Deuteronomy 11:16
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We must remember that there is such a thing as self-deception in the world.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): God has warned us plainly in His Word that, “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness,” Proverbs 20:12. He has set before us those who say “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” and who know not that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” Revelation 3:17; and let it be duly noted that those were in church association.
JOSEPH ALLEINE (1634-1668): Conversion is not the taking upon us the profession of Christianity. Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in baptism.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Profession is very common—and so is self-delusion. Perhaps as many are lost by self-deception, as by any other means. It is one of the cunning artifices, the deep devices, the artful machinations of Satan—to lead men into self-deception, when he can no longer hold them in careless indifference; to ruin their souls in the church, when he cannot effect it in the world; to lull them asleep by the privileges of church fellowship, when he cannot continue their slumber amidst the pleasures of sin.
A. W. PINK: If my sins have not been pardoned, then the more firmly convinced I am that they have been, the worse for me; and very ready is Satan to second me in my self-deception!
JOSEPH ALLEINE: The devil has made many counterfeits of conversion, and cheats one with this, and another with that. Conversion is not the mere chaining up of corruption by education, human laws or the force of affliction. It is too common to mistake education for grace. Conversion does not lie in moral righteousness.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): There are many things which may hide our condition from us. We may easily mistake our gifts for graces; and may ascribe to the special operation of the Spirit of God what is the result only of natural principles.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Feelings are supposed to be ‘faith.’ Convictions are supposed to be ‘grace.’
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: It may be worth while to set before you how far people may go, and not be really converted. They may have many and deep religious impressions, many and strong convictions; they may have much knowledge of their sinful state, and a heavy and burdensome sense of their guilt; they may look back upon their past lives and conduct with much remorse; they may be sorry for their sins; and may desire to be saved from the consequences of them, being much alarmed at the prospect of the torments of hell.
JOSEPH ALLEINE: Many, because they are troubled in conscience for their sins, think well of their case, miserably mistaking conviction for conversion.
MATTHEW MEAD (1629-1699): This is that wherein most men miscarry: they rest in their convictions, and take them for conversion, as if sin seen were therefore forgiven, as if a sight of the want of grace were the truth of a work of grace.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Nor is a detestation of sin always a true sign of conversion. Hazael, before he was king of Syria, detested the crimes which he afterwards perpetrated in the fullness of his pride and power, 2 Kings 8:12,13.
JOSEPH ALLEINE: Conversion does not consist in illumination, or conviction, or in a superficial change or partial reformation. An apostate may be an enlightened man, Hebrews 4:4; and a Felix trembled under conviction, Acts 24:25; and a Herod do many things, Mark 4:20.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: And as conviction of sin may exist without conversion, so may religious joy. The stony ground hearers “heard the word, and with joy received it,” and yet they had “no root in themselves, and endured only for a while.” Mark 4:16,17. The Galatians had great blessedness at one time, which the apostle was afraid had come to nothing. Multitudes rejoiced in Christ when He made His entrance into Jerusalem, who afterwards became His enemies. A person may admire the people of God, and covet to be of their number, as Balaam did, and yet not really belong to them…There may be considerable zeal for the outward concerns of religion, as we see in Jehu, without any right state of mind towards God.
J. C. RYLE: Often—far too often—people are built up in self-deception, and encouraged to think they are converted when in reality they are not converted at all.
CHARLES SIMEON: The man who has felt some conviction of sin, and some hope in Christ, and has been hailed by others as a sound convert to the Christian faith, is ready to conclude that all is well: his successive emotions of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow, are to him a sufficient evidence, that his conversion is unquestionable. If he have some ability to talk about the Gospel, and some gift in prayer, he is still further confirmed in his persuasion, that there exists in him no ground for doubt or fear. More especially, if he have views of the Covenant of grace, as “ordered in all things and sure,” and have adopted a crude system of religion that favours a blind confidence, he concludes at once that he is, and must be, a child of God. But who more open to self-deception?
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Many have had great confidence of the reality of their conversion; they have had dreams, impressions, and an inward witness, as they suppose―and yet too plainly proved, by their after-conduct, that they were under an awful delusion. It would be almost endless to point out the various ways in which men deceive themselves, as to their state.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661): Remember, many go far on, and reform many things, and can find tears, as Esau did; and suffer hunger for the truth, as Judas did; and wish and desire the end of the righteous, as Balaam did; and profess fair, and fight for the Lord, as king Saul did; and desire the saints of God to pray for them, as Pharaoh and Simon Magus did; and prophesy and speak of Christ, as Caiaphas did; walk softly, and mourn for fear of judgment, as Ahab did; and put away gross sins and idolatry, as Jehu did; and hear the Word of God gladly, and reform their life in many things according to the Word, as Herod did; and say to Christ, “Master I will follow thee, whithersoever thou goest,” as the man who offered to be Christ’s servant in Matthew 8; and may taste of the virtues of the life to come, and be partakers of the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit, and taste of the good Word of God, as the apostates who sin against the Holy Ghost, Hebrews 6: and yet all these are but like gold in clink and colour, and were really brass, and base metal.
CHARLES SIMEON: Beware of self-deception—“The heart is deceitful above all things:” and we have a subtle adversary, who will not fail to help forward the most fatal delusions.
