Chapter 5
Some people think they must be religious in order to be respectable. There are a vast number of people in the world who go to church because everybody else does. It doesn’t look good not to go to church on Sunday, so they attend the services. They think they have done their duty and have obtained everything that they desired when they hear their neighbors say, “That man is a very respectable person. He is always very regular at his church. He is a very reputable person and worthy of praise.”
If this is what you seek after in your religion, you will get it. The Pharisees who sought the praise of others had their reward. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward (Matthew 6:2). But when you have gotten it, what a poor reward it is! Is it worth the effort?
I don’t believe that the effort people take in order to be called respectable is worth the trouble at all. I am sure, for my own part, I wouldn’t care one bit what I was called or what people thought of me, nor would I do anything that was disagreeable to me for the sake of pleasing any man who ever walked beneath the stars, however great or mighty he may be. It is the sign of a groveling, squirming spirit, when people always seek to do that which causes them to appear respectable. The esteem of others is not worth pursuing, and it is sad that this is the only prize which some people pursue in the poor religion which they practice.
Another set of people pursue the religious life for what they can get from it. I have known businessmen who attended church for the mere sake of getting the business of those who went there. I have heard of such things as people knowing on which side their bread was buttered, and going to a particular denomination where they thought they could get the most by it.
Loaves and fishes attracted some of Christ’s followers, and they continue to attract many, even to this day. People find there is something to be gotten by religion. Among the poor it might be some little charity to be obtained, and among those who are in business, it is the business they think they will get. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward, because the church is foolish and unsuspicious. We do not like to suspect our fellow creatures of following us from impure motives. The church does not like to think that someone would be corrupt enough to pretend to practice Christianity for the mere sake of what he can get.
Therefore, we let these people easily slip through, and they have their reward. But, oh, at what a price they buy it! They have deceived the Lord’s servants for gold, and they have entered into His church as hypocrites for the sake of a piece of bread. They will be cast out at the end with the anger of God behind them, like Adam driven out of Eden, with the flaming sword of the cherubim turning every way to watch over the tree of life. They will forever look back upon this as the most fearful crime they have committed – that they pretended to be God’s people when they were not, and that they entered into the midst of the fold when they were really wolves in sheep’s clothing.
There is still another class of people, and when I have referred to them, I will mention them no more. These are the people who participate in Christianity for the sake of quieting their conscience. It is astonishing how such a little amount of religion will sometimes do that. Some people tell us that if in the time of storm, we would pour bottles of oil upon the waves, there would be a great calm at once. I have never tried it, and it is likely that I never will, because my gullibility isn’t large enough to accept such a wide statement. But there are some people who think that they can calm the storm of a troubled conscience by pouring a little of the oil of a profession of faith upon it. It is amazing how significant an effect this really has.
I knew a man who got drunk many times a week and who got his money dishonestly, yet he kept his conscience at ease by regularly going to his church on Sunday. We have heard of a lawyer who could swallow up everything that came his way. He did not mind crushing the poor or portraying a guilty person as innocent, as long as he got his money; yet he never went to bed without saying his prayers, and that stilled his conscience. We have heard of other people, especially among the Romanists, who did not mind stealing or getting drunk or being immoral or taking God’s name in vain, but who considered eating anything but fish on a Friday as a most fearful sin. They supposed that by fasting on Friday, all the sins of the rest of the week would be forgotten.
They want the outward forms of religion to keep their conscience quiet, because conscience is one of the worst guests to have in your house when he gets quarrelsome. There is no living with him. A guilty conscience is one of the curses of the world. It puts out the sun and takes away the brightness from the moonbeam. A guilty conscience casts an unpleasant smell through the air, removes the beauty from the landscape, the glory from the flowing river, and the majesty from the rolling floods. There is nothing beautiful to the person who has a guilty conscience. He needs no accusing, because everything accuses him. For this reason, people go through the motions of Christianity just to quiet these accusers.
