CanTherebeUnity
not a man's home, and yet it is helps a man find his house when he is traveling home on a dark night. Use the forms of Christianity diligently, and you will find them a blessing. Only remember, in all your use of forms, the great principle, that the first thing in religion is the state of the heart. 3. I now come to the last thing which I want you to consider. "True religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of man, but of God." I dare not turn away from this part of my subject, however painful it may be. Anxious as I am to commend heart-religion to everyone who reads this paper, I will not try to conceal what heart-religion entails. I will not gain a recruit for my Master's army under false pretenses. I will not promise anything which the Scripture does not warrant. The words of Paul are clear and unmistakable. Heart-religion is a religion whose "praise is not from men, but from God" (Romans 2:29). God's truth and Scriptural Christianity are never really popular. They never have been. They never will be as long as the world stands. No one can calmly consider what human nature is, as described in the Bible, and reasonably expect anything else. As long as man is what man is, the majority of mankind will always like a religion of form far better than a religion of heart. Formal religion just suits an unenlightened conscience. Man must have some religion. Atheism and downright unbelief, as a general rule, are never very popular. But a man must have a religion which does not require very much—trouble his heart very much—interfere with his sins very much. Formal Christianity satisfies him. It seems to be the thing that he wants. Formal religion gratifies the secret self-righteousness of man. All of us, more or less, are Pharisees. We all naturally cling to the idea that the way to be saved is to do so many things, and go through so many religious observances, and that as a result we will get to heaven.
Formalism meets us here. It seems to show us a way by which we can make our own peace with God. Formal religion pleases the natural laziness of man. It attaches an excessive importance to that which is the easiest part of Christianity —the shell and the form. Man likes this. He hates exertion in religion. He wants something which will not meddle with his conscience and inner life. Only leave his conscience alone, and, it will want to do works or actions. Formalism seems to open a wider gate, and a more easy way to heaven. Facts speak louder than assertions. Facts are stubborn things. Look over the history of religion in every age of the world, and observe what has always been popular. Look at the history of Israel from the beginning of Exodus to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, and see what has always found favor. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague which had overcome the Jews, when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Look at the history of the Church of Christ after the days of the apostles. How soon formalism ate out the life and vitality of the primitive Christians! Look at the Middle Ages, as they are called. Formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the Gospel laid there as one does when they are dead. Look, lastly, at the history of Protestant Churches in the last three centuries. How few are the places where religion is a living thing! How many are the countries where Protestantism is nothing more than a form! There is no getting past these things. They speak with a voice of thunder. They all show that formal religion is a popular thing. It has the praise of man. But why should we look at facts in history? Why shouldn't we look at the facts under our own eyes, and by our own doors? Can anyone deny that a mere outward religion, a religion of downright formalism, is the religion which is popular today? Is it for nothing that John says of certain false teachers, "They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them" (1 John 4:5). Only say your prayers, and go to church regularly, and receive the Lord's Supper occasionally, read your Bible occasionally, and the vast majority of our nation will call you a good Christian person. "What more would you have to do?" they say: "If this is not Christianity, what is?" To require more of anyone is thought to be unfair, fanaticism and to be too enthusiastic! To insinuate that such a man as this may not go to heaven is called unloving! It is vain to deny that formal religion is popular. It is popular. It always was popular. It always will be popular till Christ comes again. It always has had and always will have the "praise of man." Turn now to the religion of the heart, and you will hear a very different report. As a general rule it has never been liked by mankind. It has brought upon its professors laughter, ridicule, scorn, contempt, seclusion, imprisonment and even death. Its lovers have been faithful and zealous—but they have always been few in number. It has never had, comparatively, "the praise of man." Heart-religion is too humbling to be popular. It leaves natural man no room to boast. It tells him that he is a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that he is dead, and must be made alive again, and born of the Spirit. The pride of man rebels against such words as these. He hates to be told that he is that bad. Heart-religion is too holy to be popular. It will not leave natural man alone. It interferes with his worldliness and his sins. It requires of him things that he hates and despises—conversion, faith, repentance, spiritual-mindedness, Bible-reading, and prayer. It commands him to give up what he loves and clings to, and refuses to lay aside. It would be strange indeed if he liked it. It crosses his path as a kill-joy and a troublemaker, and it is absurd to expect that he will be pleased with it.
