Pride, Part 11

April 21, 2009

Ezekiel 28:17 – “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”

If it is true that this passage (above) is speaking directly of the devil, we can see how he deceived Eve. But even if it is not speaking directly of the devil, we can still see the pattern of pride which comes from the devil. Pride starts with the heart being lifted up because of something in the person or something desired. Any wisdom or reason that the person has is then corrupted by that. The devil was the first being to sin that we know about. He led the fall of the angels and then deceived Eve. His pattern in deceiving others is according to the pattern in Ezekiel 28:17. He deceives the human being into thinking something about themselves and their heart is lifted up in pride. Once that happens, their wisdom is corrupted and they are easily led into sin. We can see that pattern in Genesis 3:1-6.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden ‘?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate (Genesis 3:1-6).

The serpent was indeed crafty, but his wisdom was now corrupted. Instead of using his wisdom to do all to the glory of God he used his wisdom to deceive human beings into sin. He began by questioning the character of God to Eve. The evil one told her that God was not telling her the truth but that God just didn’t want her to be like God. This is the original promise of the devil that so many have bought today. It was the promise to be like God. Eve desired the fruit of the tree to make her wise which is to say that she desired to be wise like God. We can see the pattern of the devil here. He deceived the woman into thinking that she could be like God and so her heart was lifted up in pride. With her thinking corrupted because of that pride she desired to have the wisdom of God. The moment a person desires to be like God that person has bought into a lie and it is a horrible pride that would desire that. Little do people see that behind every sin there lurks a darkened wisdom in the person playing God to self.

We see this pattern in the writings of John: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (I John 2:15-16). The world is defined in some way by John as being full of the lust of the flesh and of the eyes. It is also full of the boastful pride of life. Eve saw that the food was good for food (lust of the flesh) and that it was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes). The reason that it was a delight to the eyes is what she thought it would do for her. Her desire to have the wisdom that it would give was in effect the desire to be like God. That is the boastful pride of life. All of these things are not from the Father, but are from the world.

We can see from Ephesians 2:1-3 where the world and its patterns of life come from. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” The course of the world is according to the prince of the power of the air. The prince of the power of the air is the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. They live according to the lusts of the flesh and indulge the desires of the flesh and of the mind. That is precisely the pattern we see in I John 2:15-16, Genesis 3:1-6, and then Ezekiel 28:17. All of these texts show us that sin starts with pride which corrupts the way we think which leads human beings to live as their own gods. The horrifying nature of pride is set out for us. Pride has its source in the devil and is always in rebellion against God. Pride exalts self and desires to be like God which blinds the soul to true wisdom and reason. This is the work of the deceiver. The person that lives by pride is really just repeating the sin of the devil as he works in them. How we need brokenness and grace.

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Conversion, Part 11

April 18, 2009

The words of Jesus Christ must become that which drives the way we think of salvation as a whole: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). It is so easy to take the meaning of what Jesus said and turn the meaning into something else. We may try to make that passage fit with other passages that we think we know but we may have swallowed a wrong meaning to that as well. We must not just believe some words of Jesus given in Matthew 18:3, we must believe what Jesus meant by those words. We must not only believe what Jesus meant by those words, but what Jesus meant by those words must happen to us if we are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. We cannot just know that He said the words, but what He meant must have happened to us or we are still in our sins.

The same thing is true of justification by faith alone. There has been a lot of squabbling within the professing Church over the meaning of justification in the history of the Church. However, a man or a woman can know the true doctrine down to the smallest teaching and still be a stranger to justification itself. It is possible, and appears to happen on a regular basis, for a person to be very close to being perfectly orthodox in the intellectual grasp of justification by faith alone and yet not be justified. A person must not just believe the doctrine of justification by faith alone as true, but a person must actually be justified by grace alone through faith alone. This is a pernicious thing that the devil has done. He deceives people into thinking that they are justified because they have an intellectual belief in justification. Paul never said that a person is justified if the person believes in justification by faith part from works, but that a person is actually justified by faith apart from works. Jesus never said that a person is converted if that person believes that a person must be converted or just believe that He can convert a person, but that a person must actually be converted in order to enter the kingdom of God.

Let us think of some examples in this regard. We would not let a doctor perform surgery on us if a man or woman believed that s/he could perform surgery and yet had never actually done it before. We would think a person would have mental issues if that person believed that his or her appendix had actually been removed just because the person believed that the doctor could do that type of surgery. There is a large difference between believing that something is needed rather than that something actually happening. There is a massive difference between believing that someone can do something and that something actually happening. There is also a huge difference between believing that something is true and that something actually occurring in or to me. We must get beyond thinking that conversion is something that has happened to us if we just believe that it is true. Conversion is something that must actually happen to us or we are lost. We must actually be converted from one thing to another.

There are many things that we convert from one use to another in the world. We even buy conversion kits to change things from what they are so that they will function in another way and be useful in that other way. I ran a search on eBay and found 77,627 items under “conversion.” There were conversion vans. There were kits to convert vehicles from gasoline to diesel and also kits to change motorcycles to tricycles. There are conversion kits for cars, planes, trucks, axles, reels, motorcycles, guns, motors, and on and on. We have some understanding of what conversion means, but we want to settle for something far less in the realm of Christianity. Let us not forget the words of Jesus: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). People must not only be converted in a way we or they have come up with, but they must be converted from what they are by nature to become like a child in the meaning of Jesus. There must be a real change in the soul from one thing to another or that person is not truly converted.

