feel the piercing and awfulness of sin.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

It is the vainest of all vanities, and pride in perfection, to pretend to separate ourselves from the world outwardly, before we are separated from it inwardly. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

While outward repentance is necessary, even vital, Adam points to something that the scribes and Pharisees should have thought of. It is vanity and pride to pretend to separate ourselves from the world when we are not separated from it inwardly. If we have separated ourselves from the world in the externals and have not separated ourselves from the world inwardly, we have not been separated from the world at all. While that may sound a bit odd to some, let us look at the example of the Pharisees. They pretended to be very holy while that holiness and external religious activity did nothing but hid their greedy hearts. They were not separated from the world at all, but instead they just used religious things to gain worldly things (money, honor).

This should make all who interested in their own souls to examine themselves in the inner person and not just assume that they are okay because they keep from external sin. The essence of worldliness consists in our loves, desires, attitudes, motives; intents, and all the things of the heart and mind. At the heart of worldliness is the love of what the world will do for me rather than to seek the honor and glory of God. It is important to the worldly person to have people honor him or her and to have others think well of him or her. The worldly person is not just the person who seeks the outward pleasures of the world, but is one that seeks the honor and esteem of others. The worldly person does good things and may be very involved in civic concerns and moral issues, but the worldly person does those things in order for others to think well of him or her.

The same thing is true of the worldly person who is quite religious. A worldly person in religion can be liberal in order to please others or be conservative in order to please others. This religious person can be very involved in church in order to be highly thought of and this religious person can refrain from many external sinful activities in order to be thought highly of. A religious person can hold to conservative creeds and be quite intellectual in many religious things, yet this person longs and desires for the esteem of others in what s/he tries to convince self is a true and inward belief. This person will believe as long as this person finds that others esteem him or her because of it. However, when believing these things does not gain the esteem of others or this person finds another way to gain more esteem, that person will leave the religious things for other things. This kind of person is described in Matthew 13 (verses below) who receives the word with joy, yet at some point will fall away for various reasons.

Matthew 13:20 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

The vain person and the proud person don’t always see themselves as such, but their lack of a true and inward repentance is seen by the eye of God at all times and in most cases it will be seen by others. It is that same pride that will deceive a person into thinking that his or her outward repentance and outward religious actions are evidence of a real repentance and a real Christianity. Instead, the vain and proud person is in bondage to self-love and pride and that person’s outward repentance is being used to blind him or her to a lack of inward repentance. Real repentance is a work of God in the inner man and it cannot be done by the act of man or any power of man. Real repentance must be preceded by a changed heart or a new heart that God has worked by grace alone. Real repentance does not make the person perfect, but it is real. The proud heart may think it is perfect, but the heart of one that has really repented now sees worldliness with new eyes and longs to repent of even more of the world. The proud heart may repent of its repentance, but a true repenter will repent of the world the rest of his or her life.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Humility is a true sense of our state, and must necessarily go before a cure; but then, where is the virtue or merit of it? A man full of noisome, stinking sores, would be a madman, if he did not look out for a remedy, whenever he came to be sensible of his condition, but more so if he took any merit to himself for knowing that he was thus diseased. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

In the modern professing Church men are urged to flee to Christ. They are told that they must say a prayer or walk an aisle or something is given to them that they can do. But the biblical method, if I am seeing things correctly, is to show people just how sinful they are and if God opens their eyes to see just how wicked they are they will flee to God asking for mercy. As Adam notes about, a man who was full of terrible sores would be a madman not to seek a remedy once he became aware of his condition. What we must learn in our day (and in any other day as well) is that men who do not understand their sinful condition will not go to the real Christ for real grace and so they don’t have a real repentance. It is necessary for men to know that they are sinners, of course, but they need to know the depths of their sin if they are going to have a real repentance. They are going to have to understand just how helpless they are if they are going to see their utter need of Christ to save them completely without any help from them. After all, if they did help then salvation would not be by Christ alone or grace alone.

