Pride, Part 4

April 1, 2009

Proverbs 21:4, in the New American Standard, tells us that “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.” There has been some discussion about how to translate this verse. The King James Version translates it this way: “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” We can at least see a connection between how these verses are interpreted and simply go on from there. A lamp gives the idea of a person shining it and following its light in whatever s/he does. Proverbs 6:23 says this: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life.” The NAS would then tell us that haughty eyes and a proud heart make up what the wicked follow. All that the wicked person does is from what his or her haughty eyes and a proud heart guides the person to do. In that case the plowing of a person would be from the “light” of haughty eyes and a proud heart.

Since the proud heart follows the “wisdom” and desires of the proud heart, it is easy to see what the proud heart follows and does in all it does. All that the proud heart does is based on the proud heart. All that the proud heart thinks flows from that proud heart which is also guided by haughty eyes. But we know that “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD” (James 4:6). It is a sinking feeling when the heart sees its own pride and realizes that God is opposed to it in all it does. The proud soul seeks self and what it thinks of as good for self in all it does. But God stands opposed to that and so the soul lives in utter vanity in what it does. Perhaps the soul gains a lot of wealth, but all of that is not good because God opposes the soul in terms of what it is truly good.

The proud heart and the haughty eyes are what determine the path of the wicked rather than the Word of God. Instead of the Word of God being “a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105), the proud follow their own pride and face this: “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21). We can then see the battle that goes on with the proud and the arrogant. Their pride is at war with God and His Word. They follow the light of their own proud hearts and what their haughty eyes see and lust for rather than what the commands of God set out in His wisdom. The wicked do indeed plow the fields but it is in accordance to the dictates and desires of the proud heart. This is utterly wicked and we can see how doing even the most mundane things in life the wicked are opposed to God in all that they do.

The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, but the proud love themselves and do all out of love for themselves. The heart of the proud is all about self and in its self-exaltation and puffing up of self it is in direct violation of the Greatest Commandment. The affections of the heart are toward self rather than God. When the affections of the heart are toward self rather than God, it is clear that both the desires and delights of the heart are for self and not God. Whatever desires and delights the heart may have toward God are only toward God in light of some perceived benefit to self. In all that this heart does it follows the desires and delights of the proud heart that is focused on self. When this heart is religious, it is religious for self. When this heart does anything outwardly good, it does that out of its proud heart and does it for self rather than love for God. This proud heart that is religious desires to see itself as good and wants the applause of others for doing what it thinks is good. When a preacher has a proud heart, the preaching is done from pride rather than love for God or the people that the church consists of. When the elders are proud, even if they have a show of humility, all that they do is done from the light of a proud heart rather than the Word of God. All that the leaders and people in the church do if they are not truly humble is done from a proud heart and is wandering from the commandments of God. The very preaching, worship, prayer, and good works of professing churches are done from proud hearts and haughty eyes. This means that all of those things are done in violation of the commands of God.

This should give all a sense of the great need to humble self and seek the Lord for true humility. Pride in the heart means that all that is done in the outward keeping of the commands of God in reality is done in violation of the His commandments. How our souls must ask God to have mercy on us to show us if we are following our proud hearts which blind us to the real state of them. We must ask God to have mercy on us and give us true light that exposes the blinding nature of pride. Our pride does not want to see these things and actually hides the true state of our hearts by making us think our works have merit in them. We can be deceived by our own orthodoxy and faithful church attendance and activity. We can be deceived if we are nice and think we have real love. We can be deceived by our outward morality and our forced inward morality into thinking we have true holiness. Pride is such a vile beast it blinds us to all that is truly good and leads us in the path of what is truly evil.

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Pride, Part 3

March 29, 2009

We have seen from Proverbs 16:5 that everyone that is proud is an abomination to God. We have seen what God did to Belshazzar because He brings the proud down. Something in our hearts leads us to look at those in Scripture and think that they deserved it while we do not. But surely we are a proud people and are using the things of the Lord in praise of idols and of the big I-dol of self. The Lord tells us in Psalm 101:5 that “No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.” It is rather arrogant of us to think that He brings down all the proud and yet He will not treat us that way. It is our haughty looks at others who are in Scripture and perhaps others in the world that God will not endure. The prophet Jeremiah tells us in chapter 13 to “Listen and give heed, do not be haughty, For the LORD has spoken” (v. 15). When we do not give heed to the words of the Lord in Scripture, we are indeed haughty people. Who are we to ignore, not listen, turn our heads away, or even twist Scripture so that we can find an excuse not to obey the Lord? It is indeed arrogance and pride to do so.

Proverbs 16:18 tells us that “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Do we listen and take heed to that verse? Proverbs 18:12 tells us again that “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor.” Do we listen and take heed to that verse? Could it be that in the modern churches we have taken our definitions of pride and humility from the world rather than the Word of the living God? If our nation is indeed as full of pride and arrogance as I think it is, we are ripe for destruction. If the professing churches in our nation are as full of pride and arrogance as I think they are, they are ripe for destruction. In fact, the Lord may be deep in His process of turning both this nation and the professing churches over to their pride and to destruction. Sure that sounds very negative, but it is also much closer to what the Word of God describes than all those so-called positive thinkers that abound. Positive thinking is one thing, but it can never overthrow the Word of God. The Word of God tells us that “Pride goes before destruction” and that “before destruction the heart of man is haughty.” Those things mean something despite our active denials of them.

