God Loves… Himself

In the last BLOG the focus was on how pride is seen in Eudemonism. The soul in the blindness of its pride will seek the fulfillment of its own desires and needs by seeking God. It is true that people do not claim this and will even strongly deny it, but when the desires of the heart are for God to fulfill self that is pride. It is using God to seek the things of self and that is true even in the things of religion. It is so easy for the devil to deceive people into thinking that they are seeking God in religious things when they are doing things for self. The pride that blinds eyes to moralism also blinds eyes to Eudemonism. Jeremiah 17:9 warns us that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” In many ways it is only pride in a human heart that thinks it can understand the human heart when God says that a human cannot understand the heart.

“But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels… Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

While it may be hard for religious people to see their own pride and very hard for very religious people to see their own pride, yet the heart must see its own pride in order to really deal with it. The Pharisees did not see their own pride and yet it was so obvious to others and it is very obvious to us too. But our own pride is not as easy for us to see. As the Pharisees pride blinded them to their own pride so the pride of modern people blinds them to their own pride as well. Pride in our own hearts will magnify the pride of others and be willing to point it out for all to see, but that same pride minimizes its own pride and does not think that others see it.

The proud Pharisee would go out and pray, yet his prayer was not to God but was really to himself. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'” The Pharisee thought of this as a real and genuine prayer. He looked down on the tax collector who was nothing but a sinner in the eyes of the Pharisee. The Pharisee could not see that his religious pride was worse than all that the tax collector could do. Religious people still don’t get it either. When they have pride in their hearts, their prayers are really to themselves and are not true prayers to God. It may be the case that they use correct religious language. It may be the case that they use the name of God. It may be the case that they pray in the name of Christ. But if they have pride in their hearts, they are praying to themselves and not to God.

The heart that is full of pride seeks God only for some advantage, but in doing so that heart is really seeking the benefits of self rather than the glory of God. Whatever the soul does that seeks some benefit or advantage from God that soul is doing nothing but seeking self. It is utterly wicked for a vile piece of clay to use God to seek the things of self when the clay is commanded to use self for the purpose of manifesting the glory of God. When the proud soul seeks self in religion (even if a very religious person) it is exactly the opposite of holiness and is seeking the very essence of sin. The essence of sin is pride and self-centeredness while the essence of human holiness is being emptied of pride and self and full of the Spirit so that the soul seeks the glory of God out of true love. A soul that is full of the vomit of hell (pride and self) is a soul that is just like the devil. It is a soul that does not love God and without love for God there is no likeness of God and no holiness.

When the proud soul is seeking God in order to obtain things from God for self, it is so clear that a soul like that seeks fellowship with God primarily for some benefit it thinks it can obtain from God. God Himself is not the goal, but He is only a means to a greater end. In that case God is ultimately thought of, regardless of the creed, as an answer to human problems and needs. If we seek God only to get out of hell, then He is only sought as an answer to what I see as a need. Thus we see how preaching and evangelism can be practiced with God as nothing more than an answer to a human problem or need. How vile for human beings to treat the all glorious God like that.

In the last BLOG the focus was on how pride is seen in moralism and legalism. The soul in its pride and self-centeredness of pride will attempt to be good in order to have fellowship with God or to get God to do something. This is not what people will verbalize, but it is the language of pride when moralism is stripped of its fig leaves. Take off the fig leaves of moralism and what it is hiding is nothing but the foul image of the devil which is pride and self. The problem, however, is that pride hides itself from us. Pride is so wicked that it will try to hide itself from those that have it. Since pride hides under the fig leaves of moralism, it is also trying to hide moralism from the soul as well. Jeremiah 17:9 warns us that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” Only God can show us our hearts in its true despicable nature and take away the blindness of the proud eyes and the fig leaves of moralism to show us our true nakedness.

But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels… Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs. (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Eudemonism (sometimes eudaimonism) was a philosophy of the ancient Greeks and is also a philosophy of every proud heart that is controlled by pride and self. The idea came from Aristotle and the idea of human flourishing. The idea of flourishing can become nothing but the seeking of pleasure. Some stressed sensual pleasures while others stressed the absence of material things. Those within Christianity eventually stressed the idea that true happiness is found by focusing and meditating on God. The distinction between objective character (morality or virtue) as sufficient for happiness was disputed by those who thought that the subjective (happiness) state was a satisfactory life. Clearly, then, the battle for happiness is something that all strive for and many argue about.

