Conversion, Part 22

July 1, 2009

The teaching of Scripture on conversion is spread through the whole Bible rather than all the truth located in one or two verses. The whole Bible must be looked at and the truths it teaches about conversion must be gathered and examined from the whole rather than just taking a verse and building the whole truth about it from that. In the last three weeks the emphasis has been on the biblical teaching that the mind must be enlightened, the affections changed, and the will ordered to be like Christ. In other words, human beings come into this world depraved in all aspects of the soul. For a soul to be truly converted, then, each aspect of the soul must be converted. Only God the Creator can convert the soul in aspect or all aspects. Therefore, it is very clear who must do the work. The converted soul is the work of a craftsman (Eph 2:10) and, as II Corinthians 5:17 teaches us, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Whatever our view of salvation is, it must take into account that it is God that does the work and therefore old things are done and new things have come. This week we will look at what believers in the past have gleaned from the whole of Scripture.

In the Shorter Catechism, which has been revised for Baptists, there is a lot of powerful and helpful instruction for us today. Three of the questions (30-32) and the answers will be given below.

30. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? [A] We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit.

31. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? [A] The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

32. What is effectual calling? [A] “Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.”

These questions and answers as found in the catechism teach a lot of the biblical view of conversion. We need to study them. The old view had a great influence on the modern view as well. In the Baptist Faith & Message we can see much of the same teaching. While there have been wording changes and even structural changes through the years, at least a lot of the same teaching is found. The following is from the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

II. C. God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ.

IV. Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Divines, being the basis for much of the Baptist Shorter Catechism, speaks strongly of effectual calling or, as the modern version terms it, “effective calling.” It says that effective calling is the work of the Spirit. It then speaks of enlightening the mind and renewing the will. It then says this: “This is how He persuades and makes us able to receive Jesus Christ.” This is powerful language and should teach us that the salvation of sinners is far more than what the sinner is able to do in his or her own power. Salvation is the work of the Spirit who makes sinners able to receive Christ. The work that the Holy Spirit does in making people able to come to Christ is His work in enlightening the mind and renewing the will. It is His work in convicting people of sin and of righteousness. The Gospel is all about the glory of God and not just what man needs to be saved. The Gospel is the good news of what God does to save sinners rather than what they can do for themselves. The Gospel is not just good news about what God has made available for sinners and is now contingent upon their prayer or choice, but it is about what God does in working faith and Christ in them.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession is very explicit about the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing sinners to Christ. In chapter 14 (on Saving Faith) it tells us where faith comes from: “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word.” In chapter 9 (of Free Will) it shows in clear language the work of God in the soul: “When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good.”

The 1689 Confession also speaks strongly as to the work of God in chapter 10 on Effectual Calling.

“Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, he is pleased in his appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.”

In the old Confession of Faith (1823) of the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales, we also see some of the glorious work of the Spirit in bringing sinners to Christ. It speaks of the work of the Spirit like this: “To save sinners, it is as necessary to apply as it was to provide the plan of salvation.” This points to a great failure in our day to teach the application of redemption. Instead we point to Christ in some way and tell sinners to believe. But we don’t tell them of the necessary work of the Holy Spirit who must work in them the very ability to believe. The Welsh Confession also says this: “to make them willing in the day of his power, and guide them into all truth.” It is the work of the Holy Spirit “to convince them of sin, show them their state of misery, reveal Christ to them, draw them to him, and create them in him; then will they be members of his mystical body.”

In modern evangelistic methods, whether by Arminians or Calvinists, the work of the Holy Spirit is at best mentioned. In most conservative churches a person must at least confess a belief in the Trinity, but in evangelism we don’t act as if there really is a triune God. In modern day evangelism Jesus is the only member of the Trinity mentioned, but it is His human nature that is focused on. This happens because it is thought that all that is needed is a prayer or an act of the will. The biblical teaching on conversion as a whole is either not known or set aside. Sinners must be converted by the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the work of Christ to the soul which includes conviction of sin by and teaching of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Sinners must be made alive by the Spirit because they really and truly are dead in sins and trespasses. It is the Holy Spirit who must teach sinners about Christ, enable them to come to Christ, and then join them to Christ. The Gospel is not that sinners must come up with a belief in their own power, but that the Holy Spirit will transform sinners so that they have a faith from the depths of their changed souls that are united to Christ. Apart from Christ and His work in us we can do nothing spiritual.

We have looked at what men throughout history have said about conversion in the language of effectual calling. We must know that the majority of what is going on today does not fit with the great Confessions of the past. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the same Gospel as the Gospel of God. The Gospel of God has been planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and then applied by the Spirit. It is only when the Gospel is applied by the Holy Spirit is it truly a Gospel of grace alone. That is something that the men who spent years writing these Confessions knew and thought was important to include. They also gave copious amounts of Scripture to show where they found these teachings. The Confessions of history teach us what many godly men believed and spent years in meetings to agree on. Are all of these men and all of those Confessions wrong? To change an old saying around a little, “They who refuse to learn the truth from godly men in history are doomed to repeat the heresies of history.”

