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.

It is a hard thing, and a sore conflict, to renounce all sin, as sin, fully, finally, irrevocably; and probably many of those who think they do, never tried it, and are hidden from themselves. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

Adam points out that it may be that many of those who think that they have renounced sin have never tried it and are hidden from themselves. This is very sobering. While it must be made clear as we can make it that repentance does not and cannot bring free-grace but instead free-grace works repentance, yet repentance must be there. Without a real repentance we will perish and there is simply no question about that among those who hold to the glorious doctrines of grace. But again, it is a very hard thing and there is much conflict in the soul as God works in us to show us our sin and then for our hearts to be broken from self-effort renouncing sin in order that our renunciation of sin would be full.

This is not to say that a person that renounces all sin will be sinless or even remotely close to it. What it is saying, or at least as I perceive it, is that a person must renounce all sin as to what it is and then as sin is exposed the person will seek the Lord for grace to turn from that sin. That is not inconsistent with a person being turned over to sin several times over a period of years that the person may learn that s/he is far from perfect. While our hearts may reach the point of renouncing all sin that is far from meaning that we have the power to overcome all sin. This is an important distinction that we must be aware of. It is also the case that only those who have renounced sin will seek the Lord for the power to really overcome the power of sin.

It is also an important point that the sinner must renounce sin as sin. Many people will renounce moral evils because of the harm it does to people or because of the harm it brings to self. Many people will renounce certain moral evils because it is good for them to do so, but that is not the same thing as renouncing sin as sin. Many others will renounce sin in the name of religion and in the name of their branch of religion, but once again that is far from renouncing sin as sin. Many people will renounce a certain amount of sin, usually what they are comfortable with, but they will not renounce all sin. Still there are some who renounce a lot of sin and yet all of that sin is what they have the power to stop and it does not get at their idols of the heart. Sin must be renounced for what sin is and not renounced only for the harm it brings me or the religious attention it might bring me.

In order to renounce sin as sin God must be at work in the heart by His grace in order to conform the desires of the heart to Himself. While Scripture gives us several definitions or aspects of sin, we know that sin as sin is directed at God Himself in its primary relation. We are told that sin is to be at enmity with God and we are also told that sin is to fall short of the glory of God. Sin is to choose self and the loves of self rather than to have a heart that is oriented toward God and loves God. If we are to renounce sin as sin, therefore, we must renounce the enmity in our heart toward God as God and seek the Lord for a heart that will bow in utter submission to Him. If we are to renounce sin as sin then we must seek the Lord for grace to renounce all that we do for self out of self-love and seek Him for grace that all we do would be out of love for Him and His glory. If we are to renounce sin as our heart being oriented toward self, then we must seek the Lord for a great love for Him that all we do would be out of love for Him and that self would long to be tread upon in the dust that His glory would shine forth.

Real repentance requires our hearts to be broken from self and the love of self. Real repentance requires our hearts to be truly turned from the world and self to God. Real repentance requires a lifetime of repentance to where the heart will constantly be broken from self and to seek His glory. Real repentance is so hard that it is rarely even considered much less sought for. Real repentance is so far above the power of man that it takes light from the Lord to see what it really is. Real repentance is hidden from so many that many religious people think that they have attained it when in fact they are far from it. Real repentance is a gift of God and can only be worked in the soul by His power and free-grace. Real repentance cannot be the work of human effort as that is only self and self-love working, so it is only by free-grace and free-grace alone.

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.

There may be an abiding consciousness of sin, with self-condemnation, where there is not the least degree of self-indignation, or self-abhorrence. Humility is knowing that we are not humble. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

It is a tremendous thought that sheds a lot of light when we see that a large part of true humility is to know that we are not truly humble and perhaps far from a perfect humility. In this life there is always room to grow in humility. The unregenerate heart is blinded and deceived by a selfish heart which is a heart that is full of pride and self-love. The proud heart can easily be deceived into thinking that it is humble by a mere show or outward form of humility, or perhaps by thinking that is not as proud as others. The religious but unconverted person will strive for humility in all the power of a natural man trying to be religious, but it cannot work. Until God regenerates a soul and works real repentance in that soul, no soul can have the least amount of true humility because true humility can only come to the soul that has the life of Christ in him or her.

