God Loves… Himself

When people read voices from the past and the depth of their thinking on Scripture and its application to the heart, it is easy to set down their writings or dismiss them as too inwardly focused. It is easier to deal with a text with exegetical skills than it is to have the Spirit open a person’s eyes to the depths of sin in his or her heart. It is easier to study a systematic theology book than it is to have one’s heart studied and then opened to our own study by the Spirit. It is easier to study the blackness of the human heart and the wickedness of a proud heart in an objective manner than it is to see these things as true of one’s self. It is easier to study about the doctrine of man’s inability from an intellectual basis than to feel the horror and fear of seeing the chains of bondage around our own hearts. But many men in the past studied the books of their own hearts under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit and to the degree that we ignore their writings and their practices is the degree that we will be impoverished.

The first quote is from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909. The second is from Jonathan Edwards.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

The modern day thinks of humility as a virtue and something that the free-will of man can put on and off as he pleases. But that is at the root of many of our problems in our day. We have not gone to the depths that Shepard and Edwards did in examining their hearts and the hearts of their parishioners by the light of the Spirit in applying Scripture. In his day Shepard warned people over and over of the dangers of being deceived about their salvation and the dangers of their own hearts. The very term “evangelical hypocrites” should chill us to the depths of our souls. Yet the theology that has swept our nation from the days of Finney and has turned much of our nation into a burned over district from his own preaching and practices as well as his followers have left us very susceptible to those things. His teachings and practices focused on intellectual decisions or commitments instead of focusing on the breaking and humbling of the heart which is necessary for proud hearts to have true faith.

What happens then is that a person that has been intellectually convinced can also make intellectual choices to be more moral and be more religious. But unless the person’s heart has been truly humbled, all that the person does comes from pride. This leads to “churches” being filled with a congregations and ministers who are evangelical hypocrites. Jesus said with great clarity that a soul must be converted and become like a little child in order to enter the kingdom (Mat 18:3). The type of teaching that Finney did changed that to the idea that one must make a decision and become moral in order to enter the kingdom. Jesus repeatedly said that a soul must deny self and take up the cross and follow Him, but Finney and his followers (theological ideas not necessarily the person) say that a person must make a choice and take up the cross and follow Him. The two comments listed above by Shepard and Edwards demonstrate for us if we care to see the massive difference between the theology and the practice of their time and that of ours. Now we have combined an intellectual choice with “eternal security” and do not warn people at all. Then even the most orthodox and moral of people were warned to beware of the salvation of their souls. Then Edwards would warn people that they must have evangelical humility or they were not converted, but today it is thought a trip up the aisle of saying one believes a creed is enough. Oh how we flee from a thorough plowing of our hearts in the modern day. How we long to put on humility as a work of the flesh rather than have God do the work of humbling our pride with His burning and hard trials that He sends to those He loves. We must beware.

As we continue in this neglected topic, we should ask the Lord to open our own hearts to the truth. We should know that in a day which focuses so much on externals and neglects the true nature of the heart while giving some lip-service to it, there is a lot of deception. It is not always other people who are deceived. It is not just that it might be others at church, or other ministers, or other spouses. These things are true of every human being that has ever lived, lives now, or will ever live. Unless the pride of our hearts is mortified, and by that I mean truly mortified rather than just an intellectual explanation of a worldly idea, we are as unconverted as people are on judgment day when they understand the truth but have unmortified pride in their hearts. All of their orthodoxy is full of pride. The devil himself believes all of the things of Christianity but his pride has not been killed by grace. Oh, some say, I have free will to kill my pride whenever I please. That shows a person that has never felt the weight and power of pride in the soul. Only grace can kill the monstrous beast of pride in our hearts that is the offspring of the devil. The unregenerate soul is a slave to pride and self and it takes the power of God by the blood of Christ to deliver it.

The first quote is from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909. The second is from Jonathan Edwards.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

In the realm of television there are a lot of preachers and singers who seem to think highly of themselves. It is so easy to pick on TV preachers as that just means other people who will remain unnamed who are famous. However, what of those I know and then myself? It is easy to preach on subjects that I think are to the people rather than to me. If only preachers would follow the advice of John Owen who said that he had to live his sermon a week in order to taste of it so that he would not dispense poison to his people. A teaching may tickle the ears or it may make people laugh or feel good, and it may even feed their intellect in accordance with a Creed. But unless it has taken a hack at pride as Peter took at Malchus with a sword and even if it missed the head and just takes off an ear, then the heart has not been touched and no spiritual good has been done. The only way to progress in the spiritual realm is by pride being mortified and grace coming alive in the soul. God hates pride and opposes it. So if our preaching does nothing but build religious or spiritual pride we are doing nothing but what God hates and what is the most detrimental to souls. Orthodox preaching is and can be very dangerous when the heart is not truly considered in light of pride and humility. The truth will harden proud hearts while it softens humble ones.

