God Loves… Himself

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus applied this verse to prayer, giving to the poor, and then to fasting. In reality, though, we can be sure that Jesus meant this to apply to the whole of the Christian life. Whether it is the most religious thing we think we are doing or something we consider small, we are not to do any act of righteousness before men with the intent to be noticed by them. We are to live unto the Lord and to do all out of love for Him and His glory. Whether we eat, drink, or whatever we do we are to do all to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31). Doing this to the glory of God means we have to watch our hearts to be sure that we are not doing them in order to get the attention, approval, and honor of men.

It is important for men to carefully look to the Scriptures and look to what they actually say and imply rather than twist the Scriptures to make them controllable and understandable to the fallen mind. Whenever a person reads or studies the Scriptures, that person will either twist the Scriptures to fit his or her understanding and loves or that person will repent and seek grace to become like the truth of God in Christ who shines forth in the teachings of Scripture as the Spirit gives light. Theology and practice should not be separated, though indeed they can be distinguished. The scribes and Pharisees twisted the Scriptures to fit what they wanted and that meant that both their theology and practice were wrong. Today, the same thing is true. Men want God to be cool and to be relevant and so they twist the teachings of Scripture to fit what they have in mind. Heresies abound, false gods abound, and sin abounds in and out of the professing churches. But heresies are not seen, false gods are thought to be the true God, and sin is not understood to be sin as long as the Scriptures are twisted.

Preaching can be seen as a way of practicing righteousness as well. When preachers are not lovers of the true God and the manifestation of Himself in Christ, they become men who twist the Scriptures. They can deceive themselves into believing that because they preach and use the Scriptures in preaching that their preaching is an act of righteousness. However, as long as they preach for self and is an attempt to gain the attention and honor of men, they are not preaching out of love for God. Preaching in a way that is an attempt to get men to notice or to gain honor from men is nothing less than idolatry. Preaching is the way God has ordained for His glory to be declared, not a way for men to exalt themselves. Preaching should be a way of exalting and boasting in the cross of Christ and not a way of men to boast and exalt of themselves.

All that a person does is either for God or for self. All that a person does in religious things is either for God or for self. When a person does acts of mercies, those acts are either done out of love for God or out of love for self. But, it is argued, those acts are done for the person receiving mercy. The person receiving mercy does have some benefit, that is true, but the person doing them has an ultimate intent and motive. It may be that the person feels pity in some way for the person, but if the person shows mercy simply because of the feeling that person’s actions are done in an effort to make self feel better. It is also true that if the act of mercy shown is not done out of love for God primarily, then it is still done out of love for self.

Pride and self are such pernicious things in the soul of man. They turn man to live and do for self and yet blind men to the fact that they are doing all for self. Pride will move us to do an act of righteousness (so-called), yet pride will also blind us to the fact that we are seeking the attention and honor of men in doing what we are doing. Pride also deceives us into thinking and believing that if we have done something good, then we are good. Pride will blind us to our motives in the external acts of good and then convince us that we must love God because we are doing these things. Our pride will convince us that if we love God by doing what we do, then assuredly God loves us as well. While it certainly appears that many are deceived by that chain or proud-hearted reasoning, it is deadly to the eternal welfare of souls. Pride leads us to doing acts of righteousness and thinking we are converted because of them. The scribes and the Pharisees were deceived by that, and it appears that many are today as well.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

In the Lord’s Prayer we are taught by Jesus in the first petition to pray for God’s name to be hallowed and glorified. That is a vital part of prayer and is the first order or priority of prayer, but the Pharisees were more concerned to pray (see previous post) for their own glory. This is to say that they prayed in a way to get the attention and honor of men rather than to seek God. Their prayers was a seeking of self and to hold self up in a way to get honor from men rather than pray for the honor and glory of God.

