Page 145 - Ephesians

“All things become visible when they are exposed by the
light.”

What’s the light? Christ will shine on you. How do I find the
unfruitful deeds of darkness, in my life? How do I find out, in my
own heart, what is displeasing to the Lord? How is the darkness
exposed? Well, here’s the wrong way to do it. Number one,
self-examination. Looking inward. Introspection. Get alone,
search your heart and meditate on your sin. Make sure you dig
deep. See if you have sinned against God today. Confess it, and
constantly keep clean records before the Lord. I suggest, that, is
a subtle error, among the people of God.

It came in recently with that flood of Christian, “so-called”,
psychology, and Christian psychiatry. It’s this psychiatric victory
before God. One Christian psychologist has a chapter in his book
called, “Discover Your Sin and Bring it to Jesus”. The problem is,
that you have no more ability to discover your sin, than to
remove it.

Do you realize what bondage you’d be in, if you started searching
for sin? If you began to look into your heart right now, don’t you
think you could find something to confess? I could. Then, after
you confessed it, and you start searching again, do you think you
could find something else? When would you be finished? How
long would that take? I suggest you’d never be done. If you went
that route, searching your own heart, you’d have to say, “Did I
spend this moment right and that moment right? Did I say the
right thing? Did I neglect something? Did I waste any time? Was
I angry? There’s no end to it!
The fact is, in wanting to escape from self and run to God, we
become preoccupied with self. It’s a clever devise of Satan,
getting us to look inside and discover our own sin. He subtly
insinuates your responsibility to examine and fix yourself. It
separates you from grace, because it pushes you to put
confidence in the flesh! The very introspection, by which we try to
deliver ourselves, actually causes greater bondage and self-