The Seeking Church, Part 29

January 22, 2009

We have been going through things that are utterly necessary for the Church to seek God. We have been through prayer, things of the heart, unconverted people in the Church, and the necessity of the Gospel. One thing that permeates all of those things and all else is an exalted view of God. The Gospel is really the Gospel of God which is the Gospel of His glory shining in the face of Christ. There is no Gospel of Jesus Christ apart from the Gospel of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the glory of God that shines forth in Christ and is the glory of the grace of God. Whenever the Church steps away from a true focus on God and His glory it is a step away from the Gospel as well. The preaching of the Gospel cannot be done apart from an exalted view of God and how He shines His glory in Christ. So if a church is going to be turned back to God and the Gospel, it must be turned back to the God of all glory. If a church is going to preach the true Gospel, it has to be a Gospel of the glory of God or it is not the Gospel. We can be as nice as people can be and we can do all sorts of nice things for others, but if we are not preaching the Gospel of the glory of God in Christ we are not preaching the Gospel to people at all.

Mark 1:14 “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.”

Rom 1:1 “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.”

Rom 15:16 “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God.”

2 Corinthians 11:7 “because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?”

The Church can be caught up with many good things, but unless it returns to a thorough God-centeredness it will not return to God. The poor are to be fed, but not from a mere sense of duty and self-righteousness. We are also not necessarily feeding the poor if we just indiscriminately give food out to those who want it. But instead, as Matthew 5:16 teaches us, we are to “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We cannot simply return to a way of religion or even a stricter way of religion, but we must return to God Himself. “Our Father in heaven” is the only source of grace that there is. The Lord Jesus is the only path of grace that there is. The Holy Spirit is the only One that can apply grace itself to sinners. Human beings have no source of grace in themselves and do not know the path of grace apart from Christ. We also have no way of applying grace itself to ourselves. There is no wisdom, no salvation, and no sanctification apart from Christ who is the shining forth of the glory of God’s wisdom and salvation by grace to human beings.

The problem with Israel over and over again was that they left God. It was not that they always did what we would call wicked things, and it was not that they always left off their religious activity. But they left God and their hearts were turned to other things. Hosea 5:4: “Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the LORD.” Hosea 14:1: “Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.” The prophets would call to them to repent of their sins and return to God. The way of Christianity and the way of Jesus Christ is not learning some things about the Bible and then to have some form of moral reformation, but it is to know God through Jesus Christ. Salvation itself is being reconciled to God and to know God: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). The people who are going to be strong and grow are those who know God: “By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action” (Daniel 11:32).

What follows is a quote from A.W. Pink. It is this God that we must bow in utter awe and reverence before if we are going to see a true revival. It is not that we can work up this awe and reverence, but we must begin to pray for the desire and then to pray that the Lord would grant this desire. God only opens up the eyes and hearts of human beings to His glory by grace. He also only gives them Himself by grace. Let us pray for the grace to know Him and to “behold your God.”

“In the beginning, God” (Genesis 1:1). There was a time, if “time” is could be called, when God, in the unity of His nature (though subsisting equally in three Divine Persons), dwelt all alone. “In the beginning, God.” There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to hymn His praises; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but “from everlasting.” During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity. The creating of them when He did, added nothing to God essentially. He changes not (Malachi 3:6), therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished. God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own mere good pleasure; for He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

That He did create was simply for His manifestative glory. Do some of our readers imagine that we have gone beyond what Scripture warrants? Then our appeal shall be to the Law and the Testimony: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever: and blessed be Thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9:5). God is no gainer even from our worship. He was in no need of that external glory of His grace which arises from His redeemed, for He is glorious enough in Himself without that. What was it moved Him to predestinate His elect to the praise of the glory of His grace? It was, as Ephesians 1:5 tells us, according to the good pleasure of His will.

We are well aware that the high ground we are here treading is new and strange to almost all of our readers; for that reason it is well to move slowly. Let our appeal again be to the Scriptures. At the end of Romans 11, where the apostle brings to a close his long argument on salvation by pure and sovereign grace, he asks, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again?” (vv. 34, 35). The force of this is, it is impossible to bring the Almighty under obligations to the creature; God gains nothing from us. If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him? Or what receiveth He of thine hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man (Job 35:7,8), but it certainly cannot affect God, who is all-blessed in Himself. When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10)-our obedience has profited God nothing.

Nay, we go further: our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in His essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered. True, blessedly and gloriously true, He manifested the glory of God to us, but He added nought to God. He Himself expressly declares so, and there is no appeal from His words: “My goodness extendeth not to Thee” (Psalm 16:2). The whole of that Psalm is a Psalm of Christ. Christ’s goodness or righteousness reached unto His saints in the earth (Psalm 16:3), But God was high above and beyond it all, God only is the “Blessed One” (Mark 14:61, Gr.).

It is perfectly true that God is both honored and dishonored by men; not in His essential being, but in His official character. It is equally true that God has been “glorified” by creation, by providence, and by redemption. This we do not and dare not dispute for a moment. But all of this has to do with His manifestative glory and the recognition of it by us. Yet had God so pleased He might have continued alone for all eternity, without making known His glory unto creatures. Whether He should do so or not was determined solely by His own will. He was perfectly blessed in Himself before the first creature was called into being. And what are all the creatures of His hands unto Him even now? Let Scripture again make answer:

“Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?” (Isaiah 40:15-18). That is the God of Scripture; alas, He is still “the unknown God” (Acts 17:23) to the heedless multitudes. “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: that bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity” (Isaiah 40:22,23). How vastly different is the God of Scripture from the god of the average pulpit!