This is so vital for people to grab a hold of. Yes, it is true that we must have humility to receive grace. Yes, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. But if grace could come to those who could work up grace on their own, then grace would come as a result of works. All a person would have to do is to work up humility as if it could come as a result of a human work of pride and self-love, and God would give grace. This is plainly absurd to reason and nauseating to those who love the free grace of God. The soul must have a real repentance worked in it by grace in order for it to have true humility. True enough there is a working of the Spirit to bring the unregenerate man down and bring humble him in an outward way, but true humility can only be in the soul of a person that has truly repented of self and pride in the inward man.

Humility can be praised and not possessed. Humility can be sought after in the external and religious sense and yet hated in the inward man. As the only sovereign the one and true God has a right over each and ever person to all they are and to all they think and do. As the only sovereign the one and true God can uphold or harden each person as He pleases. The natural man, whether religious or not, hates this and will not submit to it. The spiritual man hates the idea that he has not submitted to it more and wrestles with his own heart agonizing over the pride that he finds in it. The natural man (religious or not) does not see his own pride and as such does not see the hatefulness of his pride. The religious but unconverted person is seeking to be religious (perhaps even very religious) out of pride and as such is deceived about his or her religious actions and pride.

Oh how a man can stand in the pulpit and wax eloquent about Christ and his view of the gospel and become more and more proud of himself and what he thinks are the results of his orthodoxy. Oh how men who are full of themselves can be orthodox and be good or even great speakers and have hundreds or thousands following them, yet do nothing but deceive others and become more and more proud and full of themselves. Men can inspire the building of great edifices in the name of God and for His name while in their hearts they are seeking themselves and the aggrandizement of their own names. When men stand up to “preach” they are doing nothing but seeking the attention and honor of others for themselves. As the Pharisees prayed to get honor from men and did acts of righteousness to obtain that honor, so men use religion in our day to obtain honor for themselves. That is what their heart desires regardless of what comes out of their mouths.

The great need of human beings is for God to remove the blinders from their eyes that they can see how wicked they are in their self-love and pride. Then and only then can they seek a real repentance from their pride and be granted a humility to see that they are far from perfect humility. How men should long to be delivered from their pride which is a sign of true humility rather than thinking they have arrived at humility. That awful pride and self-love that fills their religious actions and moves them to their religion should be seen as the worst of sin rather than a mitigating factor. Oh how a soul should long for God to grant him or her real repentance from that cursed pride and love of self so that s/he could be free from that cursed self in a real repentance and be given a true humility. Oh how a humble soul will wrestle with its pride, yet the proud heart is blinded to it and so does not see the need of an inner and real repentance. Real repentance is rare in our day because few see the need for it and are deceived into thinking that their external acts of repentance are enough. How desperately we need a work of God in our day to awaken us to our great need of real repentance from our self, pride, false humility, and our religious self-righteousness. We must come to Him stripped of all self-righteousness and look to Christ alone for all things.

I Corinthians 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

It is the devil, it is the world, it is our flesh that are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brethren, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent. Truly, this evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring. Use the gift that has been entrusted to you, and reveal the mystery of Christ. (Martin Luther)

I attended a church in a small town not far (30 miles or so) from where I live. The pastor of the church was not preaching and had an assistant “preach” for him. It was truly a sad occasion to watch the opposite of Gospel preaching take place. People gather at a church (in name or in reality) and Gospel preaching needs to happen.

There was quite a bit of historical background, but the vast majority of that was of no use in the “lecture.” If the historical background is not used to get at the intent of the text and then lead to or directly manifest Christ, it is really time wasted. While the historical background can be of use in certain ways, it can also be nothing more than a waste of time and certainly that was the case this morning. It was sad to see so much of the time for a sermon used up in information that had no direct relevance to the lecture.