At this point Adam points us to see how wicked and deceptive the human heart really is. If a person has never really had his or her eyes opened to pride, self-love, and self-reliance, then this should be one place to see it. We understand that sinners can become proud of their sin and religious sinners can become proud of their religion. But can it truly be the case that some will see something of the evil nature of their hearts and this will move them to be proud? Here is a terribly deceptive method of the devil in working with our pride and hiding it under the guise of false humility. We know that Scripture teaches us that knowledge puffs up, but do we see that even when we obtain knowledge of our own sin even that can move us to pride? When we sin can we mutter in our own hearts that at least we know we have sinned and others simply don’t see it? Do we see how wicked our pride is in that case when we take a greater knowledge of our own sin as a way to boost our own pride?

The knowledge of our own sin can become a way of our trusting in ourselves and our knowledge of our sin as merit before God. We may think that in some way our greater knowledge of our sin makes it more likely that God will save us because we see more sin than our neighbor. At any point and at any time in our life when we think we have done something and we feel good about ourselves or we think we have a little more merit because of it, that little warning bell (or very large and loud one) should go off. But even more, if we begin to have our pride boosted or think we have a little merit BECAUSE of knowing more about our sin than others, we should be surprised if we don’t drop straight into the pit of hell.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5)

The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Behold the wickedness of man and the deception of his heart when he will take pride in a greater knowledge of his own sin or think that in some way he is more likely to be saved because he knows his own sin. But how many people do this (perhaps all are tempted to it or actually do it to some degree) and have this rising in their hearts without noticing it? The depths of the sin in the heart should be obvious to those who have seen this in their own hearts or come to see it. How vile and wicked it is for a man to be proud of his sinful behavior, and indeed so many are. They write books and do television shows about their wickedness. Yet are we any better if we think we can merit something before God because we recognize our sin? Surely it is obvious that we need a real repentance from our pride at all times, even in the knowledge of our sin. Real repentance is from the depths of the heart. Real repentance is not being turned from all our pride, but real repentance will be accompanied with a desire to be free from such a hateful thing as pride. Real repentance will be accompanied by a loathing of self when it sees the head of the viper of pride rising in its own heart.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Humility is a true sense of our state, and must necessarily go before a cure; but then, where is the virtue or merit of it? A man full of noisome, stinking sores, would be a madman, if he did not look out for a remedy, whenever he came to be sensible of his condition, but more so if he took any merit to himself for knowing that he was thus diseased. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

Since humility (at the least) includes a true sense of our state, how far short people are falling of this aspect of humility in our day. But since this type of humility is necessary for a person to seek a cure, then people are not seeking a true cure for their true problem. Instead, they are seeking God for bigger and better houses and bigger and better cars. They seek God for spouses, for jobs, and for money. But to seek God to be cured of their wicked hearts and sinful nature they don’t even now about does not cross their minds.

The professing Church in our day is concerned to get people to pray a prayer, repent from bad externals sins and become more moral, and then to get involved in the church. But the people never seem to come to a realization of just how sinful they are! How can this be? It is because our doctrines of God have changed, which means our doctrine of sinful man has changed. Salvation has become something that men are in charge of and have the power to carry out for themselves. Repentance has become something men have the power to do themselves as well. Christ is at the beckon and call of any who simply decide they want to escape hell and will stop their external sin.

This is madness in light of Scripture. Regeneration is a work of the sovereign God who does this when and where He pleases. God promises grace to the humble, but only He can truly work humility in the soul. Only He can enlighten souls to their real sinful nature and the extent of their inability. Only He can show souls their utter need of Christ alone to save them by grace alone. Only He can show them that there is nothing in them worth saving and nothing in them that can move Him to save them, so they must not look to themselves at all but with empty hands and empty of trust in themselves simply cry out to God to save them for His name’s sake.