The scribes and the Pharisees basically had a religion that used God to gain things for themselves. True enough they had the Old Testament Scriptures, but they did not understand the spiritual meaning in the slightest. The same thing is true regarding fasting as well. A fast was meant to be an aid in seeking God. Over and over we are told in the Scriptures that we are to fast and pray. The Psalmist prayed “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” The scribes and the Pharisees fasted and prayed, at least by the intent of their hearts and actions, “unto me O LORD give glory, but to Your name may it be ignored in reality while I get all the glory.”

What we see, then, is the turning of true Christianity which is to do all out of love for God and do all for His glory into a system of self-love which was to do all for the glory of self. The scribes and Pharisees, though indeed they did many outward actions that were in line with the external commands of Scripture, had turned everything backwards into a religion of self and pride. How arrogant and proud a person must be to do all for his own glory while pretending to do all for the glory of God. Fasting is a means of humbling a soul that it may pray, but the scribes and Pharisees used that as something to be proud of and to build their pride. The very heart of Christianity is the humility of man and the glory of the grace of God, but the scribes and Pharisees were caught up in using the things of God for their own pride and selfish ends.

The scribes and Pharisees would fast and look gloomy and have a disheveled appearance in order that men could tell that they were fasting. Jesus says to take care of your appearance so that men will not notice that you are fasting and the fasting in secret (before men) will be seen by God. This is very instructive for the modern day as well. There are many forms of fasts that churches do and all of these become common knowledge, but those are not what is called for in Scripture. It is true that in the Old Testament there were days of fasting when a judgment was coming upon them, but those were not common. But once again, the important issue is the heart. Even if there is a public fast called for that does not mean that a person has to go around looking like s/he is fasting. It is to be done unto the Lord and Him alone. There are times of fasting called for in our day and then there is a mean supplied for those who have fasted at the end of it. When people go to that meal, it is a public declaration that they have been fasting.

The pride of the human heart is enormous and it is consistent. Men love to distinguish themselves and they love to get the attention of others for about anything, but for some reason this appears even greater in the things of religion. Jesus tells us very clearly that fasting is to be done in secret (hidden from men) and that is the kind of fasting that pleases God. However, it is clear that if all we are doing is seeking self rather than God secret fasting is not what is called for. The proud heart will take and twist the things we are given as means to seek God and use them as means to seek honor for self or simply seek God to give things to self. Pride deceives the heart.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

The scribes and Pharisees were proud men and in that they had become proud of their religion and of their holiness. When an unconverted heart achieves a level of holiness that it thinks most others cannot attain to, it will be proud and insufferably proud at that. Thus, as with alms, the prayers of these men became a way for them to gain the attention and honor of men.

II Chronicles 7:14 gives us the proper order of prayer. 1. A person must be a child of God in order to truly pray. 2. A person must humble self in order to pray. 3. True prayer is a seeking of God’s presence (face). 4. True prayer is a humble person seeking the face of God and is also a person turning from his or her wicked ways. But the scribes and Pharisees were the exact opposite of this. 1. They were not children of God, but instead they were children of the devil. 2. They did not humble themselves to pray, but instead they were filled with pride as they “prayed.” 3. They did not seek the face of God in prayer, but instead they sought the attention and honor of men. 4. Instead of turning from their wicked ways, they were encouraged in them by their hypocritical “prayers.”

What is so clear from this is that the prayers of the scribes and Pharisees were nothing but acts of pride and self in seeking themselves. They were not praying to God, but instead they prayed to themselves: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get’” (Luke 18:10-12). The prayer that Jesus described in the text above (Matthew 6) is precisely that of men praying to themselves instead of God.

But surely that type of prayer has been exposed and no one is guilty of that today. Or perhaps it is more common today than in that day. We can pray wanting others to notice our theological acumen, our fervor, our knowledge of spiritual things, our humility, and our heart for God. When we “pray” and we are not seeking the face of God for the glory of God, we are seeking ourselves in prayer. When we pray, even for apparently spiritual things, we can simply want others to see how spiritual we are. We can pray wanting others to notice us for many reasons, but if we want the attention of others we are not seeking the face of God.