Second, there were a lot of personal stories, but nothing of the biblical Christ. We heard a lot of things about people and how people are hurting and how people need to be helped, but there was nothing about how Christ alone can truly help people. We heard so much about physical problems and so on, but we did not hear of how Christ saves sinners nor did we hear of how it is Christ who works to make His people grow.

Third, the message was given with tears at times, but shedding tears is not the same as proclaiming Christ. There were several songs sang, and some of the songs were glorious in their proclamation of Christ and the blood of Christ. This is to say that the shedding of tears over things that came up in the lecture should have happened during the singing of such theological truths. The songs were full of Christ and the cross of Christ, but the “preaching” was empty of Christ and the cross of Christ. Preachers can feel things deeply and can be deeply moved at what they are saying, but apart from Christ they are not preaching Christ or in the case this morning there was no preaching at all.

Fourth, there was nothing of the nature of sin mentioned, though there might have been mentioned something about destructive behaviors. The problem of sin is so deep that even if a person modifies his or her behavior, they are modifying their behavior for sinful reasons. The real issue that needs to be addressed about sin is not particular sins, but of the sinful nature. People don’t need behavior modification, they need new hearts. But again, we were hearing stories and a few times something about destructive behavior. But we did not hear a thing about the sinful nature of human beings and of regeneration.

Fifth, the things that were mentioned were stressed apart from Christ. True, men need to be humbled. True, men must have faith in order to be saved. But there is no faith apart from Christ. Christ is the only proper object of true faith, so if one is stressing a false faith and does not speak of it as being focused on Christ, then it is false teaching on faith. Not only that, but faith and humility were spoken of as things that are in the power of man and that by attaining them man can get what he wants from God. It was also said that when bad things happen, if we will humble ourselves and have faith God will remove those bad things. In other words, if we will humble ourselves and come up with faith God will take away the bad things and good things will happen.

Nothing was said in this “sermon” about the sovereignty of God and how He uses “bad things” to break our hearts and make us content in all things. Nothing was said that had anything to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His kingdom in His people. The old hymns speak much of Christ and the Gospel, but new preachers don’t even try to preach as well as the songs we sing. God has withdrawn His Spirit from the Church as seen by the lack of Gospel preaching. If there is no Gospel, there is no church.

Secondly, God does offer Christ to lost sinners without respect to price or person. He invites them that have no money to come and buy wine and milk {that is to say, Christ} without price. {Isa.55:1} And anyone that will are invited to take Christ freely. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life {that is, Christ} freely.” {Rev.22:17} Hanserd Knolly (Baptist, 1645)

You will say to me, alas, here is my misery, to wit, although God propounds Christ upon gospel terms to poor sinners to me among others, I have no power of myself to receive Christ and to believe in Him and accept of Him. True, it is not {as I said} in him that wills, or him that runs, but only in God who shows mercy….And you ought to wait on God in the diligent use of means until the day of His power come upon you and then you shall be a willing, a believing people….It is my duty to preach the gospel to you and to exhort you to seek Christ, Acts 17:22,27, but it is the mere mercy and free grace of God to drive you to Christ, which nothing, but His everlasting love can move Him to do….You ought to seek, wait, ask, and use all the means which God has appointed and afforded you, both secret, private and public, Rev.2:29, but God must make the means effectual. Hanserd Knolly (Baptist, 1645)

The first paragraph (above) is built upon the great truths of Scripture and in some ways dependent upon other great truths of Scripture that are set out in the second paragraph. The argument is that preachers should learn to preach a Gospel that is free of depending upon them and upon those listening. The Gospel message of Christ and Him crucified do not depend upon the one preaching for its power and it does not depend on the sinners who hear to make it efficacious. The preacher must be free from depending on himself and the hearers in order to preach a free grace that saves from beginning to end. The response of sinners cannot depend on my offering Christ or the Gospel is less than free and less than of grace alone. The response of sinners cannot depend on anything they do or the power of the Gospel depends on them to some degree and as such is less than free and less than of grace alone.