Instead of a real change in our day we say that a person must believe. It is true that the Bible declares to us that we must believe. But what does it mean by that? Does the Bible mean that we believe in something and then God gives us salvation because we have believed? Does it mean that we believe and that a true conversion of the soul does not happen? Could it mean that a soul must be converted to truly believe? What can an intellectual belief do to convert a person or to change the person’s heart? What can repeating a prayer do to change the heart? It is not by believing something as true that the soul is changed, but it is only if God changes the heart is there a change and the soul can be a believing soul. The work of conversion is the work of God. The whole soul is what must be converted from a state of unbelief to a state of belief. The act of belief is not just an intellectual one, but it is a belief that comes from a soul that has been changed. We must be converted to truly believe from the whole soul. A true faith or a true belief is when faith comes from a truly converted soul.

A soul is born a child of wrath (Eph 2:3) and must be converted to be a child of the love of God (I John 3:1). A soul is born dead in sins and trespasses (Eph 2:1-3) and must be converted in order to be made alive. A soul is born into a fleshly state (John 3:3-8) and must be converted to become a spiritual being. A soul is born as a child of the devil (John 8:44) and must be converted to become a child of the living God (Eph 1:5). A soul is born entirely full of pride and self-centeredness (II Tim 3:2) and must be converted to become humble and God-centered. A soul is born in bondage to sin (Rom 6:16-20) and must be converted to be a slave of Christ. A soul is born in the kingdom and dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13) and must be converted to be in the kingdom of Christ where He reigns in the hearts of His people. A soul is born hating God and at enmity with Him (Gen 3:15) and must be converted to live in love for Him. A soul lives in hatred of others (Titus 3:3) until it is changed and loves its neighbor as itself. These are not things that we just believe facts about; but the soul must be converted for these things to be true in that soul. Conversion is something real that God works in the soul and changes it to be His dwelling place. Conversion changes the very loves and desires of the soul. We must become new creatures in Christ Jesus or we will perish forever (II Cor 5:17). We must be cleansed and changed to be temples of the living God.

There appears to be a lot of confusion about salvation and conversion in the modern day. It appears to be the massive majority that says that a person must simply believe in order to be saved. In one sense it is true that a person must believe in order to be saved. But there is a lot more that goes on as well. We must not bury the doctrine of true conversion and leave salvation in the realm of intellectual belief alone. It is a converted soul that truly believes rather than a soul that believes a fact and makes changes. We are told that Jesus died for us and if we will but believe that we will be saved. But what happened to conversion as Jesus and Paul taught? Did Jesus teach conversion at one point and then teach that a person must believe at another point as if there were and are two different ways? When we focus on belief apart from biblical conversion we are no longer talking about a biblical form of belief. We end up thinking that if we can talk a person into saying a prayer or intellectually convince someone then that person will be saved. Jesus said that we must be converted or we will not enter the kingdom and that we must be born from above. He also said that we must believe. We must not dismiss any of these teachings.

It is dangerous to tell souls that they must pray a prayer or confess with their mouths apart from teaching them the utter necessity of conversion. The unregenerate soul can do any external thing that a believer can. If we do not get into the nature of the soul and the necessity for it to be converted we will be teaching people a false gospel. A soul that is saved by grace through faith is the soul that has been converted by grace alone. A person with Pelagian doctrine (whether actual or practical Pelagianism) is confident that the power of salvation is in his or her own hands. A person that is Arminian (whether actual or practical) will believe that salvation is up to his or her choice in the matter. Certain kinds of Reformed people believe that God will save no matter what and they don’t need to worry about it while other Reformed people believe that if they have come to believe certain doctrines then they are saved. But all of these people in some way would deny (whether actual or practical) the biblical doctrine of conversion. God must change the soul at His mere pleasure and by His grace. He does so not based on whether a person believes it or not, but by His grace. A person will come to a belief from the depths of their changed heart when they are converted, but just because a person intellectually believes is not an infallible sign of conversion.

The Pelagian person may think that by being morally good and doing certain religious things that s/he will be saved. The Arminian person will think that s/he can say a prayer or do some act of the will and so be saved. One Reformed person sits around in sin waiting on God to save him or her from the sin while another Reformed person believes that if one believes in justification by faith alone one will be saved. The differing camps may even argue about justification and free-will along with other teachings. Meanwhile they are all thinking of something other than conversion. We speak against the traditions of others, but some of the deadliest of traditions are those that sneak in and take hold in the realm of salvation. Those traditions are among us today and we must get back to Scripture. Unregenerate souls that are given over to love of self (regardless of their theology) will do anything to be saved from hell while keeping their pride and self-love. Modern theology and evangelism are designed to do exactly that. The Bible, however, says that a person must repent of self (Luke 9:23-26) and that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Pride is opposite to faith (Hab 2:4) and so to truly have faith or to truly believe the proud soul must be converted by God to be humble. While some argue that this sounds like works, it is exactly the opposite. It delivers from works. God must humble the soul and God must break the soul from its pride or the soul will not be truly converted. Conversion by the hand of God is needed for the soul to be saved from self.

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Pride, Part 10

April 18, 2009

In the last BLOG we looked at how in the past it was believed that the text below (Ezekiel 28:13-17) in some way spoke of Satan. It was by pride that he fell and it is by pride that he continues to work against God. The pride of Satan is such that he wants the glory himself and works so that human beings will not do all to the glory of God. He wants to work self-centeredness and pride in human beings along with the corresponding attitudes and perceptions of self-love and self-esteem. He wants human beings to be self-centered and self-focused in all they do because it is then that they are like him rather than God.

One way of looking at this is to see that God is triune. He loves Himself and is focused on Himself as triune. Since God is God, it would be sin for Him to be anything less than self-focused within the Trinity. However, Satan is not triune. He is not perfectly holy within himself in his self-love as God is, but instead is perfectly wicked and unholy in his love for himself in his singularity. When God loves Himself He also does what is best for those that are united to Him by faith and love as well. When a believer loves God with all of his or her being, then that believer loves the glory of God more than self or anything else. So when God manifests His glory in His love for Himself He is also doing what believers love the most as and that is what is good for them for all eternity. When Satan does what he does for himself his actions are hatred toward God and human beings.

