God Loves… Himself

Nominal, lukewarm, Christians, are perhaps worse enemies to religion than professed infidels, and are generally the most bitter persecutors that the people of God meet with.        Sir Richard Hill

The book/letter of I John is written so that people may know that they have eternal life. One of the things that is listed as a way to know if a person has eternal life or not is whether a person loves true believers or not. When nominal (in name only) Christians come across true and vital Christianity, they hate it and fight against it tooth and nail. We can see that the most bitter persecutors that God’s true people meet with are the nominal Christians when we see the horrid persecutions that Roman Catholicism met God’s people with in the centuries before the Reformation, the time of the Reformation, and for quite some time after the Reformation. True believers were persecuted and killed in the name of religion.

When the Light Himself (Christ Jesus) shines in the hearts of men who are full of darkness, they hate that and flee from it. One way they flee from the truth and try to suppress it is to persecute those who truly have Christ, though of course they have a different explanation for it. The Lord Jesus dwells in His people and when people are true Christians they have the light of Christ shining in and through them. This means that those who profess Christ and yet dwell in darkness don’t like the true light and this comes out in words and actions against Christians.

We see this truth in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the prophets who truly spoke for God were hated by the people and by the false prophets. It was not just that the nations around Israel did not like Israel, thus showing the physical ramifications of the seed of the serpent having enmity with the physical seed of the woman, but within the nation of Israel those who were truly faithful to Christ were hated. The true prophets of God in that time were hated, maligned, tortured and at times killed. These things were done to them by religious people as well.

In the New Testament we see the great hatred that the most religious people of the day had toward true Christians. One, the Lord and Savior Himself was killed and He was perfect love and holiness in Person. He was hated, despised, mocked, and then put on the cross. Several times people wanted to kill Him when He spoke the truth, but they could not carry it out against Divine power. Two, the followers of Christ were persecuted and killed by the religious elite. Saul, who would later become Paul, was fanatical in his persecution of the followers of Christ. Eventually Paul was killed for the faith.

This statement by Hill is very short but expresses the truth that was stated in Scripture and has been seen across the ages. True believers will face hardships and be mocked by unbelievers, but the worst that they will face is from the nominal and lukewarm folks who profess Christianity but don’t truly have Christ. Jesus said that if the world hates us, it hated Him first. He was hated, however, by the religious elite of that day most of all. True believers may be surprised and puzzled why professing believers are irritated at them and don’t want to be around them. It is nothing personal in one sense, but the enmity is really against Christ. The Lord Jesus was hated while on earth by the professing religious people, so true believers should not be surprised when people hate them because Christ dwells in them. It should concern us if professing Christians (nominal, not true believers) like us and want to be around us.

There is a great deal of difference between praying and saying of prayers. There are many who never omit falling on their knees, night and morning, and repeating a certain number of words, who never prayed in all their lives. They often carry petitions to God that have no reference to their own case, and look upon their prayers rather as gifts that they bring to Him, than as means in the use of which they expect to receive any thing from Him. The heart may pray when there are no audible words, as in the case of Hannah (I Sam 1:13), and such prayer shall find access to the throne of grace; and, vice versa, there may be many words without any thing of the spirit of prayer accompanying them.   Sir Richard Hill

Unless one has some awareness of the distinction between external works and spiritual life, the difference between saying words thought to be a prayer may be thought of as actual praying (spiritual). As Hill notes, there are many who never omit repeating words while on their knees morning and night and think of that as prayer. The heart of prayer is the heart of man (true affections and desires) and apart from that the words that a man thinks of as prayer is nothing more than words offered to an idol. The words of these people are nothing more than words that they think will bring good to them in the guise of religion or perhaps a crass works system to God.

When people think of their prayers as something they are doing for God or for others, they are clueless as to what true prayer is. When people think of their prayers as a means that they use in order to obtain the things they want from Him, they are clueless as to what true prayer really is. In both the previous senses of so-called prayer it is build on a system of doing a religious work in order to obtain something for self. Jesus spoke strongly against the practice of the Pharisees in the way that they prayed, for they prayed in order to get men to honor them, though indeed they said they were praying to God (Mat 6). But instead of praying for self and instead of doing something for God, prayer is all about God. It is not a work in order to please God, but instead it is coming to God as a living sacrifice asking Him to make us into what would please Him.

