God Loves… Himself

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?                     WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

William Weeks would not have been a popular man in our day. The highlighted words of his quote just above would cast him out of anything acceptable to the vast majority of professing Christians today. In the highlighted words, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see, we are given a lot of light about selfish hearts and of the bankrupt manner if which people are evangelized today. Not only that, we can see just how false the methods of preaching are today as well. People are to be approached with true love, that is, love for the glory of God and the spiritual well-being of those we are speaking or preaching to. When one approaches men one will approach them as those with selfish hearts and they need the sovereign God to change their hearts or one approaches them with niceness. This niceness is really not love, but it does pretend to. This niceness, however, approaches men as if they are the center of things and so God is changed to something He is not. Again, we will either tell men about the true God and so they will respond in anger and wrath toward us or we will make them the center of our message and so they are nice to us. In other words, a selfish heart doing evangelism will not tell the truth about God in order for men to love and honor the evangelist.

There has been a debate for centuries on the so-called “free offer” of the Gospel. Along with that is the idea that is the idea of the well-meant offer of the Gospel. This little Blog will clearly not settle the issue, but perhaps for a handful it will clarify the situation. The issue hinges on what was done at the cross, yes, but it also hinges on other things as well. It is vital to think of who God really is, but also who sinners really are. Selfish sinners love those who love them and yet they love them from selfish hearts full of self-love. When people “offer” salvation to sinners and told that God loves them and desires to save them if only they will believe, this is nothing that a selfish heart cannot do while remaining dead and lost in selfishness and self-love. What selfish sinner without the least desire to repent wouldn’t be glad to pray a prayer or make a choice from his selfish heart in order to be saved from hell? The problem, or course, is that the sinner does not see his sinful heart and just how helpless and hopeless he is. He still depends upon himself and his own selfish heart.

We simply must know and feel the weight of what Weeks is saying here. When people speak as if God loves sinners just as they are and desires their salvation just as they are, any selfish sinner will love that message and that false god. On the contrary, God loves the contrite and the humble, but of course and in contrast to the pleasing message of God loves you; the selfish heart must be broken and deeply humbled. Selfish hearts do not want to hear that God wants their hearts broken and even more, only He can break their hearts. The selfish heart needs to see that it is utterly unable to do one thing that is not full of selfishness and self love. The selfish heart needs to see that its selfish heart is at enmity with God and that it hates the true God. As Luther said, until the heart is humbled to where the sinner has no hope from his own will and his own power, the sinner is not ready to be saved.

Since the days of Finney sinners have been approached as if they only needed to be talked into something rather than that they are to seek the Lord for a broken heart. Sinners have been approached without a proper understanding of God or of the nature of sin. This truly changes everything. Is the Gospel worthy of all acceptation? Yes, or course it is. The problem, however, is that selfish sinners hate the true God and find Him and the Gospel of God very unacceptable to them. We must be confronted with the basic truth that sinners hate God and all things about Him just as they hated Jesus when He walked on the earth. As long as we don’t point out the wickedness of the natural man’s selfish heart and present a God who loves them and longs to show them mercy, they will be pleased with that God and in doing so their selfish heart is undiscovered to them.

Frankly, it is so sad to see people approached as if they were neutral and had the power to do what they are told needs to be done. The Great Commandment is to love God with all of our being, yet the natural man has a selfish heart and hates God. This basic truth needs to be pounded into our hearts over and over. Our own selfish hearts do not want to speak to people in that way, yet it needs to be done. Could it be that there are throngs of unconverted people in our day who think they love God when in fact they still have selfish hearts and hate the true God? Could it be that the true God is so rarely heard about and that the selfish nature of men’s hearts is so rarely spoken of that in fact true Christianity has been replaced by a selfish “Christianity” and those who stand for a true Christianity are thought to be haters? Jesus Christ did not come to save nice people; He came to save sinners who were at enmity with God. What is a true repentance if it is not from the deepest sin of the heart?

