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.

The enmity that the natural man has toward God will lead the natural man to have an enmity toward the true Gospel of God and the Gospel of the glory of God. The true Gospel is not just a message of how man can be saved, but it is a message of how the true God of glory saves to His own glory and according to His own sovereign pleasure. The true Gospel is not that God has done everything He can and now waits upon man to make a choice, but that God must still do it all and that man waits upon God to work as He chooses.

The proud heart of man loves to hear how God earnestly desires his salvation and longs for him to be saved and is just patiently waiting for man to make a choice. The proud and selfish heart of man will believe that God loves him and cannot believe that God will send him to hell for his little miscalculations and misdeeds. But again, what man does not see when the true God is not set forth and the true Gospel is not proclaimed is that his heart is at enmity with God and the true Gospel. The “gospel” that the heart with enmity toward the true God is a “gospel” that the selfish heart will accept, is pleased with, and will allow a person to keep self.

Men believe that they are preaching the Gospel when they preach things about the Gospel. Men believe that they are preaching Christ when they are preaching things about Christ. Some seem to believe that they are preaching Christ when they use the word “Christ” in their sermons. Some seem to believe that they are preaching the Gospel because they use the words “Gospel” and “cross” in their sermons. What people seem to be blinded to in our day is that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is always aimed at the true state of man and when the true state of man is not set out the true Gospel will also not be set out and proclaimed.

When man is approached as if he was neutral in the matter and all he has to do is make a decision or say a prayer, the true Gospel has not been preached. When a man sees something of his inability and something of his selfish heart that he needs to be delivered from, then the true Gospel can be preached. The true Gospel is that God saves by grace alone and not because of anything in man or anything man can or must do. It is by free-grace and free-grace alone. Man must be delivered from his selfish heart and his enmity toward God. This is why we see in Romans 5:10 that it is the enemies of God that are reconciled to God through the death of Christ. It is not for people who are neutral to God that Christ has died for, but He has died for the enemies of God and for those who hate Him. Christ came to die for sinners and not the righteous, which is to say that He gave Himself in the place of the enemies of God in order to reconcile them to God.

In the true Gospel we have a Gospel where all things are provided as a gift of God. Sinners cannot come up with true faith on their own, though they can be greatly deceived by a faith worked up by self, but instead part of the Gospel of grace alone is that faith is a gift of God and comes from a regenerate heart. Instead of putting the work of faith upon sinners, which indeed the selfish heart is willing to do, the work of faith (John 6:29) is the work of God. Instead of putting sinners upon the work of repentance, what sinners must see is that it is self that they must repent of and that is the work of God.

While this is something of a panoramic view of the Gospel, we must see just how self is involved in all of this and how it must be dealt with in order to deal with the true nature of sin and the true Gospel. It is not just that men commit acts of sin that are against the law and so they must be saved, but men sin because they have selfish hearts that are opposed to God and are at enmity with God. Sin is not just the acts that men commit, but instead it flows from a heart that hates God. Sin is not just a mistake; it is an act of enmity against the living God. The Gospel is not just to make up for little wrongs and mistakes, but it is to reconcile enemies and take the enmity (selfish hearts) away and gives men Christ as their life that they may love the true 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.

It may be thought of as something of an over kill, but the nature of a selfish heart is so destructive to true Christianity that it must be exposed in differing ways even if it is repetitive. The selfish heart is a heart that is opposed to the true God and true Christianity which is a reflection of the true God. The selfish heart is always looking for things it can do on its own and things that are in its own power. The selfish heart is not just opposed to certain things here and there; it is specifically opposed to the sovereignty of God and His sovereign rights over man. However, a selfish heart can still preach and teach about a sovereign God as long as it thinks (deep down) that the sovereign God is pleased with its false religion and human traditions.

The Pharisees thought that they were biblical experts and they certainly had all the traditions on their side. They could quote the human teachers (expert rabbis) on the laws and as such they build their hope on the traditions of men thinking that they were building their views on the Bible. The same thing was true during the time of the Reformation with Roman Catholicism. They built their views on traditions and as such thought that their traditions were biblical traditions. They were deceived by their traditions even when they were built by learned men.

The same thing is true today. We have much of Christianity today that is believed because some human author wrote it and it has become a tradition. While a human author may have been correct in what he wrote, we must not believe it is true just because that author wrote it. Traditions abound today, yet again traditions can be nothing more than a lie that a human wrote about God and that tradition was passed on. That tradition that we have may just be partially wrong and the selfish hearts of others have interpreted it according to their own selfish hearts. When this is done, we will follow the traditions of men rather than the truth of God. When that is done, what we have is religious men following their own selfish hearts that follow the teachings of other selfish hearts.