The Gospel that is the power of God to save must show that it is the power of God to save and not the power of the sinner that contributes. The Gospel that is the power of God must be all of the power of God to save or it is not all of grace alone. This is how and why preachers must preach a full Christ and a free grace to sinners. When something is expected of sinners in terms of response, then sinners will look to themselves for the power and ability to respond. Instead of that, sinners must look away from themselves because they have no power and no ability to respond. Sinners are full of sin and they can do nothing but sin, so something that saves them must come from Another. A sinful response cannot save sinners at all, but instead the power of God can.

Jesus said that those who had ears were to hear. That is much like Knolly working with Isaiah 55 above. The passage of Isaiah 55 is one of a free Gospel because it is one where God is the One who is working and it is God who is enabling sinners. Those whom God works in and makes them willing hear His invitation and they come running. They come despite all of their fears and all of their sin and their wicked hearts and they know that nothing but wonderful and glorious grace will save them. Those who have tasted of a grace that came to them and saved them want nothing to do with a free-will which is free from depravity and free of grace. They have felt their sin and they feel the continuing burden of their sin and nothing but free-grace will satisfy them.

When poor sinners who are burdened from their own wicked hearts and sinful thoughts and desires pray, they will pray for God to deliver them from their sin. Their hearts ache and long to be granted deliverance from the burden of sin and they have no thought that they have an ability to get rid of that bondage and burden. These are the hearts that God has taught and these are the hearts that God calls. This is why (once again) preachers should focus on Christ and His grace in the Gospel over and over again. Unregenerate sinners cannot deliver themselves and cannot work up any merit, so they must hear the glory of a God who saves sinners by His power. Regenerate sinners need to hear of this glorious grace because they are burdened by sin and haunted with past sins and weakness against present sin. They also need to hear of a Savior who saves sinners by grace alone in accordance with the riches of His grace. Wounded souls have no taste for legalism and not taste with being beaten with Christless sermons, but instead God Himself has prepared their hearts, their ears, their spiritual taste buds for a free and sovereign grace. That is what God has said should be preached and that is what hearts that He has taught long for.

Secondly, God does offer Christ to lost sinners without respect to price or person. He invites them that have no money to come and buy wine and milk {that is to say, Christ} without price. {Isa.55:1} And anyone that will are invited to take Christ freely. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life {that is, Christ} freely.” {Rev.22:17} Hanserd Knolly (Baptist, 1645)

The statement above comes with a context, which will be given in the following days. However, for the moment a few statements from the context may be helpful:

You will say to me, alas, here is my misery, to wit, although God propounds Christ upon gospel terms to poor sinners to me among others, I have no power of myself to receive Christ and to believe in Him and accept of Him. True, it is not {as I said} in him that wills, or him that runs, but only in God who shows mercy.

And you ought to wait on God in the diligent use of means until the day of His power come upon you and then you shall be a willing, a believing people.

It is my duty to preach the gospel to you and to exhort you to seek Christ, Acts 17:22,27, but it is the mere mercy and free grace of God to drive you to Christ, which nothing, but His everlasting love can move Him to do.

You ought to seek, wait, ask, and use all the means which God has appointed and afforded you, both secret, private and public, Rev.2:29, but God must make the means effectual.

We can see that Knolly does not preach in accordance with what is taught in the modern day. While it may seem that the approach in the modern day is more in line with grace, in fact it is far from being in line with grace alone. It is God who invites sinners to Himself and He invites a certain type of sinner. Perhaps the real issue at hand is who invites sinners, the sinners who are invited, and how sinners are invited. Of course we must be careful to state that Christ is to be preached to any and all sinners. The wonders and glories of Christ are to be declared to all without hesitation and without holding back. The grace of the Gospel is to be declared to all sinners as well. But we must be careful to state that the only sinners who are invited by God will respond to His efficacious call. When men offer Christ, they offer Him to sinners who are full self-love and only want Him for fire insurance. When God offers Christ, He works in them so that they will respond. It is an offer that they cannot refuse, so to speak.