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?                           WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

No one can seek Christ in truth and love who does not seek Christ for Himself. We should want Jesus for who He is and not just for what He gives, especially if we only think of what Christ gives as physical things or worldly things. Imagine the Christ who is the Beloved of the Father and the most beautiful Being in the entire universe and selfish hearts ignore Him and His glory and prefer worldly things and sin before Him. Then we see that there were ministers who preferred their own interests to Christ and as such had no true concern for the welfare of the people of Christ. We also see (from the verses on John above) that selfish hearts hated Christ when He spoke to them about their sin. Not only did they hate Christ, but they hated His Father. Yet, if a false Christ is preached then people will love that Christ and love the Father of that Christ. They may not seek Christ for true food as the people in John 6 did, but they still seek Him only for the things He gives.

Behold the horror and extreme wickedness of a selfish heart. A selfish heart is at enmity with God and it hates the true God when He is set before it, though a selfish heart will respond positively to a god that it thinks loves it and will give it what it wants. Behold the wickedness of a selfish heart in that since it does not seek the interests of Christ it does not seek the real good of the people of Christ. Behold the deep darkness and bondage of a selfish heart that will love a “god” to the degree it thinks that this “god” loves it and will do things for it. This is nothing but a selfish heart loving itself over and above God and all other human beings. A selfish heart is a heart that seeks itself in all it does even when it is doing outwardly good things for others. Can the evil of such a heart really be measured? What lengths would a heart do that was totally given over to selfishness?

Dwell upon the fact that most of the love, kindness, and outward morality in the world comes from selfish hearts. Dwell upon the fact that most of the religion (even a very great percentage) in the world comes from selfish hearts. Selfish hearts are one and all opposed to God, hate God, and hate His people. Selfish hearts in reality, despite their outward love and apparent niceness and kindness, hate all people. This is the gist of Titus 3:3, which says, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Those who do not love God and therefore do not have true love in their hearts from God seek themselves in all they do and in reality they hate all those around them. Paul, speaking of the unbelieving heart, said that the lives of unbelievers are spent in malice and envy. They are hateful and live hating one another. That is a selfish heart on display. Regardless of how nice and loving this heart appears, it is a selfish heart and in reality it hates all around it.

The selfish heart is in a prison and it cannot escape doing all it does out of love for self and hatred for God. The selfish heart cannot keep one command of God since all the commands can only be kept out of love for God and neighbors. It is a profound error to think that people have a free-will and can just decide to believe in Christ and love Him. No selfish heart can ever love at all. Before one that has a selfish heart can love that selfish heart must be crushed, humbled, and driven into the dust of nothingness. It is only when God deeply humbles the heart and regenerates it that a heart can love. A selfish heart constantly looks to self for the power to love, but all it can do is hate and hate more. Oh how we must have the power of grace to change our hearts.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?              WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

The power of self in the life of the world is rarely noticed except in extreme cases of blatant selfishness in doing harm to others. The power of self in the activities and functions of the churches seem to be even more rarely noticed. The power of self is not noticed in the ministry and not noticed by those in the pews. It is largely a neglected subject if not virtually unknown, so the power of self remains hidden in the darkness of hearts. It takes the light of Christ to shine in the hearts for people to really see the nature and power of sin.

I Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

When we see that the text says that love is not jealous, if we even think for a moment we will remember that the Scriptures teach that God is love and that God is jealous. Spouses are told that they don’t love their spouse if s/he is jealous. Yet this really misses the point. There is a godly jealousy which is the opposite of a selfish jealousy. God, being perfect in love, is perfect in His jealousy as well. God, being perfect in love, has not the least tint of wrong in His jealous. True love, then, is not jealous in certain ways and is jealous in others. True love is jealous for the glory of God and true love is jealous for the spiritual good and holiness of others. True love is not jealous if God gives other people spiritual gifts and is not jealous when God gives others blessings.

Self, however, is the exact opposite; self is not truly concerned for the glory of God, but is instead jealous for its own glory. Self is not truly concerned about the spiritual good of others, but instead is jealous of others if one person appears to have more spiritual gifts. Self always wants to be the best preacher and the best elder and the best of whatever it wants. Self is jealous when others get the attention and honor. Self is jealous if another appears in a higher spot than it does. Self is jealous when another says something that is not wholly positive. Self is jealous when another is spoken well of and it is not. Clearly, self brings a lot of trouble when multiple people are around.