Eudemonism has taken root within the churches today while clothed in biblical language. It is clothed under the term of “happiness” as well as the terms of “peace” and “joy” as well as others. It is clothed under biblical verses that speak of God giving us the desires of our hearts. It is clothed under theology that says if we have joy in the name of God then that joy glorifies God. But if we seek joy for the goal of self even if we say it is for the glory of God, then we are seeking self and this is nothing but pride and self-seeking. If we determine what to do from a sense of peace, then it can be that we are determining what is right and wrong from our own desires and our own subjective feelings. The state of peace in the heart may only be showing me that the battle between the Word of God and my pride over this issue has been decided. My relief may be from nothing more than my mind finding an excuse to disobey God. Whenever I seek God for the purpose of something else I am guilty of the wicked expression of my pride in the idolatry of self.

Virtually all that hold any semblance to believing the Bible as the Word of God will agree that seeking God for material things is sinful and prideful. That is to treat Him as nothing more than a divine genie and to think that we can bribe and manipulate Him to do what we want. How wicked it is to have a conception of the Almighty such as that! Yet we don’t see it as the same thing when we seek Him for peace or contentment. We praise Him to others because He gives me peace as if that is all He is good for. Indeed the Scripture speaks of “all my springs of joy are in You” (Psa 87:7). Yet that does not give us the excuse to seek God for the purpose of joy in and of itself. Do we seek God as a means of the achievement of self? Do we seek God primarily for our own ends even if our mouths say other things? Do we think of God’s purpose as the answer to our needs and problems? Isn’t that hideous pride wrapped in religious language? Isn’t that nothing but the vile nature of self being expressed under religious clothing? Do I truly seek joy from God so that His joy in Himself may be manifested or is it that I just want to be happy? Our very desire for peace and joy can be used by pride to deceive ourselves as to our salvation and our sanctification. Some seek God for wealth, yet some seek God to make them happy. Both are idolatrous notions.

The pride of human beings is expressed in differing ways. The human heart is born in pride and self-centeredness, though it is expressed in various circumstances. Regardless of the circumstances, the human heart will express its pride and self-centeredness some form. Pride and self-centeredness can be expressed in open rebellion and flagrant sin. But they can also be expressed even more in the ways of religion. Pride and self-centeredness are very much at home in stringently orthodox and very conservative churches, but also those who are steeped in liberalism as well. Pride is pride and self-centeredness is self-centeredness regardless of how they are expressed. They are at the heart of all sin. The hearts of human beings are so full of pride that they think that they can purchase favor with God. Those who issue an outright denial of this will also try to manipulate God by saying the right words or doing the right thing in order that God will be on their sides. This is nothing but the very height of pride.

“But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels. It finds characteristic expression in the moralism, or legalism, or the eudemonism which, commonly going hand in hand, are to be observed in many otherwise widely differing forms of religion. Moralism means that my moral and spiritual attainments are regarded as decisive for the establishment and maintenance of the religious relationship. I have to do or become something in order to enable God to regard me with approval and in this way secure my standing with Him. My good and meritorious works, for example, or my personal holiness, however conceived and acquired, are assumed to be the essential basis and guarantee of my acceptance with God… In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Many people are willing to express in words that their spirituality depends on their morality and works. How many, while not admitting in express language, will utter things that show that they look to their own morality and works in order to maintain something of a religious relationship. But what we don’t see so clearly are those that have enough training in the Bible to know that moralism and legalism are wrong. However, the denomination they are in or the teachers they have listened to have hidden those things with religious language. Perhaps they have identified biblical words with unbiblical ideas. Perhaps they think they are biblical and are simply uninstructed. For example, there is a massive difference within denominations and individuals as to what grace really is. Yet so many will confess to others that they believe that they are saved by grace and the two will go on their way thinking they agree when in fact they are virtually polar opposite in meaning.

Down deep in our hearts do we really trust in Christ or in the fact that we are moral people? One of the main thrusts of the Bible is to deliver people from any trust in themselves and their own morality in order to trust in Christ alone as the One who justifies and as the One who sanctifies. It is not just that He sanctifies, but He is the sanctification of the believer (I Corinthians 1:30). Our morality must be the fruit of the Spirit which will only come when we are abiding in Christ and He is abiding in us. Apart from Christ we can do nothing spiritual or please God in any way (John 15:1-11). A person can be justified by Christ and still look to self in sanctification in ways that s/he has not repented of. This is remaining pride in the soul. This pride in the soul will ruin all progress in true sanctification. If a person thinks that his or her morality is pleasing to God, then that person is looking to the flesh for what the Spirit alone can do. If a person things that his or her morality is how fellowship with God is maintained, then that person trusts in the flesh from pride rather than humbly receiving all from God.