Was heart-religion popular in Old Testament times? We find David complaining: "Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards" (Psalm 69:12). We find the prophets persecuted and ill—treated because they preached against sin, and required men to give their hearts to God. Elijah, Micaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, are all cases in point. To formalism and ceremonialism the Jews never seem to have made objection. What they disliked was serving God with their hearts. Was heart-religion popular in New Testament times? The whole history of our Lord Jesus Christ's ministry and the lives of His apostles are a sufficient answer. The scribes and Pharisees would have willingly received a Messiah who encouraged formalism, and a Gospel which exalted ceremonialism. But they could not tolerate a religion of which the first principals were humiliation and sanctification of the heart. Has heart-religion ever been popular in the professing Church of Christ during the last eighteen centuries? Hardly ever, except in the early centuries when the primitive Church had not left her first love. Soon, very soon, the men who protested against formalism and sacramentalism were fiercely denounced as "troublers of Israel." Long before the Reformation, things came to this, that anyone who preached heart—holiness and condemned formalism was treated as a common enemy. He was either silenced, excommunicated, imprisoned, or put to death like John Huss. In the time of the Reformation itself, the work of Luther and his companions was carried on under an incessant storm of defamation and slander. And what was the cause? It was because they protested against formalism, ceremonialism, the false Roman Catholic Priesthood, monks, and taught the necessity of heart-religion. Has heart-religion ever been popular in our own country in the past? Never, excepting for a little season. It was not popular in the days of Queen Mary, when Latimer and his fellow-martyrs were burned at the stake. It was not popular in the days, when to be a Puritan was worse than to be a drunkard or a blasphemer. It was not popular in the middle of last century, when Wesley and Whitfield were shut out of the established Church. The cause of our martyred Reformers, of the early Puritans, and of the Methodists, was essentially one and the same. They were all hated because they preached the uselessness of formalism, and the impossibility of salvation without repentance, faith, regeneration, spiritual-mindedness, and holiness of heart. Is heart-religion popular in our country today? I answer sorrowfully that I do not believe it is. Look at the followers of it among the congregations. They are always comparatively few in number. They stand alone in their respective congregations. They have put up with many difficult things, harsh words, censure, harsh treatment, laughter, ridicule, slander, and petty persecution. This is not popularity! Look at the teachers of heart-religion in the pulpit. They are loved and liked, no doubt, by the few hearers who agree with them. They are sometimes admired for their talents and eloquence by the many who do not agree with them. They are even called "popular preachers," because of the crowds who listen to their preaching. But none know so well as the faithful teachers of heartreligion that few really like them. Few really help them. Few sympathize with them. Few stand by them in any time of need. They find, like their Divine Master, that they must work almost alone. I write these things with sorrow, but I believe they are true. Real heart-religion today, no less than in days gone by, does not have "the praise of' man." But after all it is not important what man thinks, and what man praises. He that judges us is the Lord. Man will not judge us at the last day. Man will not sit on the great white throne, examine our religion, and pronounce our eternal sentence. Those only whom God commends will be commended at the judgment seat of Christ. Here lies the value and glory of heart-religion. It may not have the praise of man, but it has "the praise of God." God approves and honours heart-religion in this life. He looks down from heaven, and reads the hearts of all the children of men. Wherever He sees heart-repentance for sin, heart-faith in Christ, heart-holiness of life, heart-love to His Son, His law, His will, and His Word— wherever God sees these things He is well pleased. He writes a book of remembrance for that man, however poor and uneducated he may be. He gives His angels special charge over Him. He maintains in him the work of grace, and gives Him daily supplies of peace, hope, and strength. He regards him as a member of His own dear Son, as one who is witnessing for the truth, as His Son did. Weak as the man's heart may seem to himself, it is the living sacrifice which God loves, and the heart which He has solemnly declared He will not despise. Such praise is worth more than the praise of man! God will proclaim His approval of heart-religion before the assembled world at the last day. He will command His angels to gather together His saints, from every part of the globe, into one glorious company. He will raise the dead and change the living, and place them at the right hand of His beloved Son's throne. Then all that have served Christ with the heart shall hear Him say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! You acknowledged me before men, and I will also acknowledge you before my Father and His angels. You are those who have stood by me in my trials, and I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me" (Matthew 25:21-34; Luke 22:8, 28-29; Revelation 3:5). These words will be addressed to none but those who have given Christ their hearts! They will not be addressed to the formalist, the hypocrite, the wicked, and the ungodly. They will, indeed, see the fruits of heartreligion, but they will not eat of them. We will never know the full value of heart-religion until the last day. Then, and only then, will we fully understand how much better it is to have the praise of God than the praise of man. If you take up heart-religion I cannot promise you the praise of man.
Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can neither give nor take away—all this I can boldly promise to the man who comes to Christ, and serves Him with his heart. But I cannot promise him that his religion will be popular with man. I would rather warn him to expect mockery and ridicule, slander and unkindness, opposition and persecution. There is a cross belonging to heart-religion, and we must be content to carry it. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,"— "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12). But if the world hates you, God will love you. If the world forsakes you, Christ has promised that He will never forsake and never fail. Whatever you may lose by heart-religion, be sure that the praise of God will make up for it. And now I close this paper with three plain words of application. I want it to strike and stick to the conscience of everyone into whose hands it falls. May God make it a blessing to many a soul both in time and eternity! (1) In the first place, Is your religion a matter of form and not of heart? Answer this question honestly, and as in the sight of God. If it is, "consider solemnly the immense danger in which you stand." You have got nothing to comfort your soul in the day of trial, nothing to give you hope on your death-bed, nothing to save you at the last day. Formal religion never took any man to heaven. Like cheap metal, it will not stand the fire. Continuing in your present state you are in imminent danger of being lost forever. I earnestly beseech you this day to be aware of your danger, to open your eyes and repent. Whether you go to a fancy big city church or to a plain small church in the country, if you are a Christian in name only, and possess a form of godliness without the power, awake and repent. Awake, above all, if you are an Evangelical formalist. "There is no devil," said the quaint old Puritans, "like a white devil." There is no formalism so dangerous as Evangelical formalism. I can only warn you. I do so with all affection. God alone can apply the warning to your soul. Oh, that you would see the folly as well as the danger of a heartless Christianity! It was sound advice which a dying man once gave to his son: "Son," he said, "whatever religion you have, never be content with wearing a cloak." (2) In the second place, if your heart condemns you, and you wish to know what to do, "consider seriously the only course that you can safely take." Cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ without delay, and spread before Him the state of your soul. Confess before Him your formalism of the past, and ask Him to forgive it. Seek from Him the promised grace of the Holy Spirit, and beg Him to quicken and renew your inward man. The Lord Jesus is appointed and commissioned to be the Physician of man's soul. There is no case too hard for Him. There is no condition of soul that He cannot cure. There is no devil He cannot cast out. Seared and hardened as the heart of a formalist may be, there is medicine which can heal him, and a Physician who is mighty to save. Go and call on the Lord Jesus Christ this very day. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9). (3) In the last place, if your heart does not condemn you, and you have real well-grounded confidence towards God, "consider seriously the many responsibilities of your position." Praise Him daily who has called you out of darkness into light, and made you to be different. Praise Him daily, and ask Him never to forsake the work of His own hands. Watch with a jealous watchfulness every part of your inward man. Formalism is ever ready to come in upon us, like the Egyptian plague of frogs, which even went into the king's bedroom. Watch and be on your guard. Watch over your Bible-reading, your praying, your temper and your tongue, your family life and your Sunday religion. There is nothing so good and spiritual that we may not fall into formal habits about it. There is no one so spiritual that cannot fall into formalism. Watch, therefore, and be on your guard. Look forward, finally, and hope for the coming of the Lord. Your best things are yet to come. The second coming of Christ will soon be here. The time of temptation will soon be past and gone. The judgment and reward of the saints shall soon make amends for everything. Rest in the hope of that day. Work, watch, and look forward—One thing, at any rate, that day will make abundantly clear. It will show that there was never an hour in our lives in which we had our hearts too thoroughly focused on Christ.
The World
"Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord." 2 Corinthians 6:17
The text which heads this page touches a subject of vast importance in Christianity. That subject is the great duty of separation from the world. This is the point which Paul had in view when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Come out from them and be separate." The subject is one which demands the absolute attention of all who profess and call themselves Christians. In every age of the Church, separation from the world has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, has always endeavoured to "come out from the world," and live a separate life. Those who only wore the name "Christian," without the reality, have always refused to "come out and be separate" from the world. The subject perhaps was never more important than it is today. There is a widespread desire to make things pleasant in Christianity —to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid, as far as possible, self-denial. Everywhere we hear professing Christians declaring loudly that we must not be "too narrow and exclusive," and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest saints of old thought would be bad for their souls. That we may go anywhere, and do anything, and spend our time in anything, and read anything, and keep any company, and plunge into anything, and all the while still be good Christians—this is the saying of thousands. In a day like this I think it is good to raise a warning voice and bring attention to the teaching of God's Word. It is written in that Word, "Come out from them and be separate." There are four points which I will try to show my readers, in examining this great subject.