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Hating God, Part 8

January 19, 2009

In the previous BLOG I tried to set out that all sin is a form of idolatry and so all sin (of unbelievers) involves in some way a hatred of God. Deuteronomy 5:9 is the second commandment: “‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” This text appears to connect idolatry with hating God. Deuteronomy 5:21 then gives us the tenth commandment which is “you shall not covet.” In that verse it tells us that we are not to covet our neighbor’s wife (lust is adultery) and we are not to desire (covet in Exodus 20) our neighbor’s house, field, servants, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to our neighbor. The tenth commandment regulates the desires and cravings of the heart, but it also gets to what idolatry of the heart is too. Ephesians 5:5 tells us that coveting is idolatry and Colossians 3:5 says that greed is idolatry. Idolatry, we must remember, is to hate God and He is a jealous God who hates idolatry.

It is commonly accepted that the second commandment also regulates worship as well. It commands us to worship the true God rather than the idols that people set up and also the idols that people set up in their hearts. This will allow us to look at why God judged the nation of Israel the way He did and then why His judgment is on the United States now. He judged Israel over and over because of their idolatry. The Israelites would go to the idols of other people and offer sacrifices in ways that God did not command them throughout the Old Testament. This, then, would have been seen by God as acts of hatred. All of the idolatry of the Israelites was viewed by God as acts of hatred and so He must punish it.

In the New Testament times we see the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Lord Jesus Christ was harder on them than He was any other group. He was kind to prostitutes and to the tax collectors, yet He spoke in a way that almost seemed harsh to our tender ears today. How is it that He could speak so gently to the sinners and yet so “harshly” to the religious elite? I think it was because of the idolatrous hearts of hatred toward God that the Scribes and the Pharisees had. It is true that the more outward sinners were idolatrous and hated God, but they were not as idolatrous as the Scribes and the Pharisees. The outward sinners disobeyed the outward commands of God and the inward ones as well. The outward sinners were indeed those that were walking idols. However, the Scribes and the Pharisees used religion for their selfish purposes and they had erected many false idols by stamping down what the Bible taught about God. In other words, God hates false religion more than what we think of as gross, outward sin. When people take the true religion and bend it where the character of the true God has been changed in order to allow for religious activities and pride, that is far more hateful to Him than those with the gross, outward sin.

This should be a warning for all today. Liberals indeed try to water a lot about God down in order to have a god like themselves that is warm and cuddly. But conservatives try for a God that is like them in setting up standards of morality that can be kept outwardly. One of the big rages of the day is on all the methods of worship and how to please everybody in that. We must realize that worship is for God and not ourselves. In our pretending to worship God in the ways we like with the music we like we just might be worshipping ourselves rather than God. Our very worship may be acts of hatred against God and will bring His wrath. Our sermons can be acts of self-worship with a focus on the preacher or perhaps just be centered on human beings rather than God. Our evangelism might be done where we are more concerned to get the human being to pray a prayer than to tell them the truth of who God is. In that case our evangelism would be hatred of God and the human since we cannot love another human being apart from a love for God first.

Christianity is not about being nice, it is about the life of the true God in the soul which will come out in true love for God and then for human beings. Christianity has been hijacked by replacing the God-centered core with centeredness on human beings. True love only has one origin and one source and that is God. But we have replaced that with external niceness. It is more important to be polite than it is to love. It is more important to be nice and polite to people than it is to speak the truth about their sin and about the character of God. Professing Christians can adjust the truth to where it is no longer the true God that is being taught and worshipped, but instead it is nothing but idolatry. As the devil appears as an angel of light in order to deceive, so it is possible for a “Christian church” to wrap its self-centered teachings in enough truth to deceive. In that case the truth is being used to spawn hatred of God and the deceived people are walking idols. It is possible to hide a lot of error in the robes of Reformed theology and so people swallow the pills of idolatry to their own destruction. We must beware.

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Hating God, Part 7

January 17, 2009

The idea of some people hating God is not a popular one today, but it is necessary to understand what love for God is and why the new birth is necessary for a person to love God. The conversion of a soul is far more than a prayer or a trip up an aisle; it is God converting a person from one thing to another. It is the mind, heart, affections, the bias of the will, and all else being changed from one thing to another. It is to take a person that loves self and hates God and changing that person to one that loves God and hates self. This is the same thing as saying that it takes a person from the domain of darkness and being children of the devil to being in the kingdom of God and to be children of the living God.

Numbers 10:35 – “Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O LORD! and let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.”

Deuteronomy – 5:9 “‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”

Deuteronomy – 7:10 “but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.”

Deuteronomy – 32:41 “If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.”

Scripture is so clear on this subject. Why do people follow their own wills and have such hostility to God’s? It is because they have a love for self and an aversion to the truth of God and what holiness is. The commandment in Deuteronomy 5:9 is the second commandment which is a prohibition against idolatry. Evidently God sees idolatry as acts of hatred. If we follow the New Testament on what idolatry is, then we can trace this to Matthew 6:24 and see how devastating this is. According to Colossians 3:5 greed is idolatry. Ephesians 5:5 tells us that coveting is idolatry. Both of the previous verses point to something that is clear in the New Testament. Idolatry is a thing of the heart and is not just bowing down to a statue. We bow down to what we love the most. If what we love is not God then we hate God. Matthew 6:24, then, helps us to see what is really going on: “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. You cannot serve God and wealth.” A greedy person and a covetous person are devoted to something other than God and all that is done is for the fulfillment of self. Self is the idol that most bow down to.