The Bible teaches that salvation is from faith to faith which is to say it is from received grace to received grace. Pride is the polar opposite of faith and so pride will always reject true grace which has no help from humans at all. Let us look at the real nature of pride in this. If I am seeking morality in order to have fellowship with God or if I think morality gives me fellowship with God, then I am seeking God for selfish and self-centered reasons. I am seeking God by another way than by Jesus Christ and according to pride rather than grace. Moralism and legalism are hideous acts of idolatry committed by the soul. They are acts of self seeking the goals of self rather than abiding in Christ seeking the glory of God out of love for God. Moralism and legalism are acts of pride that are at enmity with God. I Cor 16:22 says that we are eternally cursed if we do not love the Lord, not if we are not moral.

In the last BLOG we looked at another quote from the book Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther by Philip Watson. We also looked at how the modern professing Church has let humanism and egocentricity in the doors in biblical clothing and it is an idol that has taken over. It is much the same that Balaam did in counseling Moab on how to get the Israelites to commit idolatry and so God fought the Israelites. See the last BLOG, Pride 22, for more on that. The devil cannot defeat God directly and so he fights God by getting at the people of God. The way that devil gets at the professing church is to get it involved in idolatry and God will turn from that church. Let us not imagine that this takes God by surprise and that the devil is outsmarting God. This is all part of God’s eternal to manifest His glory which is the ultimate good. Here is a shorter quote from the above listed book which was taken from the longer quote in the last BLOG.

“I find it exceedingly difficult to rid myself of this illusion and allow God really to be the centre, that is, really to be God. Egocentricity in religion is seen perhaps at its simplest and crudest in that conception of sacrifice which is expressed in the formula do ut des. I offer my gift in order to win the Divine favour and so to obtain what I wish from the Divine power. But the same egocentric motive can be exhibitedequally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels.”

“Do ut des” in Latin means “I give that you may give”. In other words, “I give to you, that I may get something back from you” (American Heritage Dictionary). If we look in our hearts with brutal honesty, we will see our own motives. It is not just that we do something for God to give us something even greater back (crass forms of charismatic teaching), but down in our hearts we want God to be pleased with us if we do these things. Perhaps some even think that if we can just come up with the faith God will reward us with salvation. Perhaps we tithe with the secret desire to obtain the favor of God for something else. Perhaps we think that by being good God will give us a perfect spouse or work in the one we have to be better to us. Maybe way down in our hearts we think that by our doing things a certain way God will bless us or do something for us. Perhaps it is even to bless a ministry. But this is the heart of human beings that have not been delivered from self-centeredness and pride.

Imagine the depths of the odious pride of the heart that thinks it can give God something, bribe Him, or perhaps to manipulate Him in some way. All that God gives is of His goodness and comes by grace. What can a mere speck of dust give to the infinite Creator who owns all things anyway that would move God to do something?

Romans 11:33 – “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

I Chronicles 29:14 – “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You. 15 For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. 16 O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.”

Psalm 50:10 – “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains.”

These texts show us that we can earn nothing from God. If we try to earn something from Him, we are not those that live by faith which receives grace. Habakkuk 2:4 teaches us that pride and faith are opposites: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” Faith receives grace and grace can find no motive within God but the character of God Himself as triune. It is the very epitome of pride to even think we can in some way move God to do something for us unless it is in the name of Christ by grace.

The following quote is devastating to the modern version of evangelical Christianity. Many modern versions of Christianity are really forms of humanism brought into the professing Church and baptized. There are many sincere people in professing Christian churches today that have no idea of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are sincere, committed, dedicated, and all of those things but they are simply dedicated to a false god and a false gospel. This sounds arrogant, judgmental, and perhaps even brutal. But we have got to see through the charade of humanism brought into the professing Church. It is no different than what Balaam did in the Old Testament. He could not curse the Israelites directly, but evidently he gave advice to Moab on how to get the children of Israel to commit idolatry. Moab feared the Israelites, but no one can defeat God. So he found out how to get God to fight against the Israelites. See Numbers 22-25 for this story. Numbers 31:16 fills in some of the blanks for us: “Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD.”