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Pride, Part 40

June 30, 2009

In the last few BLOGS the issue of what determines the true core of Christianity has been set out under the basic issue of pride and prayer. It is not a person’s creed that is the final determination of the core of their true faith or not, it is whether the person is man-centered (egocentricity) or God-centered (theocentric). This is the true mark or the true standard of what is true Christianity or not. A person can have a perfect creed in terms of intellectual theology and still be ultimately governed by pride and self in the heart. But, one says, “I have a very high view of God.” That may be true, but what is the core belief of the heart in that? Does one have a high view of God in terms of Him doing for self or even being manipulated by self and for self? Is God nothing more than a philosophy to the person with the high view? Some people have a very high view of the universe and its glory, but they are still in bondage to their pride. A high view of God does not guarantee that a person has been delivered from pride because that is the work of God alone in the soul and not what a doctrinal belief can do.

“There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship…A belief in providence may mean that I regard God as existing simply to safeguard my interests and furnish me with a secure bases for the pursuit of my own purposes; or it may mean that I am persuaded of the goodness and wisdom of the Divine purpose, even when this runs counter to my own.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

As can be seen from the quote above (which appears to be self-evident), a person can have a high view of God in terms of His providence and yet the controlling belief of that be determined by what is good for self. Interestingly enough, the Pharisees had a very high view of providence and sovereignty as well. When they saw that the man was born blind (John 9), they simply assumed that it was from the hand of God and that it was the man’s sin or his parent’s sin that was the cause of the man’s blindness. They did not think in terms of genetics, but saw things in terms of sin and of the hand of God in each and every matter. When they obtained some apparent good, they thought of it as the blessing of God. They had a high view of providence, but they thought that providence was fixed on their own wants, desires, and morality. This is to turn the very providence and sovereignty of God from that which He intends to manifest His glory to something that is focused on the whim and desire of human beings.

Pride in the heart means that the heart will determine what is right or wrong and good or bad by how it will effect and affect self. Pride exalts and puffs up the self with the things of self. Providence itself will be judged as good or bad by self. A soul that is blind to spiritual things will judge things that are uncomfortable and painful as bad things and the things that bring ease and comfort as good. However, in the Bible the Psalmist wrestled with why God allowed the wicked to prosper (Psa 73). It seems as if the godly are always in the midst of a trial or hard times. Those with even a modicum of spiritual insight and love for God see things far differently than the unbeliever. God gives those He hates many things in this world at times (sermon by Jonathan Edwards) while those He loves He brings hard things on them. Those He hates He will let them go on in their sin and never disturb them as they grow harder and harder in their sin. Those He loves He will bring hard things upon them to break them from their true enemy which is self in order to give them what is truly good which is Himself. Pride and self, then, will never interpret the providence of God properly.

Romans 1:18-32 is quite clear that the unbeliever knows some of the basic things about God and hates those things. The unbeliever gives him or herself to trying to stamp out that knowledge of God and live for self. The unbeliever is set against the truth of God and is engaged in an effort to understand things properly. That is surely a terrible act of pride, even the consistent and constant activity of pride. Those who want to blot out the knowledge of God will in their pride of self and hatred for God refuse to interpret the acts of His providence correctly. They will also not see the glory of God in truth as it shines out in nature, human beings, and especially in Christ. The proud person that is a professing believer will not see and interpret the providence of God because that is a person that is puffed up with self and is therefore opposed to the truth of God. This person may say wonderful things about what God does for him or her, but that does not mean that God is loved for Himself and who He really is. When the providence of God is interpreted by self and for self rather than the truth of God, it is a self-evident sign of an inescapable and undeniable man-centeredness which is opposed to God-centeredness.

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Pride, Part 39

June 28, 2009

As we saw in the previous BLOG our proud prayers have more wickedness in them than we can imagine. When was ask God to answer a prayer based on our merit, goodness, or worth, we are asking Him to do that which would make Him unholy. We also saw that true prayer must always come from love. We don’t think of things like that often, but when our prayers are not God-centered (theocentric) we are not praying to God out of true love. This is to say that our prayers are of no profit at all and in fact are wicked. When even our prayers are wicked, surely we can see that the rest of our lives are in trouble as well. It is not just that we need to reform a few of our actions to be religious, but when our religious actions are idolatrous and wicked it shows the depths of a practice that has moved from being God-centered to being man-centered (Isa 64:6). Even worse, when man is man-centered he thinks of God as being like man and as being man-centered as well. Our pride leads us down these wicked paths.

“There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship. Prayer, for instance, may be simply the means by which I seek to obtain for myself benefits that are otherwise beyond my reach; or it may express-not least in its petitionary form-my utter dependence for all that I have and am on God alone.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

It is so hard for minds that are set on human-centeredness to understand that a life that is devoted to prayer and religious activity can actually be a life that is focused on self and lived in utter dependence on self. God has told us in Scripture that He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; I Peter 5:5). This means that the prayers that come from pride are also opposed by God. It is easy for us to think in our man-centered ways that it is proud of people not to pray. We may even think of the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like other men as he listed the sins he was not guilty of (Luke 18:11). Yet in our hearts we may have pride that is much the same as the Pharisee. We may have pride lurking in our heart and rely on self to some degree when going to God in “prayer.” Oh the depths of pride in the human heart and how it spoils all religious actions. We so little think of how pride can spoil our prayers and make them things which the living God opposes.