But our wicked hearts are so deceitful that we must be careful when we go into our closets. We can desire to go into our closets to pray and yet do so in an effort to be able to tell men about what we have done. We can go into our closets out of a secret pride and in an effort to show our self-righteousness to self and God. Since men are men, though that seems obvious, we can try to impress ourselves by our prayers rather than God. We might even be foolish enough to think that we can impress God with our prayers.

The heart of man is so deceitful and no one but God can show man the depths of his own heart. We should seek the Lord in poverty of spirit and a good sense of our inability and helplessness in prayer and ask Him for grace in order to pray. The natural heart cannot pray this way and neither can the regenerate heart truly pray apart from Christ and apart from Christ. We have no sufficiency of our own to pray or do any spiritual activity in the slightest. We must have grace to do any spiritual activity as we can only do what we do from the flesh or from the strength of grace. True prayer must be moved by grace and out of love for God. True love for God can only come from God.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

In this passage the point is that men should not do their acts of righteousness or practice of righteousness in the presence of men in order to be noticed by them. The text goes on to specifically point out that when giving to the poor one should not sound a trumpet, whether in the synagogues or in the streets, in order that men would honor them. While it is not exactly clear that the scribes and the Pharisees would indeed sound literal trumpets when they were about to give to the poor, the point is that they did what they could do to gain the attention of men so that they would be honored in what they did. While the Pharisees may have sounded trumpets to gain attention, the main point is that men can give to the poor in a way that is an effort to gain honor for what they are doing.

If we have eyes to see it should be crystal clear to us that the scribes and Pharisees were vile and wicked men in their pride because they would rather that men would notice what they were doing than God. The pride of these men is seen in that they did not really wish the well-being of those they were giving money to as much as they wanted to be honored by men for what they were doing. Not only that, but these men were so wretchedly proud that they would give to the poor wishing the attention and honor of men rather than the glory of God. When men will do religious acts in order to get men to honor them rather than honor God, those men hate both man and God and are also making themselves out to be idols. What they are doing is really worship and love of self rather than the love of man and worship of God. What they are really doing is doing all for their own glory rather than the love of God. They are also taking sides with the devil who always does what he does for himself rather than God. The evil in religious actions that are done for self rather than true love for God is beyond the human comprehension.

If we boil the religious actions of the scribes and Pharisees down, what we see are men who are slaves to their own pride and self and as such they try to use the things of God in a way where they are honored as men of God while they serve the lusts of the flesh. Unregenerate man will always do what he perceives is in his best interest and that is always his fleshly interests. It is true that men will go to great lengths to do things that appear to be spiritual, but they are blind and dead to spiritual things so they are in some way serving the flesh in what they do. The pride of these men blinded them to their idol of self and so all that they did was in service of self which is to be at enmity with God rather than being in the service of God.

But what does this have to do with us today? We must get it in the depths of our souls that no religion and no work or works can help us in the slightest as long as we are in the flesh and still in our pride and love of self as our controlling love. The absolute and utter necessity of the new birth where the flesh of man is taken away (as to controlling man as a slave) and man is given a new heart where by the Spirit man can love God and can do a work by the strength of grace out of love for God and man.

We also must learn that our own pride will deceive us just as it deceived the scribes and the Pharisees. It is almost certain that in the modern day there are countless numbers of people deceived as to their real spiritual state. Many of those are attending organizations that think of themselves as liberal churches, but are not churches at all. Others attend professing churches that hold to conservative creeds in doctrine and are also conservative in morality, yet they take pride in those things and are blinded by their pride to their pride. Their pride deceives them and they are a lot like the scribes and the Pharisees, though they would condemn them in words, as they live in the flesh doing religious activities saying they are in the name of God while in fact they still are dead in sins and trespasses.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 21:10 When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?”

