Matthew 7;21-23 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
"Our Lord teaches us to beware of this terrible, alarming possibility of deceiving ourselves. We are all quite clear about conscious hypocrisy. The conscious hypocrite is not a problem; he is obvious and self-evident. What is so much more difficult to discern is unconscious hypocrisy, when a man not only misleads others but also deceives himself, when a man not only persuades others wrongly about himself, but persuades himself wrongly about himself. That is the very thing with which our Lord is dealing here, if we believe the New Testament is true, then there is nothing more important than that we should examine ourselves in the light of a statement such as this.
If, then, what we are describing is unconscious hypocrisy, does it not follow that we can do nothing about it? Is it not by definition something with which a man cannot deal with? If it is a condition in which a man is deluding himself, how can he possibly safeguard himself against it? The answer is that, on the contrary, a great deal can be done. The first and most important thing is to consider the cause of self-deception. That is the way to discover it in ourselves. If we can arrive at a list of the causes of self-delusion and self-deception, and the examine ourselves in the light of these causes, we shall be in a position to deal with them. And the New Testament is full of instruction with respect to that. That is why it is always exhorting us to test and to examine ourselves; that is why it is always exhorting us to prove and try the spirits, and indeed to prove all things. It is a great Book of warning. That is not popular today. People say that that is being negative; but the New Testament always emphasizes the negative aspect of truth as well as the positive.
What, then, are the common causes of self-deception in this matter? First: there is a false doctrine of assurance. This is the tendency to base our assurance only upon certain statements which we ourselves make. There are those who say, "Scripture says, 'He that believeth on him is not condemned' but shall receive 'everlasting life'; 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved'; 'Whosoever believeth in his heart and confesseth with his mouth shall be saved.'" They interpret such statements as meaning that as long as they acknowledge and say certain things about the Lord Jesus Christ, they are automatically saved. Their error is surely this: The man who is truly saved and who has a genuine assurance of salvation does make, and must make, these statements, but the mere making of these statements does not of necessity guarantee, or assure, a man of his salvation. The very people with whom our Lord is dealing with do say: "Lord, Lord," and they seem to put the right content into that statement; but, as we have seen, James reminds us in his Epistle that "the devils also believe, and tremble." If we read the Gospels, we discover that the evil spirits, and devils, recognize the Lord. They refer to Him as "the Holy One of God." They know who He is; they say the right things about Him. But they are devils and they are lost. So we must be wary of that very subtle temptation, and remember the way in which people wrongly persuade themselves. They say "I do believe, and I have said with my mouth that I believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and that He has died for my sins, therefore..." but the argument is incomplete. The believer, that Christian, does say these things, but he does not stop at merely saying them. That is what is sometimes described as "fideism" or "believism," which means that a man is really putting his final trust in his own faith, and not the Lord Jesus Christ. He is relying on his own belief, and on his mere assertion of it."
Excerpt taken from a two-volume set, titled "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1896-1981)
No comments:
Post a Comment