**“The Signs of Self-Deception”** **By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones** **“The momentous…

**“The Signs of Self-Deception”**

**By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones**

**“The momentous and alarming words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 7:21-23, “I never knew you”, make it vital that we consider this matter of self-deception. As we value our souls and as we realize that we are all passing through this world in the direction of a final judgment, and shall all have to stand before the judgment throne of Christ, this kind of self-examination becomes quite inevitable. As the apostle John put it: “Every man who has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). And you cannot purify yourself without examining yourself. What is important is to recognize the need of self-examination. It is taught constantly in the Bible.**

**The first step to take to avoid deceiving ourselves is to consider the causes of self-deception. These are designed to warn us of the subtle way in which we can deceive ourselves. We do not live our Christian life in a kind of vacuum. Quite apart from the society we live in, we also have to contend with the devil and ‘the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Here, then, are the controlling principles. Things that are good in and of themselves, unless we are careful, may be the very things that will deceive us about the state of our souls. But how can we know whether we are tending to depart from the simplicity that is in Christ, and getting into this terrible false position that is described in this verse? Here are some of the answers.**

**1.** **If we find our main interest is attending meetings, we are entering into a dangerous condition.**

**And there are many people in that position. They are kept going by meetings, and when they are suddenly cut off from them they begin to discover a terrible barrenness in their soul and in their Christian experience.**

**2.** **The danger of an excessive interest in experiences, feelings, physical healings, etc.**

**3.** **The danger of an excessive interest in some Christian movements or fellowships.**

**The danger lies in our assuming that because of our interest in these things we are, of necessity, Christian. That is the very thing our Lord is warning. Here is a person who says, “Lord, Lord”; he casts out demons, he does many wonderful works in the name of Christ, in the realm of the Church, and because of that he assumes that he is a Christian. Yet Christ says he may not be. Their real interest is in the activity and in the organization, not in the Lord, nor in their own relationship to the Lord. This is a terrible possibility. There are people whose real and ultimate interest is in their particular church, not in Christian salvation, not in the Lord Jesus Christ at all.**

**4.** **The danger of an interest in social and political issues instead of the personal aspect of Christianity.**

**If I find my interest tends to be more and more general, or social issues like abortion and homosexuality, or political, if that is increasingly my main interest in Christianity, then I am in an extremely dangerous state because I have probably ceased to examine myself.**

**5.** **The danger of being primarily interested in apologetics. Instead of in a true relationship to Jesus Christ.**

**This is a danger of which every preacher should be particularly aware. Many a man who has persuaded himself that he is a Christian is in reality only interested in apologetics. He spends the whole of his time arguing about the Christian faith, defending it, denouncing evolution, denouncing false teachings and various other things that seem to be attacking the very vitals of the faith. This is a very subtle danger because such a man may be completely neglecting his own soul, his own personal holiness and sanctification and his personal relationship to the Lord.**

**6.** **Another danger is an over interest in prophetic teaching.**

**The Bible contains a great deal of prophetic teaching, and it is our business to acquaint ourselves with it; but there is nothing that can be so dangerous as an undue interest in prophetic teaching, and especially at a time like this with the world in its present condition. Gradually this interest seems to absorb and to master certain people and they think and talk of nothing but prophecy. There is scarcely anything more dangerous to the spiritual condition of the soul than this over absorption in prophetic teaching.**

**7.** **There is a further group of dangers connected with listening to the preaching of the Bible.**

**Some people simply look for ‘points’ in sermons, and at the end they make comments about this or that. Let us always be careful not to regard ourselves as experts. The effect of true preaching should be to make us fear and tremble; it should make us examine ourselves and think more about the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware of becoming interested in the mere letter of the Word. Beware of too great an interest in the various translations of the Bible.**

**8.** **The last danger is the terrible one of playing grace against law and thereby being interested only in grace.**

**There is no saving doctrine at all apart from the doctrine of grace; but we must beware lest we hide ourselves behind it in a wrong way. Again I remember a man who had been converted, but who then fell into sin. I was very ready to help him until I found that he was much too ready to help himself. In other words, he came and confessed his sin, but immediately he began to smile and said: ‘After all, there is the doctrine of grace’. I felt he was too healthy; he was healing himself a little too quickly. The reaction to sin should be deep penitence.**

**When a man is in a healthy spiritual condition he does not find relief quite as easily as that. He feels that he is hopeless and vile. If therefore you find that you can heal yourself easily, if you find you can jump lightly to the doctrine of grace, I suggest that you are in a dangerous condition. The truly spiritual man, while he believes in the doctrine of grace, when he is truly convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, feels at times that it is almost impossible that God can forgive him. I have put that sometimes in this form by saying that I do not quite understand the Christian who can sit through a truly evangelistic sermon without feeling convicted again. There is always a convicting aspect to the message; and once we find that we are not reacting in that way because we fly at once to grace, we are in the condition which leads to this tragic self-deception.”**

– **Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, page 536-545**