The quote above is simply shocking when we begin to think about it. “There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship.” Every aspect of religious life bears the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity. Not just a few, or some, or even most. But every single aspect flows from one of these two central themes. These are not just outward actions, but these are the things of the heart. Either egocentricity or theocentricity constitutes the fundamental character of our religious relationship. Our very prayers, which we might be so proud of, have their fundamental character determined by whether we are in truth and in the depths of our hearts man-centered or God-centered. Man-centeredness is simply another way to say that we are still proud.

Both Reformed and Arminian theology can both be driven by pride and man-centeredness. The essence of Christianity can be missing from even the most orthodox views. The essence of Christianity is when God takes a sinner from that sinner’s pride and man-centeredness and transforms them into being God-centered in all things. It is often stated that Reformed people are proud. That can be from a misunderstanding (man-centered view) of what pride and true humility are. But it can also be a statement that reflects a lot of truth. Unless God has turned a heart from its man-centeredness and pride a person can be very orthodox and be that from no other motives and loves but pride and self. A prayer can be rigorously orthodox in its theology and words and be from a heart that is quite proud of its orthodoxy and its morality. In that case the prayer would be moved by self and actually be for self much like the proud Pharisee in Luke 18:11. A prayer that comes from a proud heart is not one that comes from a heart that is leaning entirely on Christ. It may be a prayer from a heart that leans on itself to lean on Christ which is really doing nothing but leaning on self. Oh the deceitfulness of the proud heart as it deceives the soul into thinking that it is leaning on Christ because of its orthodoxy. Oh the deceitfulness of the proud heart as it deceives the soul into thinking that as it leans on Christ in its own strength it is truly leaning on Christ. Man-centeredness and pride is/are in opposition to grace in truth regardless of the professed theology. Pride in the heart opposes and is always opposed by God even when the creed it holds is orthodox. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies (I Cor 8:1). This is true of orthodoxy, and perhaps even especially true of orthodoxy.

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Pride, Part 38

June 26, 2009

Pride is that ugly self-exaltation and self-centeredness of the soul which leads the soul to self-seeking in all things. It is pride that is opposed to God in the holiness of His self-centeredness. It is pride to pray for the things of self rather than the glory of God. It was wicked and sinful for professed ministers to seek the things of self rather than the things of Christ in Paul’s day (Phil 2:21), and it is wicked and sinful for anyone to seek the things of self rather than the things of Christ in prayer or in life in any day. The soul that has not turned from its pride and is not sinking into the depths of humility will not understand the depths of the beauty and glory of God.

“There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship. Prayer, for instance, may be simply the means by which I seek to obtain for myself benefits that are otherwise beyond my reach; or it may express-not least in its petitionary form-my utter dependence for all that I have and am on God alone.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The above statement could paralyze a soul for quite some time if it began to see the sin of its own prayers and all of its religious activities because of the motives of self. How many self-centered prayers have we offered? How many times have we simply sat down by a list and offered words for those on the list? Apart from utter dependence of God in prayer as we seek His face and glory there is no middle ground with our pride and independence. We are either looking to God in dependence on Him or we are looking to God in some way with our dependence being on self. That is a vicious act of pride and self-reliance.

For a soul to be utterly dependent on God in prayer is for the soul to have God as its primary motive. In other words, the desires of the soul must have God as its true and main desire. This desire for God can only come from the sovereign and gracious work of God in the soul. Yet without this there is no true dependence on God in prayer. The soul must depend on God for the love which prayer depends on because God is the only source and origin of true prayer. I John 4:7-8 teaches us that we can only love if we are born of God and know Him. This knowing God is the fellowship of God with the soul and His sharing with the soul Himself. Until a soul is broken of pride it will not know what it means to pray in truth. It is possible to “pray” long and hard and yet have it be from nothing but pride. It is possible to pray using the Bible as the words of prayer and still have it be nothing but pride. Until the soul has experientially learned from God its utter dependency on Him for love in its own soul it cannot truly pray because the language of prayer is love. I Corinthians 13 says nothing we do is of spiritual value without love.

The soul must have God in the soul working love for Him in order to pray. The desires of the soul must be for God and must be a desire that is moved by love for God. The words of the prayers must be expressions of the love for God rather than words to get God to do something for self as the real desire for prayer. It is obvious that if our desires in prayer are for self, even if it is for self to fulfill the ritual or prayer, that prayer is then done for the idol of self and is nothing but an expression of pride. The Great Commandment should teach us that if we are to love God with all of our beings all of the time then prayer should be nothing more and nothing less than an act of love for God and a seeking of God Himself. If we do not seek the Lord in our intents and desires in prayer, our prayers are nothing more than religious rituals to get God to do something for self. That is horrid pride.

For the soul to truly pray in utter dependence on God it must also look to God as the only reason He should answer the prayer. That is really what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. We are to pray in utter dependence on Him to answer the prayer based on who He is and to be moved by our prayer because it is for the sake of Christ. But instead, we are given to prayers for ourselves while pleading to God with at least hidden things in the heart thinking that He should answer our prayers because we are worth it or because we have done something to merit the answer to some degree. How horrid our pride is in our prayers. We desire God to answer our prayers that are based out of love for us and then ask Him to do those things for us rather than for His own glory. A prayer that is full of such pride as this is worthy of eternal damnation. In that case we are asking God to be less than holy in order to give us what we are asking for our idol of self. For God to answer a prayer based on love for us rather than Himself would be idolatrous and unholy. Such is pride in prayer. Too often, I fear, that is the real language of our prayers. When even our prayers are hideous acts of pride and idolatry, it is no wonder that Christianity is so weak.