They take the sacrament sometimes. They go to a place of worship. They listen to some Christian music now and then. They give a little money to a charity. They even intend to leave a portion in their will to build houses for the poor, and in this way their conscience is lulled asleep. They soothe it with religious observances, until it sleeps while they sing the lullaby of hypocrisy. Conscience doesn’t wake until he wakes with that rich man who, in this life, was clothed in purple, but in the next world he lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment, without a drop of water to cool his burning tongue. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:24).
The apostle Paul says, Know ye not that those who run in a race indeed all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain it (1 Corinthians 9:24). There are some people who certainly never will obtain the prize, because they are not even entered in the race. Therefore, it is quite clear that they will not run, or if they do run, they will run without having any justification for expecting to receive the prize.
There are some who will tell you themselves, “We make no profession of faith – none whatsoever.” It is probably just as well that they don’t, because if they did, they would be hypocrites, and it is better to make no profession at all than to be hypocrites. Still, remember that their names are not written down for the race, and therefore they cannot win. If someone tells you in business that he makes no profession of being honest, you know that he is a confirmed dishonest person. If a person makes no profession of being a Christian, you know that he is not a Christian. He has no fear of God before his eyes, he has no love for Christ, and he has no hope of heaven. He confesses it himself.
It is strange that people should be so ready to confess this. You don’t find people in the street willing to acknowledge that they are confirmed drunkards. Generally, they will deny it with contempt. You never find anyone saying to you, “I am morally impure.” You don’t hear someone else say, “I am just a covetous fool.” No. People are not so fast to tell their faults, yet they confess the greatest fault to which anyone can be addicted. They say, “I make no claim to be a Christian.” This just means that they do not give God His due.
God has made them, but they won’t serve Him. Christ has come into the world to save sinners, and they will not acknowledge Him. The gospel is preached, but they will not hear it. They have the Bible in their houses, but they will not pay attention to its admonitions. They make no profession of doing so. It will not take long for them at the last great day. There will be no need for the books to be opened and no need for a long deliberation for the verdict. They do not profess to be pardoned. Their guilt is written upon their own foreheads, and their brazen shamelessness will be seen by the whole world as a sentence of destruction written upon their very brows.
You cannot expect to win heaven unless your names are entered for the race. If there are no attempts made, if you do not even make an attempt to pretend to be a Christian, then you can just sit down and say, “Heaven is not for me. I have no part or lot in the inheritance of Israel. I cannot say that my Redeemer lives, and I can rest quite assured that hell is prepared for me from long ago. I will feel its pains and know its miseries, because there are only two places to dwell in the afterlife, and if I am not found on the right hand of the Judge, there is only one alternative – to be cast away forever into the blackness of darkness.”
Then there is another class of people whose names are down for entering the race, but they never started right. A bad start is a sad thing. If in the ancient races of Greece or Rome a man who was to run the race had started ahead of time, it wouldn’t matter how fast he ran, for he would be disqualified. The flag must drop before the horse starts. Otherwise, even if it reaches the finish line first, it will receive no reward. So there is something to be observed in the starting of the race. I have known men who run the race of religion with all their might, but they lost the race because they did not start right.
You ask, “Well, how is that?”
There are some people who try to suddenly leap into religion. They get it quickly and they keep it for a while, but in the end they lose it because they did not get it the right way. They have heard that before someone can be saved, it is necessary that, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he should feel the weight of sin, that he should make a confession of it, that he should renounce all hope in his own works, and that he should look to Jesus Christ alone. They look upon all these things as unpleasant preliminaries. Therefore, before they have devoted themselves to repentance, before the Holy Spirit has performed a good work in them, before they have been brought to give up everything and trust in Christ, they make a profession of faith.
This often happens in our churches, when people walk down the aisle and say a prayer and think they are saved, but they have never felt the burden of sin or the necessity of true repentance. This is just opening an empty store without any merchandise, and there will be failure. If a man has nothing to begin with, he might make a fine show for a little while, but it will just be like the crackling of thorns under a pot; there will be a lot of noise and a lot of light for a little while, but it will die out in darkness. There are many who never think it necessary that there should be a work of God in their heart!