It has been said many times, accurately quoting Scripture, that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). God does oppose the proud. He does stand in battle alignment to fight the proud. But that verse does not just mean all those secular people out there, it means all that are proud. It means that if I am proud and that if you are proud God stands against us and will fight against us and bring us down. It is not just something that is true for people in history and for all the other people, but it is true for me and for you. The Word of God gives us the way it is and we must quit fighting it from our pride or we will be destroyed. We think we can go waltzing into a building for an hour or so on Sunday mornings and things will be okay with God. We think that if we sing a few songs that speak of God and of course according to our own musical taste God will accept that as worship. We think that if the preacher says a few nice things about God and I listen to some degree that I have put forth the effort. We think that if we read our Bibles and say our prayers God will be pleased. But all of those things can be and certainly appear to be done out of pride rather than a humble seeking of the Lord. The professing Church is in trouble when even its religious things and activities are nothing more than expressions of its pride.

How we must begin to search our hearts and ask God to open our eyes to this beast of pride that lurks in us and spoils all that we do. Without love nothing we do is acceptable to God and yet with pride all we do is poisoned by those things which are an abomination to God. God sent fire to consume Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire, so what will He do to a people that offer prayers and worship that are mixed with pride? It is not just that our nation has a lot of outward sin to repent of, but each and every person has a vast amount of abominable pride in the heart to repent of. It is not just that we have criminals that need to repent, but we have the professing Church that must repent of pride. How loathsome it must be to God to see the pride in hearts on Sunday mornings. What an abomination it must be to Him to see such pitiful prayers, songs, preaching, and other things that are done out of hearts of pride rather than humble hearts seeking His face. Psalm 138:6 tells us plainly that “though the LORD is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, But the haughty He knows from afar.” Why is the power and presence of God not with the professing Church? It is because He is far off. We are more interested in getting people into our buildings rather than seeking God to come down in power. That is nothing more than pride and arrogance on our part. How desperately we need to remember that grace only comes to the humble and that our pride may be hidden under a guise of religious humility. We must be broken before we can do anything spiritual because Jesus Christ will not dwell in a temple full of leprous pride that is rotting our souls. We must cry out to Him to deliver us from ourselves and our pride because our pride cannot deliver us from our pride. It will, however, deceive and damn us.

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Conversion, Part 8

March 27, 2009

In previous newsletters there has been a concentration on the need for man to be converted and on the awful bondage that human beings are in due to the pride and self-centeredness of the heart. In past centuries the nature of man in pride and self-centeredness was seen as the background for the nature of conversion. If the nature of sin is pride and self-centeredness, then for the soul to be truly converted it must be humbled from its pride and turned into a soul that is God-centered. Some quotes will be given below to show that this was indeed what was focused on in the teaching on conversion.

God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another-God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God; but plans out for himself (or at least hopes and longs for) a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation. But he who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation. So these truths are published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled and brought down to nothing, and so be saved. The rest of men resist this humiliation; indeed, they condemn the teaching of self-despair; they want a little something left that they can do for themselves. Secretly they continue proud, the enemies of the grace of God. (Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther, Revell Publications)

So also it is a habit or disposition natural to the souls of men to entertain an high thought of their own strength. And hence men are so prone to reject such doctrines as teach that men are naturally helpless, and dead in trespasses and sins, and can do nothing for themselves. And hence so many embrace the doctrines of free will-that any man can convert himself if he pleases without any more than common assistance-and slight and despise those schemes of salvation that teach the arbitrary and mighty influences of the Spirit of God in men’s hearts. Again, ’tis a disposition of soul natural to all men to have an high thought of their own righteousness. And hence, they are prone to reject those doctrines that teach man’s absolute dependence on the free and sovereign grace of God and salvation by the righteousness of Christ. (Knowing the Heart: Jonathan Edwards on True and False Conversion, International Outreach)

While they sought to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. Hence therefore the second work of humiliation is required, whereby God plucks away all his props, and emptieth him wholly of what he hath or seemeth to have. For pride (unto which humiliation is opposite) is but the rawkness of praise, and praise is a fruit of a cause by counsel, that hath power to do or not to do this or that, as he sees fit. Humiliation is the utter nothingness of the soul, that we have no power, it’s not in our choice to dispose of ourselves, nor yet to dispose of that which another gives, nor yet safe to repine at his dispose. In a word, as in a scion before it be engrafted into another stock, it must be cut off from the old, and pared, and then implanted. In contrition we are cut off; in humiliation pared, and so fit to be implanted into Christ by faith. (The Application of Redemption, Thomas Hooker, International Outreach).