Self, being jealous as well, if it cannot in false humility get others to brag on self, will find a way to brag on self. True love, however, has true humility and wants others to be built up in the truth. True love, which can only come from God, is not arrogant and lifted up against God and His people. True love wants God to be manifested in and through His people, so this requires death to self. An arrogant person, even if that person is very religious, is one that is all for self and the religious person that is arrogant will try to hide that arrogance before others. It will feign humility and it will feign lowliness in order to hide the real arrogance of the heart. The love of self is arrogance against God and others, but true love is humble before God.

The selfish heart by sheer definition is a heart that is full of pride and arrogance. This self can be hidden beneath the rubbish of false humility and false religion, but it cannot be hidden from the all-seeing God. When God beholds the selfish heart, even if it is a very religious heart, He beholds Satan himself who is full of pride and arrogance in his hatred of God. As true love in the heart can only be from God’s work and as such God beholds His own glory in that heart, so the arrogant heart is the work of the evil one. A selfish heart that is full of self-love and pride is a heart that is like its father, and that father is the devil. Oh what a stench in the nostrils of God is the religious self who pretends to love God, pretends to do good works, pretends to preach orthodox sermons; but in the end it is nothing but the devil wanting to be like God.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?          WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

In light of who God is, that is, the God who exists in and of Himself and lives in perfect and supreme love for Himself within the Trinity, surely we can see how obnoxious our selfish hearts that are full of self-love are. As I Peter 1:15-16 graphically and powerfully sets out, we are to be holy because He is holy and our holiness is to be “as He is holy.” In other words, our holiness is to be like His holiness or it is not holiness at all. It is not enough to say we are holy because of things we don’t do, but our holiness is to be like His. It is not enough to say that we are holy because of things we do, but our holiness must be like His.

The problem with human beings, however, is that in the fall our first parents fell into hearts that desires to be like God. In other words, holiness can only be true holiness when we are like God and yet our unholiness is also in being like God. Our standard in all things is God. We are wicked when we try to be like God in His self-sufficiency and His perfect independence. We are wicked when we try to be our own standard and do all things out of self-love or selfishness. But again, holding to the strictest form of orthodoxy can be done out of a selfish heart. Notice the great warning from Weeks from his quote above. Our selfish hearts can have some raised affections and we can easily mistake those for true religion.

When the selfish heart hears that God loves it and desires spiritual good for it, that can raise the selfish affections of the heart and the person can be deceived. The heart that loves God loves to hear of the God who loves Himself and is only as holy as His love for Himself is. However, as with self-sufficiency, when we try to do all we do out of self-love that is a horrible sin. It is only when we love God out of a love that God puts in our hearts that we are holy at all. All that we do that comes from self-love is opposed to having God as our chief love. When we see all the descriptions in the Bible of love and what it really is, we should feel the weight of our selfish hearts in wanting to love ourselves rather than God. We should see that the best of our efforts at religion and our good works are nothing but filthy rags. It is only the truly humble (not the humility of the selfish heart) that God gives grace to, and even that humility is what He shares with His people in and through Christ.

Surely it is clear that true love is far different than selfish love. This is why true love is not thought of as true love by the world or by religious people. Self-love is always trying to convince itself that it has true love and it does things to convince itself that it has true love and at the same time it wants others to think it has true love. As the Pharisees come up with their own self-righteousness and hated the true righteousness of Christ, so in the modern day religious people are coming up with all kinds of standards that are based out of self-love.

I Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Self-love has its own form of patience, kindness, and non-jealousy. Self-love will find ways to brag or get others to brag on it, but self-love cannot stand a word of correction and will accuse others of not having love when someone points out a flaw. Self-love does not want to appear arrogant, and so in its arrogance it will try to hide under a humility worked up by self-love. Self-love does not act unbecomingly out of self-love, which is very unbecoming the presence of God, Self love seeks its own no matter what it does. Self-love is the counterfeit of God and His love.

