Tuesday, May 28, 2024

An Illustrated Summary of J.C. Ryle's Practical Religion

——— 


J.C. Ryle was a gifted, compassionate minister in England whose lively wisdom still speaks in his two Christian classics, Holiness and Practical Religion. The latter book is a loving guide to the daily duties, experiences, dangers, and privileges of faithful Christians. It is available in its entirety for free, but this post is an illustrated summary of its most timeless features with its references verified and supplemented. Here are all the chapters. Each begins with a thematic Bible verse or series of verses.

 3. REALITY
 4. PRAYER
 7. LOVE
 8. ZEAL
 9. FREEDOM


"Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do." Acts 15:36

This text contains a proposal the apostle Paul made to Barnabas after their first missionary journey. He proposed revisiting the churches they had been the means of founding to see how they were getting on. Were their members continuing steadfast in the faith? Were they growing in grace? Were they going forward or standing still? Were they prospering or falling away? "Let us go again ... and see how they do."

That was a wise and useful proposal we today can take to heart and apply to ourselves. If ever self-inquiry about religion was needed, it is needed now. We live in an age of spiritual privileges. There is more taught of the real Gospel and the way of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ in one week in many parts of the world than there was in one year in most times and places. Are we any better for it? What is the true state of our souls?

We also live in an age of peculiar spiritual danger. A painfully large proportion of all congregations consists of unconverted people who know nothing of heart religion, never come to the Lord's Table, and never confess Christ in their daily lives. Our Lord's Parable of the Sower describes this situation: the hard-path hearers, the rocky-ground hearers, and thorny-ground hearers abound on every side. 

The life of many religious people, I fear,  is nothing better than a continual course of spiritual shot glasses. There is a craving for fresh excitement. All preaching seems alike to them and they appear unable to see differences, so long as they hear what is clever, have their ears tickled, and sit in a crowd. Many take a sensational or sentimental approach to religion, never content with the "ancient paths," and like the Athenians in Paul's day, always "telling or hearing something new." It is increasingly rare to see a calm-minded believer who is not stuck up, self-confident, self-conceited, and more ready to teach than learn, but content with a daily steady effort to grow up into Christ's likeness and to do His will quietly in their spheres of influence. Surely in times like these there is great need for self-examination.

I invite every reader to join me in calm, searching self-examination, speaking to myself as well as to you, for I approach you not as an enemy, but as a friend. "My heart's desire and prayer to God is that you may be saved" (Romans 10:1). Bear with me if I say things that at first sight seem hard. Believe me, he is your best friend who tells you the most truth.

1. Do we ever think about our souls at all? From the beginning of the year to the end, most people are absorbed in the pursuit of business, pleasure, politics, money, or self-indulgence of one kind or another. Death, judgment, eternity, heaven, hell, and a world to come are never calmly looked at and considered. They live on as if they were never going to die or rise again or stand before God to receive an eternal sentence. Many do not openly oppose religion, for they have not thought much about it, but they eat, drink, sleep, and get and spend money as if religion were a mere fiction and not a reality. They  never think about God unless frightened for a few minutes by sickness, death in their family, or an accident. Barring such interruptions, they appear to ignore religion altogether  and hold on their way cool and undisturbed, as if there were nothing worth thinking of except this world.

It is hard to imagine a life more unworthy of an immortal creature than such a life as I have just described, for it reduces man to the level of a beast. Like the people the Jewish prophets tried to reach, they do not "consider their ways," "consider their latter end," or "consider that they do evil" (Isaiah 1:3; Haggai 1:7; Deuteronomy 32:29; Ecclesiastes 5:1). Like Gallio the Roman proconsul, they pay "no attention to any of this" (Acts 18:17). Think about the class of people I have been describing, and then look at your own soul.

2. Do we ever do anything about our souls? There are multitudes who think occasionally about religion, but unhappily never get beyond thinking. After a stirring sermon or funeral, when under the pressure of illness or family trouble, when they meet some bright example of a Christian, or read a striking religious article or book, they will at the time think a good deal, and even talk a little about religion in a vague way. But they stop short, as if thinking and talking were enough to save them. They are always meaning, intending, purposing, resolving, wishing, and telling us they know what is right, and hope to be found right at last, but they never attain to any action. There is no actual separation from service to the world and sin, no real taking up the cross and following Christ, no positive doing in their Christianity.

Their life is spent in playing the part of the son in our Lord's parable to whom the father said, "Go, work in my vineyard." He said he would go, but he did not (Matthew 21:30). They are like those the prophet Ezekiel described who liked his preaching, but never practiced what he preached. God Himself says of them, "You are to them like one who sings a lovely song with a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: they hear your words, but do not do them" (Ezekiel 33:31-32). In a day like this, when hearing and thinking without doing is so common, no one can justly wonder that I press upon all the absolute need for self-examination.