You must let go of self; your own righteousness and all self-confidences must be parted with, you must be humbled and emptied of your selves, if you would be prepared for the receiving of Jesus Christ…Before you can love Christ, your heart must be taken off from sin. Get therefore a conviction of sin as the greatest evil in the world. Be persuaded what an evil thing and a bitter it is, to transgress God’s Law, and thereby to affront the highest Majesty, the great King of glory. (The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ, Thomas Vincent, Soli Deo Gloria)

It is true, Christ is applied to us next by faith, but faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin; no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins, unless he first see, be convicted of, and loaded with them. (The Sound Believer, Thomas Shepard, Soli Deo Gloria)

Men cannot exercise faith until the heart is prepared by a sense of danger and the insufficiency of other things. If they don’t see their danger, they can see no occasion that they have come to Christ. If they don’t see themselves liable to wrath, how can they come to Christ to save them from wrath? As long as they imagine that they can help themselves, they will not come to Christ for help. Men can’t trust in Christ alone until they are driven out of themselves. They cannot come as helpless and undone until they see themselves so. (Guide to Christ, Solomon Stoddard, Soli Deo Gloria)

The work of regeneration being of absolute necessity unto salvation, it greatly concerns ministers especially, in all ways possible, to promote the same; and in particular that they guide souls aright who are under a work of preparation. There are some who deny any necessity of the preparatory work of the Spirit of God in order to a closing with Christ. This is a very dark cloud, both as it is an evidence that men do not have the experience of that work in their own souls, and it is a sign that such men are utterly unskillful in guiding others who are under this work. If this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion. It would expose men to think of themselves as converted when they are not….Men must see the plague of their own hearts, their helplessness, and that they are like the clay in the hand of the potter before they come to Christ, and so will be afraid and searching themselves. But if they do not know any necessity of preparation [of the Spirit of God], they will take the first appearance of holiness for holiness; and, if they find religious affections in themselves, they will grow confident that God has wrought a good work in them.

It would, likewise, expose them to bolster up others in false confidence…But another who is a stranger to it will be ready to take all for gold that glitters and, if he sees men religiously disposed, will be speaking peace to them. He will be like the false prophets saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. So men will be hardened. It is a dismal thing to give men sleepy notions and make them sleep the sleep of death. (Guide to Christ, Solomon Stoddard, Soli Deo Gloria)

Solomon Stoddard went on to list several men that believed what he spoke of. But simply from a look at Habakkuk 2:4 we know that faith cannot abide with pride: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.” The proud one and the one with faith are contrasted with each other. It is easy to understand, though it is hard to apply it to ourselves, that pride cannot dwell with faith. Pride must be repented of in order for there to be faith in the soul. Pride is focused on self and the abilities of self. Pride may think it is trusting in Christ and will exercise what it thinks is faith, but a broken and humbled soul is the only soul that has true faith. We are commanded to believe in Christ, but with no further instruction we will think that faith or belief is something that we can do with no change of heart at all. We are told that we are sinners and need a Savior from that sin, but we are not told that pride is the very essence of sin and that we have not repented of sin until we have repented of our pride. We are also not told that we need a Savior from our pride and ourselves. So we pray a prayer or walk an aisle and think we are converted people. This is to do nothing but sleep the sleep of death.

Souls must be thoroughly humbled or they will be left in their pride. Only the humble receive grace because the proud cannot do so. The dark cloud that Solomon Stoddard spoke of is present in our day. This deadly wound to Christianity has been dealt and we are suffering the effects of it. When the first signs of gold are taken for gold and hearts are not searched, then churches are filled with unbelievers. Our evangelism, though saying the words of the Bible, is no longer biblical evangelism because the pride of human hearts is left intact rather than broken. A truly converted soul is one that has been deeply humbled and broken from its strength of self and trust in its own abilities. This is a soul that has experienced the truth that it can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:4-5). This is the soul that realizes that humility is not something that is put on or is a simple choice, but it is the emptiness of self that the Spirit of God has to do. Until the Spirit of God empties the soul of pride and self (though we will never be free from this perfectly until heaven), faith will not be in the soul because Christ will not dwell in a soul that is proud and self-centered (Isa 57:15). God only dwells in the contrite and lowly of spirit. A truly converted soul has been transformed from a proud person to a humbled one. This is the one that trusts in grace alone.

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Pride, Part 2

March 27, 2009

Last time we looked at the fact that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 16:5). It does not matter if the person is rich or poor; a proud person is an abomination to the LORD. It does not matter if the person is religious or not; a proud person is an abomination to the LORD. Whatever pride is, then, it is something that ruins and spoils all that a person does. We can see from the earliest book in the Bible that pride was hated then as well: “Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud, and make him low. 12 “Look on everyone who is proud, humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand” (Job 40:11-12). In verses 4-5 of the same chapter Job said this to God: “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.” God then challenged Job and part of that challenge was in verses 11-12 quoted above. God challenged Job to do what He as God does. In other words, God looks on everyone that is proud and makes him low. God is the one that humbles the proud and treads down the wicked. God was telling Job that He was God and what He did as God. Since Job could not humble all the proud, He was not God and should not try to question the Almighty.

One thing the text does, regardless of whatever else it does, is show us God’s attitude and ways toward the proud. This fits very well with the declaration of Proverbs 16:5 that “everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” That which is an abomination is detestable and is an object of loathing. Now this is not the God of popular thought today. The God that we hear is the God that loves all and is pleading with all to simply pray a prayer and become His child. But these verses tell us that the proud are detestable and even loathed by God and so He will bring the proud down and even tread on them. But how does God fight the proud and bring them down? One way Scripture tells us is that He turns them over to their sin. In Romans 1:28 we see that when people do not want God in their knowledge or minds He turns them over to a depraved mind. They are then “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed” and all sorts of evil things. They also become “slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil” (Rom 1:30) and many other things. Pride is a progressive evil and those that indulge it are given over to it and they become worse and worse. There is nothing a proud person will not do for self except to deny self and receive humiliation of the soul.