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Conversion, Part 21

June 24, 2009

Conversion is the glorious act of God taking a soul and transforming it from the state of depravity and deadness in sins and trespasses and remaking it in His own image. The soul that has the renewed image of God is now God’s dwelling place. The dwelling place of God is not just a place that God goes on vacation, but it is the place where He manifests Himself. The regenerated human soul was created to be a dwelling place of God through which He would display Himself. The mind (soul’s capacity to understand) has been renewed so the soul may have the mind of Christ. The affections (soul’s capacity to have joy in God) have been renewed to have the affections of Christ. The will (soul’s capacity for choice) now chooses according to the understanding of Christ and what it loves the most. The whole soul is transformed in conversion and now its capacity for choice (the will) is changed.

Before conversion the soul (by the capacity of choice) chooses sin and only sin. The soul that is spiritually dead and by nature a child of wrath (Eph 2:1-3) always chooses according to its spiritually dead nature which loves self and sin. The soul that is dead in sin and by nature a child of wrath will always choose what its darkened mind sees as good and what the affections (governed by darkness) incline it toward. For a soul to be converted so that it will choose according to Christ it must have the mind and affections of Christ. The choices or will of a human being will always follow the last dictate of the understanding and of the affections. The converted soul is now the dwelling place of God and it will choose differently than another person that is not the dwelling place of God.

It is evident that a saved person is not just one that has prayed a prayer and has made a commitment to attend church and be moral. A converted person has been changed from one that lived by the lusts of the heart and mind to one that lives by the mind and affections of Christ. The moral action is not just a choice that someone makes but is a choice that comes from a humble heart (emptied of self) and comes from the life of Christ in the soul. The converted soul does not live by the life of self but by the life of Christ. What comes from the converted soul (ideally all cases, but we still have remaining sin) is what originated in heaven from the Father, comes into the soul through Christ, and is then worked into the human soul so that it is sharing in the life of God. Of course believers are not perfect, but they do have the life of Christ in them that is moving them on into spiritual growth.

Romans 8:6-8 tells us the reality of the unconverted soul: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The unconverted person is one that is ruled by the flesh which is hostility toward God, but the converted person is one that is ruled by the life of Christ which is love toward God. The unconverted soul lives in fear of the will of God and hates it when it is seen, but the converted soul prays for God’s “will to be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mat 6:10). The unconverted soul has no ability of the will to subject itself to the law of God, but the believer is in the New Covenant where God works His law in the minds and hearts of those He dwells in. Now the believer haves the ability (the life of Christ) to follow the holy law of God.

It must be stressed again and again that the converted person is not just stronger and makes better moral choices, but the converted person has the life of Christ in the soul now rather than the life of the flesh and of self that the unconverted person is enslaved to. The unconverted hates God and His law, yet the converted person has Christ in the soul who when on earth said this: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The Savior that said that when facing the cross on earth will indeed be working in His people to submit to the Lord’s will. But it is not some forced obedience to the law, but rather it is this: “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psa 119:97). In this we see how Christ in the soul by working out His love for the Father. Jesus fulfilled the whole Law, and since love is the fulfillment of the Law Jesus loved the Father and the Law perfectly at all times and in all ways. The converted person loves the Law and the glory of the Father shining through the Law because Christ the perfect Lawgiver and Law keeper is the life of that person’s soul.

While Jesus was on earth, He gave several sayings which shows how He works in the believer. The intent of giving these verses (given below) in the context of conversion is to point at what Christ does in the soul. He is at work in the soul working to conform it to Himself and the will of the Father.

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

John 5:30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Hebrews 10:7 “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'” 8 After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

When the verses (given above) are examined, we see why the will must be converted in salvation. Jesus Christ came to accomplish the work of the Father. It is Father’s will that His people be holy. He is working the will of the Father in His people and they are conformed to His image. The food which strengthened Jesus was to do the will of the Father. He did not just want to know the Father, but He wanted to do His will in all things. In fact, as John 5:30 informs us, Jesus did not do anything from His own initiative. His judgment was just because He did not seek His own will but the will of the Father. This is an amazing text which far-reaching ramifications. If we apply this passage to the life of Christ in the soul now, then we can see that it is sin to seek our own wills. But we can also see that holiness is in denying our wills and seeking the will of the Father. The whole soul must be converted in order for Christ to dwell in the soul and work the will of the Father in it. After all, Jesus did not come from Heaven to do His own will but the will of the Father. He also does not come and live in the souls of believers to do anything but work the will of the Father in them as well. Only the will of the Father is holy and should be done.

The believer wills and works for the good pleasure of God, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). It is the Father who works through Christ to work His will in believers. The prayer of the writer of Hebrews is for the Father to “equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever” (Hebrews 13:21). The believer is equipped to do the will of the Father. The unconverted soul is not equipped to do anything according to the revealed will of the Father. That takes a changed soul and that takes the life of Christ in that cleansed and changed soul.