It is also important, in an effort to distinguish prayer as a form of works versus prayer as a form of worship, to look at words and the intent of words. As Hill notes in the case of Hannah from I Samuel, she prayed with intensity and yet she did not say a word. It appeared that he heart burned within her and her thoughts, desires, and inaudible words were lifted up to God. Prayer must come from the true desires of the heart rather than be only what the words say. Our true prayer, regardless of the words, is what our heart truly desires as we say the words. God looks upon the heart and not just what we say. God knows our true intents, our true desires, and our true love when we say words and when we claim to come into His presence. God knows if our words are to impress men or if they are the desire of our hearts before Him.

There are many books out on how to pray and on the basic subject, but how many get to the real issues of prayer? Do they teach us that prayer is not the words we say but the hearts that the words come from? Do they teach us that the book itself cannot teach us to pray but Christ Himself by His Spirit must teach us to pray? We are given words to say and rituals to perform so God can answer prayer, but those words and those rituals do not earn anything from God and they do not form what true prayer is. This cannot be repeated enough. True prayer is not the saying of words regardless of how biblical the words are and how eloquent we say them.

Jesus said (John 15:5) that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” By that it is surely intended that no one can do anything good or holy or that pleases God apart from Him. Surely, then, that includes prayer. Can we pray apart from love? Well, love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Can we pray apart from the directions or pattern of prayer given to us in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6? That is a prayer that is centered upon God first and foremost in all things. True prayer is a work of the Trinity and not a work of the human flesh. True prayer can only happen when a soul is broken from self and is humbled before God and is truly seeking God and His face. True prayer can only happen when a soul longs for God Himself and His glory. If true Christianity is rare, as it certainly appears to be, then true prayer is rare as well. It could also be said that because true prayer is rare then true Christianity must be rare as well. True prayer will only come to people and the Church when people learn that true prayer must be given to them by grace and it is of the heart. Until then we will be slaves of rituals and words.

What avails it to attend constantly upon church and sacrament, to be liberal in our alms-deeds, and diligent in reading the Scriptures, if we are not created anew in Christ Jesus? St. Paul makes no difference between the vilest profligate and the fairest moralist, but ranks all without exception under the list of reprobates who have not Jesus Christ in them (II Cor 13:5). So also the same apostle assures us that if any man (be ever so strict, devout, and decent) have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Rom 8:9). The word of God makes it absolutely necessary that Christ be formed in us (Gal 4:9) and without this spiritual birth, eternal truth repeatedly assures us that we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-6).          Sir Richard Hill

This quote gets to the real heart of the issue, both literally and figuratively. People could attend church every day and be devoted to what they think of as a church and still be as unregenerate as the vilest person on earth. Going to a place that one thinks of as a church may harden the heart toward God and His Son of glory rather than prove that one has new life in Christ. People can take the sacrament on a daily basis and that doing nothing but eating and drinking to their own damnation. Taking the sacrament will not give a person the life of Christ in the soul and taking it as a ritual and hoping in it is idolatry. People must really and truly have Christ.

It matters not, at least in the things that matter most, whether one is very generous in giving money to help others physically. Apart from Christ being in the soul and being the life of the soul, the very best of our deeds are as filthy rags (Isa 64). How many people give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and yet seem to miss what Jesus said to the Pharisees about that in John 5: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” One can search the Scriptures and have vast stores of information about Christ without knowing Christ and without having Christ as his or her life. Jesus Christ Himself said to one of the most religious people of His day (John 3:3ff) that he must be born from above in order to see and enter the kingdom. Without doubt Nicodemus knew the Scriptures very well in one sense and he was a very learned man in the Scriptures, but he did not study the Scriptures to learn and love Christ.

The most vital issue of Christianity is not the attending of a church or taking the sacrament, but it is whether and person has been born from above and has Christ dwelling in him or her. It is not whether a person gives money to help people and/or diligent in studying the Scriptures, but whether that person is born from above and has Christ dwelling in him or her. This is a vital issue and we should always have this in mind. Just before Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about his utter need to be born from above (at the end of John 2), the Scriptures tells us that many people believed in Him when they saw the miracles that He did. But the text goes on to say that Jesus did not believe/entrust Himself to them because He knew what was in man. People can believe in Jesus in many ways and yet not be born from above and as such not have true faith. This great and grand truth used to be preached and declared over and over again to people and today it is rarely (if ever for some) heard about.