Again, there are some runners in the heavenly race who cannot win because they carry too much weight. A light weight, of course, has the advantage. There are some people who have an immensely heavy weight to carry. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, It is difficult that a rich man shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 19:23). What is the reason? Because he carries so much weight. He has so much of the cares and pleasures of this world. He has such a heavy burden that he is not likely to win unless God gives him a mighty mass of strength to enable him to bear it.
We find many people who say they are willing to be saved. They receive the Word with great joy, but after a while, thorns spring up and choke the Word. They have so much business to do. They say they must live, but they forget they must die. They have so much business to attend to, they cannot think of living near to Christ. They find they have little time for devotions. Morning prayer must be cut short because their business begins early. They have no time or strength to pray at night, because business and other events keep them so late. How can they be expected to think of the things of God?
They have so much to do to answer these questions: What shall I eat? What shall I drink? And what shall I wear? They read in the Bible that their Father who is in heaven will take care of them in these things if they will trust Him, but they say, “Not so.” They believe that those who rely solely upon God to supply those needs are overzealous fanatics. They say that the best provider in all the world is hard work, and they are correct; but they forget that Unless the LORD builds the house, they labour in vain that build it; unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchmen watch in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to come home late, to eat the bread of sorrows, because he shall give his beloved sleep (Psalm 127:1-2).
You see two men running a race. One of them lays aside every weight as he starts. He takes off his coat and away he runs. The other poor fellow has a whole load of gold and silver upon his back. Then around his loins he has many distrustful doubts about what will become of him in the future, what will happen to him when he grows old, and a hundred other things. He does not know how to place his burden upon the Lord. See how he grows weary, poor fellow, and how the other runner leaves him far behind, has turned the corner, and is coming to the finish line.
It is good if we can cast everything away except that one thing needful and say, “My main business on earth is to serve God, knowing that I will enjoy Him in heaven.” When we leave our business to God, we leave it in better hands than if we took care of it ourselves. Those who carve for themselves generally cut their fingers, but those who allow God to carve for them will never have an empty plate. He who follows after a cloud will go in the right direction, but he who runs in front of it will soon find that he has gone on a fool’s errand. Blessed is the man that is steadfast in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD (Jeremiah 17:7). The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but those that seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing (Psalm 34:10).
Our Savior said, Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matthew 6:26-29).
We can safely trust in the God of Israel. He shall dwell upon the high places: fortresses of rocks shall be his place of refuge: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure (Isaiah 33:16). But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
If you carry the weight of this world’s cares upon you, it will be as much as you can do to carry them and to stand upright under them; but running a race with such burdens is just impossible.
It is good when you sail over the smooth waters of life, but the rough billows of the Jordan will make you want a Savior. It is hard work to die without a hope, and to take that last leap in the dark is a frightful thing indeed. I have seen the old man die when he has declared that he would not die. He stood upon the brink of death and said, “All dark, dark, dark! O God, I cannot die.” His agony has been fearful when the strong hand of the destroyer seemed to push him over the precipice. He “lingered shivering on the brink, and feared to launch away.”2 Frightful was the moment when his foot slipped, he left the solid earth, and his soul was sinking into the depths of eternal wrath.
2 From Isaac Watts’ hymn “There Is a Land of Pure Delight.”
You will want a Savior then, when your pulse is faint and few. You will need an angel to stand at your bedside, and when the spirit is departing, you will need a sacred convoy to pilot you through the dark clouds of death, guide you through the iron gate, and lead you to the blessed mansion in the land of the hereafter. Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways as my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts more than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:6-9). O Lord, turn us and we will be turned. Turn us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned (Lamentations 5:21). Draw us near and we will run after You. The glory will be yours, for the crown of our race will be cast at Your feet, and You will have the glory forever and ever.