Unconverted people do not like to hear of the sovereignty of God and thinks things are up to their wills. This is not the truth about God. “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1). Even the unbeliever’s heart is in the hands of the LORD and He turns it as He pleases. The unbeliever is not being forced to do what s/he does not want to do, but in carrying out the desires of his or her heart that unbeliever is being turned as the LORD pleases. The converted soul knows that (to some degree) and prays as Solomon did: “that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, which He commanded our fathers” (1 Kings 8:58).

The New Covenant points toward all of this: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The soul must be converted as a whole so that the will would desire to love God and keep His Law. The converted soul has the Law on its heart. The converted soul is directed by the understanding which can now receive light. The converted soul has affections of joy and delight in the Lord and in His Law. It is now wonder that the converted soul that sees the glory of God and has affections of joy in Him will choose according to the will of the Father. The converted soul now has sight to see, delight in, and then choose. The whole soul is converted and is now the dwelling place of God. The whole soul by virtue of the life of Christ in it is restrained from sin that before it could not see. The whole soul now loves God because it is now delivered from the bondage of sin and is given the love of God. Conversion is the glorious work of God by which His people become willing in the day of His power (Psa 110:3).

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Conversion, Part 20

June 24, 2009

In the last newsletter the focus was on the conversion of the eye of the soul which is the understanding. The eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye is bad, the body is full of darkness. In conversion the eye is converted and is now light. The body, therefore, is full of light. For those accustomed to people just praying a prayer, this sounds very radical. But Jesus taught us this: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Mat 7:15-20). The context of this passage is about salvation, how hard it is to be saved, and then how to distinguish false prophets from the bad.

Using the analogy that Scripture uses, what must happen for a bad tree to become a good tree? There must be a radical change. It is not a change in the power of humans but is something only God can do. True salvation is a true conversion by the Creator of all things. It is the Creator alone who can take a sinner and make him a new creation in Christ Jesus. Part of the work of God in making a new creation is to give and equip this new creature with new affections. A new creature must have new affections. By this it is meant that the new creature will have affections for different things than it previously did. Now the new creature loves spiritual things which it once hated. While love is not limited to the affections only, yet it certainly has affections. The creature that once hated God now loves God. The creature that once hated the lordship of Christ now loves Christ and His rule over it.

Jonathan Edwards wrote the classic work on the affections (Religious Affections). In that work he distinguished between affections and passions. This is very important since modern people refer to all feelings as “emotions.” The soul has many feelings, yet in our day we note that we have feelings and go on. If we hear a sermon and have good feelings, then we assume that our feelings are a good sign. But Edwards did not think so. The feelings of the soul can be divided into at least two parts. The passions of the soul are those feelings that drive the human soul. A person that has a passion is one that has a high degree of feeling and those control the person rather than truth or reason. A person in a fit of anger is being driven by the passion that is involved in the anger rather than being controlled by truth or reason. A person can hear a sermon and be driven by feelings rather than the truth of the Word of God. That is not a positive thing though it can appear to be so from the outside.

The affections are those feelings of the soul that arise and follow the truth. In one sense the unbeliever has affections when the feelings follow the mind or reason. It is here that the distinction is seen. The passions (root word passive) are those feelings that overcome the mind and the soul is driven along and controlled by the feelings. The affections are those feelings that rise toward truth and follow after the reasoning part of the soul. In terms of Christianity, a true affection is a feeling of the soul that rises because of the truth of God and then follows the truth as it follows the mind that is enlightened with the truth. The mind and understanding that has been changed to see the truth will also have affections that love the truth and desire it. One problem, however, is that an unbelieving mind can love to study the Bible and religious things for selfish reasons. True and spiritual affections, however, rise because of spiritual things and love spiritual things because they shine forth the glory of God.

Jonathan Edwards spoke a lot about the importance of true affections. He points out how the Bible treats the affections a vital for true religion. He used the text of I Peter 1:8 to illustrate this point: “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” In this text we see a mark of true faith. True faith spiritually beholds Christ and in beholding the glory of God that shines in Christ it loves Him. When one believes and loves Christ, that person can rejoice with joy that is so deep that it is inexpressible. It is a joy that is full of the glory of God as well. But note the pattern of true and spiritual affections in this text. The understanding of the soul first beholds Christ. We know that the glory of God shines in Christ so the soul is really beholding the glory of God in Christ as in the Gospel (II Cor 4:6). The soul that beholds the glory of God in Christ now has the affections of love and joy rising toward the object of the sight of the believing soul. The soul is now filled with a joy that is so great it cannot describe what is going on within it. It is a soul that is filled with a sight and the joy of the glory of God.

The unconverted soul, however, is one that is filled with hatred for the glory of God if there is no self-centered or selfish benefit to it. The unconverted soul has no sight that allows the light of the glory of God in and there are no affections of love and desire for that glory. It is a soul that is totally depraved and is dead in its sins and trespasses. By “totally depraved” it is meant that the soul is depraved in all (total) of its parts. The mind is depraved, the affections are depraved, and the choices are depraved. If a person truly believes in total depravity, then it must be driven to the conclusion that all the parts or aspects of the soul must be converted or changed. Last time we looked at how the eye of the soul or the understanding must be converted. Now we are looking at how the affections or feelings of the soul must be converted. If the affections are not converted, then the understanding that is converted would allow light in that would fill the soul with hatred for God. But the converted soul loves God and so the affections and desires are changed in order that the soul could have the love and joy of God in it.

