"The disciples came and said to Jesus, 'Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?' Jesus said, 'Leave them alone' " (Matthew 15:12-14).

When Jesus corrected the Pharisees for teaching people to dishonor their parents they were offended. Pharisees are easily offended by any word of rebuke or correction that the Lord may give through an elder brother. One of the kindergarten lessons in the Christian life is to get victory over "getting offended." There is no hope that you will ever be delivered from Phariseeism if you don't seek to be totally free from getting offended when corrected.

I know people who were once in our church who were so offended by some correction they received, that they left the church altogether. They are wandering in the wilderness today and there is every possibility that they will be lost eternally. I can assure you that like the Pharisees, you could be on your way to hell too, if you have been offended by some correction you received.

Jesus told His disciples to "leave them alone". We are not to go after offended Pharisees trying to bring them back to the church. We must obey the Lord and leave them alone. If they repent, then they can come back to the Lord and to the church. Not otherwise.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-4 we see four types of lovers mentioned: lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, and lovers of God. Out of these four types of lovers, only one of them is right. A true Christian must be a lover of God, but if he's not a lover of God, he'll be a lover of himself -his own rights, his reputation, his honor, etc.

One of the proofs of that is we get easily offended. Only one who loves himself gets offended. One who doesn't love himself but loves God never gets offended with anything that another person says or doesn't say, or with anything that another person does or doesn't do.

We get offended because we get hurt. Our self-life gets hurt by the way somebody treated us, or by what we heard somebody said about us behind our back. We love ourselves so much!

And who are we talking about here? Unbelievers? No! We're talking about so-called "believers" - who have never understood what it is to take up the cross and put Self to death. Because in the last days there's going to be very little preaching about the cross and death to Self-life. It's almost unheard of in most churches today, and never heard of on Christian television. When there's no preaching on death to Self, Self is going to flourish in the lives of many Christians. They won't even know that you cannot follow Jesus if you love yourself. They'll think you can love yourself and follow Jesus. Look at the multitudes of Christians who get offended and hurt and don't even feel that that's a terrible sin.

You may say, "Yes, but somebody did that horrible thing to me, I have a right to be hurt!" Exactly! Because you're an unbeliever! You're not a disciple of Jesus, that's why you've got a right to be hurt. If you're a disciple of Jesus, you have no right to be hurt. Jesus was never hurt - when they called Him prince of devils, when they spat on His face, or they did all types of other evil things to Him.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? There are very, very few Christians who are going to take up the cross in the last days and follow Him. So it's going to be very difficult to be a true Christian because we are surrounded by people who claim to be Christians, who claim to be filled with the Spirit, who claim to speak in tongues, but who get hurt and get offended. Or, they are disturbed because their name was dragged in the dust.

Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name." That means, forget about your own name! But in the last days, even many who call themselves Christians are going to be more concerned about their own name. For example, do you know how much the name of Jesus is dishonored in the world today? Yet, that doesn't disturb most people who call themselves Christians. But, if their name was dragged in the mud by somebody - even once - that would really disturb them. Or if their little pretty daughter's name was dragged in the dust, that would disturb them tremendously. But let the name of Jesus be dishonored throughout the country and it doesn't bother them at all. Do you think such people are disciples of Jesus? No! Far from it! But they sit in churches. They claim to be born again. They claim to love the Lord.

This is the amazing thing the devil has done - deceiving these people who love themselves from top to bottom, head to foot, and still think that they are disciples of Jesus.

But, I can only warn you. Nobody can change you from being a lover of Self if you don't want to be freed from it yourself!