“I find it exceedingly difficult to rid myself of this illusion and allow God really to be the centre, that is, really to be God. Egocentricity in religion is seen perhaps at its simplest and crudest in hat conception of sacrifice which is expressed in the formula do ut des. I offer my gift in order to win the Divine favour and so to obtain what I wish from the Divine power. But the same egocentric motive can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels. It finds characteristic expression in the moralism, or legalism, or the eudemonism which, commonly going hand in hand, are to be observed in many otherwise widely differing forms of religion. Moralism means that my moral and spiritual attainments are regarded as decisive for the establishment and maintenance of the religious relationship. I have to do or become something in order to enable God to regard me with approval and in this way secure my standing with Him. My good and meritorious works, for example, or my personal holiness, however conceived and acquired, are assumed to be the essential basis and guarantee of my acceptance with God. Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Humanism has been brought into the professing Church and passed off as Christianity. This is simply the pride of man being expressed in religion. Egocentric motives are nothing but the motives of self which must be denied in order to follow Christ. Moralism is nothing but the pride of man in thinking that he can be good enough to please God and to obtain things from God. Legalism is nothing but the pride of man trying to set up rules that he can keep and replace those of God which he cannot keep. Eudemonism is an ancient philosophy that sets up its ethics in terms of gaining personal happiness. The author (in the above quote) sees that within forms of Christianity in their seeking their happiness in God. This is not a denial that believers are to rejoice in God, but it is pointing at an insidious beast that takes a true Christian teaching and changes it. No longer is it truly God that gives me grace to share in His joy in Himself, but now it is that my desires for this world and the next are what I really desire in my pursuit of God. Surely it can be seen that this person is now seeking self out of pride rather than God. This person is now seeking self out of love rather than God out of love. It may also be the case that the person thinks that s/he loves God when in fact this person only loves self and then God because s/he thinks that God loves him or her.

As Balaam counseled Moab on what to do to get God to fight the Israelites, so the pride of man has brought many things into the professing Church. God brought His wrath on the Israelites then and His wrath is upon the professing Church now. We have idols erected in our hearts as surely as the Israelites had idols then. We worship self now as the Israelites worshipped self then. We follow our own laws now as they followed their own laws and not God’s then. We seek our own pleasure now as the Israelites sought their own pleasure then. It was nothing but pride and self with the Israelites then and it is nothing but pride and self now. We have turned to the idols of self and God is now against the professing Church. We are deceived in thinking the professing Church has much true Christianity left. It may have morals and it may have some doctrine, but our pride means the living God is absent.

Although I readily admit that God must be the centre of existence, I do not as readily perceive or accept all that this implies; and it is the most natural thing for me still to live and think as if I myself were the centre around which all else, even including God, moved. I find it exceedingly difficult to rid myself of this illusion and allow God really to be the centre, that is, really to be God. (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

We can imagine a local church that is orthodox in theology and conservative in its moral view points. It teaches doctrine and morality according to its confession. It has as its conviction that God created the world and all things in it. It believes that God is sovereign over all that it does. It holds out that people must repent of sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It believes in justification by faith alone. It knows that it must be God-centered and that the church’s preaching and teaching must be Christ-centered. It even holds to Soli deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory) which was a central teaching of the Reformation. It believes along with various catechisms that the chief end of man (primary purpose) is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

All that this church does has the correct words. But can it be that the real heart and motive of the church is nothing more than an illusion? Can it be that all of those things are not inconsistent with a church that has developed for itself an illusion that it is God-centered? For a church to be governed by self would simply be some of the people in the church (a church consists of individuals) to be governed by self. It is easy to imagine one person in a church being utterly devoted to the study of theology for nothing more than self-centered considerations. Paul told us that “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (I Cor 8:1). Paul also told us that people are proud of their association with certain names: “Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (I Cor 12-13). It would seem from this that people were dividing over whether they were of Christ or of Paul or of another.

Now if people divided over Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter), and even Christ in that day, it is certainly possible for people to do that now. Now, of course, we have people dividing over Luther, Calvin, and Wesley in the older days and then over Piper, Sproul, MacArthur and others today. It is almost as if people think they are holding on to their righteousness by defending a certain name today. It also appears that some seem to think that their righteousness is obtained or held on to by being a part of a certain denomination or not being part of another. It is also the case that people divide over which confession or creed that they hold to. In other words, there are myriads of ways that people of orthodox beliefs and confessions can have the illusion of God-centeredness while being thoroughly centered upon self. Jesus put it this way: “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mat 6:23).

The minds and hearts of human beings are depraved. They will hold on to a church, a church building, a theologian, a denomination, a creed, and anything else before they will look to Christ alone. A person can know that s/he is saved by grace alone through faith alone and yet trust in something other than Christ. As there is a vital distinction between believing that one is justified by faith alone and being justified through faith alone so there is a vital distinction between believing a creed as true and believing in the truths of a creed because Jesus teaches it in Scripture. The self will gladly hold in an intellectual way certain doctrines if it believes that it will be saved by believing those things. Correct doctrine and correct creeds can be nothing more than self finding a way to save itself. One does not have to deny self to hold to a creed and the doctrine of a church. One does not have to die to self to believe that all must be done to the glory of God. One does not have to die to self to assert that one is doing all to the glory of God. But to actually live to the glory of God one must die to self.