In past newsletters on conversion (two and three weeks ago) the assertion was made that God must convert the soul so that it would be able to be filled with His glory in order to manifest His glory. The topic of the affections has not departed from that at all. When we see I Peter 1:8 as given above, we can see that the believing soul is filled with a joy that is inexpressible. But not only that, and perhaps because of that, the believing soul is filled with a joy that is full of glory. The unbelieving or unconverted soul is not full of the glory and joy of God like this. It is the converted and believing soul that is full of the glory of God because the believing soul is full of God Himself. It is not just any joy that the believer has, but it is the very joy of Christ Himself. The affections must be converted in order that the very joy of God would reside in and be expressed in the soul. This is seen in John 15:11 quite clearly: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” It is not that Christ speaks these things so that the people would have joy or even what He had joy in, but so that His joy would be in them. When His joy is in them, then and only then will their joy is made full.

We can also see that verse 13 of John 17 teaches the same thing: “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” It is the very joy of Christ Himself that is in those He prays for that makes their joy full. It is His joy that is made full in people that gives people true spiritual joy. We must remember that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that accompanies love (Galatians 5:22-24). We can also see the same teaching in John 17:25-26: “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” The Son makes the name of the Father known so that the love with which the Father loved the Son would be in believers and Christ Himself would be in believers. The affections must be converted in order that they would be able to manifest the affections of Christ. The desires must be turned from loving the things of the world to loving the things of God because the life of Christ in His people will love the things of God and not the things of the world.

1 Corinthians 2:16 says that believers have the mind of Christ: “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” Philippians 1:8 teaches that we are to have the affection of Christ as well: “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Surely Christ-likeness is more than just behaving in certain ways. To be like Christ we are to be like Him in our joy, zeal, hate, love, desires, sorrows, and other affections. He whose zeal consumed Him for the house of God would work a zeal for His glory and honor in our hearts as well. The Scriptures are full of the affections of Christ as we see His biography in the Gospels. The Scriptures are also full of the affections of the apostles as well as their teaching on the affections. In the words of Jonathan Edwards, true religion consists much in the affections. I might add that false religion and the ways of the world also consists much in the affections as well. Those with affections for the world will not be satisfied with a faith that has no affections at all. If the professing Church wants to preach a true Gospel, then it must teach doctrine that has true affections or it will not go far in being like Christ. If the professing Church wants to preach a true Gospel and a true Christ, then it must preach truth with affection or it will also not go far in being like Christ. The eternal God who lives in perfect and infinite love and joy within the Trinity shares His joy in Himself with His people through Christ and by the Spirit. True conversion reaches the depths of the affections and those affections are transformed to be like Christ because they are from the life of Christ in the soul. A sinner that has worldly affections for sin in and sinful things cannot be said to be a new creature and have the life of Christ in the soul. A believer is one that has been truly converted and his or her affections have been converted to have the affections of Christ. With anything less the totally depraved soul has not been converted.

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Pride, Part 37

June 24, 2009

In the practices or “disciplines” of the Christian life there is much for pride to do if the soul is not humbled first. Pride (self-exaltation) will seek itself in whatever it does. As noted in previous BLOGS, pride can be very much at home in orthodox theology. It is also true that pride may do what appears to be longer and harder prayers than the humble soul. The Pharisees prayed long and loud, but they did so in order to be honored by men. We must not forget that our own proud hearts come from the same source (Adam) that the proud hearts of the Pharisees did. We may have the proud heart of the Pharisee and from that same pride not want to be seen as a Pharisee. It can be nothing but pride that we don’t want to be like the Pharisees.

“There is no single aspect of religion which may not bear the marks of egocentricity or theocentricity, according as the one or the other of these constitutes the fundamental character of the religious relationship. Prayer, for instance, may be simply the means by which I seek to obtain for myself benefits that are otherwise beyond my reach; or it may express-not least in its petitionary form-my utter dependence for all that I have and am on God alone.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The quote above is simply numbing in its ramifications. There is no aspect of religion that cannot be either egocentric or theocentric. It is not the orthodoxy of a theology that in and of itself that determines whether it is according to God or not, it is also not whether it is theocentric in words or not. It is not whether a person is uttering words toward God in a posture of prayer or not that determines if it is true prayer. It is not even the words that a person says that determines if it is true prayer or not. It is the utter dependence of the heart for all things that determines if something is prayer or not. Prayer can be nothing more than a means to get things I cannot get in my own power. It may be nothing more than an attempt to use God to get things for me.

In light of the pride of each heart by nature and then one of the real distinctions between egocentricity and theocentricity being that of the utter dependence of the heart, we can see how much of modern Christianity (in name) is far from being biblical. In our day we are teaching people that they are worthy for Christ to die for them. We teach them of ways to manipulate God (though called other things) in prayer and behavior. We teach methods of prayer and methods of how to be holy rather than teaching those things as coming from the heart in truth. A heart that is utterly dependent on God in prayer is also a heart that is utterly dependent on God for prayer. A heart that is utterly dependent on God in prayer is a heart that is looking to God for an utterly dependent heart.