A selfish heart is simply longing to be like God, wanting the honor of others that belongs to God, and as such the selfish heart is a solitary being in the universe wanting all things to love it and honor it. The selfish heart will study hard to be a person of distinction in the pulpit and out. The selfish heart will put a great amount of self-effort into being religious. But only those who have been delivered from self can truly love God and others. The selfish heart can only preach, teach, and live from self and pretend to a form of religion.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?                   WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

It is common to think of people as committing sins and think of the committing of those sins as the problem. However, while it is true that committing acts of sin is a problem, the bigger issue is where those sins come from and why they are committed. Another issue is that refraining from outward acts of sin can also be sinful. If we only refrain from sin from selfishness, then while it is better to refrain from sin than commit sin, even refraining from sin from selfish motives is not refraining from sin out of love for God. We are commanded to love God with our whole being and that would include why we refrain from sin as well. If we only refrain from stealing because of selfish motives, there is no love for God at all in that. Self would still be the chief love of the heart. This should show us something of what love is and how it is copied by self in I Corinthians 13.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

While many speak of love, it is usually something far different than the Bible teaches about. The text above tells us that love is patient. However, true love is not patient with sin. There are times when true love is not patient. We are also told that patience is a virtue, so striving for patience as a virtue can be nothing but what a selfish heart does. True love looks for the good of others in a spiritual sense as well as in other senses and true love is only communicated to the soul by God. Love is not so much as human activity as it is a sharing in the love of God. True love is patient with others for the right reasons and for the right heart, but there is a form of patience that comes from a selfish heart and that patience is nothing but sin. There are many who try to convince themselves that they have love when in fact their supposed love is the love of self and their patience is from a selfish heart.

Love is also kind, but this is something that is far different from being nice to people. Niceness and so-called good manners has replaced love in our day. When niceness is confused with love, then the ability to love others is within the human will rather than what comes from Christ. True kindness, however, at the very least includes a looking for the true welfare of the souls of others. Virtually anyone, even hardened criminals, can do acts that appear to be kind. But once again we can see that outward kindness can come from a selfish heart. A person can want to appear to be kind to others or even to think of self as kind when in fact the heart operates from nothing but selfishness. Self-love has a way of counterfeiting all aspects of love so that it appears as love, but that is humanistic in the way of thinking and selfish in the motives.

We must know that true love and patience and kindness can only come from God, but their counterfeits come from a selfish heart. The great danger is when the counterfeits are confused with spiritual reality. In our day niceness is confused with love and acts of kindness toward people only have the appearance of kindness rather than the root of the matter which is Christ. Oh how we need to examine our hearts to look for the root of the matter. True love is often thought of as being rude or out of line. True love will have the appearance to the natural man as something other than love as indeed Jesus was hated. The selfish love of people in doing outward acts of apparent kindness, however, will be thought of as genuine by the natural man as well. The world will hate true love as indeed it hated Jesus. The world loves selfish love as that is simply a way worldly people loves self. It is how people love those who love them.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?          WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

The power of selfishness on religion and professing “Christianity” is perhaps more vast than the human mind can imagine. We either think of God (as triune) as focused on human beings (us, me) or we think of Him focused on Himself and His own glory. We either think of being motivated to “serve” Him out of love for Him and who He really is or we think of being motivated out of love for self. We either think of holiness as being motivated by the things of self and self-interests or we think of holiness as being out of love for Him. There is simply no way to escape the two so-called ways of approaching Christianity and one of them (selfishness) is not Christianity at all.

I Corinthians 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

While we have many ways of motivating people to feed the poor, it is usually based on selfish interests in this life or the next. Notice that even if one totally impoverishes self to feed the poor and does not have true love, there is no true benefit to the person. There is no real profit. In other words, self is still on the throne and self is doing all for self. It is self that is giving up all of its properties for the sake of self, not really for the glory of God and not really for the sake of the poor.

We hear many messages about self-sacrifice and sacrificial giving of money and things, but the text just above teaches us that we can give up our lives and give up our life in an excruciatingly painful way and yet without love there is no profit (eternal or present) at all. When a person dies for the sake of self, it is nothing but an idolatrous act and is tantamount to suicide. The self never dies unless it is God who works death to self in us by grace alone. If it is possible to give up all one has and even our lives and yet that be done for self rather than for love, isn’t it at least possible that many professing Christians are deceived by self? Isn’t it possible that ministers are putting pressures on people to be part of religious acts and all for the sake of self? Instead of truly deny self, all the apparent acts of self-denial are only puffing up and strengthening self. How utterly deceptive!