In Daniel 5:20 we see a way that God fights the proud: “But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.” This text records Daniel speaking to Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel told him that God had humbled Nebuchadnezzar greatly, but though Belshazzar knew this he had not humbled his heart (v. 22). These things are in the hands of a sovereign God and Belshazzar was killed that very night. God fights the proud by turning them over to their pride which will bring them down. At times He acts directly and the proud are killed. The pride of Belshazzar was such that he used the vessels of the Temple to drink and party with. In this, Daniel said, he had “exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven” (v. 23). While drinking wine from those vessels he praised the gods of various woods and metals and did not glorify the true God (v. 23). This is the true heart and result of all pride.

All pride is the lifting up of self in some way. Pride is the exaltation of self and the puffing up of self. Belshazzar gives us the real heart of pride in his example. Belshazzar used the things of the Lord to party with while he praised false gods. We can see how that is such an affront to the living God. He did not glorify God but lived for himself. Ah, but is that any different than the average church member? Do they really praise the true and living God or do they sing praises to the false gods of their imaginations? Are they really doing anything else but praising the false gods of their imaginations while they use the things of God (the Bible, preaching of sorts, singing songs with words about God, prayer in a manner of speaking) for their own purposes and pleasures? Does the average church member really do all to the glory of God or simply think of God as being at his or her beck and call? Does the average church member really pray or simply say words in order to get something from God? Does the average church member understand that s/he is an image of God and is to do all for God? That is also using something with God’s name and using for self. Pride, then, turns the use of holy things that should be set apart for God and uses them for the idol of self. It can and often does make attending church nothing better than what Belshazzar was doing when He was deposed and executed. Could it be true of us what God said to Amos? “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps” (Amos 5:21-23).

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Pride, Part 1

March 24, 2009

Pride is what is common to all men, though in the unregenerate person it is what controls them. Pride, though common to all men, is particularly deadly because it is unrecognized. Pride is such an insidious beast in the heart that it also hides itself from the eyes of those that the Spirit of God has not opened. Imagine having a disease that disguised itself as part of the disease. Pride is like leprosy of the soul that is foul and eats away at the soul polluting and ruining all it touches, and yet it is like a chameleon that hides itself as it fits in with what surrounds it. Pride will hide itself in the hearts of open sinners pointing to those that do worse things and then lying to the heart of the one that commits sinful acts by giving it justification in doing so. Pride will hide itself in the hearts of the rich and the famous by keeping its gaze on its fame and wealth. But pride will also hide in the hearts of the ordinary person that tries to live a good life and not get caught up in worldly things. Even worse, pride is found in the hearts of those that live very religious lives. This type of person will take pride in doing evangelism, preaching, good works, musical things, and in being strict in staying away from outward sin. Pride is so hideous that it will take pride in its supposed humility. The Bible repeatedly warns of pride because God opposes the proud.

However pride manifests itself, it is still pride. Proverbs 16:5 makes it plain how much God hates it when it tells us that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” The text tells us that “everyone” that is proud is an abomination to the LORD. It is not just the open sinner or those that hate truth that are an abomination, but it is everyone. The Pharisees were very religious and yet also very proud. Jesus spoke more harshly to them than anyone else. Their pride was such that their very religion and their idea of God were controlled by their pride. The same is true today. Much of Christianity seems to be directed and controlled by pride. Whenever a church or a person is controlled by a human-centered form of Christianity, pride is what is really in control. When a church or a person speaks a lot of God and yet that God is human-centered, pride is still in control. Pride asserts itself toward God in wanting God to be as man-centered as man is. Pride wants to be the center of all things and tries to use Christian teachings to control God and be the center of God as well.

Jeremiah 48:29 shows us the ugliness of pride and how it demonstrates itself: “We have heard of the pride of Moab– he is very proud– Of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation.” A proud person is just like Moab. This person is haughty and arrogant and as such does all for self-exaltation. This exaltation of self will fit very nicely in the form of modern Christianity as well. People want to preach in order to be in front of people and to gain honor. This can also fit very well with orthodox Christianity as well. A man can be very proud of his orthodoxy and of his doctrinal alliance with the historical creeds. Another person can love to be in front of people and so desire to lead the singing or do some sort of skit or musical special. Still another may want the honor of being a servant and so will do anything that s/he is asked. The language of the heart, though not of the mouth, will say that “I am a greater servant than you are.” Pride will find a way to exalt itself, at least in its own mind.

When leaders in the church are proud, the church is in the hands of fools. When pastors are proud, those pastor’s sermons and teachings will be utterly foolish even if they are orthodox. The very sermons and teachings themselves are an abomination to God. The sermons and teachings may line up with the creeds and all standards of orthodoxy, but the preparation and the delivery will all be for the pride of the speakers. All will be slanted in a way so that the honor will be to the speaker. All will be planned and all will be governed so that the speaker will be highly thought of. Even if God is spoken highly of, even then God is being used as a way to gain honor for the speaker. Pride is such a hideous beast that it ruins the most orthodox of sermons and teachings. Yet if I live in the grip of pride my life is in the hands of a fool too. If I live in a way where I long for the honor and applause of others, I am a fool too. A sermon or a life guided by pride and seeking honor for self is a sermon or life of a fool.