It is vital to Christianity to get beyond orthodox information to the depths of the heart. The quotes from Thomas Shepard and Jonathan Edwards are but tiny bits compared to the whole of their writings. They were not satisfied to rest in propositions of truth, but they wanted the work of the Spirit in their hearts and knew that true conversion and true Christianity had to have that. How easy it is to rest in baptism, orthodoxy, good feelings, modern or traditional music, and yet still be a slave to pride and self. How easy it is to assume an outward humility and perhaps convince ourselves that we are truly humble. But true Christianity that loves the true God in Christ will hate all sin and especially when it is found in our own hearts. If we truly love the glory of God in the face of Christ which is the Gospel we will hate pride in our own hearts and go to war against His enemies. A love for Christ means a hatred for His enemies even when it is our own hearts. We must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we love Christ if we will not go to war with the pride of our own hearts. Evangelical humility is utterly necessary.

In the last BLOG a discussion about the distinction between what an evangelical hypocrite versus a true evangelical humility erupted. The big discussion is about humility and then looking at evangelical humility. But as we hopefully saw a person can be an evangelical in terms of theology and even practice (in morality and church attendance) and still be an evangelical hypocrite. Indeed this is not a popular subject and not many large churches could be built while teaching this in the modern day, and perhaps many if not all large churches would be emptied out if someone began preaching to the heart and the nature of true sin. Not many in our day that has been steeped in the teaching of the self-esteem doctrines of our day would stand to hear the truth of the kind of heart the Gospel actually requires in a person. Grace is not something that just makes up for what a human being can’t do in his or her own power, it must do it all or it will not save that soul.

The first quote is from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909. The second is from Jonathan Edwards. Note how they fit together.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

Where are evangelical hypocrites to be found today? By definition, according to Whyte, they will be found in the evangelical and conservative churches. If we are not awakened to this, we will go on giving easy words and nice potions to people which in effect drugs them and lulls them to sleep as they slip easily down the path into hell. There are most likely large numbers of lost souls who are rest in the fact that they love what passes as evangelical teaching and are conservative politically and morally. There are large numbers of lost souls who nod at conservative doctrines and conservative morality. But just like those who are standing before God on the last day being ready to descend into hell, all of that is without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. We can know that there are many who call themselves Reformed and yet are full of pride and self. There are many who are Reformed and yet are proud of being gracious to others. There are many who are Reformed and are proud of their humility. A false humility can be proud of its own humility while looking down on the pride of others which just may be true humility. The world must not define humility and pride for us or what is Christian will be lost.

How many people are there in the Reformed world that focuses on the external man and yet makes no effort to see pride killed in his or her own heart? True enough, there is a lot of talk about the heart in our day. But the talk about the heart is limited to the feelings. As long as we can get the affections flowing we think the heart has been touched. So it is possible to deal with what we call the heart and yet miss the truth about the heart altogether. The pride of the heart must be mortified so that the creature sees self as exceedingly sinful in the heart. The Lord in His mercy must show us the pride of our hearts by the light of His holiness and glory or we will simply judge ourselves by externals and other human beings. We will then go along as evangelical hypocrites into eternal darkness. Spiritual darkness has descended upon our land today and it is getting darker. Human beings continue to look to methods and ways of making things externally better and getting people to make decisions for Christ. But the best that those things can do is to make evangelical hypocrites. What must happen is that God must show us the depths of pride and self in the heart so that we can seek Him to have this pride mortified (put to death) in us. We must be careful of ourselves and of others. After all, Jesus did say that the gate/way is narrow and few will find it.

While the subject we have been looking at is humility, and for the last several BLOGS evangelical humility as Jonathan Edwards terms it, there is also another point that needs to be looked at in light of what evangelical humility is. There is also what Thomas Shepard calls an “evangelical hypocrite.” On great difference between professing believers that are conservative and moral and that of true believers is that one group are evangelical hypocrites and the others have evangelical humility. This is a vital distinction that gets to the heart of true Christianity. Below is a quote from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

We have seen in the quote from Jonathan Edwards that a person must have evangelical humility to be a true Christian. It is not that this evangelical humility is an option, but if a person has evangelical doctrine without evangelical humility, that person is not a Christian. In his work on The Religious Affections that the quote we have been looking at was taken from, he quoted Thomas Shepard more than all other writers combined. For whatever it is worth, Shepard was also the founder of Harvard University. But if these men are correct, then it is possible for people to have correct doctrine, be upright morally, attend church every time the door is opened, and yet they may still be utterly lost. If these men are correct (“are” not “were” because of their writings we are looking at now), then a person may adhere to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and/or the Westminster Confession and be lost. A person may love those Confessions and their corresponding catechisms and still be lost.