The Gospel of grace alone is to be proclaimed to all sinners with freeness knowing that those on whom God sets His love will respond. The Gospel is to be proclaimed to all sinners of all kinds and types, because there is nothing in the sinner that can stop the hand of God when He works in the heart. While all unregenerate sinners are lost, not all know that they are lost. The beauty of Christ proclaimed shows them that they are lost and His being given by grace alone shows sinners that they don’t need any of their own merit and they don’t need to be a great person. Sinners who come to the point of seeing their great lostness and their great sinfulness and inability are the ones that Christ came to save.

Isaiah 55, as given by Knolly, tells us that all who will are invited to take Christ freely. The one who hears is to say come and the one who thirsts is to come. The only sinners who can will, the ones who hear, and the ones who thirst have had the hand of God upon them working in them so that they will hear and thirst for Christ and a true salvation by grace alone. These are the ones that God has prepared and it is God who invites them to come. Oh how poor are the invitations of men who can do nothing but plead with the pride and self-love of sinners. But oh how great it is when preachers proclaim the glory of Christ and tell sinners that they must deal with God who alone can open their ears and make them willing in the day of His power. How freely can one preach grace when even the faith that a sinner must have is given by grace. God saves sinners to the glory of His own name and as such He does not save sinners because of anything in them, which means that the Gospel is all of grace.

The modern way of preaching is shallow and depends on the ability of men to respond rather than pointing men to their inability and the ability of God to work in them so that they are willing and able to respond. The old way of preaching the Gospel has for the most part been lost, or so it seems, but it is the way of leaving men without any hope in themselves or any hope in any merit or abilities they think they have. Instead it leaves them in the hands of God and leaves no doubt that salvation is by grace alone. The freeness of this type of preaching is in that it leaves grace in the hand of God to bestow on whom He is pleased to do so. The freeness in this preaching is that it does not depend on the inability of man and it does not leave us a God who is weeping and hoping that men will choose Him, but instead this is a Gospel that is truly free and is truly worth proclaiming a risen Savior who really and truly saves sinners from eternity past to eternity future and it is all of free and glorious grace.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

You can count on it that it is very difficult to come to heaven, but the way to destruction is broad and easy. Take it to heart that you have a deceitful heart with you, a wicked devil close to you, and snares and hindrances around and before you.

When one thinks of the importance of the heart and of something of the nature of the heart, it should be evident that apart from a new heart (new birth, born again) one will not enter the kingdom of God. If we come to a realization of how valuable our souls are to us and how valuable holiness is to God, then we should realize that something must happen to change our hearts. But if our hearts are so bad that they must be changed, then this should teach us that our hearts are not to be trusted at all. A really bad heart is a heart that cannot be trusted and is a heart that one should fear rather than listen to.

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

Proverbs 21:4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.

If our hearts are as deceitful as Jeremiah sets out and if those proud hearts are what lights our path, it should be no wonder that our hearts spill forth with all the things set out in Mark 7:21-22. If we could look upon what comes out of our hearts with any degree of accuracy, then we could see who we really are. The problem, however, is that our hearts are also interpreting what comes out of our hearts. A heart that is more deceitful than all else and is a hear that is proud is a heart that can look upon its own thoughts (which God considers evil thoughts) and think of them as good or at least not bad.

A heart can be full of desires after worldly things and condemned by God as a covetous heart, but that heart will also interpret those covetous desires as simply desiring or wanting things it does not have. It will think of those things as even a good thing or as something that would drive a healthy ambition. A heart can be full of sexual thoughts, even adulterous thoughts, but think of those thoughts as a normal, male way of thinking. A deceptive heart will think of its boasting and pride as okay because it is not boasting if you can back it up. A proud heart will not think of itself as sinning and instead it will come up with worldly reasons and religious reasons to justify itself in its own eyes. But again, the heart that has evil flowing out of it is an evil heart and full of pride. It interprets itself and its actions as less than or other than evil. They are just mistakes or slips. After all, we are just human.