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I places you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fir. 15 You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you” (Ezekiel 28:13-17).

When Satan (as in Ezekiel 28:17) was lifted up because of his beauty and his wisdom corrupted by that as well, he was focused on himself rather than the One that had created him. Satan became enamored with himself rather than as one that displayed the glory of God. That is pride. When God beholds Himself within the TrinityPr He beholds His image in the Son and the Son beholds the Father. When God’s love for Himself as triune is displayed that is the holiness and love of God displayed in the highest and most beautiful forms possible. When Satan manifests love for himself that is the most hideous form of evil and hatred for God and human beings possible. I John 4:8, 16 sets out for us that God is love. Yet John 8:44 tells us that the devil is the father of lies and was a murderer from the beginning. The contrast cannot be starker. The God who is love puts His love in the hearts of human beings and so they love because He first loved them (I John 4). Yet the devil puts the poison of his pride and self-love in the hearts of human beings and that leads to murder and all sorts of evil. When God loves Himself as triune it is a holy love and it is how He loves others. When the devil loves himself it can only end in hatred for God and others.

We must begin to see that love in us does not start with self-love since Satan is full of self-love. Love begins with God who is love. It is pride that thinks that human beings can love others and even God based on a love for self. It is pride in human beings that want to be the center of it all. It is pride in human beings that want to seek honor for themselves rather than live for the honor and glory of God. It is pride in human hearts that want all the attention of others. This pride in the heart has a source and it is Satan himself. He deceived Eve and then Adam sinned and the poison of self and pride took over in their hearts. The history of pride is seen in its origin and in all human activity since sin entered the human race. While Satan is not omnipresent and so cannot work directly in each human heart every moment, his poison of pride and self-love is in each and every heart because as the serpent he bit the first humans and injected his poison into them. It is now in us all. And as Moses was directed to put a serpent on a stick and hold it up so that all who saw it would be saved from the bite of the serpent, so Christ has been put on the cross and is the only deliverance from the bite of the serpent which is seen in our pride and self-love. A proud heart will never be humbled by its own efforts. That takes the power of God and He only does it by grace.

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Pride, Part 9

April 15, 2009

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.

The examples in Scripture of people who have been brought down because of their pride are many. If we looked in history, we would find many more as well. If we could see behind what historians are interested in and see the hearts of those involved, history would be littered with wars, politics, criminal behavior, religious activity, and family situations where people were brought down and even to destruction because of pride. We rarely think of the utter destruction that pride causes and of its grim activity in the religious realm. There are many that are moral and are proud of their morality, but their pride in their morality makes them as spiritual prostitutes before God. Their very pride in their chastity is to commit spiritual adultery against God. The same thing is true in many areas of religious activities. Pride renders whatever is done as that which is idolatry because all that comes from pride, regardless of how religious it is or how much outward good it appears to do, is the idolatry of self.

We can go back to the origin of pride who is the devil or Satan. Jonathan Edwards speculated that the reason for the fall of Satan and the angels that followed him was essentially because of the pride of Satan. He believed, along with many in his day, that the Lord had made known to the angels His decrees that they would be ministers of human beings. Not only just human beings who were inferior to the angels by nature, but those human beings would be sinners. The very Lord of the earth would take human flesh to save sinful human beings and would rule over the angels in that human body as well. That was simply more than the devil could take. Those thoughts are built on texts like Ezekiel 28:13-17 which were seen as speaking primarily of Satan:

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I places you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fir. 15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.

Even if one does not see this text speaking of Satan directly, this poison of pride came from somewhere. Satan is the author of pride in the human race as we shall see in later BLOGS. As a human being can do nothing in terms of bearing spiritual fruit apart from Christ, so pride has to have a source from another as well. The Holy Spirit works the fruit of love, joy, peace, and patience in the hearts of true believers (Gal 5:22), but Satan is working in the hearts of his children to express their hate, misery, antagonistic hearts, and impatience toward all but self (Titus 3:3). The human heart is in bondage to either sin or righteousness. The human heart either follows the ways of the world which is set up and governed by the prince of the power of the air who works in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2:1-3) or of Christ. So when Scripture speaks of pride, let us not forget the origin of that awful sin.

Satan was blameless in his ways until something unrighteous (pride) was found in him. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty which is a definition of pride. His wisdom was corrupted by that splendor which is what pride does. If we see history as Scripture sets out for us, we see it all as the outworking of the curse of the fall. There is enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. The whole Old Testament revolves around that great battle as it follows the wars and battles as the seed of the Serpent struck against the seed of the woman. This enmity came and still comes because of the source of pride and enmity which is Satan. The children of Satan and of the devil hate God and His children. There has been and always will be (as long as the present earth continues) war between the seeds. While there are wars between the nations, the greatest war is against the children of God. We must never forget the real fight. Pride is ultimately against God in every situation and it is the devil working his poison in and through the hearts of human beings. This is why God hates pride and fights to bring it down. When a human being is proud, that is a true act of war against Him because that is what pride really is. When a human being has pride that is sharing in the nature and activity of the devil and that is truly evil.

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Pride, Part 8

April 12, 2009

“You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21).