Oh how possible it is that many, many people are being deceived by their feelings being aroused by selfish motives in the things of religion. Oh how they will give money and perhaps time and effort to do things, but they have never died to self and as such there is nothing they do that is out of reverence for the true God and love for Him. Their flesh hates God and so they do all for a false god which is really their sinful self working up a god that it can serve, but of course it is sinful self making a god in its own image. Self has come up with its own god and so it is deceived into thinking that it is serving the true God while it is doing nothing but in the service and love of self. Self can love a life of ease and self can love a life of hardship, but either way it is self that is loved and served rather than God. Self fits very well in professing Christian circles as religion is a great way for self to love and serve self. Could it be that self is the real god of many professing Churches?

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord? WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

The Scriptures (I Cor 13) tells us that there is nothing we can do that is acceptable if it is without love. This is very profound, yes, but we still need to probe away at it to get at the meaning. The Scriptures clearly do not mean that whatever we do out of self-love is okay, but instead in keeping with the Greatest Commandment all we do must be done out of love for God. The Scriptures are quite clear that self must be denied if we are going to follow Christ, so we can say with great confidence that all we do out of self-love is done without love for God and as such it is nothing.

1 Cor 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

The greatest speaker in the world can speak with great rhetorical skills and move the people to great external morality, but apart from love for God and a desire for the people to love God, that preacher is nothing but a clanging cymbal in the hands of a terrible cymbal player. If a person could know all mysteries and have all knowledge (which the proud seem to think they have), yet they do not love God with all their being, they know those things and use those things out of self-love and so are nothing. Oh how preachers, seminary professors, and leaders in the churches need to think on these things. God is either the love of our hearts when we speak, lead, and teach or we are the chief love of our own hearts. We either have a true desire (regardless of what we say or try to convince ourselves of ) for those who listen to us to love and glorify God or we want them to be impressed by us.

Oh, say some, but I am just a simple person of simple faith. Well, the Scriptures speak to that as well. Even if a person has all faith and a faith that can remove mountains, if that person does not have love for God and desires those who see the mountains removed love God, then that person is doing it out of self-love and is nothing. There is truly no escape for the selfish heart other than the road of self-deception. The whole of our religion is overthrown by selfish hearts. All that a preacher does is either for self or it is out of love for God and the people. If the preacher loves God and the people in truth, then out of love for God and His glory he will want the people to love God and His glory.

The preacher or professor or elder that does not truly love God and desire the people to love God is a person that is a vicious idolater and uses people for the goals of self and self-glory. It is not a true love for God, even if the person is orthodox and says the right things, to desire the people to honor the preacher rather than point them to love God. If the desires of the selfish heart of the preacher are fulfilled, that is, that the people admire and honor him, then the preacher has hated God and the people. It is God alone who is good for the people. If the people are truly led to honor the preacher rather than God, then the preacher has led the people into idolatry. The hatred for the people is in that the preacher has desired himself to be honored more than God and has tried to get the people to admire and honor him rather than God. The preacher uses people to serve himself and his own pride and honor rather than using self to point to God and His glory. While it may be unthinkable to some, it might shock us to learn of the amount of idolatry that goes on each Sunday morning in professing churches.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord?        WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

The Scriptures are quite clear that men love those who love themselves. This is a truth of Scripture that is clear and obvious in daily life. We see the truth of that in the advertisements of the day, whether on television, radio ads, or magazine ads. The advertisement gurus appeal to self-love in order to sell what they sell. The same is true in most professing “churches” as well. The appeal is to self-love and self-interests rather than a love for God. The appeal to a sinful person that is full of self is to know that God loves him or her. When the Bible teaches us that sinners love those who love them, that teaches us that sinners love themselves and they are the basis for which they love others. When they are motivated to do something because God loves them, then their self-love is the basis for which they will act. When self-love is the basis for which we act, that is idolatry because we are to do all we do out of love for God and His glory.

The very thing that we are to repent of is self. The very thing that we must deny if we are to follow Christ is self. How, then, can preachers move people and try to motivate them to do things by giving them motives that are based on their very sin nature? How can we try to move people to be saved by appealing to their self-love which is what they need to be saved from? No one wants to go to hell, that is, if a person has any understanding of what hell is. However, a person cannot be converted and have faith in Christ based on nothing but a desire to avoid hell because that is something the most sinful and vile person desires. The heart full of self-love and selfishness is a heart that will want to avoid pain and discomfort in this life and for eternity.