If those men are correct, conservative churches may be full of politically and theologically conservative people who are lost souls. It would be possible to have seminaries to have conservative men who are gifted academically and yet be lost. It would be possible for ministers to be conservative and kind and gracious (in the modern sense) and yet be utterly devoid of saving grace. The Pharisees were conservative in virtually every way. They were very strict in their morality, or at least according to their standards. Jesus showed them and others the hearts of the Pharisees and that is when their sinful hearts were exposed. But if you saw them back then you would be impressed with their learning and their outward morality. What we don’t see today is a ministry that is willing to stand up and preach to the heart and expose sin at its very root. This leads to people today going on in their external theology and morality thinking that they are fine and that they are saved. As long as morality and theology are left to the externals, people will go on not knowing or not worrying about the stench of the pride of their own hearts. They will think that they have grace to be saved while they are in bondage to the inner sins of their hearts.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

How many people today would go to any church that preached to the wickedness of their hearts? No, we want someone to build us up and to speak things that give us a high self-esteem. But a teaching and a preaching that is built on self-esteem is a teaching and a preaching that is not getting at the mortification of the pride of the human heart. Unless the pride of the heart is exposed and men turn from that in reality and in truth, then that person does not have a true humility. As Edwards points out, this evangelical humility consists “in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious.” We live in a day when men prefer to exalt themselves rather than renounce their own glory. That is a sign of a wicked heart no matter the theology one holds.

The last BLOG looked at the need for a creature to judge itself in light of the God who created it in order to attain to something of true humility. Human beings want to judge themselves by their own standards or other human beings, but that is not how we should or can attain a true sight of our won hearts. We must learn, though indeed it is a hard and disgusting thing, to see ourselves as we really are. The most vile and reprehensible thing that a person will ever see is a sight of his or her own heart in the blazing light of the holiness of God. A person with high self-esteem and a high view of self is a person that has never seen the holiness and glory of God. This is simply to say that a high view of self is simply a deceptive and artificial view of self that people have when they are too blinded by pride to see the true self in contrast to the holiness of God.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

The essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature. That is more or less where we stopped last time as we focused on what it means to see self as a creature. It involves a look at the creature in light of its Creator. But the next part of the statement is that the creature must see itself as “exceeding sinful.” In other words, if we see ourselves in light of the holiness of God we will begin to see something of the despicable nature of our hearts and see ourselves as exceedingly sinful. A person that does not see self as exceedingly sinful is a person that has never seen self in contrast with the true God. Most likely it is a person that has never seen God either since one cannot see God in truth without seeing something of self in truth. The brightness of His glory is what will bring a person to a true sight of self and then a true sight of his sinfulness and creatureliness.

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.’ 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts'” (Isaiah 6:1-5).

“Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me. 5 ‘I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes'” (Job 42:4-6).

These two passages could be multiplied, but these are sufficient to make the point. Once a person sees God, then that person is brought to an end of self and sees self as a creature what is exceedingly sinful. Isaiah was a prophet and most likely thought to be a holy man, but once the light of the holiness of God shone in him, he saw himself as utterly vile and unclean. Job thought he was righteous and could not understand what God was doing to him, but once he saw God he repented in dust and ashes and saw the sovereign rights of God over him. God is our standard.

Past BLOGS looked at the need for pride to be mortified for a person to be a true Christian. This is not in line with modern Christian thought, though Scripture teaches that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. We want salvation to come by an act of the intellect rather than God changing the soul from its pride to a humility. In many ways this is at the heart of biblical Christianity. Jonathan Edwards said one time that an unbeliever can do anything that a believer can do except love. But tied in with that is that a proud person cannot love another in truth since the love of God only dwells in the truly humble. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will remain in the bondage of sin even if it has a high degree of orthodoxy or religion. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will even use some form of humility to exalt itself. How blind the proud soul is to itself.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

In contrast to the proud soul that does all for self including external forms of so-called humility, biblical humility is what Edwards calls “evangelical humility” and is something far beyond what a proud soul can truly attain. It is only when pride has been mortified can a soul begin to see itself and then the glory of God in a true light. It should be added that a soul will only see itself in the light of the glory of God. But the humility that is a true humility means that the soul truly esteems itself as less than nothing before God. That is clearly nothing that is popular in our present time which teaches people to esteem themselves and live for themselves rather than God. But God only dwells with those who are humble and contrite. True humility is what becomes a creature which is to say that part of true humility is to see that the creature (myself) in light of the holiness and glory of the One who Created it.

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts; the knowledge of God and of ourselves….we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves. For what man in all the world would not gladly remain as he is-what man does not remain as he is-so long as he does not know himself, that is, while content with his own gifts, and either ignorant or unmindful of his own misery? Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him….For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy-this pride is innate in all of us-unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured. For, because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us. And because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure-so long as we confine our minds within the limits of human corruption. Jus so, an eye to which nothing is shown but black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly mottled to be whiteness itself….Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God…then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness.” (Calvin)