1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

The soul that tries to diminish sin and say that our sin is not sin shows that it is deceiving itself rather than having the truth in it and so interpreting things by the truth. The soul that tries to interpret itself apart from having insight from Scripture and being taught of Christ has no real standard to use other than its own standard of self-love. The heart that denies it is sinful or denies certain sins simply shows that it is a sinful heart and a heart that is deceiving itself about itself and its own sin. The unbeliever sees far less sin than a true believer because the true believer now has a real standard to judge his or her own heart by.

What should be obvious is that Christ must teach a heart or it will not be truly taught. If Christ does not take that soul in hand and teach it that it is sinful and deceptive in what it is and what it does, it will not truly understand this. The unregenerate heart has absolutely not hope of escaping its own deception apart from Christ showing that heart what it is and apart from Christ changing that heart. It is well for sinners to seek the Lord pleading with the Lord Jesus to send His Spirit to convict them of their sinful actions and sinful natures.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

It appears that one of the hardest things for men to see is that the works that they do that are not truly out of love for God are works that their pride will use to distinguish themselves before men. That pride in works for honor for men will be turned to be a way for men to trust in self for salvation. This is such a great danger and can be seen as a major problem in religious things (and others) for all of history. Men will trust in their self-righteous works and think that God is pleased. The problem is with the heart of man and how the proud heart trusts in self and will always view self in the best possible light. When the proud heart of a self-righteous man finds a minister who supports a person’s self-righteousness, that proud heart is confirmed in its self-righteousness and that proud confidence trusts in self-righteousness all the way to eternal flames. Oh how so many are trapped in self-righteousness because of their own proud hearts and because of ministers who will not preach to expose those proud and deceived hearts.

The great error of the scribes and Pharisees was not limited to just one thing, but actually more of a few things that combined into proud hearts deceiving themselves. These are things that are ways for men to damn themselves at all period of time, but also in the modern day as well. The heart that is so proud that it will practice acts of righteousness in order to be seen by others and think that it is serving God in doing so is a heart that is given to other acts of deception as well. The proud heart (as seen in Jeremiah 8 above) will twist Scripture in order to keep its pride. The proud heart will water down the standards of God that it can keep them in its own natural strength. But when that proud heart waters the standards of God down, that proud heart may still make the standards hard so that it may distinguish itself in keeping them. That proud heart, then, has become its own standard.

While it is the case that proud hearts will twist the Scriptures and come up with doctrines that are false and moral standards that are low, the proud heart can also be proud of creeds of orthodoxy and stringent standards of morality. The proud heart can distinguish itself by being conservative and moral. The proud heart can be proud of how orthodox it is and how much it stands of conservative morality. The proud heart can be proud of how few there are who hold to the old paths and old ways and that it is one of the few. While Scripture does indeed give us lists of immoral acts and tells us that people who live like that are unconverted, it spends more time on those who trust in themselves that they are righteous. It is not enough for men to be conservative in their beliefs and moral in their actions, they must have new hearts and have Christ as their life.

The proud heart will deceive itself into thinking that because it believes belief X (X standing for any belief that a person may be trusting in) that what belief X describes is true of self. The Lord Jesus Christ declared that no one could see or enter the kingdom unless that person was born again. So people hear that and their proud hearts conclude that because they believe that is true that it must be true of them. But this is a great deception. Jesus did not say that all who believe that a person must be born again to see or enter the kingdom will enter the kingdom, but that a person must actually be born again. The glorious teaching of Scripture on justification by grace alone through faith alone also suffers in the hands of a proud heart. The Scriptures do not teach us that all who believe that justification by grace alone through faith alone is true are justified, but instead the Scriptures teach us that God sovereignly chooses whom to give grace to and justify. The proud heart wants to think that it is justified because it believes the doctrine is true, but that is not what the Scriptures teach. It says that the soul must be actually justified by grace alone.