Not only is the modern professing Church missing this in terms of speaking to sinners about coming to know their own sinful hearts and their own sinful natures and what real repentance is, they are also teaching a false version of assurance in light of that. Sinners who are not broken from self will continue to look to self for assurance. Sinners who have not learned that they must look to grace for all things will not realize that God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace and for the sake of His own name. When sinners are never broken to see that, they will not understand the truth of grace and of real repentance.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5)

When a person is taught and the Lord enlightens the heart of the sinner to see the depths of his or her own sin and that every intent of the thoughts of “MY” heart are only evil and that continually, that person will not be satisfied with a mere external repentance. That person will not be satisfied with a faith worked up in his or her own strength. That person will begin to see that Christ alone and grace alone can save him or her. That person will begin to understand that salvation by Christ alone means that all saving merit is from Christ. That person will begin to understand that grace means that God saves for His glory alone and that our sin is not an obstacle to His power and grace when it is for His own name. Once a person arrives at the beautiful sight of God saving sinners for Himself and His own name’s sake, a person can then have a real repentance. This real repentance is from all hope in self and all trust in self. This real repentance is from a sinful heart to a heart that has Christ dwelling in it. This real repentance is from a proud heart to a humble heart. This real repentance is from the love of self to the love of God. While this is a real repentance, it is far from meaning that a person is perfect. But a real repentance is conducive to people wrestling with their sinful hearts and needing Christ and His grace moment by moment.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Humility is a true sense of our state, and must necessarily go before a cure; but then, where is the virtue or merit of it? A man full of noisome, stinking sores, would be a madman, if he did not look out for a remedy, whenever he came to be sensible of his condition, but more so if he took any merit to himself for knowing that he was thus diseased. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

While humility for a believer is more than just a true sense of our state, for the unbeliever arriving at a true sense of his state is certainly a work of humility in the heart by the Spirit. Until a person arrives at and accepts as true from some depth in the heart, a person will not seek a cure. Who would seek an expensive and painful cure for something s/he did not think s/he had? This is something that is necessary for a true repentance, for once again who will seek for what may be a painful sight of self and a painful time of repentance unless one must do that?

The heart of man is exceedingly wicked and evil, though it is wicked enough that it will not accept that what it does is wicked and evil. Self-love and pride work together (though they are really the same thing in a sense) to keep man from seeing the depths of his wickedness and evil, though that is needed for a real repentance. It takes some work of humility in the heart (the opposite of pride) for a person’s pride to be lowered and the blinders of pride taken off to see his or her own heart. Oh how a proud heart will hide so much wickedness and evil from its own eyes. But that proud heart must be brought down so a person can see the real condition of the heart. That proud heart will fight at every step out of self-love which only wants to think the best it can of itself. Oh how difficult it is for self-love to see itself as wicked and evil. How impossible for a hear full of nothing but pride and self-love to know that it is the same hear that the LORD saw in all men so long ago:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

How utterly humbling it is to a proud heart to recognize that s/he is guilty of the indictment of the LORD that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” While that text of Scripture is an objective truth, it must come home to each soul that it is true “of me” as well as all. This truth must be driven into the depths of the soul by the Spirit of the living God or it will be rejected by the heart as it churns up evil intents of the heart. This is a spiritual battle as well. While the believer has to battle the temptations of Satan that his or her sins are so great that they cannot be forgiven, the unbeliever fights his or her own pride and self-love while Satan uses those things to tell him or her that s/he is not that bad.

When Scripture tells us that we are that bad, then we are that bad. While the heart wants to and does suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness, the heart must be softened and humbled before God by God if that heart is going to see itself for what it is and then be enabled to really repent of what it is. The Pharisees were incensed at being called sinners and so there was no real repentance from them, but others were brought low by the preaching of Jesus and cried out for mercy and were granted a real repentance. God was working in their hearts to bring them to humble their pride and bring them off of their self-love to see who they really were in order that they could repent of those things. But the same is true even now. Until a person sees his or her own foul and rotten heart, that person will not be able to seek a real repentance. God works to humble a person so that they can see what they must repent of, but once they see what they need to repent of (a sinful nature and heart), they will see that this repentance is not in their own power but is a work of grace. How we must have God to open our eyes to our hearts!