3. Are we trying to satisfy our consciences with a mere formal religion? There are myriads at this moment making shipwreck on this rock. Like the Pharisees of old, they make much ado about the outward part of Christianity while the inward and spiritual part is totally neglected. They are careful to attend services at their place of worship, attach importance to certain days, and are often keen partisans, ready to contend with anyone who does not agree with them. Yet anyone who knows them well can see their affections are set on things below, not on things above, and that they are trying to make up for the lack of inward Christianity by an excessive quantity of outward form.

This formal religion does them no good. They are not satisfied. Beginning at the wrong end, making outward things first, they know nothing of inward joy and peace, passing their lives in a constant struggle, secretly conscious there is something wrong and yet not knowing why. If you love life, do not be content with the husk, shell, and scaffolding of religion. Remember our Savior's words about the Jewish formalists of His and Isaiah's day: "This people draws near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship" (Matthew 15:7-9; Isaiah 29:13). It requires more than going to church and receiving the Lord's Supper to take our souls to heaven. Means of grace and forms of religion are useful in their way, and God seldom does anything for His church without them. But let us beware of becoming shipwrecked on the very lighthouse meant to show us the way into the harbor.
More than scaffolding is needed.

4. Have we received the forgiveness of our sins? Few reasonable people would deny they are sinners. Many would say they are not so bad as others, and that they have not been so very wicked, but who can honestly say they have never done, said, or thought a wrong thing? As sinners we are guilty before our perfectly righteous God, and as guilty, we must be forgiven or condemned on Judgment Day. It is the glory of the Christian religion that it provides for us the very forgiveness we need: full, free, perfect, eternal, and complete.

This forgiveness of sins has been purchased for us by the eternal Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He has purchased it for us by coming into the world to be our Savior by living, dying, and rising again as our Substitute, on our behalf. He has bought it for us at the price of His own most precious blood, by suffering in our place on the cross and making satisfaction for our sins. But this forgiveness—as great, full, and glorious as it is—does not become the property of every man, woman, and child as a matter or course. It is not a privilege that every member of a church possesses. It is a thing each individual must receive for himself by his own personal faith, lay hold on by faith, appropriate by faith, and make his own by faith. If not, as far as he or she is concerned, Christ will have died in vain. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36).

No terms can be imagined more simple and more suitable to man. It is only faith that is required, and faith is nothing more than the humble, heartfelt trust of the soul that desires to be saved. Jesus is able and willing to save, but man must come to Jesus and believe. All who so believe are at once justified and forgiven, but without believing there is no forgiveness at all.

Here is exactly the point, I am afraid, where multitudes of people fail and are in imminent danger of being lost forever. They know there is no forgiveness of sin except in Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary and crucified under Pontius Pilate. But here they stop and go no further. They never come to the point of actually laying hold of Christ by faith and becoming one with Christ, and Christ in them. They can say He is the Savior, but not my Savior; the Redeemer, but not my Redeemer, so they live and die unforgiven. It is no wonder Martin Luther said that many are lost because they cannot use possessive pronouns. How about you? Never forget two things: There is such a thing as having our sins forgiven while we live, and there is such a thing as knowing and feeling that we are forgiven.

5. Do we know anything by experience of conversion to God? Without conversion, there is no salvation. "Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." "If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (Matthew 18:3; John 3:3; Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17). We are all by nature so weak, worldly, earthly minded, and inclined to sin that without a thorough change, we cannot serve God in life and could not enjoy Him after death. Just as ducks take naturally to water soon after they are hatched, so do children: as soon as they physically can do anything, they take to selfishness, lying, and deceit. None pray or love God unless they are taught. We all need a complete change that it is the special office of the Holy Spirit to give us. Whether you call this change the new birth, regeneration, renewal, new creation, quickening, or repentance, the thing must be had if we are to be saved, and if we have it, it will be seen.

An awareness of sin and deep hatred for it, faith in Christ and love for Him, delight in holiness and a longing for more of it, a love for God's people and lack of worldliness: these are signs and evidences that always accompany conversion. Myriads around us know nothing about it. They are, in Scripture language, dead, asleep, blind, and unfit for the Kingdom of God. Sometimes they flatter themselves that they are born again because they have been baptized and go to church, but they are destitute of the marks of the new birth as described by John in his first letter. No doubt there are plenty of sham conversions, but bad coin is no proof that there is no good money: rather, it is a sign there is true currency that is valuable and worth imitation. Hypocrites and phony Christians are indirect evidence that there is such a thing as real grace among men. Let us search our own hearts then and see how it is with ourselves.
Good changes take place in the truly converted.

6. Do we know anything of practical Christian holiness? It is certain that "without holiness, no one shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). It is equally certain that holiness is the invariable fruit of saving faith, the real test of regeneration, the only sound evidence of indwelling grace, and the certain consequence of vital union with Christ. Holiness is not absolute perfection and freedom from all faults. Nothing of the kind! Perfection is for heaven and not for earth, where we have a weak body, a wicked world, and a busy devil continually near our souls. Nor is real Christian holiness ever attained or maintained without a constant fight and struggle. The great apostle who said, "I fight, I labor, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection" (1 Corinthians 9:27) would be horrified to hear popular false teaching today that sanctification is without personal exertion and that believers need only sit still and everything will be done for them!