Pride is also such a beast that it will ruin the prayers and lives of all those that have it. Even the most pious and feeling of prayers are utterly spoiled by the poison of pride. The Pharisees prayed in order to be honored by men (Mat 6:1, 5) and the spirit of the Pharisee which is pride and self-exaltation is still alive. “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5). We must examine our hearts carefully and often lest we fall under the condemnation of that verse. The pride in the heart will blind us to our own pride and lie to us about being an abomination to the LORD. Pride will not show up if we take an X-Ray, it will only show up when we begin to seek the Lord in prayer and the Bible asking Him to show us our own hearts. If we will not do this, the leprosy of pride will grow in our own souls as we grow in being an abomination to God. How we need grace.

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Hating God, Part 35

March 22, 2009

The soul that is given over to the love of self, which is the self-centeredness and pride of the fleshly nature, is a soul that is at enmity with the living God who commands supreme love for Himself in all things. The soul will reject and be at enmity with His authority and His commands. The authority of God commands human beings to be holy as He is holy and to love Him with all of their beings. The unbroken and unregenerate heart is given over to self-love and hates the command to give up its own authority and to do things for God rather than for self. This self-focused soul may be orthodox in its theology and have the outer appearances of love and good works, but without the supreme love of God in all things that soul is doing all it does out of enmity toward God. The authority of God is rejected with open hostility by some, though in others they come up with different ideas about God. The natural human heart, though perhaps very religious, does not want the true God in its knowledge.

Down deep in our souls we know that self-centeredness, selfishness, and pride are hateful things. We do hate them when we see them in others, but instead of hating them out of love for God we hate them because of our own pride and self-centeredness. Those that are ruled by self-love will love those that love them (Luke 6:32), but those that are ruled by the love of God in them can love even their enemies. Since those that are ruled by self-love love those that love them, they love all things for self. As long as God is seen as benevolent toward them and doing what they see as good to them, they will love that idea of God. As long as others do what they want and in accordance with their self-love and interests, they will love them. But when self is crossed, the love of self blinds them to how hateful self-centeredness and pride is. Self-love will does its blinding work by interpreting all things in light of itself. The self-love and self-centeredness of others is hateful to me because it is against my self-love.

When we see the inner-workings of the soul in this light, the bright light of God’s holiness and love for Himself as triune can be seen. For God His self-love is His holiness and for Him to share His love for Himself and His holiness with others requires them to love Him as their holiness. But the unbelieving soul hates God’s self-centeredness and His love for Himself because self wants to rule rather than God. Isaiah 6:3 gives us a picture of the holiness of God: “And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” There is at least a connection between God being thrice holy and the whole earth being full of His glory. It is because God is holy that the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 42:8 tells us of God’s holiness: “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.” Isaiah 48:11 tells us even more of His holiness and glory: “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” His holiness is to be focused on Himself.

We can see, then, that a human being that does not live to the glory of God in intent and from love is living in direct opposition to God Himself. The enmity can be clearly seen in that the holiness of God is that He will do all out of love for Himself and His own glory and yet a sinful human being lives for self. John 5:44 puts it this way: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” The pride and self-love of man wants to receive glory from human beings and in this the self-love and pride of man is displayed in its enmity toward God. The Pharisees prayed in order to receive honor from others (Mat 6:1, 5). They did not pray for the glory and honor of God as Jesus instructed (Mat 6:6), but they prayed in order to be seen and honored by men. They gave alms and fasted in order to receive notice and honor from men (Mat 6:2, 16). This shows us that it is possible to preach and do all sorts of religious activities from love for self and the desire to gain the notice and honor of human beings. If we do those things in order to be noticed and honored by men, we are at enmity with the living God who does all things for His own glory.

The book of Revelation speaks of what men need to repent of: “Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory” (16:9). On the other hand, Psalm 115:1 shows us the heart of those that love God: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” The one that loves God prays not to receive glory, but that the glory would be God’s. When sinners seek honor for self they are at enmity with the God who does all for His own glory. Wherever a person is seen that desires to be seen by men and to seek honor for self, there is a person that is in open enmity with God. If the person is using religious things to seek self, that person is even more at enmity with God. Self-love and pride is not just to focus on self more than what is healthy, it is to be in open warfare in its enmity toward the living God. Hatred for God is very common.

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Hating God, Part 34

March 20, 2009

In the modern world self-love is considered a necessary thing to get by and even to be moral. The necessary consequence of supreme self-love, however, is enmity with God. The Greatest Command is to love God with all of our beings. If we do not have a supreme love to God, which only truly converted people have, then we are of necessity given over to the love of self as the supreme love and governing principle in the heart. If the command is to love God with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength, then any love for self or for our neighbor must flow from a love for Him. Any love for self that does not flow from a primary love for Him is idolatry and is clearly to be at enmity with Him. The supreme love of a human being is to be reserved for God and for Him alone.

Scripture tells us this in other words as well: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). Surely this verse requires a supreme love to God in all things and shows us how easy it is to fall into idolatry. It is so easy to love family and friends simply from a love for self and think that we have true love. When we think we have true love, we think that we have God and so use our idolatrous love of others to confirm us in our sin. In other words, it is very easy to use our enmity with God as a “biblical” reason to justify ourselves into thinking we have love. The Bible commands people to honor their fathers and mothers. However, one cannot truly love them apart from having the Spirit who works the fruit of love in the soul and one cannot truly love them apart from loving God with the whole being. Yet when a person has been raised in a family where the people are knit together in some way it is very easy to think that is true love. True love must always comes from God and will have God first.