If we follow this thought, we can begin to see how all sin is idolatrous. The sin of coveting, according to Scripture, is far more than coveting money. Deuteronomy 5:21 shows this clearly: “‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'” Coveting is the desire of the heart and from this verse alone we can see how coveting is at the root of the sins in the rest of the Ten Commandments. But if coveting is idolatrous (as Ephesians 5:5 shows), then all sin has idolatry at the root of it. Yet idolatry is hatred of God. This points to a few things that are utterly vital to understand to some degree.

1. All sin is to covet something rather than God and so all sin is idolatry.
2. The heart of sin is in the desires and loves of our hearts.
3. A person can think s/he loves God when in fact s/he loves a wrong idea of God & that is religious idolatry.
4. The unbeliever is a walking idol since s/he covets things more than God each moment.
5. The unbeliever as a walking idol is a person that lives in the hatred of the true God each moment.
6. The wrath of God is on unbelievers each moment as walking idols who hate Him.
7. The Gospel must be declared to people who hate God and are not neutral toward Him.
8. The Gospel is the Gospel of God and so the truth of God must be declared to those who will at the very least have an inner response of hatred and aversion to God.
9. That inner response demonstrates that those who hate God must have new hearts so that their hearts will respond with love and joy rather than hatred and aversion. They must change, not God or the Gospel.

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The Seeking Church, Part 28

January 15, 2009

This newsletter will primarily be another piece taken from Arthur Pink’s work on Saving Faith. Where there are truly weak churches, regardless of the size, many times there is a problem with what is understood as the Gospel. The solution for many churches, then, is to go back to Scripture in prayer for God to open the eyes of souls to the light of His glory that shines in the Gospel. It is possible and even easy to believe in words that the Bible uses but still not use those words as the Bible does. It is possible and easy to be orthodox in the external parts of the Gospel while the heart is far from the truth of the Gospel. The words of Pink below should help all who read them to be more serious about the Gospel and the background of the Gospel. The background of the Gospel is necessary to understand what the Gospel really is and to place it in its proper context. We live in a day where superficial Christianity has won the day. We must repent of this and have the Word driven to the depths of our hearts. May this article be used to provoke our thinking, our praying, and the whole of our evangelism.

It is generally recognized that spirituality is at a low ebb in Christendom and not a few perceive that sound doctrine is rapidly on the wane, yet many of the Lord’s people take comfort from supposing that the Gospel is still being widely preached and that large numbers are being saved thereby. Alas, their optimistic supposition is ill-founded and sandy grounded. If the “message” now being delivered in Mission Halls be examined, if the “tracts” which are scattered among the unchurched masses be scrutinized, if the “open-air” speakers be carefully listened to, if the “sermons” or “addresses” of a “Soul-winning campaign” be analyzed; in short, if modern “Evangelism” be weighed in the balances of Holy Writ, it will be found wanting-lacking that which is vital to a genuine conversion, lacking what is essential if sinners are to be shown their need of a Savior, lacking that which will produce the transfigured lives of new creatures in Christ Jesus.

It is in no captious spirit that we write, seeking to make men offenders for a word. It is not that we are looking for perfection, and complain because we cannot find it; nor that we criticize others because they are not doing things as we think they should be done. No; no, it is a matter far more serious than that. The “evangelism” of the day is not only superficial to the last degree, but it is radically defective. It is utterly lacking a foundation on which to base an appeal for sinners to come to Christ. There is not only a lamentable lack of proportion (the mercy of God being made far more prominent than His holiness, His love than His wrath), but there is a fatal omission of that which God has given for the purpose of imparting a knowledge of sin. There is not only a reprehensible introducing of “bright singing,” humorous witticisms and entertaining anecdotes, but there is a studied omission of the dark background upon which alone the Gospel can effectually shine forth.

But serious indeed as is the above indictment, it is only half of it-the negative side, that which is lacking. Worse still is that which is being retailed by the cheap-jack evangelists of the day. The positive content of their message is nothing but a throwing of dust in the eyes of the sinner. His soul is put to sleep by the Devil’s opiate, ministered in a most unsuspecting form. Those who really receive the “message” which is now being given out from most of the “orthodox” pulpits and platforms today, are being fatally deceived. It is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but unless God sovereignly intervenes by a miracle of grace, all who follow it will surely find that the ends thereof are the ways of death. Tens of thousands who confidently imagine they are bound for Heaven, will get a terrible disillusionment when they awake in Hell. What is the Gospel? Is it a message of glad tidings from Heaven to make God-defying rebels at ease in their wickedness? Is it given for the purpose of assuring the pleasure-crazy young people that, providing they only “believe” there is nothing for them to fear in the future? One would certainly think so from the way in which the Gospel is presented-or rather perverted-by most of the “evangelists,” and the more so when we look at the lives of their “converts.” Surely those with any degree of spiritual discernment must perceive that to assure such that God loves them and His Son died for them, and that a full pardon for all their sins (past, present, and future) can be obtained by simply “accepting Christ as their personal Savior,” is but a casting of pearls before swine.