In this passage the pride and self-centeredness of the scribes is obvious. These were men who did all their religious actions to be seen of men, but then Jesus came along and spoke harsh things about them. This same Jesus who condemned them entered Jerusalem and the people cam out in droves to see Him. Not only did the people come out to see Him, but He cast people out of the temple and yet healed the blind and the lame who came to Him at the temple. What we have is a contrast between what was going on at the temple between those that the scribes and the Pharisees supported in making money and Jesus who healed the blind and the lame. We also see that Jesus said that the temple was to be a house of prayer, but instead the traditions of men had turned it into a robber’s den. Then, of all things, when the scribes and the chief priests saw all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing, they also had to endure the children crying out to Jesus “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

This was more than the pride of the scribes could take. They were indignant at all of this and wanted Jesus to shut the children up. In His response to them, however, Jesus was pointed and even acidic. Certainly they were insulted when one that was not schooled as they were asked them if they had never read part of the Scriptures which they had great pride in being experts in. Jesus did not just simply correct them, He went after their pride and self-centeredness. He exposed the hearts of these religious leaders for all to see if they have eyes to see.

Proud men do not like to see those who oppose them do well. Jesus was doing very well at getting the people to recognize Him and they called Him a prophet. The proud hearts of the scribes did not want Jesus to get the attention and they did not like Him to be called a prophet since they were the experts with the Law of God. Oh how we should look at the proud hearts of the scribes and how they must have fumed inwardly and hated Jesus at times like this. Oh how they wanted to be seen of the people and honored by the people, but here was that unschooled man named Jesus who was being honored by the people instead of them.

The scribes and the Pharisees were later very involved in the murder of Jesus. We can see how events like these would have the hearts of the scribes blinded by that hatred and by His comments to them. We can see how it would be to proud men that the people loved Jesus and not them. It would hurt their pride when the people thought of Jesus as prophet and did not value them as they thought Jesus should. They were blinded toward Jesus because of their pride and self-centeredness and their great blindness enabled them to plan the murder of Jesus and to do so with great relish. But we must not stand in judgment of the scribes without looking to our own hearts. We must bow to the living God and ask Him to deliver us from pride or we will be deceived by our own proud hearts. We must realize that our own hearts may rise in indignation when others get recognition and we don’t. The scribes were deservedly denounced for that they did, but we must turn the mirror to look at our own hearts as well. We are of the same nature as the scribes and we can be blinded by pride too. Pride is a great sin and a sin that blinds us to ourselves and other sin as well. We must seek the Lord for humility that we can see the things pride has blinded us to over and over again.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Mat 19:3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH ‘? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” 10 The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”

The pride of the hearts of the Pharisees can be easily seen in their testing Him and wanting Him to agree with their traditions. But Jesus answered their traditions according to the Scriptures. He also answered them in a way that would prick their pride and point out their ignorance of the Scriptures. He did not just speak to the issue in an objective way, but He pointed to the pride of their hearts and their reliance upon tradition rather than Scripture in His responses to them. This is not something that men do today, but this is how Jesus dealt with the religious leaders (hypocrites) during His time on earth in bodily form. From this we can learn that it is not wrong to point out to men when they go astray, but since Jesus was Love incarnate it was in line with perfect love to do so.

The Pharisees were essentially asking/testing Jesus regarding His views on divorce. The question they asked Him reflected their views which was based on their tradition. They fit in quite well with the modern scene in which divorce was allowed (at least for the men at that time) for about any reason that the man wanted. But Jesus went straight to the nature of marriage and of how the man and the woman were joined and as such they were one flesh. Jesus then pointed out that it was God that joined the two together and made the two one flesh and that what God had joined together no man was to separate.