We are taught not to be taken captive by the traditions of men rather than Christ, and what we must realize is that when we do follow traditions rather than Christ we often think of them as following Christ. We can follow a traditional interpretation of the Bible and not realize that our own selfish hearts love a traditional interpretation because the selfish heart of the interpreter is in line with my own selfish heart. We must always remember that all men are born with selfish hearts that are at enmity with God and will always lie about God in some way. The selfish heart will tell the truth about God in one sense in order to bring out a lie in another sense. The devil quoted Scripture and even said something true of the verse and yet he did so in order to twist the truth into a lie. His children do the same thing.

The ninth commandment is violated over and over again by selfish hearts and by religion. It is violated by selfish hearts that are confessing Christians and are religious leaders. A selfish heart has violated that commandment by those in the past and continues to be violated by those in the present. A selfish heart will take the Bible and true Christian tradition and twist just a little in order that it can be palatable to self and to the self of others. Conservative and orthodox Christians can be just as selfish as anyone else and perhaps be bigger liars than others because they are closer to the truth of God and still abuse those truths for selfish purposes.

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 concept of selfishness gets to the very heart and essence of sin, though indeed people are so blinded to it because they are blinded by it. A proud heart is blind to its own pride, but the proud heart is a selfish heart and is also blinded to how selfish it is. The selfish heart is full of self in terms of motives, intents, and loves and is its own standard. The selfish heart can justify anything it does because it justifies what it does by the standard of self. In other words, it is as simple in one sense as saying I am justified in doing what I did because it is good for me (self).

The power of self is what drives the whole world in its lusts and in its insatiable desires for things. Ephesians 2:3 shows us this when we see it in light of the selfish heart. “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” What are the lusts of the flesh? They are the lusts and desires of self. What are the desires of the mind? They are the desires of the self in always craving and reaching for things that it thinks will satisfy it and make it happy. The self is the craving eye that is always looking for things to satisfy it. The self is the love that craves for others to love it and has loves that always wants to be fulfilled.

It is easily seen that the proud self will always seek self and justify self. The proud self lifts up itself and seeks itself regardless of those around it. Thus we see what happens when Christianity (in name) is taken hostage by those who want the doctrines of Christianity for the mind and the outward morality of Christianity (in a sense) for its own self-righteousness. The craving self (selfish heart) is always looking for ways to fulfill self and many times it lands upon religion to do so. The selfish heart will become a minister and it will become a leader in a denomination and it will do so in the name of Christ though it is self that is actually desired and loved. When a local church or a denomination has replaced the truth of Christ by the religion of self, things are remarkably different. This cannot be stated too strongly.

The selfish preacher wants a bigger church membership and a bigger building, so the selfish preacher will set out to find spiritual ways to convince people that a bigger building is needed. The selfish preacher will use selfish motives to convince people that they need to give more money and be more spiritual, though the selfish preacher is blind to what he is doing. There is nothing that a selfish heart will not do if it thinks that it is best for self. The selfish heart will always do what appears to be best for self and it will be religious when it thinks that religion is best for self. The selfish heart will be a preacher, a music minister, a youth minister or whatever it can be as long as it thinks that it is doing what is best for self.

What happens when this is done? One thing that happens when self rules in the churches and in the denominations is that God is lied about. True Christianity is to glorify God, but selfish “Christianity” is when each self seeks the good of self (sinful self). This selfish heart (sinful self, proud self, self-love) is the very opposite of true Christianity even when it is as religious as it can be. This wicked and sinful self seeks self while in the pulpit, while leading the singing, and while leading denominations and when it does so it is as opposite of true Christianity as it can be and as such it is a horrible lie. The selfish heart that is very religious is at heart a lie about God and a lie about true Christianity. The selfish heart lies to others and to God about all that it does.

The truth of Christianity teaches us that we are to love God and do all for His glory and pleasure, but the selfish heart lives with self at the center and as such loves self and does all for its own glory and pleasure even when it does so in the name of God. While it sounds extremely arrogant, it certainly appears that self is the chief ruler of the vast amount of visible Christianity today. As such we have ministers and churches who lie to self and others about the truth of God and Christianity. As such the worst liars (violators of the ninth commandment) are those who are very religious and yet when self is in control it always lies about 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.