The author (above) makes a statement that would be repudiated by most today. “St. Paul makes no difference between the vilest profligate and the fairest moralist, but ranks all without exception under the list of reprobates who have not Jesus Christ in them.” There it is, straight to the issue without a lot of nice words to make it more palatable. A person can be just like Adolph Hitler or even the man himself or be the most outwardly moral person on the planet, but both are on the same list and both will go to the same devil’s hell if they don’t have Jesus Christ in them. If Christ lives in a person that person will not be like Hitler or anything like that, but the person’s “morality” will not come from the love of self and the love of the applause of men, but instead it will come from love for Christ. This true morality will also come from the life of Christ in the soul and as such the strength will come from grace.

The most dangerous infidels are not the most open infidels. There is a set of men, who persuade themselves that they believe Christianity, whilst in truth they are reasoning Christianity quite out of doors.

What pains do some parents take to teach their children the catechism, to make them repeat prayers night and morning, and to bring them to church, perhaps to sacrament, who yet would be very uneasy and much displeased to see those children become real children of God, living by faith above the world.   Sir Richard Hill

Both quotes from above come from the same type of unregenerate heart that longs for religion, but just not God Himself and the true religion that flows from heaven through and by the true Christ. The first quote is quite consistent with many college and seminary professors and many ministers as well. One does not have to really and truly believe from a regenerate heart to believe certain things about Christianity while denying the very life of it. There appears to be many brilliant men that wear the robes of scholarship within Christendom and perhaps many more who are in the ministry, yet they hate true Christianity and use their scholarship and their pulpits to reason true Christianity away. There is a huge difference between the external forms and rituals of Christianity and the inward aspect of Life Himself who dwells in the souls of His people.

It is one thing to say words in front of people, but it is another thing to pray to the living God from a heart full of true life. It is one thing to preach the words of a text to people, but it is quite another to preach the living Christ out of love for Him and His glory. It is one thing to deal with a text in a way that a scholar (believer and/or unbeliever) will approve of, but it is quite another to deal with a text in a way that God approves of. It is one thing to deal with a text according to a way that humanistic scholarship will accept, but it is quite another to deal with a text out of love for God and His glory shining through Christ. Expositional preaching, writing, and studying can all be done from dead and unregenerate hearts. It is not possible to educate a person enough to regenerate them. It is not possible for good scholarship to regenerate people. Unregenerate hearts will reason the true nature of God and His glory down to a level where it is acceptable to scholarship, but also simply an abomination to God.

It is far easier to train children up in the ways of formal and ritual religion than it is to point them to Christ who alone can regenerate them. Children from a formal religion may indeed behave better in some ways than those who are not raised that way, but that may only make them closer to hell if they learn to trust in false religion and hate the truth of Christ. Getting children to say words in memorized prayers is easy while true prayer is impossible to train them in. What Sir Richard Hill may be getting at, then, is that it may be the case that parents who are very religious and very formal in what they are doing may indeed be training their children in the same formal and ritualistic way that they were trained. It is part of their formal and ritualistic religion to train their children up in that way.

What we must see, however, is that formal and ritualistic religion hates true Christianity even if it is going under that name. Parents who teach and train their children in the formal and ritualistic ways of religion hate true Christianity and they are training their children out of that hatred. They would not and could not be pleased to see their children turn from the false religion that they have raised them in and turn in love to Christ which they hate. Let us beware of what we approve of. If we approve of the way parents raise their children when they train them in the catechism and in strict formal and moralistic ways, what we may actually be approving is hatred of true Christianity and of the true and living God.

True Christianity may have some forms and some rituals, but Christ Himself living in His people as their life is the heart of true Christianity. One can memorize a catechism (any one or all) and not know Christ. One can say prayers all day and night and still not know Christ or be known by Christ. True Christianity lives by the life of Christ and Christ Himself is a person’s righteousness and sanctification. True Christianity is about the living Christ and not about studying things about Him or saying words in a general direction. True Christianity is about worship in spirit as well as truth. God Himself loves the humble and the contrite that are nothing but instruments of His glory, not those who think they can please Him by what they do.