This was not according to the tradition of the Pharisees and so they pointed to some words of Moses (Deut 24:1-4) where said it was a command of Moses to simply give the woman a certificate of divorce and send her away. Jesus went straight to the point of contention, which was really tradition versus Scripture and the pride and self of man wanting to follow his sinful heart rather than God. The Pharisees said that Moses commanded them, but Jesus said that Moses permitted this because of the hardness of hearts. But Jesus pointed to the hearts of the Pharisees and said it was “because of hardness of your heart.” The difference between the tradition of the Pharisees and the words of Jesus are polar opposites.

Jesus then went on to show the real teaching of the Word of God. While Moses permitted divorce for any reason because of the hardness of the hearts of men, which many say that men in that time were killing their wives so that they could marry another, the foundational teaching is that apart from immorality there is not a biblical reason for divorce. The disciples were astonished and thought it was better not to marry since that was the case.

But what is so obvious in this text, as Jesus explains it, is that proud and selfish hearts in the time of Moses were permitted to divorce their wives and it was not commanded to do so. The scribes and Pharisees had taken something that Moses permitted at one point and twisted it to fit what their wicked hearts wanted. The Word of God, however, was ignored by the scribes and Pharisees in order to live as their selfish heart pleased. The problem is the same today. Proud men are twisting the Word of God to fit their desires and finding commands where there are no commands and permission where there is no permission. When men twist the Scriptures, whether to make it more legal or more libertine, it becomes a tradition built on a proud heart rather than the Word of God.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

It is hard to come to grips with the idea that the most religious groups (even conservative groups) in the days of Jesus were the ones who hated Jesus the most and were the ones that essentially coerced the Pilate into having Jesus put to death on the cross. A major part of why they hated Jesus was their own pride and self. It may be even harder to come to grips with the fact that our own religious groups would do the same thing if they had the opportunity. While it was the pride of man that put Christ on the cross, in our day it is the pride of man that denies the meaning of the cross. While it was the pride of man that hurled false accusations against Christ in the past, it is the pride of man in our day that denies many truths about Christ. It was the pride of man that refused to give up honor in the days of Christ, in our day it is also a refusal to give up standing before men that will push them to hold to doctrines that are false and make allowances for teachings that are utter heresy.

Theological error seems like such a small thing to modern people, but it is in our theology where our pride can shine forth in our teachings and beliefs about Christ. It is also true that our theology is closely followed by daily life where our true beliefs are expressed and manifested, but our lives express or deny something about God at all points. Romans 1:18-32 sets out the clear teaching that men deny something about God in order to sin, which in doing so their hearts are hardened. It is nothing but pride and arrogance for a finite human being to choose him or herself over the infinite living God. In choosing self and sin over God, it is an incredible pride that is manifested and displayed. The truth of God as in His being and in His basic nature is so clear in nature and is stamped on the heart of man that man must deny those things about God so that man can live in sin as he pleases.

The scribes and the Pharisees had the perfect image of God living before them and teaching them about God and His commandments which reflect His character. They hated the teaching of the true nature of the commandments because it exposed them as wicked and vile sinners rather than holy men as they thought. The life of Christ put God on display before them and their wicked and proud hearts hated God as He was manifested to them and their pride and self-love could not bear a true sight of God and then of themselves. The scribes and Pharisees hated (against the sixth commandment) Jesus so much and they were blinded by their self-love and pride so much that they found excuses to have Jesus killed and justify that. It is true that the religious leaders had Him killed, but they also deceived the people (who might have wanted to be deceived) into calling for the execution of Jesus.

But let us not think that modern religious leaders are different in any real way. What if Jesus came on earth today and spoke to them as He spoke to the scribes and Pharisees? What if Jesus would teach men today and show them how the modern scribes (scholars) and Pharisees (religious leaders who think they are holy and orthodox) had changed His laws and doctrines and as such were leading people astray? What if Jesus told modern scribes and Pharisees that they were whitewashed tombs? What if Jesus told the modern scribes and Pharisees that they were doing all they were doing in order to make money and be seen by men?