Many are deceived by their proud hearts into thinking that because they believe that Christ died on the cross that they are saved. But again, Scripture does not teach that just because a person believes in the historical fact that Christ died on the cross that a person is saved. The devils believe that and are not saved. But instead the proud heart must be humbled and self-righteousness must be torn from the grasping hand of a proud heart that it may truly look to Christ alone for faith and all things. Indeed the blood of Christ is all that can wash a sinner’s sin away, but that must happen in reality rather than a person simply think it happened because his or her proud heart believes (in some way) that it is true. Oh how the proud heart that grasps at self-righteousness can delude itself into so many things. How we must seek the Lord for humbled hearts.

Life and salvation are contained in it. Our Lord says in his great prayer to the Divine Father, which is recorded in the 17th chapter of John’s gospel, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, We have not eternal life in our souls, if we have not the true spiritual and supernatural knowledge of his person in our minds. The apostle John, speaking after his divine Lord, says, God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I John, 5:11,12. I prefer the knowledge of Christ, beyond all the enjoyments of him: yea, I absolutely do prize the knowledge of the God-Man, the object and subject of the love and delight of all the Persons in the Essence, beyond heaven and eternal glory. I conceive of nothing in heaven, beyond seeing him as he is; and I am sure this will so perfect my knowledge of him, as will fix my mind immutably on him for ever and ever: and in this all true blessedness consists. There is also salvation, and all the blessings of life everlasting, contained in the knowledge of the Person of Christ. There is none other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved One said of old, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. Psalm, 73:25. The Apostle says, Yea, doubtless, and I count till things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him. That I way know him. All this gives full evidence of what is contained in the knowledge of Christ, and also how highly he is prized by such as know him.

Christ is as fully revealed in the word before we have eyes to see him, as when we are blessed with that faculty. There will never be any other or clearer revelation of Christ, than is made already concerning him in the everlasting gospel. I look on it, the proper title thereof is, The revelation of Jesus Christ. In it he is expressed to the very uttermost of his heart and bowels of mercy, and above and far exceeding all our sin and misery. When the Lord the Spirit is pleased from the word of grace, to give us to conceive rightly of Christ, we receive the true knowledge of him into our minds, and this is life eternal. Indeed, the first view received into the renewed mind, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, is that of a Saviour. He is generally at first looked on and at, as able and mighty to save. Hence it is a real truth, if our Lord in the preaching of the gospel, was to be set forth in the glories of his person and majesty, the poor awakened and enlightened sinner would find no real delight in him.

All this is the truth of the case; yet the eye of faith is opened to take in Christ in a gradual way and manner. When it is first opened, it sees Christ as having been crucified: as having died for sin and sinners. It finds all its peace and happiness in the blood and righteousness of Christ, who came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. It closes with Christ in the full belief of his own word, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out; and it looks wholly at, and trusts simply in, the wounds and blood of Jesus Christ. This is agreeable to the preaching the gospel of salvation to what is first experienced in the mind at our first believing on Christ; He saith Look unto me, and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else. It is also agreeable to what the apostle John says, I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake (I. John, 2:12).

As the eye of faith is afresh illuminated, and we are favored with more glorious discoveries of Christ, we naturally forget our former apprehensions of him, because the present are more enlarged, and in this sense more glorious. Yet you were as truly a believer when you first trusted in Christ, as you are now; but you had not the same conceptions of him then, as you have now. When you were a babe in Christ, you were chiefly attentive to his love and salvation: as you advanced and came to be a young man in Christ, you were then chiefly concerned to look to him for strength against sin, that you might not fall to the dishonor of his most holy name. To be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, was then the most principal thing with you as now, the most sublime mysteries in the book of God, are become your one grand study; and this is but one and the same faith, only more distinctly and immediately exercised. I hope this clearly opens the case. It is the highest stage in Christianity, to be taken with the spirituality of the gospel; and the study of Christ’s Person promotes this beyond all other meditations whatsoever.    Samuel Eyles Pierce