Pride in the heart is an issue with each sin. Pride prefers self to God and makes decisions based on self. Pride desires self and honor for self rather than doing all for the glory of God. Pride tells itself and others that it is doing all for the glory of God but its real desire is self. Pride is that which puffs up with self in the things of religion, and that also includes orthodox and conservative Christianity. It is pride which is in the heart that violates the commandments of God. The Greatest Command is to love God and it is pride that does all out of love for self. Pride wants to trust in self and the things of self, but Scripture tells us we are to trust in God with all of our being. Pride wants to do things in order to be saved, even if it gives orthodox names for them, but Scripture teaches that salvation is by grace alone apart from the works a human being can do for salvation.

The rich young ruler is an example of religious pride.

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” 18 A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? “19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 “You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'” 21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God” (Luke 18:17-27).

The teaching of Jesus is that one must receive the kingdom of God like a child. The ruler wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments and listed the fifth through the ninth commandments. The ruler had such a wrong idea of the commandments that in his pride he thought he had kept them. He thought he had kept them from his youth. So Jesus told him to sell all that he possessed and give it to the poor. It is not that the young ruler had kept the other commandments, but Jesus was showing the man his heart. This man was extremely rich and his heart was on his riches rather than on God. He was willing to keep the external parts of the commands to gain eternal life but he was not willing to follow all that Christ said.

Jesus was opening the eyes of this young man to the state of his heart. The man’s heart loved his riches and trusted in them. His true god was self and he loved the riches that he had for selfish reasons. He trusted in his riches rather than Christ. This man worshipped God according to the lines that he set and that means as long as he could be comfortable in doing so. When Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor, the man could not and would not cross the line that he had built up. He was willing to keep the external things but he was not going to give up what he loved more than all things and he was not going to trust in God above his riches. His heart was proud in that he loved riches more than God and he trusted in his riches more than God.

Luke 12 shows some of the real issues: “For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. 31 “But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. 33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (vv. 30-34). In light of who the Father is and what He does, they were to sell their possessions and give to charity (or love). In doing this they demonstrated where their hearts were. What a person truly treasures that is where the person thoughts and loves are. The rich ruler’s heart was with his treasure. He would not sell all he had because he was a lover of self in his pride. This is why it is impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven. But then again, that is also why it is impossible for any person to enter into heaven. The proud heart will continue to trust in self and the things of self at all times until God delivers a person by His grace. America is a rich nation. Does it trust in God or its riches?

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Conversion, Part 10

April 9, 2009

God has created all things to enjoy and glorify Himself (Rev 4:11). He created human beings in His own image to do all for His glory (Rom 3:23; I Cor 10:31). The purpose of the salvation of human beings is to manifest the glory of God (Eph 1:5-6; 2:4-10). The enemy of God, named Satan, is not so much out to deceive people into doing obviously evil things as he is to steal the glory of God. Satan hates God and desires the glory for himself. The real battle for the souls of human beings is a battle over the glory of God. Satan wants to hide the glory of God from souls and trick them into settling for something less. II Corinthians 4 points to this with what might appear as brutal reality: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (vv. 3-4). The Gospel is veiled to some, but it is Satan who has blinded them. His blinding work is so that they will “not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” This text does not tell us that he works in order to keep people from hearing the words of the Gospel, but of seeing the glory of the Gospel. A so-called gospel with nothing of the glory of God converting souls to love His glory is no Gospel at all.

The reason that the evil one does not want people to see the glory of the Gospel is because it is in the shining forth of that glory that souls are converted. “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor 4:6). The God who converts souls is the God that converts them by shining Himself into their hearts and giving the Light of the knowledge of His glory. It is when God shines in their hearts that they know His glory and see that glory in the face of Christ. They see His glory in the face of Christ because Christ is the very outshining of the glory of God (Heb 1:3). We can only know the Father if we know the Son and know the Father if we know the Son. A converted soul, then, is not just a soul that believes some facts about God and then stops some external sin, but it is a soul that has the very indwelling glory of God. The converted soul is one that beholds the glory of God and is changed into the image of that glory. But it is so easy to fall short of these things. It is so easy to be deceived by the evil one who longs to fill hell with those who hate God. What follows are excerpts from two sermons by Charles Spurgeon. In these sermons he is warning us not to be deceived. We must know that Jesus meant what He said when He said that a soul must be born again to enter the kingdom (John 3:3-5) and that a soul must be converted and become like a child to enter (Mat 18:3). He really spoke reality. Since Jesus meant what He said as He spoke truth, we must examine our hearts according to the words of Jesus rather than according to our own wishes and desires. If we have only believed some facts and have made some moral changes, regardless of how long we have attended church, we have done no more than Judas did for a while. Judas followed Jesus for quite a while, but he was never converted. He even wept over his sin, but he was never converted. Esau wept over his sin, but he was never converted. This is not a game that we can smile and start over at a different point as we please. If we are not truly converted before we die, we will spend eternity under the wrath of God on our unconverted souls.

A Persuasive to Steadfastness: February 1872

Are we made partakers of Christ? Many think they are who are not. There is nothing more to be dreaded than a supposed righteousness, a counterfeit justification, a spurious hope. Better, I sometimes think, to have no religion than to have a false religion. I am quite certain that the man is much more likely to be saved who knows that he is ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’, than the man who says, ‘I am rich and increased with goods’. It is infinitely better to take the road to heaven doubting than to go in the other direction presuming. I am far more pleased with the soul that is always questioning. ‘Am I right?’ than with him who has drunk the cup of arrogance till he is intoxicated with self-conceit and says, ‘I know my lot; the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; there is no need for self-examination in my case.’ Brethren, be assured of this; all are not partakers of Christ; all the baptized are not partakers of Christ; all churchmen are not partakers of Christ; all dissenters are not made partakers of Christ; all members of the church are not made partakers of Christ; all ministers, all elders, all bishops are not made partakers of Christ. All apostles were not made partakers of Christ. One of them, Christ’s familiar friend, who kept the little purse which held all the Master’s earthly store, lifted up his heel against him, betrayed him with a tender treacherous kiss, and became the son of perdition. He was a companion of Christ, but not a partaker of him. Am I made a partaker of Christ? Multiply the question till each individual among you makes it his own… Not every one who addresses Jesus as Lord and claims to serve him is the genuine article (Matthew 7:21-23).

REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE: SEPTEMBER 23, 1855,

There are many men who when they hear a faithful gospel sermon, are exceedingly stirred and moved by it… I have seen some men, while the truths of Scripture have been sounded from this pulpit, whose knees have knocked together, whose eyes have flowed with tears as if they had been fountains of water. I have witnessed the deep dejection of their spirit, when-as some of them have told me-they have been shaken until they knew not how to abide the sound of the voice, for it seemed like the terrible trumpet of Sinai thundering only their destruction. Well, my hearers, you may be very much disturbed under the preaching…yet you shall not have that “repentance unto life.” You may know what it is to be very seriously and very solemnly affected when you go to God’s house, and yet you may be hardened sinners.

Further still. It is quite possible that you may not only tremble before God’s Word, but you may become a sort of amiable Agrippa, and be “almost persuaded” to turn to Jesus Christ, and yet have no “repentance;” you may go further and even desire the gospel; you may say: “Oh! this gospel is such a goodly thing I would I had it. It ensures so much happiness here, and so much joy hereafter, I wish I might call it mine.” Oh! it is good, thus to hear this voice of God! …you may say, “I think it is true;” but it must enter the heart before you can repent. You may even go upon your knees in prayer and you may ask with a terrified lip that this may be blessed to your soul and after all you may be no child of God. You may say as Agrippa said unto Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;” yet, like Agrippa, you may never proceed beyond the “almost.”… Now, how many of you here have been; almost persuaded” and yet you are not really in the way of eternal life. How often has conviction brought you on your knees and you have “almost” repented, but you have remained there, without actually repenting. See that corpse? It is lately dead…the color is still life-like. Its hand is still warm; you may fancy it is alive, and it seems almost to breathe. Every thing is there-the worm hath scarcely touched it dissolution hath scarcely approached; there is no foeted smell [foul odor]-yet life is gone; life is not there. So it is with you: you are almost alive; you have almost every external organ of religion which the Christian has; but you have not life. You may have repentance, but not sincere repentance. O hypocrite! I warn you this morning, you may not only tremble but feel a complacency towards the Word of God, and yet after all not have “repentance unto life.” You may sink down into the pit that is bottomless, and hear it said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil.”

Yet, again, it is possible for men …to humble themselves under the hand of God, and yet they may be total strangers to repentance. Their goodness is not like the morning cloud and the early dew that passeth away, but when the sermon is heard they go home and commence what they conceive to be the work of repentance, they renounce certain vices and follies, they clothe themselves in sack-cloth, their tears flow very freely on account of what they have done; they weep before God; and yet with all that, their repentance is but a temporary repentance, and they go back to their sins again. It is possible that you may confess your sins, and yet may not repent. You may approach God, and tell him you are a wretch indeed; you may enumerate a long list of your transgressions and of the sins that you have committed, without a sense of the heniousness of your guilt, without a spark of real hatred of your deeds. You may confess and acknowledge your transgressions, and yet have no abhorrence of sin; and if you do not in the strength of God resist sin, if you do not turn from it, this fancied repentance shall be but the guilding which displays the paint which decorates; it is not the grace which transforms into gold, which will abide the fire. You may even, I say confess your faults, and yet have not repentance. You may do some work meet for repentance, and yet you may be impenitent… Judas betrayed his Master; and after having done so, an overwhelming sense of the enormous evil he had committed seized upon him. His guilt buried all hope of repentance, and in the misery of desperation, not the grief of true regret, he confessed his sin to the high priests, crying, “I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood.”…Whereupon he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple…left them there. He went out, and was he saved? No. “He went out and hanged himself.” And even then the vengeance of God followed him: for when he had hanged himself he fell from the height where he was suspended, and was dashed to pieces; he was lost, and his soul perished. Yet see what this man did. He had sinned, he confessed his wrong, he returned the gold; still after all that, he was a castaway. Does not this make us tremble? You see how possible it is to be the ape of the Christian so nearly, that wisdom itself, if it be only mortal, may be deceived.

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Pride, Part 7

April 9, 2009

“You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21).

That cursed sin of pride that other people have. Ah, but we have not learned the truth about pride until we hate it in ourselves. We have not learned to hate sin as sin until we learn to hate it in ourselves because of its relation to God. It is easy to hate sin in other people, but it is also easy to excuse it in our own hearts. Our self-love and pride make it easy to dismiss our own sin because we always have good reasons for it. But those other people, why they never have good reasons for what they do. We always have good reasons to think highly of ourselves, but others never have good reasons to speak highly of themselves. Pride is that beast in our own hearts that blinds us to itself and to our sin or at least minimizes it, yet it always maximizes the sin of others unless it is good for our pride to overlook theirs. The heart that operates by pride rather than love for God can do all the good things in some external way while it hides the motives and intents by an inflating of self that blinds the sight.

In the last BLOG we looked at how Jesus dealt with the sin of murder in the heart in the Sermon on the Mount. We prefer the stance of the Pharisees which left the sin of murder at the level of physical murder. But Jesus went to the depths of the heart and shows us that we violate the First Commandment in the sin of murder as well. When we murder another, whether in physical murder or in the heart or by our words, we are choosing self rather than God. It is God who commands us to love our neighbor and yet we hate our neighbor. In our heart, then, we are choosing our own wicked desires rather than the holy commands of God. What people say in our day is that we simply choose what we want. It is nothing but a choice. However, our choices are from our hearts and they never choose anything but what is according their greatest desires. When we choose sin, that is a choice that shows that our desires are for self rather than God. When we choose sin, it shows that we trust in our own wisdom rather than God. When we choose sin, it shows a heart that desires to please itself rather than God.