The character of God has not changed and men are born dead in sins and trespasses (full of pride and self) as they always have been. Religion does not change the heart of man from being full of pride and self, but instead it provides a way for self and pride to be religious. The great truths of Christianity are used by the pride of men to seek honor and glory for themselves. This can be in terms of holiness, writing of books, or to be speakers at conferences. The only way a proud heart can be changed is for a greater power to overcome it. Pride is not a greater power than pride, so it must be the power of God that is needed to change hearts. Only God can humble proud hearts and it is all to His glory when He does so. Apart from humility we deceive ourselves and others. We must have God show grace or our pride and self will grow to where it would crucify Christ as well.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

The coming of the Messiah had been proclaimed, foretold, and pictured by the Law for thousands of years. However, those who were supposed to know the Law and follow the Law missed it and denied it when the Messiah (Christ) actually came. They loved their positions of power and the honor they received from men. It should amaze us that the most religious men of Israel and the most scholarly men regarding the Word of God were the ones that Christ Himself said would be the human cause for Him to suffer and be killed. The pride of these men was enormous, but we must take into account that their religion was in the causal chain that gave them such enormous pride where they would take the Lord Himself and falsely accuse Him so that He would suffer and die.

It is possible, and perhaps the normal thing for almost all, to get calloused by reading the Bible and hearing and reading the same stories. We read it or hear it like we know what it is saying. If we had tender and sensitive hearts, we would be shocked and amazed to read Matthew 16:21. It was the orthodox theologians and scholars who were opposed to Jesus. It was men who pursued a stringent holiness (in some way) that lied and had Jesus executed on the cross. It was those who gave alms to the poor and spent a lot of time in prayer that opposed Jesus the most. It was the very religious elite who were at the forefront of the execution of Jesus. It was the men who were famed in the land for their religious knowledge and practices that were at the head of the line in wanting Jesus killed.

The pride of these men used the religion that they had without a new heart to build even more pride and seek more honor and glory from men. It is also true that some of them were so deceived by their pride that they thought they were serving God in the killing of Jesus. Self-righteousness is simply a form of pride using a false standard of righteousness to puff itself up with more pride and these men had plenty of self-righteousness to puff themselves up with. But along came Jesus who was the Master at putting the pin to the balloon of the puffed up pride of the Pharisees and in doing so He exposed their self-righteousness. When self-righteousness is exposed, one will either repent or rush into the anger of self-justification and striking out in anger at the person (Person in the case of Jesus) who did the exposing.

Who would strike out in self-justification if Jesus came in the flesh in our day and spoke as He spoke to the scribes and Pharisees in our day? What would He think of the self-imposed standards of some to many of our religious leaders of our day? What would He think of the flood of books on the market that deny so many truths about Him? What would He think of the many books on methods of evangelism and methods of church growth today? What would He think of the money being spent on buildings and programs in our day? What would He think and what would He say about the way the “gospel” is preached in our day (rather, ignored)? What would He say about the way denominations are being run and the enormous salaries of some of those in the hierarchies and even the “pastors” of the big churches? What would he think of the methods of scholarship in conservative seminaries that are approved by men but say little of the glory of God? What would He think of dry theology built upon the traditions of men and yet is apart from living water and the glory of God?

The heart of man has not changed and the state of true Christianity has been going downhill for a few centuries. In the middle 1600’s John Owen lamented that the state of Christianity was far weaker than it used to be when men spoke in power. In the very early 1900’s a man wrote that in his opinion Christianity had been going downhill since around 1680. Could it be that scholarship and forms of morality have replaced true knowledge of God and of godliness? Could it be that in our day we have returned to a state where pride runs what is known as Christianity in our day much like the pride of the scribes and Pharisees ran things in the days of Jesus? We must remember that pride blinds and deceives in all areas as well. God opposes the proud, especially the religious proud, but gives grace to the humble. Could it be that proud hearts have led us astray and God has turned us over to our pride? Could it be that our pride has changed such truths as grace and love into false ideas of what they are and that the true nature of Christianity has been changed from truth into falsehood?