II Chronicles 7:14 gives us an approach to prayer as does the Lord’s Prayer. But neither can be copied as to the forms of them and then we are taught to pray. The passage in II Chronicles starts off with humility. We must be humbled in order to truly pray. In prayer we are to seek the face of the Lord in order to truly pray. We are to repent and turn from our wicked ways in order to truly pray. But these are things that have to come from the utterly dependent heart. Likewise we have the Lord’s Prayer as given in Matthew six. We are to come to the Father who is in heaven. Surely that requires humility. It also teaches us to be utterly dependent because He alone is totally sufficient for all things. We are to then go to this Father and pray for His name to be revered and glorified. Surely we don’t mean this is reverence and love apart from a heart that has been humbled from its self-exaltation (pride) and is truly seeking the exaltation of God. This is a heart that has given up on its own abilities to glorify God and is now seeking God to glorify Himself.

Why is prayer so hard today? One reason is that God has withdrawn His face and is hardening our hearts and leaving us to our own devices. Another reason is that we have become so used to seeking our selves and our own interests in prayer that we don’t know what it means to seek the presence and glory of God in our prayers. How wicked a proud “prayer” is! It is also an oxymoron. How utterly wicked it is for a proud heart to seek itself rather than the glory of God in prayer. It is utterly vile and wretched for the proud heart to look to itself in so-called prayer rather than look to God in and for all things. The depths of pride in our hearts should be open to us when we seek God for the benefits rather than for Himself. A theocentric prayer is when the heart is broken from its pride and in utter dependence on God cries out to God for Himself and His glory. But the words alone won’t do it; the heart must truly mean it. Words offered as a prayer without a dependent heart is words from a proud heart.

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Pride, Part 36

June 21, 2009

The promotion of self is specifically and clearly prohibited by Scripture, and yet it is promoted, lauded, and sold in Christianity as self-help and leadership. The Bible commands all to love God with all of their being and to submit entirely and completely to Him. Yet the pride of humanity is such that it will do things in the name of God and convince itself that it loves God. But when the main motive is self, doing something in the name of God is an attempt to use God to serve self. Pride can speak highly of God and do that in order to exalt self. Since pride is the exaltation of self in some way, in anything that is an attempt to promote or exalt self that is pride by definition. That is true in Christianity and in religion as in all things.

“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice… self can lie unrebuked at the very altar…It can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.” (A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God)

“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The Bible is quite clear in Isaiah 45:6 that God is central to all things: “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” At the very heart of biblical Christianity is the teaching that God is God in all things. He is to be the one loved with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love for Him is to be the chief motive in all that we do and all that we don’t do. The reason we do what we do is to be love for God and the reason we don’t do what we don’t do is to be love for God. But instead man elects God from pride in order to obtain benefits for God. Human beings read the Bible from pride and want God to do things for man. They also read the Bible in order to obtain praise and honor from others for what they know. Human beings will pray in order to appear religious and obtain things from God for self. All of these things are the epitome of pride. These are done (so to speak) at the very altar of God while self is the real love and motive of all that is done in the name of God.

Man and women love orthodoxy because of the honor, prestige, and perhaps wealth that it will bring. Men will preach long and loud in order to impress others or do things in the name of God while self stands there exalting in self. That is surely the height of pride. Self can look upon itself as orthodox with pride because it is comparing itself with those who are not. It may have the creed that tells it that it is orthodox because God enlightens the eyes and does this by grace, but pride will find ways to think of this as something to make it better and exalt self over others. Self will find ways to exalt itself because that is what pride does and yet deceive others and self because it gives God all the credit with its lips. Self will pretend to be humble in order to be exalted in the eyes of others and to think well of self too. The religion that comes from pride may be extremely devoted and orthodox, yet all is done for self. The religion that comes from pride may focus on helping others, but that is done for self.

Pride in religion prays to God to bless the plans that self has come up with. Pride in religion wants the blessing of the Spirit without the denial of self that the Spirit will work in the heart because holiness will not come apart from it. Pride will engage in all sorts of activities that it may be thought of as orthodox or as loving because that is easier than dying to self so that true love for God and man will be there. Man desires to be god to himself in reality while in words giving God all the credit, but it gives God the credit because it is supposed to and it must do so in order to obtain honor from others. In this egocentric or proud orthodoxy is a way that man rules and is in control and can fool himself and others into thinking that he is doing all for God. Apart from a broken heart, orthodoxy provides men with excuses for failure and ways to obtain glory in the name of God. The Bible says that God chooses men and makes them holy for His purposes. Pride chooses God and makes Him unholy (in intent) so that He will serve men for their purposes. Pride rises to the throne of God (in intent) and takes it from Him for the purposes of self.

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Pride, Part 35

June 19, 2009

As God withdraws Himself from the professing Church, the nation and the professing Church are sliding into deeper and deeper darkness. Christianity is presented as nothing more than a few rituals to be endured. Recently I heard of a man that said from the pulpit that all a person needed to do to be saved was to be breathing and to say the prayer. In that and in rituals that provide salvation for people no account of pride and self-centeredness are taken. There is no real thought of what it means to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit. For a person to be truly saved, that person must be saved from the ravages of pride. But in the professing Church today, that is not taken into consideration at all. God resists and fights the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The soul that is proud does not, will not, and cannot receive grace.