The Gospel is not a thing apart. It is not something independent of the prior revelation of God’s Law. It is not an announcement that God has relaxed His justice or lowered the standard of His holiness. So far from that, when Scripturally expounded the Gospel presents the clearest demonstration and the climacteric proof of the inexorableness of God’s justice and of His infinite abhorrence of sin. But for Scripturally expounding the Gospel, beardless youths and business men who devote their spare time to “evangelistic effort” are quite unqualified. Alas that the pride of the flesh suffers so many incompetent ones to rush in where those much wiser fear to tread. It is this multiplying of novices that is largely responsible for the woeful situation now confronting us, and because the “churches” and “assemblies” are so largely filled with their “converts,” explains why they are so unspiritual and worldly. No, my reader, the Gospel is very, very far from making light of sin. The Gospel shows us how unsparingly God deals with sin. It reveals to us the terrible sword of His justice smiting His beloved Son in order that atonement might be made for the transgressions of His people. So far from the Gospel setting aside the Law, it exhibits the Savior enduring the curse of it. Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God’s hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish. And do you imagine that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to worldlings and telling them that they “may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their personal Savior” while they are wedded to their idols and their hearts still in love with sin? If I do so, I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel, insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.

No doubt some readers are ready to object to our “harsh” and “sarcastic” statements above by asking, when the question was put “What must I do to be saved?” did not an inspired apostle expressly say “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?” Can we err, then, if we tell sinners the same thing today? Have we not Divine warrant for so doing? True, those words are found in Holy Writ, and because they are, many superficial and untrained people conclude they are justified in repeating them to all and sundry. But let it be pointed out that Acts 16:31 was not addressed to a promiscuous multitude, but to a particular individual, which at once intimates that it is not a message to be indiscriminately sounded forth, but rather a special word, to those whose characters correspond to the one to whom it was first spoken. Verses of Scripture must not be wrenched from their setting, but weighed, interpreted, and applied in accord with their context; and that calls for prayerful consideration, careful meditation, and prolonged study; and it is failure at this point which accounts for these shoddy and worthless “messages” of this rush-ahead age.

Look at the context of Acts 16:3 1, and what do we find? What was the occasion, and to whom was it that the apostle and his companions said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?” A sevenfold answer is there furnished, which supplies a striking and complete delineation of the character of those to whom we are warranted in giving this truly evangelistic word. As we briefly name these seven details, let the reader carefully ponder them. First, the man to whom those words were spoken had just witnessed the miracle-working power of God. “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed” (Acts 16:26). Second, in consequence thereof the man was deeply stirred, even to the point of self-despair: “He drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled” (v. 27). Third, he felt the need of illumination: “Then he called for a light” (v. 29). Fourth, his self-complacency was utterly shattered, for he “came trembling” (v. 29). Fifth, he took his proper place (before God)-in the dust, for he “fell down before Paul and Silas” (v. 29). Sixth, he showed respect and consideration for God’s servants, for he “brought them out” (v. 30). Seventh, then, with a deep concern for his soul, he asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

Here, then, is something definite for our guidance-if we are willing to be guided. It was no giddy, careless, unconcerned person, who was exhorted to “simply” believe; but instead, one who gave clear evidence that a mighty work of God had already been wrought within him. He was an awakened soul (v. 27). In his case there was no need to press upon him his lost condition, for obviously he felt it; nor were the apostles required to urge upon him the duty of repentance, for his entire demeanor betokened his contrition. But to apply the words spoken to him unto those who are totally blind to their depraved state and completely dead toward God, would be more foolish than placing a bottle of smelling-salts to the nose of one who had just been dragged unconscious out of the water. Let the critic of this article read carefully through the Acts and see if he can find a single instance of the apostles addressing a promiscuous audience or a company of idolatrous heathen and “simply” telling them to believe in Christ.

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Hating God, Part 6

January 14, 2009

If what this series of BLOGS is saying is correct, then it shows the true nature of false theology and doctrine. The reason that people have false theology and doctrine is not because they are intellectually inferior, but because they hate God. The reason that people love false theology is because they hate God and don’t want the knowledge of Him in their hearts. The reason that people like to hang around others with false theology is because they also have developed idols in their hearts out of hatred to the true God. False theology is simply a display of religious hatred toward God. God created human beings in His own image and then humanity fell. As fallen beings humans now try to create God in their own fallen image rather than seek to be restored to His. Those are acts of extreme hatred.

Psalm 50:21 points to the same thought: “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.” In our day we put God on trial because He is not like we are. We hate suffering and so deny that God can be good and all-powerful while there is suffering. We think love will forgive all wrongs and so we think God cannot be perfectly loving and send people to hell. We think that love is simply being nice and so we can only think of God as being nice. What we have done when we do that, however, is demonstrate our hatred of the true God and to make Him into our own image. While we are more comfortable with that idea of god, it is a lie and shows our hatred of the true God. God alone is the one who can define God. He who is true love can alone be the standard and definition of true love. God must reveal Himself to us in truth or the hatred of man combined with a self-deceptive heart will never arrive at the truth of God at all. Instead of studying and praying to know God in truth, we will study and pray to know God as we want Him to be. This is indeed religious, but it is a religious hatred of God.

Why is the Gospel of God and of Jesus Christ so hated by sinners when it is set out in truth? It is because human beings hate God and love themselves as their own gods. Why does it offend the sinful heart to think of Jesus Christ as going to the cross to die in the place of sinners? One reason is that the proud hearts of sinners hate the shining forth of true holiness and love. Another reason is that proud hearts cling to self-righteousness. Sinners do not want to love as Christ loved. Sinners want to be self-sufficient and do things themselves. Sinners want to be righteous in their own eyes. The Gospel, however, is the shining forth of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (II Cor 4:6). If we take the Gospel and change it to be centered upon human beings rather than God, we show that we love human beings more than God Himself. That in itself is hatred toward God.