What if it is true (as was taught until the early 1800’s) that the proud and wicked hearts of men must be humbled into the dust before they can have true faith? What if it is true that men should seek God for a new heart and for Him to humble their hearts by His great mercy before they can have true faith? What if it is true that calling on men to believe while they are depraved is to make them think that they can believe with an unchanged heart? The proud hearts of the scribes and Pharisees rejected Christ as He was in their day. Could it be that the proud hearts of men in our day reject the true Christ and settle for a savior who will save men in a way that they can retain their pride? I would argue that it is so and that we live in a day where true Christianity is rare. If that is true, then many religious denominations, professing churches, and organizations are in the hands of proud men and so many are deceived. They would fight the true Christ and the true Gospel to keep their positions just as the scribes and the Pharisees fought to keep theirs. Religious pride is an awful thing, a wicked thing, yet one that seems to have permeated the modern professing Church.

Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie. 11 “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.

Matthew 15:1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” 3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

The Pharisees and scribes looked to their tradition, but Jesus looked to the Word of God. The Pharisees judged Jesus by their tradition, but Jesus judged them by the Word of God. It is a great pride in man to come up with rules and judge people by them, but even more it is pride to develop a tradition and follow it rather than the clear teaching of the Word of God. The Pharisees and scribes were zealous for their tradition and it became the standard for them rather than the Word of God.

Pride in the heart is a reason behind human reasoning and justifying behavior. The Pharisees and the scribes wanted a way to be clean, so they developed a way that they thought would make them clean, but it was only an external (not of the heart) form of cleanness as opposed to an internal (spiritual or of the heart). Their pride blinded them to the reality of the situation which was that washing your hands cannot make you spiritually clean nor can it help make you spiritually clean. The Old Testament spoke of lifting up clean hands, but it meant that in a spiritual way. It is what comes out of our hearts and that is done with the hands that make us unclean. But by pride and the blindness that pride brings the Pharisees and scribes had made a law that they thought made them clean, but it did nothing of the sort. However, in thinking that it made them clean it made them very unclean in that the pride of the Pharisees and the scribes increased and they were blinded even more.

The Word of God is quite clear that we are to honor our father and mother. Even more, the Old Testament said that anyone that spoke evil of his father or mother was to be put to death. But despite the clear intent of Scripture, the Pharisees and scribes had developed a tradition that allowed them to circumvent the commands of God in order to follow their own traditions. It takes a lot of pride to develop a tradition that circumvents the clear command of God, but that pride also blinded them into thinking that they were holy in what they were doing and they were even proud of following God (they thought) as they violated the commands of God. In this case, once again, the lying pen of the scribes had made a lie and people thought they were at peace with God when they were not.

It is clear to many people that the Pharisees and the scribes were stringent for their own laws and that stringency toward their own laws and traditions allowed them to play fast and loose with the Word of God. However, what we don’t see is the enormous pride and the blindness and deception of that pride that it took for them to do what they did. Another issue that we don’t see is that of our own pride which blinds us to the character of God, the commands of God, and the Gospel of grace alone. The Scripture tells us that a man must be converted to become like a child in order to enter the kingdom, yet we say that a man can believe without a change to his proud heart. The Scripture tells us that God dwells with the humble and contrite of spirit, yet we find ways to have God give us success and dwell with us without the agony of having our hearts humbled. Could it be that the scribes and the Pharisees have not gone away? Could it be that we have scribes and Pharisees (in spirit) among us today and that the Gospel of grace alone has been changed? Could it be that our own pride has blinded us to what is going on? Could it be that we want to be deceived and in our pride we are because we don’t want to be humbled and broken before God? If so, not only have we become like the scribes and Pharisees, the ministers and teachers among us are the modern scribes and Pharisees.