It is arrogance to choose self, the pleasures of self, the wisdom of self, and the honors for self rather than God. It is arrogance and pride for a human being to choose sin and self rather than God. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to seek God while the fallen heart teaches us to seek self. The Greatest Commandment commands us to love God with all of our beings and yet we flee from that and seek self. The First Commandment teaches us to have no god in the presence of the one and only true God, yet we seek self and all the things of self in His presence. We do nice things for others for the sake of self rather than out of love for God and His glory. We do nice things for others because we want ourselves and others to think well of us and we desire honor for doing nice things. However, that is not the same thing as doing those things out of true love for God and our neighbor.

In Matthew 5:27-32 Jesus deals with the issue of adultery. But again, we cannot look at this passage without seeing the fact that He is driving us to the issues of the heart and keeping the heart in the presence of God. Jesus tells us that if we look at a woman with lust for her we have already committed adultery. This is utterly shocking when we begin to get a grasp of what He is saying. The Seventh Commandment strikes to the heart and looks back to the First Commandment as well. If we commit adultery we are using another person that God has made for our own sinful purposes and we are not in obedience to God. We are also using ourselves for our own sinful purposes rather than for the purposes of God. God has created all things for His glory and pleasure and we are trying to use things and people for our own. In this sin it shows a heart that is not content with God’s way and is a heart that desires to rule over self and others rather than have no other gods in His presence.

The heart that lusts after other people is a heart that lives for its own desires rather than the desires of God. This is a heart that has no ruler but self and that is an act of arrogance and pride. The lusting heart is one that is coveting another person to fill its own lusts and desires in ways that God has forbidden. This is a heart that cares for nothing other than its own filthy pleasures. What does a person desire that looks upon another with lust in the heart? That person does not desire the glory of God but the desires and pleasures of self. The heart is always in the presence of God and it will lust after others while it appears so pious on the outside and around others. The heart can lust and commit adultery over and over in the presence of God while pretending a great righteousness in the presence of other human beings. When the heart commits sin before God over and over and yet will not do those things in front of others, it shows that the heart is more afraid of human beings than of God. It shows that the heart is so full of self that it wants honor before human beings while it commits hideous sin in the presence of God. That is pride.

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Conversion, Part 9

April 6, 2009

In an introduction to the book Divine Energy written by John Skepp, John Gill wrote the following words:

The subject matter of this treatise, which is the only one he ever published, is of the greatest moment and importance, viz. the Conversion of man; without which he must be miserable, and which he cannot effect of himself, and must be done only by the invincible power and efficacious grace of God; as is clearly held forth in the Scriptures, and fully proved in the following discourses. Nothing is more common than to mistake in this great affair, and nothing more fatal; the mistakes about conversion and faith…The insufficiency of moral suasion to produce these things is most clearly proved; the nature, use, reach, and compass of it are truly stated; and by undeniable arguments and instances it is shewn that there are such lets and hindrances in the way of a sinner’s conversion to God and faith in Christ, as that it is impossible and impracticable for moral suasion ever to remove them; and which only can be done by the power and efficacy of Divine Grace…it is most clearly demonstrated that Man is passive in the reception of the Spirit as a spirit of conviction and saving grace, in regeneration, as effected by him, in a soul’s vital union to Christ, and in the first beginnings of spiritual motions of grace.

In Gill’s Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity he speaks directly to the teaching of Scripture on conversion himself. He gives a short list of some that conversion is not:

1. An external one, or what lies only in an outward reformation of live and manners, such as that of the Ninevites; for this may be where internal conversion is not, as in the Scribes and Pharisees; and is what person may depart from, and return to their former course of life again; and where it is right and genuine, it is the fruit and effect of conversion, but not that itself,-2. Nor is it a mere doctrinal one, or a conversion from false notions imbibed, to a set of doctrines and truths which are according to the Scriptures; so men of old were converted from Judaism and Heathenism to Christianity; but not all that were so converted in a doctrinal sense, were true and real converts; some had the form of godliness without the power of it, had a name to live, and be called Christians, but were dead, and so not converted; thus the recovery of professors of religion from errors fallen into; to the acknowledgment of the truth, is called a conversion of them, James 5:19, 20…But the conversion under consideration is a true, real, internal work of God upon the souls of men; there is a counterfeit of it, or there is that in some men who are not really converted, which is somewhat similar to that which is always found in those that are truly converted; as, a sense of sin, and an acknowledgment of it; an apprehension of the divine displeasure at it; great distress about it, a sorrow for it, humiliation on account of it, and an abstinence from it; and something that bears a resemblance to each of these may be found in unconverted persons; though their concern about sin is chiefly for the evil that comes by it, or like to come by it, and not for the evil that is in it; so in converted persons there is, sooner or later, light into the gospel and doctrines of it; particularly the doctrine of salvation by Christ, which yield relief and comfort to them under a sense of sin, and encourage faith and hope in God; and there is something like this to be observed in some who are not truly converted, who are said to be enlightened, that is, in a notional and doctrinal way; and to taste the good work of God, though it is only in a superficial manner; and to receive it with joy, with a flash of natural affection, which lasts for a while; and to believe it with temporary faith, historically, and become subject to ordinances; but yet in all this there is no heart-work.