Pelagianism is the teaching of self-effort and self-sufficiency in human beings. It is directly opposed to the teaching of salvation as found in Augustine. Since the fourth century these two teachings have stood as polar opposites in the theological realm. The Pelagian teaching is that man is not born dead in sin and can be good because God has commanded man to be good. The teachings of Augustine focus on how man is dead in sin and needs God to restore His image in man by grace and grace alone. Both claimed to take their teachings from the Bible. Other teachings came (semi-Pelagianism, Arminianism) along and tried to find a middle ground. In a rather simplistic way of putting it, semi-Pelagianism (at best) was found in the Roman Catholic teaching at the time of the Reformation. The Reformers found the Gospel in Augustinianism. The battle was renewed in many ways. In the modern day people are trying to put aside these distinctions and come together in a show of unity.

The teaching of the Bible is that there is only one Gospel (John 14:6; Galatians 1:6-10). It is by the message of the Gospel that God shines the true glory of Himself in and through hearts and restores them to His image. Pelagianism is not just wrong teaching, it is an act of hatred toward God. It is human beings casting God out of their knowledge and being filled with humanism and idolatrous thoughts of God. Wrong theology is not just an intellectual glitch here and there; it consists of wrong ideas of God. The word “theology” simply means the study of God. If we are wrong in our study of God, then we are wrong about who God is. The study of theology must not be diminished, but instead it must be magnified. When we study theology we can be hating God and trying to banish the true God from our knowledge rather than study to know and love Him. The Gospel does not just forgive human beings their sins so that they can escape hell; it restores human beings to the image of God and gives them a love for Him. Ephesians 4:24 shows us this: “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” We must be made like God if we are going to know Him and love Him in truth. If we are not made like Him in truth, then we are rejecting the truth about Him and pursuing what He hates and what is hatred of Him. Our religion itself can be hatred of the true God hidden in pseudo-love.

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Hating God, Part 5

January 12, 2009

Romans 1:18-32 shows very clearly that all unbelievers hate God. The text does not use the word hate, but if we are looking at what it means to hate God Romans 1:18-32 gives us what that means in a very practical way. We tend to think of hatred as being anger and detesting of another with the desire to do them harm. We might think of it as only hot feelings set against another. But Scripture drives us to other ways of looking at hatred. As we have looked at in other BLOGS, hatred would include the inward displeasure with the character of another. That means that to hate another takes on a far broader meaning. Romans 1:18-20 tells us that God is obvious to all people because God makes Himself evident to them. He makes Himself evident to them by making Himself known within them and then through nature. As a result of these things all human beings are without excuse.

Yet, verse 21 tells us that even though all people know God, these people do not honor Him as God or give thanks. Instead of honoring Him, they become futile in their speculations and their heart is darkened. The foolish heart that is darkened is proud and thinks of itself wise when in fact that heart has become foolish. What that dark and foolish heart does is to exchange the glory of God for forms of humans and animals. What is this but a trading the knowledge and worship of God for the worship of false gods in the form of humans and animals? That is an act of hatred toward God. The response of God is to turn them over to the lusts of their hearts. The sin that they fall into is their punishment. The hatred that they have of God leads them to suppress the truth of Him even more and so they are turned over to more and more darkness. Their hatred of God becomes a greater hatred. In doing this what we see is that the dark and foolish heart of human beings exchanges the truth of God for a lie. The creature is then worshipped. This is a practical hatred of God.

In human terms if a person takes the known character of a second person and then intentionally turns from the known character to say terrible things of the second person, we would call that hatred. That is what unbelievers do to God. This would, of course, include many in the religious world as well. The text does not exclude religious people, but in fact mentions idolatry (in practice) several times. What we have, then, is a description of the heart that hates God. This is a heart that lives as it lives by exchanging the truth of who God is so that it can go on in its sin. This leads to more sin which is in itself hatred of God. Unbelievers do not just live for themselves, which they wholeheartedly do, but in living for self they are also being the image of the devil in the world. Their life of sin is an act of enmity toward God and the seed of the woman. Sin itself is hatred toward God in that it is an act which shows a person detests the character of God in His holiness and loves the opposite of holiness which is sin. The more one is given over to sin the more one is given over to hatred of God.

Verse 28 shows the same point as well. This knowledge of God that God has made evident to people within them and to them (v. 19) they do not want to retain. This refusal to acknowledge God is really a refusal to retain the knowledge of Him that He has placed within the human soul. This is an active displeasure toward the knowledge of God and is a desire for Him to cease from existence. The reason that this knowledge of God is pushed out with a refusal to recognize it is because sinners hate Him and do not want to recognize Him and His rights over them. When this knowledge is pushed out, suppressed, or cast away with detestation, this is an act of hatred toward God and is as opposite of the Great Commandment to love Him with all of the being that there can be. We are to pursue the knowledge of God and we are to love Him. But instead of pursuing more knowledge of God, unbelievers try to push out the knowledge of God that is there already. Instead of loving the God that they know, unbelievers hate that God and try to get Him out of their knowledge.

Day in and day out the unbeliever has a ferocious hatred of God as s/he will not acknowledge God and will not love Him. Day in and day out the unbeliever hates God and will not retain Him in knowledge but instead pursues sin which in itself is an act of hatred of God. When Jesus walked on earth He was hated because He was God in human flesh. The glory that unbelievers exchange for a lie and suppresses with all their energy was now walking and teaching among them. They hated Him so much that they killed Him. Scripture also promises believers now that if we wish to live godly in Christ Jesus we will also be persecuted (II Timothy 3:12). Why is that? True godliness is to be centered upon God. A true likeness of Christ is for us to shine forth Christ. People will hate that because they hate God. Imagine, then, what many do who try to make God a likeable character to people in evangelism. They have also hated God and so have changed Him to make Him acceptable to others and themselves. This is truly a great wickedness and is an act of hatred for God and for the Gospel of God.