Heart-searching preaching, where it does not convince, is sure to offend. Nothing is so cutting to an unrenewed heart, especially where there is a decent outside, as to have its rottenness exposed, its refuge of lies swept away, and the pillow of forms, whereon it was sleeping, removed from under the head. Whosoever attempts this must expect to see the old man rise and fume, since to approve the real Christian, and the real truth, would cause the Pharisee to condemn himself.   Sir Richard Hill

The prophets in the Old Testament spoke of the false prophets who spoke soothing words and Paul spoke of those who loved teachers who tickled their ears. This tickling of the ear can come in many forms. This tickling of the ear can be an entertaining type of preacher who is humorous or tells stories though they are disguised as illustrations. The tickling of the ear can be a libertine who does not condemn any sin and says all will be saved. The tickling of the ear preacher can be one that is orthodox in creed, but simply never speaks to the heart. The tickling of the ear preacher can be one that is extremely moral in the external sense and preaches on that, but the people are also that way and so they are never disturbed. The tickling of the ear preacher can be an exposition preacher who simply speaks of the text but never really reaches the heart of the people and so the people learn things about the Bible but are never disturbed.

A type of preaching that reaches the heart, on the other hand, is quite offensive to people who have unrenewed hearts and yet are moral on the outside. While virtually all preaching in the modern day appears to be planned to stay away from the hearts of people and leave them undisturbed, this is not what preaching should be. Preaching for the point of gaining knowledge or increasing morality is not Christianity, but instead the reign and rule of Christ is. Preaching in order to drive sinners from all hope and help from self so that they would see that Christ is the only hope is Christianity. Preaching the glory of God in all things and especially shining in the face of Christ is Christianity. Preaching the Gospel of grace alone and how God saves sinners to the glory of His own name is Christianity. But again, this is to say that true Christianity is rare in our day.

The heart of man rests on something for his hope and confidence at all times. If the sinner is sleeping on his rituals and forms and creeds as his confidence for salvation and someone comes along and sweeps those things away, the sinner will most likely be very angry as opposed to being thankful. This sinner was disturbed and now he has a lot of work to do to in order to rebuild his hope if at all. The sinner’s enmity toward God and the glory of His grace in the Gospel has been stirred up. The picture that Willcox gives is that of a person sleeping on a pillow of forms. We can also imagine that this is a very think pillow and when it is yanked out the person’s head lands on a hard object with a fair amount of force and as such is a very rude awakening. Such is the person that is resting on forms and rituals when that person has his or her heart searched during the preaching of the Word.

Willcox also gives the picture of a person that has a decent outside, which is to say that the person lives a moral life and thinks of self as a righteous person. This person can also be one that attends an orthodox church and hears the Bible preached in an expositional manner, but the heart is never touched. So the person thinks that s/he is orthodox because s/he agrees with the creed in an intellectual way and lives a moral life. But this person has never had his or her heart shredded and exposed to see what is really there. This person can simply believe some orthodox things in the intellect and live a moral life because it has its advantages and because it convinces that person that this is the fruit of true faith. There is nothing inconsistent about people like that and hearts that are unregenerate and at enmity with God.

The person in the previous paragraph has built a rotten edifice of some kind and is standing on that edifice of his or her own works and has no idea that it is rotten and will collapse at any moment. This type of person thinks that s/he is in great safety and is quite confident that s/he is converted. When a preacher begins to open the meaning of the Scriptures from a spiritual sense and begin to search hearts with it, the rotten edifice is seen and this moral person begins to see self and its rotten edifice in a totally different light. This type of person will hate to think of self as a rotten sinner with no hope of salvation in self and all of the lies that the unregenerate heart has taken refuge is shown to be nothing but a lie. This person is awakened with a start and sees that it is walking on rotten wood and is about to plunge through it. This person will respond with anger and perhaps get very nasty. But this just goes to show that genuine Christianity is quite rare. There are many orthodox moralists dead in their forms.