There is a massive amount of truth to be mined from these statements of John Gill. His writings, if heeded, would provide a necessary correction to much that goes on within so-called Evangelical Christianity and that includes much of Reformed thinking as well. It is easy to pray a prayer and to make a moral change of sorts and be considered a believer or a Christian today. It is easy to have the intellectual beliefs of Christianity and then of Reformed theology and be considered a Christian. The human heart is easily deceived as long as the deception falls in line with the ruling and governing love of the self. The devil is the deceiver by nature who is also a liar by nature and so lies and deceives on a constant basis. Revelation 12:9 calls him “the great dragon” and “the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” He works hard at deceiving human souls about conversion since in conversion the glory of God (which Satan hates) shines with great beauty.

Gill instructs us, from the first quote above, that “Nothing is more common than to mistake in this great affair, and nothing more fatal; the mistakes about conversion and faith.” A doctor may make a mistake and a person may die, but a mistake about conversion is eternal damnation. One mistake is that moral persuasion will do what is needed. Surely they are converted if they are doing good things. Yet, Gill says, “nothing is more common to mistake.” Has human nature changed? Has the devil changed? If not, we are still liable to this mistake. Yet to say we are still liable to this mistake is weak. Our very nature of sin, pride, and self-love drives us to this mistake with great force. The devil is hard at work in each person and those around them to get them to make that mistake. The world is hard at work to convince itself and others to make this mistake. The religions of the world are busy trying to get people to make this mistake. Much of professing Christianity is busily working at deceiving themselves and others about this mistake. Yet, as Martin Luther wrote, “one little word shall fell him.” Jesus said this in Matthew 18:3: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Gill points out that true conversion is not merely a doctrinal one, but it is an internal conversion that is needed. Here is a source of great error in academia, both in the secular and theological realms. We think that if a person goes to seminary and learns many academic things that s/he must be converted. Perhaps we think that if a person has latched onto or believes to some degree the great teachings of the Reformers in history that this person must be converted. A conversion of the mind or of the notions does not necessarily mean that the heart has been converted. We see throughout the Gospels people that were convinced of something concerning Jesus when they saw His miracles. In other words, they were intellectually convinced in some manner. But when the teachings of Jesus began to demand of them that they deny themselves and follow Him, they would turn away. When a person is not truly converted to Christ that person will turn from Christ when a true denial of the self is required. If the heart is not turned from self, Christ will be turned from when turning from self is required. Though self may claim Christ as master and deceive self into believing that, we can only have on and true master (Mat 6:24).

There is nothing about truth in the brain that changes hearts of human beings. Truth in the brain is not a sign that the truth has changed the heart. It is possible to hear lectures that are quite orthodox while the lecturer is actually dead in sins and trespasses. It is also possible to hear orthodox sermons and agree with them but hear them while one is dead in sins and trespasses. The truth is but a mere word in a sense unless it is made powerful in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Unless the Spirit makes the soul alive with the truth the truth is but a propositional statement in the brain of one that is dead in sins and trespasses. Only God Himself can deliver a soul from its pride and self-centeredness. If the soul is not delivered from its pride and self-centeredness it will use truth to puff itself up and focus on itself with. As Paul teaches us, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” (I Cor 8:1). It is not our knowledge that changes the soul, but it is God knowing us that changes the soul and then knowing Him is eternal life in the soul (I Cor 8:3; John 17:3; I John 5:20). True knowledge of God which comes in the spiritual knowledge of Him and love for Him only comes from His work in us in giving us light and love of Himself.

Gill shows us that many will have sorrow for sin, but not for the evil of sin and not because it is wrongs God Himself, but only because of the consequences that it brings on them. This is much like a criminal that is sorry that he was caught and sorry that he has to pay, but he is not sorry for the evil of sin itself. The soul that has been changed by God has sorrow over the evil of sin as it is against God (Psa 51:4). Then in a statement that indicts virtually the whole of Evangelical Christianity today, Gill speaks of those that have some notion of Christ and have a taste of the Gospel but only in a superficial manner. They even receive it with joy, though it is only a flash of the natural affections. These people have some relief from the conviction of sin and exercise something of a historical faith. They even practice the ordinances of God, yet their hearts are not changed. Here is the great danger of modern versions of Christianity. We teach people to agree that they are sinners or have made some mistakes and then to pray a prayer, yet there is nothing about a true change of heart worked in them by God. We teach people to believe certain doctrines, yet they are not taught of God about the nature of a changed heart. We teach people a certain form of morality, yet they don’t learn the true morality of love that comes from a changed heart. We teach people spiritual disciplines, yet they practice them without a heart that has been renewed by the living God. The whole inward person must be changed according to Jesus or the person will perish. We must get beyond the externals and realize that people must have this work of God in the heart or they will perish forever. Salvation is not just to be delivered from hell; it is to be delivered from self. Salvation is not just to become better; it is to become a new creature in Christ Jesus (II Cor 5:17) with old things passed away. That is God’s work in the soul.

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Pride, Part 6

April 6, 2009

“You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21).

We are looking at the sin of pride. It is the sin that blinds people to sin and to pride itself. By virtue of what it is it hides itself from the hearts of those who have it. It takes the light of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit to illuminate the soul to its own pride. The soul that is blind in pride can be very religious. It can be very committed and devote itself to Bible study and outward prayer. It might even have much joy in its external religion and so fool itself even more that it has true joy in God. But pride is such that it blinds self to all other evidence and puffs up just a little positive evidence to be great and overwhelming evidence in its own eyes. Perhaps the two worse things that pride does are 1) diminish God in our eyes regarding the nature of sin against Him and 2) hide the sin of the heart from itself. Pride will fasten on the outward actions and ignore the desires and loves of the soul. Pride will lift up the outward actions as things that are so great and then simply push the things of the heart aside.