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Hating God, Part 4

January 10, 2009

It offends and puzzles many people when someone makes the claim that each and every unbeliever hates God. If we think of hate as this burning dislike and desire to do harm, many people do not think that they have that toward God. This hatred can come in different ways and be hidden from us and others as well. Hatred for God can be hidden in ways of religion and of Christianity as well. It is hidden in humanism and it is hidden in forms of what some would term as God-centeredness. It is hidden, though not very well, in Pelagian forms of theology. It can also be hidden in Arminian and Reformed versions of theology. Is there a branch of theology that it cannot be hidden in? There is not. The human heart is born dead in sin and is at enmity with God. The human heart has God in its knowledge but it does not want Him there. So the depraved heart that is steeped in self-love and deceitfulness casts God out of its knowledge even in holding to versions of theology. The human heart can hate God and still hold the truth of God in its creed and yet use that truth to deceive itself about the hatred of its heart for God. When Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “the heart is more deceitful than all else,” we should listen and cry out to God about our own.

When we hate another we hate something about that person that is very disagreeable to us. Cain is the example for this: “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous” (I John 3:11-12). Cain hated Abel because Abel’s actions and sacrifices were righteous and Cain’s were not (see also Genesis 4). Regardless of what God thought about Abel’s actions, they were disagreeable to Cain and so he hated and killed Abel. Abel pleased God and Cain did not. Behind that is that Abel did what was commanded of God and so his sacrifices were pleasing to God. Cain did not do what was commanded and so his offerings were not acceptable. He could not change or harm God so he killed Abel. His real hatred, however, was at God. Abel’s offerings pointed to the truth about God and how God alone could set out how to please Him and how He was to be approached. Cain wanted to do what was right in his own eyes and do things the way he wanted. Genesis 9:6 tells us the real problem with murder: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” The real crime with murder is that it is an attack on God. Cain hated God and so struck at the image of God who was his brother Abel. Cain hated God.

What this passage teaches us is that hatred for God can come out in several ways. Cain was born in the image of his father Adam who was a fallen man at this point. Notice that contrast between Genesis 5:1 and 5:3: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.” In verse one God created man in the likeness of God. After the fall, Adam became a father of a son in his own likeness and according to his own image. Cain was born dead in sin with enmity toward God. Part of the curse that was placed on Satan in Genesis 3:15 is that there would be enmity between the seeds. Cain hated Abel because there was enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. Cain did acts of worship and offered sacrifices to God, but his hatred was hidden even by his “worship.”

Throughout the history of Israel the external worship was kept up and yet the people committed acts of enmity against God by following other gods and worshipping idols. They kept a pretense up toward God but in truth they hated Him. The same thing is true today. There is much pretense of worship going on in buildings that have the name “Christian” on them, but the external acts of worship are only hiding the true hatred of God that is in the hearts of people. Professing atheists and open sinners only maintain their acts of sin by not retaining the knowledge of God (Romans 1:21, 28). When they push this knowledge of God that they have out, they are then filled with all sorts of sin (v. 29). But the same thing is true of those who claim to be Christians. By their religion they are trying for a good conscience so they can sleep and not be utterly miserable, but their very religion can only be arrived at by casting out the knowledge of God and then being filled with wickedness. When someone comes along and points to the truth of who God is, the hidden hatred in the heart will come out. The true God is very disagreeable to people as He is opposite to who they are and what they desire. A person that points out the truth of who God is to people will be the instrument of arousing the hatred of people and the hatred of God that they have will come out toward the messenger. Yet until people see their hatred for God, they will not see the wickedness and vileness of their own hearts. Instead they will continue on in their hatred of God while covering it over with religion. A true preacher of God will never please anyone other than those who truly love God.

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Hating God, Part 3

January 8, 2009

In trying to understand what it means to love God and then to hate Him, we cannot use the standard ways of understanding love to do so. Many interpret Romans 9:13, where it says “Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED,” as simply meaning that God loved Esau less than He did Jacob. In other places where the Bible uses the word “hate” it is interpreted as “love less” as well. However, when Scripture speaks of some men loving God and others as hating Him, it is self-evident that the word “hate” is not used to mean “love less” in those instances. All human beings do not love God and are not distinguished by their degree of love for God. Love and hate are opposites. We are commanded to love God with all of our being and yet unbelievers are said to hate God. Exodus 20:5 says this clearly: “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” But human beings have a very high view of themselves and along with their deceived hearts and ignorance of God they will not admit to hating God. They even convince themselves that they love Him. It is vital, therefore, to get it across in some way to people what it means to hate God. After all, Romans 5:10 teaches us that Christ died for His enemies and only enemies need to be reconciled: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 8:7 gives us another clue in our search: “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” The mind that is the fleshly mind and is focused on the flesh, even if it is very religious, is hostility toward God. Romans 1:30 gives us a list of sins that God has turned people over to: “slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents.” The “haters of God” part of the list is followed by insolent, arrogant, and the boastful. Surely, then, whatever it means to hate God it is linked with pride. Combined with the mind set on the flesh as hostility toward God we can at least see that self-centeredness and pride are components of hating God.