It is certainly possible for a group of proud people to hide from themselves and from others their proud hearts as they believe and do all things in an orthodox manner. The proud and self-centered heart can also be quite proud of its theology and practice. It can even be proud that it does most or maybe all to the glory of God while it does all in the name of God but out of love for self. The heart that is taken up with self does not like to hear the teachings of Scripture which stress self-denial and the death to self. So it is much easier to believe in the intellectual things of Christianity and hide from the obligations that the soul is under than it is to deal with the death to self. Pride is the beast in the soul that hides itself from the soul. Pride is that exaltation of self which can hide itself in the guise of humility. Pride can hide itself under the guise of an external love and Christian activity. Pride certainly builds an illusion of God-centeredness to the soul while it is being damned by its self-centeredness. After all, it is easy to point fingers at the Pharisees for their pride in religious activities if we are blind to our own pride. If we have not truly died to self and the self-centered nature of our proud hearts, then we are doing the same things that the Pharisees did. We have orthodox theology for self. We pray and give alms for self. But we have not denied self and so are blinded to the truth by the pride of self. The illusion of God-centeredness is impossible for the natural man to cast away once it has blinded him to it. This takes grace. But the proud think it will just take a little more knowledge and a little more activity. How utterly blind we are to our own pride which blinds us to our pride.

For illusion occurs in religion as easily as in the physical world. Even though I have learnt that the sun is the centre around which my earth moves, and I with it; I will tend to live and think as if the sun moved around my earth and me. Similarly in religion, although I readily admit that God must be the centre of existence, I do not as readily perceive or accept all that this implies; and it is the most natural thing for me still to live and think as if I myself were the centre around which all else, even including God, moved. I find it exceedingly difficult to rid myself of this illusion and allow God really to be the centre, that is, really to be God. (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

This is a vitally important statement that reflects how it is that so many people can be deceived about a nation, the state of a church, and then of their own souls. America has developed the illusion that it is a Christian nation because it has a lot of religious activity. Many churches think that they are centered upon God because they talk about God and they use His name a lot. Perhaps they pray in His name and ask for things that they think will honor Him. A lot of talk regarding church growth uses the name of God and of the things of God as well. Many people do what they do while using the name of God and say they are doing things to the glory of God, but this is not new in history and it is found in the Bible as well. Paul spoke of not having anyone to send to the Philippians because he did not have a man that would have the true welfare of the people and the interests of Christ at heart. Instead, they were more concerned with the interests of self (Phil 2:19-21).

In the Old Testament on multiple occasions God became wearied with the external performances of the Israelites even though they were externally carrying out what He had commanded.

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. 12 When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? 13 Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. 14 I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood 16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1:11-16).

Clearly the Israelites were doing what God had commanded, but their hearts were not doing them out of love for God. They were going on in their proud hearts living on in their sin and yet thinking that what they were doing fulfilled what God had commanded. In the pride of their hearts and in their self-centered world that they lived in they thought that God would be pleased because they were doing the outward things. The Pharisees continued this proud tradition as well. They did all of the outward things and thought quite highly of themselves. But they were the ones that God was most angry with as Jesus reserved His hardest words for them. But surely, we think, we are not like those Israelites and those Pharisees. We think that the Pharisees fought the teachings of Jesus and we do all in the name of Jesus, so we think we have escaped what the Pharisees were guilty of. Jesus also said that many will say “Lord, Lord” to Him on that day and yet He will turn them away because He never knew them.

If our hearts have not been turned from their self-centeredness and pride, we are using the name of Jesus to do things for self rather than doing them out of love for His great name’s sake. We can use the name of Jesus more as a magic potion of some sort seeking things for self when our pride has hidden our self-centeredness from us and we are going on in our idolatrous ways in much the same way as the Pharisees and Israelites. We pray in the name of Jesus, but we are not seeking the will of God but seeking the will of self. We may say we want God, but what we want is to have God on our side. We pray in the name of Jesus in order to manipulate God to do what we want rather than to seek the will of God in the name of Jesus. We pray for self and the things of self with the trappings of religion rather than seek the Lord and His will in order to pray according to His will. Oh how deceitful a proud heart is and how a proud heart ruins all the spiritual or religious things it touches. Our pride makes us unclean and all we touch is unclean as well. That includes our religious activities no matter how much we use God’s name.