The Scripture will show us the need to be stripped of self and the power of self to truly love. The Spirit will use that Word to hack and hew away at the love of self that all have. The reason this is true is because the love of self is to be at enmity with true love. The Spirit will not allow His people to have such unholiness to remain in the heart that God dwells in. Those that do not truly believe must be broken of this hideous sin of self and pride which is at the heart of the natural man. God demands supreme love for Himself which demands that we love all things for His sake rather than our own. God demands supreme love for Himself even in human relations and our regard for self. That supreme love, of course, is not in the power of the human being but must be worked in the hearts of humans by God Himself. This requires an act or declaration of war in all cases.

When self is supreme, it is the enemy of God. The “mind set on the flesh [self-love, pride, self-centeredness] is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:7-8). The Great Commandment is the Law that all other laws bow to. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God because it does not love God and so cannot keep even the slightest of His laws from the heart. The mind set on the flesh is a mind that does not have the love of God dwelling in it and so has no ability to keep His law and cannot please God in any way. That mind has no love of God in it and so is at enmity with the true God in all that it does. It is at enmity with God in all it does in religion and even in the ministry. This mind has nothing but enmity toward the true God because it has no true love for God. That mind that has no love for God in it may be very civil toward family and others, but without the true love of God in that soul all that it does is enmity toward God.

The love of human beings for self is the moral governor in the soul and is nothing but the height of idolatry in its enmity toward God and His Great Commandments. The person that is at enmity with God in all that s/he does may be the nicest of human beings as far as other people can tell. That person may be very sweet and servant-like on the outside, but without the love of God in that soul that person is at enmity with Him. That person that is so sweet may go to prayer meetings and plead with God for the physical well-being of others and perhaps even for the salvation of others, but without the love of God in that soul those prayers are at enmity with God too. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8). What we must get our hearts to see and then the hearts of others is that even our prayers and greatest acts we can think of are acts of enmity against God unless we have a true supreme love for Him in our hearts. Human beings idolize self and use the means of grace given by God as nothing but means of self. The idol of self cannot be touched without anger toward people. Why is there so much trouble in professing churches today? It is because there are so many idols of self either being challenged by the truth or they are simply colliding with each other. When our prayers and prayer meetings are acts of enmity against God, we are in great darkness.

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Conversion, Part 7

March 20, 2009

This will perhaps be an offensive article to some. However, there are many people in the world that need to be offended because the true Gospel is offensive. We live in a day where it is expected for all to speak and write in such a gracious way that no one will be offended. Jesus, Paul, and the prophets would not live down to such standards. That should show us that our ideas on these things are not biblical. Jesus spoke the following words: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS'” (Mat 7:21-23).

This text should chill us all to the depths of our souls. It should make us examine ourselves as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5. It should wake us up and teach us to be careful about those we assume are believers. Jesus not only said that “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom, but He went on to say that “Many will say to me on that day.” They had prophesied in His name, cast demons out in His name, and did many miracles in His name. Once again, Jesus the Lord of all said that “Many will say to me on that day.” Many who were very religious, then, will hear the words that bring utter despair to the soul: “Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” One can be sure that these people had some sort of experience that made them think that they were believers. We can be sure that these people had some kind of correct theology. Apparently many of these people preached in the name of the Lord (prophesy). Others were quite charismatic in that they cast out demons and performed many miracles. They not only did some miracles, but they did many miracles. We can see clearly from this text that many religious things, even miracles and casting out demons, are not sure signs of salvation.

What was it that these people did that was not consistent with salvation? They were lawbreakers that did not practice the law. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us this:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Whatever we say about the Gospel or about the law in our day, it must keep in mind these words of Jesus. The Matthew 7 passage (listed above) speaks of Jesus as looking ahead and speaking of the last day. He did not say these words and expect them not to be true at a different point, but they were true then, they are true now, and they will be true on judgment day. While there are many groups and theologies that attempt to do away with the Law in our day, we must keep in mind the words of Jesus. It does not matter how religious a person is, nor the amount of religious activities a person does, a person that is a lawbreaker and does not truly do the will of God will enter into everlasting and eternal torment. It does not matter if a person is a preacher or not, preachers that practice lawlessness will have to depart from Christ. We are warned not to annul even the least of His commandments.

In the last newsletter I gave a quote from Arthur Pink who wrote in the 1930’s. Here is part of it again:

“Alas, alas, God’s ‘way of salvation’ is almost entirely unknown today, the nature of Christ’s salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand. The ‘Gospel’ which is being proclaimed is, in nine cases of every ten, but a perversion of the Truth, and tens of thousands, assured that they are bound for Heaven, are now hastening to Hell, as fast as they can take them…all that is needed is to bring before a sinner a few verses of Scripture which describe his lost condition, one or two which contain the word ‘believer,’ and then a little persuasion for him to ‘accept Christ.’ And the awful thing is that so very, very few see anything wrong with this-blind to the fact that such a process proves it is only the devil’s drug to lull thousands into a false peace…But this we greatly fear unless God is pleased to grant a real revival, it will not be long ere ‘the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people’ (Isa. 60:2), for the light of the true gospel is rapidly disappearing. (Genuine Salvation, International Outreach, 1999).