It seems that the motives that are given to people to serve in the professing churches are also based on selfishness. The people are told what God will give them or bless them with if they will give money or do things in the professing church. But again, are we serving God or self if we do what we do in order to get even more back? How much of what is done in the professing churches of our day would fall under the condemning words of Jesus (above in John 6) that the people did not seek Him but sought what He could give them? When the sinful heart operates according to a selfish nature it is not Christian to try to move people with selfish motives. People should be motivated because of who God is and out of love for Him and His glory. Alas, when people are not being encouraged to holiness out of love for God but instead out of a love for self, then this is nothing more than a Pharisee would have done. Apparently that spirit is alive and strong in our day. That which we must be granted repentance from (selfish heart) is that which people are being encouraged to be holy by. It is diabolical.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord? WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of your being, but our fallen nature means we love ourselves with all of our being. The Greatest Commandment teaches us to love all things for the sake of God, but self-love gives us the motives and intents of doing all for the sake of self. This is an important and vital distinction. The selfish heart loves God for the sake of self or for selfish purposes. The selfish heart hears something of a message that it thinks is the Gospel and it loves that gospel for the sake of self. This, again, shows the nature of our great need for a new heart. A heart that does all it does from self-love and cannot do anything apart from self-love is a heart that is damnable. That heart that does all from self-love does not need a little reformation, it needs to die to self and have the power of the living God in it.

We see the power of selfishness (a heart governed by self-love and pride) in the hearts of those who were earnestly seeking after Jesus in John 6. They went to great lengths to find Jesus. They had a great desire to find Jesus. They longed to be with Jesus. However, they wanted Jesus for something else. They wanted Jesus for something they could get. They wanted Jesus from the selfish desires of their hearts rather than out of a love for Jesus and who He really was. This should be a shock to our own religious hearts. Do we want Jesus for any other reason than for who He is? Do we want Jesus for what we think He will give us? Do we think of the Gospel as only a way to escape hell or is the Gospel all about the glory of God? Do we want Jesus and long for Him in order to obtain worldly things? Do we want Jesus in order to be protected from bad things in the world? Do we want Jesus in order to make us look good in our religious duties and in our religious circles?

The easy religious conversions that are rampant in our day are really not true conversions at all. These conversions are when self is converted from seeking outward sin to self seeking religious things. Notice, however, this immensely vital point and do not miss it. If the heart is not changed by God, then all religious conversions are really nothing but self changing its focus. The idol of self is the self. The self is what people worship until they die to self and have Christ as their very lives. Until the chief love of the heart is changed a person will seek God and all things for self. Until the chief love of the heart a person will use God and the things of religion to seek self. Imagine the shock of very religious people on that great day when their eyes are opened and they see that all of their religion and all of their so-called good works were nothing but acts of self-love and therefore idolatry.

The Great Commandment stands against all true selfishness of the heart. The Great Commandment stands against our pride and self-seeking. The Great Commandment teaches us to seek God out of love for Him and do all of our good works out of love for Him. The Great Commandment teaches us to flee from sin out of love for God. You see, and I am sure this will sound horrible to many; self can be a great idol in stopping sin. If we stop sin or flee from sin from a selfish heart, that still leaves us in the grips of a selfish heart that does all out of love for self rather than love for God. In our sins of commission and omission we serve self rather than love God. In what we pursue in the world or in religion we serve self rather than God. Whether we give ourselves to open sin or flee from open sin, we do those things out of self-love rather than love for God. The command is to love God with all of our being, but instead the unregenerate heart does all it does out of self-love. Behold the awfulness of self and what an idol it really is! You must be born again or you will always be the lover of self and as such it will always be your idol.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Philippians 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 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.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

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

And when, in addition to these measures, the general strain of what is said to sinners is adapted to work upon their selfish feelings and animal passions, as most of what I have heard has been, and some of it extremely well adapted to work up those feelings to a high pitch, it would be strange if some affections were not excited which they might readily mistake for true religion. When God is represented as desiring their salvation, without the least qualification, and that his desire for it is infinitely strong, what impenitent sinner, that has the least seriousness of mind, is not prepared to be pleased? If ” sinners love those that love them,” as our Lord assures us, they can love such a being as God is represented to be, without any change of heart. A God of all mercy, is just such a God as sinners desire. Will it be said that his justice is also brought into view, and that the terrors of hell are exhibited? True; but in what light are they exhibited? Is it not commonly in a light to which the selfish heart will as readily accord? WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

Imagine a religious person having a dream and that person (in the dream) discovered that the religion that s/he has been involved in was false. Imagine this person finding out that over a period of many years things were changed and despite using the same words for the most part the very religion that this person had been part of was a false religion. Imagine that this person came to realize with horror that the very religion that this person was practicing was actually being used to delude people and deceive them. Imagine that this person then awakened from this dream and over a period of years found out that the dream was in fact reality.