“[Egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion] are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice…self can lie unrebuked at the very altar…It can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.” (A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God)

We have become used to thinking that if a man has been to seminary or has been ordained that he must be a Christian and is seeking the interests and cause of Christ. On the other hand, however, we see Paul warning the elders from Ephesus that wolves would come in among them and even from among their own number men would arise speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:29-30). We also read of Simon who was professing faith in Christ. He saw that the apostles would lay hands on people through that people were receiving the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw this, he offered the apostles money in an effort to obtain the authority of laying on hands and people receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17-19). Evidently he saw this as a way to make money.

Today we see the same attitude though perhaps with different circumstances. People claim to be able to lay hands on people and then others will receive the Spirit, be healed, or receive blessings that will bring money. Usually there is some financial benefit in it for the person laying on hands. The depth and darkness of such pride is not seen because pride and greed both blind people to the sin involved. How dare anyone think that they have the power of the Spirit in them so that they can dispense Him at all much less as they please. Sure the words are there that they are promoting Christ and His cause, but the self is more obvious than the truth of Christ.

But let us not always be pointing the finger at obvious things. How proud and full of self the Pharisees were for their orthodoxy, morality, and their religious practices. It is here that we must pay attention to the words of Tozer because they are backed by the evidence of Scripture. Self and pride can indeed lie unrebuked at the very altar. Self is the veil that hides the face of God from us and that in and with the very forms of orthodoxy. By nature of the case pride hides our sin from us. Self-centeredness is sin in all things, yet pride blinds us with the very self that is sin. Pride is the puffing up of self, so man is blinded by the self and cannot see beyond that self. Self will use the name of Christ to do something and yet the pride of self hides the motives of self from self. Men are going on in their orthodoxy and are blinded by self even more because now self thinks it is orthodox. We give men evangelistic things to do and they do them for self and are blinded by their works of evangelism.

Self, as Tozer says above, will fight for the faith of the Reformers and even preach salvation by grace and yet do it all by the power of self. Self can be more at home at Bible conferences; he goes on to say, than in the tavern. Why is that true? It is because pride delights in self-righteousness in all people. Pride is also such in some people that they find ways to exalt themselves at Bible conferences. They can get the attention that their pride craves. Let us not assume that all is well when men are orthodox at conferences. It may be nothing more than the expression of their self and pride. Let us each look in our own hearts to examine them carefully. Do we desire the glory of God out of love for Him or because we have earthly benefits to self? Beware of self-deceit as self will try to blind you to the truth. Beware of pride as it does not want to be exposed. But exposed they must be.

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Pride, Part 34

June 16, 2009

Pride is not understood very well and one reason is that by virtue of what it is it hides itself from the eyes of its willing victims. In all ages it has been thought that man can have the favor of God if man will behave in moral ways or do certain actions. That is nothing but pride in the hearts of human beings whether it is in religious activity or not. In speaking of the sins of pride and self (egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion), A.W. Tozer said this: They “are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.” He goes on to say that “self can lie unrebuked at the very altar…It can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.”

All of those darts to the heart of the orthodox is saying in plain language exactly what we need to hear whether we like it or not. Tozer would also tell us that we cannot learn from Bible study alone what God must teach our hearts. This is not to denigrate Bible study, but simply our hearts must learn from experience and the Bible must interpret that experience. There is a power of pride in the heart that no seminary class will dispel. There are no classes that a church can offer that will tear pride out of the heart. There is no one with a strong enough will to take pride out of his or her own heart. Only the Spirit operating in the soul opening the eyes of the soul to that dastardly enemy of the soul which is pride can begin the work. Only the Spirit working in the soul can begin to tear at the strong fortress of pride in the soul. Instead of being driven out by orthodoxy, pride will feed on orthodoxy and use it to hide itself. It will hide itself under the curtain of truth and it will hide itself by hanging around the champions of truth. Pride loves to be talked about and loves to be loved by those who are orthodox. Pride can even love to be spoken against as long as it has others who are orthodox to encourage him or her by saying it is part of being orthodox. Orthodoxy, then, is very dangerous when in the hands and hearts of the proud.

“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

We can see that in orthodoxy it is the pride of man making himself the measure of all things. While man uses God, the things of God, and even the attributes of God in his theology, man is using those things for the promotion of self and comfort of self. The heart hides its own pride and self-centeredness from others and self by focusing on God. The depths of pride and self in the heart that wants to use God for the purposes of self are not measurable. Man, created for the glory and pleasure of God, and man uses God for the glory and pleasure of self. The stench that rises from hearts like that must indeed be unbearable to holy angels. Yet self-promotion is almost an art today in religious circles, though indeed it is done in the name of God with lip service paid to the Gospel.

This heart is seen in Philippians 2:21 where Paul had no one to send the Philippians to teach them the Word of God because the ones he knew about sought “their own self-interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” If Paul had no one to send these people to teach them the Word of God because the men sought their own self-interests, what would he say today about those who so interested in self-promotion? God will not give His glory to another and yet so many so-called ministers are seeking their own glory under the guise of seeking His. Proud and self-seeking men and women in the ministry can add great numbers to organizations that call themselves churches. Proud and self-seeking men and women can do many things that appear great. But they are simply doing those things so that they would appear great rather than doing them to manifest the glory of the living God. In the Old Testament the prophets were spoken against quite severely because they used God to seek themselves. It is no different today. The God that many use to seek their own glory will use them to display the glory of His justice and wrath in eternity if they do not repent and believe which is what they say with their mouths.

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