Some might think Pink was an alarmist and certainly not to be listened to. But remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23. Then listen to His words in Mat 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” If we take this passage seriously, it will hit us like a ton of bricks. How many people are really even trying to enter heaven now? How many people will even try to be on a broad road? How few are those that even attempt to be on a road at all. So if just a few find the narrow gate and the narrow road that leads to life, how few are those in reality. We are living in a day where these words of Jesus are not taken very seriously at all. They seem to be dismissed rather easily and quickly.

There was a day when Pelagian teaching was universally said to be a broad road, but today it passes as just a difference of opinion. There was a day when people feared Arminian teaching as a broad road, but now we build bridges to it. There was a day when people feared dead Calvinism as a broad road, but now we think more teaching or more exciting music is what is needed. We have people wanting to change things because people are different now. When did it become the case that people are not born dead in sins and trespasses? When did it become the truth that people are not depraved sinners who do all out of self-love rather than love for God? When was it that God left the throne and left worship up to the whims of fallen and changing human beings? What we need is God Himself as He reveals Himself in Scripture. What we need is a recovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and true conversion so that the glory of God will shine with its beauty in the souls of those that have been truly converted.

It cannot be stressed any stronger than Jesus stressed it. Souls must be converted or they will perish in hell forever. A person may be charismatic and yet be utterly lost. A person may be Arminian and yet be utterly lost. A person may be a Calvinist and yet be utterly lost. A person may be a preacher for many years and yet be utterly lost. Jesus did not make any distinctions but simply and with power said that those that practice lawlessness are not converted people since they will be told to depart from Him. A converted person is one that loves and keeps the commands of God (John 14:21; I John 3:24). If a person does not love God and keep His commandments, that person is not a converted person. No matter what else a person is or what a person does, a person that does not keep the commandments of God out of love has not been converted from practicing lawlessness.

The quote from Arthur Pink (listed above) lists several practices of today that are in conflict with the teachings of Jesus (given above from Matthew). The Gospel presented so much today is a perversion of the truth and is at odds with the teachings of Jesus Himself. People are told, after they have been given a few verses on sin and on what faith is, to pray a prayer and no matter what they are saved forever. Jesus told us that no matter what a person did in religion that person would be lost if that person practiced lawlessness. Who are we to believe? We must believe what Jesus said. Could it be true that millions are being deluded with false gospels today? Could it be that we are in such darkness in our land that the true Gospel is very if not exceedingly rare? We must not forget the plain words of Jesus Christ as seen in the texts of Scripture above. A soul that practices lawlessness is a lost soul.

We must think soberly and prayerfully on Scripture. We take things as signs of salvation that Scripture denies are signs. We must begin to think of true salvation as souls that are converted by the living God from one type of creature to being a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is nothing that a prayer can effectually do. It is nothing that an act of the human will can carry out, but instead is only something that the power of the living God can do. It is God alone who can take one whose mind is “hostile toward God” and “does not subject itself to the law of God” (Rom 8:7) and make it a soul that loves God and keeps His commandments. There are many nice pastors and teachers in the modern day that masquerade as lovers of the Bible that hate the Law of God in reality. These are dangerous people in many ways, but one of those ways is that they do not understand conversion. God converts sinners to be like Him in loving His Law. No one can love God apart from loving the Greatest Commandment. No one can keep the Greatest Commandment apart from the Ten Commandments. No one is a converted soul unless that person loves the true God and desires to be like Him in true holiness. True salvation is to be a converted soul, not just one that is religious. Christ condemned sin in the flesh “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4). Christ came to fulfill the Law. One of the ways He does that is through truly converted souls. If He is not fulfilling His Law in a soul, then He is not the life of that soul. If Christ is not the life of a soul, that soul is not converted. Christ will tell every person that practices lawlessness to “depart from Me.” But souls that He has converted love His Law as He loves His Law.

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Hating God, Part 33

March 17, 2009

The Scripture tells us to “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor” (1 Cor 10:24) and that true love “does not seek its own” (1 Cor 13:5). In contrast to that, Paul had no one to send as a minister “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:21). The Word of God tells us not to seek our own and to seek the good of our neighbor (Phil 2:3-4). That is in line with the two Greatest Commandments. It is in light of the Greatest Commandments that we can see the great evil of seeking our own interests. When a minister seeks his own interests rather than the glory of God and the good of human beings, that minister prefers self to the glory of God and the good of the people of God. That is a wicked sin and shows that the minister loves self rather than God Himself. That is a clear violation of the Great Commandments and is the idolatry of self.

In comparing these texts of Scripture we can see the selfishness and self-centeredness of our own hearts. The reason that only believers have true love is because only believers are born of God and know God. The heart that does not know God is a heart that is full of self and pride. The hearts of those that know God are full of the love of God to differing degrees. Only believers have God Himself dwelling in their hearts and so have the love of God in their souls which is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). Those that do not have this love of God in their souls have nothing to move them but their love for self. All that they do, even the best of their religious actions, are things that come from the love of self. All that they do, therefore, are acts of hate toward God because they have no love of God in them but instead are full of self which is opposed to God.

Preachers are commanded to be like Paul who said this in II Corinthians 4:5: “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” On the other hand, we are told in Philippians 1:15 that some, “to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife.” We also see from John 10:12-13 that there are hirelings as well: “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.” This is what a man does that preaches error or truth for self. One can be as orthodox as a man can possibly be and yet do all for self. One can teach great things and yet the heart still be devoted to self. One can do all the work of the ministry and yet do it all for self. Paul tells us that if we “speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love,” we have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (I Cor 13:1). He goes on to tell us in verse 2 that if we “have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge…but do not have love,” we are nothing.