Other than the dream, this is somewhat a true story. It is a true story regarding myself. Approximately 30 years ago I was confronted with a sovereign God in the pages of Scripture. I thought to myself that if that is true, then that changes everything. Worship should be different and evangelism should be different. However, things were not different in the professing churches that I attended. Many years later I was confronted with the idea that a selfish version of Christianity had taken over and that was opposed to the Bible and the true God. While God opened my eyes to that idea years ago, of late it has been driven into my heart deeper and deeper. I do not hear the God of the Bible being spoken of and I do not hear sinners being treated as sinners. Invitations are given to sinners as if they were already reconciled to God and all they needed to do was accept Him. Invitations are given to sinners as if they were not dead in sin and still have all the ability in the world to do all that is needed to be saved.

Perhaps the most sinking feeling that is driving me to despair is to hear nothing but selfish motivations given to sinners regarding salvation, sanctification, and life in general. The only motives that are presented to people are based on the self-love of the person rather than telling them that the only proper motivation is love for God. A person does not need a new heart or grace (these days) to respond and pray a prayer. A person does not need a new heart or grace to live the Christian life. It would appear that God has provided them all they need and now is nothing more than a Divine cheerleader for them. This is true in professing “Reformed” groups as well as the others, but it seems to matter little. Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-5), yet in the modern day it appears that it is taught that apart from us God can do nothing.

When people are approached as selfish beings and given nothing but selfish motives to come to Christ or to live the Christian religion, that is very American and very much like the commercials we see and hear. But that is not Christianity. In the time of Jesus the established religion was not the truth of God, but instead the Pharisees had taken over and orthodoxy looked a lot different than Scripture. In the 1500’s Luther discovered a version of Christianity that was far different than the New Testament in the doctrines and practices of Roman Catholicism. In the 1800’s men like William Weeks and Asahel Nettleton found that men like Finney and his followers had deviated from the old paths. One of the major ways those men had deviated from the old ways was that they had turned from biblical Christianity which is God-centered in all ways and had made it into a man-centered and selfish religion. Now, to them, religion was all about giving people the proper motivations (which were selfish) and having them make decisions. Salvation (according to that scheme) was in the hands of men.

The Pharisees had a selfish system of religion, Roman Catholicism had a selfish system of religion, and Finney had a selfish system of religion. All three of those systems attributed to men ability and tried to get them to use that ability by using selfish motivations rather than proclaiming to men that God alone could save them and that they should seek Him to give them a new heart so that they could love Him and have true motivations of love for Him. All three of those systems used the Bible and used biblical language. All three of those systems were focused on men and their selfish interests and were limited to selifsh motivations. All three of those systems were categorically false and taught false gospels.

The ways of Finney have not left us, but instead they have taken over. The threat to biblical Christianity is real, even very real. However, the threat is no longer from the outside, it is from the inside. This threat is perhaps far more dangerous than Roman Catholicism (in a sense) because it more subtle. It uses biblical language and biblical categories, but it has changed the meaning of them. Justification by faith alone no longer means anything like the Bible teaches or what Luther taught, but instead faith is nothing but a work and justification just means something like being saved. The Bible teaches us that God is at enmity with non-reconciled sinners, but men now say that God loves them all and wishes them the best. The Bible teaches that grace is a sovereign work of God, but men now say it is available to all who will choose it for themselves. The Bible teaches that men are selfish and that their hearts need to be changed, but men now give selfish reasons for men to make choices in all things. These things are not a dream, they are a living nightmare. The Trojan horse of selfishness has entered the gates of Christianity and what was once true is now false. What was once evil is now good and what was once good is now evil. Where is God? He is not absent; He is hardening our hearts and giving us over to our selfish desires.