It is also important to note that the object of hatred is the true character of the true God and not some of the false things that people set out about Him. In some way all people could have something they would call love toward God if we watered down the character of God enough and set out enough things about Him that would please the carnal and selfish heart. But the assertion of Scripture is that all sinners that have not been born from above or born again and reconciled to God do hate Him and the truth about Him. So if we are going to try to understand what it means to hate God, we have to note that it is the true character of God that people hate. The god that is declared and talked about in our day bears little resemblance to the God of Scripture. It is no wonder that people go around thinking that they love God when in fact they hate Him. People will love other people and God as long as they think other people and God love them. We love those who love us (Luke 6:32). That is one reason why modern evangelism is clearly bankrupt when it starts with “God loves you.” Sinners love themselves and all who love them. They can believe without any grace at all that God loves them and therefore that they love Him.

There are causes and reasons why we love and hate things or people. If I take a bite of food and declare that I hate it, I am saying that it is disagreeable to my taste buds and that the food displeasing to eat. If I take a bite of food and declare that I love it, I am saying that my taste buds are delighted and I have pleasure in eating that food. When an unbeliever says that s/he hates another person, that person is saying that s/he is repulsed by the mannerisms or character of that person. We can hate something about another person or we can hate the person. That usually means that we hate how that person acts toward us or we hate the person because they have offended us and so we hate what they do because the other does things that do not conform to my self-love. In one sense at times we think of hating another as being repulsed by the other. It might even boil down in many cases to hating the character of the person and what they stand for.

For the moment we can think of hatred for God as being repulsed by His true character. This is why we must declare the truth of who God is. Until people are repulsed to some degree by the true character of God they will not see their sinful nature and hearts. They will not know what it means to have a change of heart and what it means to be born from above. Until people see that their spiritual taste buds (as dead in sin) are set against God and true love they will not know what sin really is and then what true love really is. The fact remains that all unbelievers hate God and are repulsed by His true character. Instead of changing the character of God to make Him pleasing to sinners, the truth of God must be preached so that sinners can be changed to make them pleasing to Him.

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The Seeking Church, Part 27

January 6, 2009

In this newsletter we will take a look at a few things A.W. Pink said on the subject of truth and the church. We face a great battle as indeed all people of all time periods have. We have deceitful hearts that are more deceitful than all things (Jer 17:9). There is also the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13) and the devil is the deceiver as well. The human heart is depraved and is in the slavery of love to its lusts and pleasures. We have been looking at how the spirit and deeds of the Pharisees are alive and active in the modern professing Church. Pink has some powerful things to say on this subject and we will do well to read them with great care and solemnity. What his writings do at this point is show us the great danger we are in of being like the Pharisees in principle while standing against them in our own minds. Satan, as the great imitator, has indeed transformed himself into an angel of light. He has replaced many of the core teachings in the churches with his own teachings. He has replaced true love with niceness, politeness, and a refusal to say anything that would make another uncomfortable. He has replaced true grace with that which we think only helps us to do what we cannot do by ourselves. He has replaced true humility and brokenness of heart with simply thinking that we may not know everything or be right about anything. He has done this by shifting our definitions and hearts from being centered on God to being centered on man. This has been brought into the churches by psychology and man’s wisdom.

What we must also learn is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been replaced as well. When sin is denigrated to be that which harms man rather than that which is against God, the Gospel becomes something totally different. Sermons will no longer be on the horrid nature of sin and on the greatness of the new birth, but instead they will be on moral behavior and on religious excitement. Where doctrine is taught it will be to the intellect alone and leave the heart untouched. Regeneration and the new birth will be replaced by a walk up the aisle, a prayer, or perhaps an intellectual agreement to a doctrine. Perhaps we have the information of these things in our heads, but we must have the Spirit open our eyes and drive these deeply into the depths of our hearts so that we will be awakened from our slumbers. If the professing Church is going to see reformation and revival in our day, it must be awakened to its great danger. The gospel that is going about in our day, if we follow the thought of Pink, is much like what he called the “Gospel of Satan.” We must see this and cry to the Lord for His mercy. Perhaps He will grant us repentance and perhaps He will send revival. But we must have our hearts broken over these things.

Satan is not initiator but an imitator. God has an only begotten Son-the Lord Jesus, so has Satan-“the son of Perdition” (Thessalonians 2:3). There is a Holy Trinity, and there is likewise a Trinity of Evil (Revelation 20:10). Do we read of the “children of God,” so also we read of “the children of the wicked one” (Matthew 13:38). Does God work in the former both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we are told that Satan is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Is there a “mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16), so also is there a “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Are we told that God by His angels “seals” His servants in their foreheads (Revelation 7:3), so also we learn that Satan by his agents sets a mark in the foreheads of his devotees (Revelation 13:16). Are we told that “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10), then Satan also provides his “deep things” (Revelation 2:24). Did Christ perform miracles, so also can Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Is Christ seated upon a throne, so is Satan (Revelation 2:13). Has Christ a Church, then Satan has his “synagogue” (Revelation 2:9). Is Christ the Light of the world, then so is Satan himself “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Did Christ appoint “apostles,” then Satan has his apostles, too (2 Corinthians 11:13). And this leads us to consider: “The Gospel of Satan.” Satan is the arch-counterfeiter. The Devil is now busy at work in the same field in which the Lord sowed the good seed. He is seeking to prevent the growth of the wheat by another plant, the tares, which closely resemble the wheat in appearance. In a word, by a process of imitation he is aiming to neutralize the Work of Christ. Therefore, as Christ has a Gospel, Satan has a gospel too; the latter being a clever counterfeit of the former. So closely does the gospel of Satan resemble that which it parodies, multitudes of the unsaved are deceived by it. It is to this gospel of Satan the apostle refers when he says to the Galatians “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).