In the verses in the paragraph above we can see how those in the ministry can be at enmity with God. When the ministry is about self, whether it is about money or about status and honor, then it is self that is being served. We simply must see that this is to be at enmity with God. The ministry is not a place where we can assume that God is served at all times, but it is also a place where self can be put on display. When this is done, regardless of the person’s orthodoxy, it is hatred of God. Judas was a disciple of Christ in name, but he loved the money that was found in the moneybag. Judas was most likely one of those sent out by Christ to preach and to do miracles. But all that he did was for self and he was eventually found out to be a hypocrite.

It is a terrible shame when ministers serve self. It is nothing short of a cosmic crime when these ministers of self take the name of God on their lips and do it for self. Each and every time they read the Bible they are taking the name of God in vain as they are doing it for self. Each time they preach a sermon they are adding to their condemnation because they are preaching for self and as such they are at enmity with God who does all for His own glory. A minister that seeks the interests of self, even if he is a nice and gracious man, is one that is at enmity with God in all that he does. It is a terrible thing to be a minister if that minister does all he does for self. But it is also a terrible thing to profess the name of Christ and to serve self by using His name. This should awaken us to understand and see that we can be very religious and yet use that religious activity for the sake of self. All that we do for the sake and love of self is to be at enmity with God. When even our religious actions are considered by Christ to be lawlessness (Mat 7:21-23), we can know that our sin is truly far greater than we can know. As David says in Psalm 51:4: “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” All of our sins are acts of enmity against God, but our religious sins are especially heinous as seen by the fact that Jesus was the hardest on the Pharisees. Could it be that the modern version of Christianity is the most wicked thing in the eyes of God since it is a greater abuse of His truth? The Pharisees would not believe that either.

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Hating God, Part 32

March 15, 2009

While this teaching of Scripture is not taught often, it is still necessary. Paul tells us in Romans 7:7 that he “would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”” Neither do people know that they hate God unless people tell them. People will not believe this about themselves unless it is made clear. While it is clear that people are commanded to love God as the Greatest Commandment in Scripture, it is not so clear to the fallen mind and heart the greatness of the sin in not loving God with all of the being. The fallen mind and heart wants to think that its lack of loving God with all of its being is but a small thing. It wants to think that it is not all that bad and does some good things. The non-religious that do not absolutely deny that God exists think that they love God in not being as bad as others. The religious think that they love God to some degree and that the rest God will just close His eyes to them.

One thing that people do not understand is that their self-love is hatred of God. This is shocking to the fallen soul that does all for itself and then thinks that by doing good things it loves God. Let us look at some Scriptures and compare them with each other. From 1 Corinthians 13:5 we see that love “does not seek its own.” In direct contrast to that we see from II Timothy 3:2 that “men will be lovers of self.” Perhaps the depth of this issue is not obvious on the surface, but it is if we look into the shining character of God. The heart that has been regenerated has the very love of God in it. A true love is a love that comes from a heart that loves God supremely and that can only come from the God of love. A true love for God, then, comes from God and as such is a love that does not seek self as the center and focus of all things. Even in religious things to seek self is not to seek things out of love for God. Yet in the last days the Word tells us that men will be lovers of self. In other words, being given over to love for self is a great judgment because in those that love self supremely the love of God is absent. Where the love of God is absent is a heart that loves self supremely and so does all for self which is hatred of God.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24 that “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” On the other hand, Psalm 12:4 quotes people saying this: “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” We see the problem so clearly at this point. The denial of self is utterly necessary if we are going to follow Christ. Indeed many try to follow Christ by denying themselves certain things, but they have never truly denied self. When self is not denied, then all that the person does is to follow self. There is no taking up the cross in reality unless self has been denied. True enough some will do many religious things out of a love for the applause of others, but that is simply doing things out of a love for self. Instead people want to have their lips as their own which is to be lord of self. It is not just the lips of the self that people want to be lord over, but all of self. But surely it can be seen that the love of self always leads a person to follow self though it will pretend to follow Christ at times from a love for self. Following Christ out of love for self is hatred for God and not love for Him. It is an attempt to use Him to obtain something for self rather than to serve Him out of true love.

When we see hearts that are so out of line with the Word of God, we can know that there is hatred of God in those hearts whether it is admitted or not. The Word of God (Mat 6:24) tells us that “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” If we love and are devoted to self, then we hate God. If we love God, we will hate the pride of self in our own hearts and cry out to God to deliver us from that. Self-love is not just a little something that we do that is wrong; it is to be at enmity with God. To be a lover of self (II Tim 3:2) ends up two verses later (II Tim 3:4) as being “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” If we are religious out of a love for self rather than a love for God, then the whole of our religion is idolatry. We like to think of ourselves as nice people that do mostly good things and refrain from most bad things. But when we are in the service of self, all that we do is bad. Even our righteous acts are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). When we take Scripture seriously and see what we really do as contrasted with what Scripture really commands, we should be like Isaiah who saw that he had a filthy mouth and pronounced woes upon himself (Isaiah 6:1-5). If we think of ourselves as something other than vile wretches in utter need of grace, perhaps we have not seen the God that Isaiah saw. We must see the true God in order to see the true state of our own hearts.

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