Love, as the world defines it, is okay with adultery. The selfish heart hates it when it is told that it is sinful and wicked for lusting in the heart and looking at others with lust in the heart.. The selfish heart hates it when it is told that it should dress in such a way so as not to be a stumbling block to others and be a cause for another to lust. The seventh commandment is for people not to commit adultery, but the selfish heart will commit adultery with thousands in the heart and not think anything is wrong. The selfish heart will make many excuses and justify itself in all ways as it fights the heart of the seventh commandment.

The seventh commandment teaches us that God is always faithful and that His people are to be faithful as well. It teaches us that not only are we to be faithful physically, but with the heart as well. Not only are we to be faithful physically and with the heart, but we are to be faithful spiritually as well. In the book of Hosea God called the nation of Israelite whores for their lack of faithfulness to Him. This is to say that they were spiritual prostitutes in that they went after other gods and sold themselves to the other gods. The nation of Israel tried to do the outward things that God had commanded them like keeping certain rituals, but they also gave themselves to idols. In this they were judged to be spiritual prostitutes.

The selfish heart is an active, aggressive, and constant adulterer against God. It will be very religious in even orthodox ways, but it does all those things out of love for self rather than love for God. The selfish heart is like a spouse that loves other people and gives self to those others in the presence of the spouse. It is spiritual adultery in the face of God. For example, an orthodox minister can preach with precise orthodoxy and yet have a heart that loves self and does all out of love for self. While it is hard to imagine, a very orthodox minister can preach Sunday after Sunday with orthodox teaching and do it all out of an adulterous and wicked heart toward God. A selfish heart is by definition an adulterous heart toward God constantly roving around committing adultery with self in His presence at all times.

Ezekiel 6:9 “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.

God hates adultery and we must not water it down. Adulterous hearts are not a light thing to Him even when the outward duties toward God are done. Even orthodox religious people have eyes which play the harlot after the idol of self and He is not pleased when the hearts of people turn away from Him. Outward faithfulness does not cover up and cover over adulterous hearts and outward faithfulness does not excuse adulterous eyes. A selfish heart is without excuse before God as it is an adulterous heart toward God in His very presence.

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 God of all glory is the God that loves Himself within the Trinity and does all out of love for Himself and His own glory. It is that love for His own name and glory that a believer can find solid rest in. When God in His great mercy and grace takes a sinner and breaks the heart of that sinner from his selfish heart and grants that sinner life in Christ, God has given Himself to a sinner in Christ. It is God acting for the sake of His own name and glory that is the bedrock of confidence for the true believer. While a selfish heart wants things to be done for self for the sake of self, which is nothing but idolatry. The true believer who longs for God to be glorified and is learning to pray in accordance with the glory of God now has the confidence to come to the throne of grace. The heart that has learned from God knows that prayer is not just asking for things, it is asking for a heart to be changed so that it will be changed to be like God and so it will pray for the sake of His name rather than self.

The sixth commandment taught the Israelites not to kill other human beings for selfish reasons, though there were legal reasons that the death of others was permissible. The sixth commandment teaches us to love others based on love for Christ. This is a dramatic change in outlook. Christ gave His disciples a new commandment and it was to love others as He had loved them. This is quite powerful. The standard for love is not how we love ourselves, but how Christ has loved His people.

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

If we think of the sixth commandment as meaning only not to kill others for selfish reasons, then the commandment only appeals to our selfish hearts. But when we begin to understand that we are not only to refrain from killing others but that we are to love them as Christ loved them, the concept of murder and killing takes on a different idea. This commandment teaches us to love the souls of others as well as not kill them. This commandment teaches us to give ourselves for the well-being of others regarding their bodies and souls.
This commandment, then, takes direct aim at the selfish heart which wants to kill others for selfish reasons and yet will not kill others for selfish reasons. This commandment (as found in Christ) teaches us to love the souls of others for the sake of Christ and the name of God. The selfish heart only wants to do anything out of love for self and its own honor. We should not kill others because of the life of Christ in us working true love in our hearts. We should want the best for others spiritually out of love for God and His glory. The selfish heart is guilty of murder when it hates and it hates all people all the time because that is what a fallen human with a selfish heart does. When the selfish heart only loves others for the sake of self, it is trying to be God to itself and to others. When the selfish heart finds out that it may be more useful for self not to do something for others, it will not do it. The selfish heart, then, violates this commandment virtually every moment of every day as it does all for its own selfish honor and pleasure. Only Christ and His grace can change such a wicked heart.