This false gospel was being heralded even in the days of the apostle, and a most awful curse was called down upon those who preached it. The apostle continues, “But though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” By the help of God we shall now endeavor to expound, or rather, expose this false gospel. The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great “brotherhood.” It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to “the best that is within – It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all. It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again.

In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works. It inculcates justification before God on the ground of human merits. Its sacramental phrase is “Be good and do good”; but it fails to recognize that in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing. It announces salvation by character, which reverses the order of God’s Word-character by, as the fruit of, salvation. Its various ramifications and organizations are manifold. Temperance, Reform Movements, “Christian Socialist Leagues,” Ethical Culture Societies, “Peace Congresses” are all employed (perhaps unconsciously) in proclaiming this gospel of Satan-salvation by works. The pledge card is substituted for Christ; social purity for individual regeneration, and politics and philosophy, for doctrine and godliness. The cultivation of the old man is considered more practical than the creation of a new man in Christ Jesus; whilst universal peace is looked for apart from the interposition and return of the Prince of Peace.

The apostles of Satan are not saloon-keepers and white-slave traffickers, but are for the most part ordained ministers. Thousands of those who occupy our modern pulpits are no longer engaged in presenting the fundamentals of the Christian Faith, but have turned aside from the Truth and have given heed unto fables. Instead of magnifying the enormity of sin and setting forth its eternal consequences, they minimize it by declaring that sin is merely ignorance or the absence of good. Instead of warning their hearers to “flee from the wrath to come” they make God a liar by declaring that He is too loving and merciful to send any of His own creatures to eternal torment. Instead of declaring that “without shedding of blood is no remission,” they merely hold up Christ as the great Exemplar and exhort their hearers to “follow in His steps.”

In addition to the fact that today hundreds of churches are without a leader who faithfully declares the whole counsel of God and presents His way of salvation, we also have to face the additional fact that the majority of people in these churches are very unlikely to learn the Truth themselves. The family altar, where a portion of God’s Word was wont to be read daily is now, even in the homes of nominal Christians, largely a thing of the past. The Bible is not expounded in the pulpit and it is not read in the pew. The demands of this rushing age are so numerous, that multitudes have little time and still less inclination to make preparation for the meeting with God. Hence the majority who are too indolent to search for themselves, are left at the mercy of those whom they pay to search for them; many of whom betray their trust by studying and expounding economic and social problems rather than the Oracles of God. (Another Gospel by Arthur Pink)

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Hating God, Part 2

January 5, 2009

In the last BLOG the effort was to show that human beings are distinguished into two and only two sorts of people. There are only those that hate God and then those that love God. The Pharisees and James 4:1-4 were used to show that even very religious people hate God in truth. Though the hatred of God may not be at the level of conscious thought, it will come out when it is presented with the character of the true and living God. The very hearts of human beings are governed by a hatred of the true God or a love for the true God. As long as religious people teach others and themselves things about God that is acceptable to their heart that is governed by self-love, the hatred will not come out. So many are willing to love a God that will feed them and love them as they stumble along in life, but once they see that this God demands that they repent of their sins and look to Him alone, the hatred they have for Him will come out.

The commands of God as given in Exodus 20:5-6 point to this as well: “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” In this text we only see one division and two kinds of human beings. It is not a division between those that have some form of belief in God and those who disbelieve. It is not the division between those who have religious rituals and those who do not. It is not the division between those that attend church or belong to church and those who do not. The only kinds of human beings that this text mentions are those that love God and those that hate Him. We see that the iniquity is visited on those that hate Him and yet lovingkindness to those that love Him and keep His commandments. We should not miss the connection between sin and the hatred of God and yet love and keeping His commandments. The Gospel of John and I John set out for us as well that true love for God is to keep His commandments. At the very least this shows us that an external obedience is not true obedience at all. We must have love for God in order to obey His commandments.

Those who live in sin live in hatred of God. Those who keep the commandments in truth live in love of God. The Greatest Commandments have to do with love and Jesus taught us that love is what is needed to fulfill the Ten Commandments (Mat 22:36-40). Paul also taught the same thing in I Corinthians 13:1-3 and then in Romans 13: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (v. 10). However, what we must see is that keeping the Law is beyond the power of the creature. Love can only come from God and so as John 15:4-5 teaches us we can do nothing apart from Christ. The Pharisees are set before us in Scripture as those that tried to keep the Law in their own strength. Here is just one example: 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23).

The problem with the Pharisees is that they did not understand that they loved themselves and hated God. They thought they could keep the Law of God in their own strength and so they set out to delineate the laws and to know them so they could keep them. But what they deceived themselves about was their own hearts. All of their stringent external obedience was nothing but hatred for God because all of those things came from a heart that loved self and hated God. We cannot have more than one master at a time and will love one and hate the other. If we are mastered by our love for self we will hate God in truth. A whitewashed tomb has a beautiful and clean appearance though the inside is ceremonially unclean and full of death. The Pharisees had the outward appearance of righteousness and cleanness to others and yet on the inside they were full of lawlessness. In their very zeal to keep the law they were full of and expressed lawlessness. The Law of God cannot be kept apart from true love. So those who do not have hearts that have been changed by God and so the love of God dwells in them, those people hate God even in their most religious duties. There are people today who are zealous for holiness, preaching, evangelism, and perhaps even missions. But in all of what they are doing they hate God because they are doing it for their master which is self-love. Even the most religious people and the most Reformed person can hate God if the true love of the true God does not reside in them. We must all beware.

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