In this BLOG we want to look at how the heart violates the First Commandment. In fact, it is the heart that is the source of all violations of First Commandment. While the modern world is much like the religious world in the time of earthly sojourn of Jesus and looks to the externals primarily, God looked primarily upon the heart than and now. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus went directly to the heart in His teachings. The Pharisees were concerned with the outward acts and were focused on the honor of men in what they did. In the Beatitudes Jesus shows us that the real issue is with the heart. The focus in the Beatitudes is the heart. It was, in one sense, a direct attack on the religious actions and attitudes of the Pharisees then and now.

Jesus then went on and dealt with a few of the commandments. In Matthew 5:21-25 He starts with murder: “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER ‘ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”

The Pharisees were content and satisfied that they kept the Sixth Commandment as long as they did not take the life of another. However, Jesus takes this commandment and goes to the heart with it. He tells them that anger in the heart is the same as murder. He tells them that insults and attacks with the tongue are also violations of the Sixth Commandment. Even more, He tells them that before they worship God they must be reconciled to their brothers. This is a massive shot at the religious standards set out by the Pharisees and one that reached the depths of their souls. Even more, it should reach the depths of our souls in the present day.

What we can see from the teachings of Jesus on murder tells us a lot about the heart and the role of the heart in sin. In each act of murder, anger, insulting, and verbal attacking of others is an act of the heart. The act of murder starts off with some desire in the heart. Anger in the heart comes from a sinful act of the heart in most every case. Insulting another with malicious intent only happens as the intent of the heart is carried out. A verbal assault on another is also a display of a heart that desires the harm of another and is an attack on that person’s name or reputation. What we see, then, is the heart put on display. I John 3:15 tells us that “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Hatred is murder and demonstrates that eternal life does not abide in that person. Clearly this is an issue of the heart. With each act of the heart the soul demonstrates what it really loves and who its master really is. The proud heart gets so angry when it perceives that it cannot get what it wants and another is responsible for that. The proud heart is offended when something is said that it does not like. The proud heart is one that hates and attacks others with insults and verbal assaults. That proud heart shows that it serves self rather than God. The proud heart that hates and goes after others shows that it is in the service of the sinful and fleshly self rather than the living God. Each act of pride in the heart is an act of choosing and living for self rather than God. Pride will call it something else, but the stench of pride is still seen by God for what it is. If we truly hate sin, we will desire God to humble us from it. We will pray against ourselves.

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Pride, Part 5

April 3, 2009

“You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21).

In the last BLOG it was noted how it is pride that moves a person to love self rather than God. It is pride to be centered and focused on self rather than centered and focused on God. It is a blindness brought on by a great pride that hides the evil of a heart that does all that it does out of love for itself and still thinks that God should be pleased. The arrogant wander from the commands of God, but the righteous cry to God not to wander from His commands: “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:10). The righteous, even when tricked and tempted, still don’t go astray: “The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts” (Psalm 119:110).

We can see this principle in Nehemiah as well: “But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments” (9:16). “And admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances, By which if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen” (9:29). The issue of the heart is pointed to by Nehemiah. Their fathers had acted arrogantly. In their arrogance they had become stubborn and would not listen to His commandments. It was not that they could not listen, but they would not listen. An arrogant and stubborn heart will not listen to the commands of God. When the arrogant and stubborn heart hears the words of the commands of God, it wants to do what it wants to do. It does not want God to rule over it and to tell it what to do. It wants to obey self and follow what it thinks is good for self. That stubborn heart then turns a stubborn shoulder toward God and stiffens its neck. This is a heart that is following itself in pride and is not listening to God.

What happens when a stubborn, proud, and self-centered heart externally hears the Word of God commanding it to have no other gods in His presence (before Him)? It may not understand what it really means and so obey in an external way or it may simply ignore it. But that heart that begins to understand what the command means it because it is a command for the proud, self-centered heart to repent of its own I-dolatry and its own self-godness. That is exactly what pride and self-centeredness really are in the presence of the living God in all of its forms and actions. The heart that God is working on and in begins to see how awful its own self-centeredness is in the presence of God. That heart begins to see that all of its thoughts and desires have been proud and self-centered in the presence of the God who commands that there be no other gods in His presence. This heart begins to see that it is its own god and that all that it does is in violation of the First Commandment. The heart begins to be opened and enlightened and sees with horror that every time it has used the name of God in something less than a reverent way it has violated the command to use His name with reverence and awe (not use it in vain) which is also a violation of the First Commandment.

The heart then begins to see that when it obeys its own desires on the Sabbath day it is choosing self and pride over the clear commands of God and is violating the First Commandment. The heart begins to reflect back and understand all the times that it did not obey his or her parents and even more the times s/he did not honor his or her parents it violated the First Commandment too. Even worse, it begins to see each violation of the Fifth Commandment is also a violation of dishonoring “Our Father who is in heaven.” Each time the soul has stolen something, lied to another or to God, and has coveted that soul has lived for the I-dol of self and has had the god of self in His presence. This soul begins to feel the crushing weight of its sin and sees that it has violated the First Commandment with its thoughts, desires, bad deeds, and even its good deeds. This soul begins to see that even its religious actions were done out of self-love and in reality was exalting self in the presence of God. This soul begins to feel the depths of its depravity and helplessness before God. It loses all sense of the sufficiency and righteousness of self. It looks to Christ and to Christ alone. It now sees how arrogant it was in wandering from the commandments of God. Now it knows that it must be broken of its pride and arrogance in order to be a humble and lowly servant of the living God in which Christ dwells. It now knows the promise of the New Covenant in which God Himself promises to work obedience to His Law in the hearts of those He dwells in. But this heart must start by seeing the depths of pride and self-centeredness that it lives in so that it can see the arrogance of wandering from the commands of God. That is indeed to be cursed because it means that it does not have Christ.

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