The trouble with the church: we think too much about ourselves

From God’s Ultimate Purpose by Martyn-Lloyd Jones:

The Bible is God’s book, it is a revelation of God, and our thinking must always start with God. Much of the trouble in the Church today is due to the fact that we are so subjective, so interested in ourselves, so egocentric. That is the peculiar error of this present century. Having forgotten God, and having become so interested in ourselves, we become miserable and wretched, and spend our time in ’shallows and in miseries.’

The message of the Bible from beginning to end is designed to bring us back to God, to humble us before God, and to enable us to see our true relationship to Him. And that is the great theme of this Epistle [Ephesians]…We must not start by examining ourselves and our needs microscopically; we must start with God, and forget ourselves. In this Epistle we are taken as it were by the hand by the Apostle and are told that we are going to be given a view of the glory and the majesty of God.

(HT: Theocentric Preaching)

Filed under: Attributes of God, Discipleship, Doctrine, God's Glory, Jesus Christ, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The Church, The Cross, The Gospel, The glory of Christ, The word of God, Worldliness