As weak and imperfect as the holiness of the best saints may be, it is a real true thing and has a character about it as unmistakable as salt and light. It will be seen much more than heard. Genuine biblical holiness will lead a person do his or her duty at home and work in the little trials of daily life. It will exhibit itself in passive graces as well as in active. It will make a person humble, kind, gentle, unselfish, good-tempered, considerate of others, loving, meek, and forgiving. It will not constrain him to go out of the world and shut himself up in a cave, like a hermit, but will make him do his duty in the state to which God has called him, on Christian principles and after the pattern of Christ.

Such holiness is not common. It is a style of practical Christianity that is painfully rare these days, but there is no other standard of holiness  that comes up to the pictures drawn by our Lord and His apostles in the Word of God. 

7. Do we know anything of enjoying the means of grace? When I speak of the means of grace, I have in mind five principle things: reading the Bible, private prayer, public worship, the Lord's Supper, and the rest of the Lord's Day. They are means God has graciously appointed to keep up the spiritual life after it has begun. The state of a person's soul depends greatly on the manner and spirit in which he or she uses the means of grace. Many people use them regularly and formally as mere duties, but know nothing of enjoying them. 

This formal, mechanical use of holy things is worthless and unprofitable. Our feeling about them is one of the many tests of the state of our souls. How can a man suppose he is ready to meet Christ if he never takes any trouble to pour out his heart to Him in private as a Friend, but is satisfied with saying a string of words every morning and evening labeled "prayer," scarcely thinking what he is praying about? How could a woman be happy in heaven forever who finds Sunday a dull day, who knows nothing of hearty prayer and praise, and cares nothing whether she hears truth or error from the pulpit, or scarcely listens to the sermon? What can be the spiritual condition of the man or woman whose heart and mind is never moved by the bread and wine that remind us of Christ's very real and painful sacrifice on the cross for the atonement of sin?

These inquiries are very serious and important. If the means of grace had no other use, and were not mighty helps towards heaven, they would be useful in supplying a test of our real state in the sight of God. Tell me what a man does in the matter of Bible reading, prayer, Sunday worship, and the Lord's Supper and I will soon tell you what he is and on what road he is traveling. How do you do in these matters?

8. Do we ever try to do any good in the world? Our Lord Jesus Christ was continually "going about doing good" while He was on earth (Acts 10:38). The apostles, and all the disciples in Bible times, were always striving to walk in His steps. A "Christian" who was content to go to heaven himself but did not care what became of others, whether they lived happy and died in peace or not, would have been regarded as a kind of monster in biblical times, clearly devoid of the Spirit of Christ. Why should we suppose for a moment that a lower standard will suffice in the present day? Why should a fig tree that bears no fruit be spared in the present day when in our Lord's time it was cut down for using up the ground (Luke 13:6-7)? These are serious inquiries that demand serious answers. 

There is a generation of professing Christians who seem to know nothing of caring for their neighbors, wholly swallowed up in their own family concerns. They eat, drink, sleep, dress, work, and get and spend money year after year, but whether others are happy or miserable, well or ill, converted or unconverted, traveling toward heaven or toward hell appear to be questions about which they are supremely indifferent. How can that be reconciled with the religion of Him who spoke the Parable of the Good Samaritan, telling us to "go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37)?

There is much to be done on every side. There is no place  where there is not a field for work and an open door for being useful if anyone is willing to enter it. There is not a Christian who cannot find some good work to do for others if he or she has the heart to do it. The poorest man or woman, without a single penny to give, can always show his or her deep sympathy to the sick and sorrowful, and by simple good nature and tender helpfulness, lessen the misery and increase the comfort of someone in this troubled world. But so many professing Christians, whether rich or poor, seem possessed with a devil of detestable selfishness. They can argue about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, worship, music, and other subjects, but  seem to care nothing for their neighbors.

The plain practical point, whether they love their neighbor as the Samaritan loved the traveler in the parable, and can spare time and trouble to do him good, is a point they never touch with one of their fingers. In too many churches, true love seems almost dead, and wretched party-spirit and controversy are the only fruits that Christianity appears able to produce.  Do you ever try to do any good to anyone beside your own friends and relatives, and your own party or cause?

9. Do we know anything of living in habitual communion with Christ? By communion I mean what Jesus speaks of as abiding in Him as essential for Christian fruitfulness (John 15:4-8). Let it be distinctly understood that union with Christ is one thing, and communion is another. There can be no communion with the Lord Jesus without union first, but unhappily there may be union and afterwards little or no communion at all. Union is the common privilege of all who feel their sins and truly repent, coming to Christ by faith and thereby accepted, forgiven, and justified in Him. Some, however, partly by ignorance, laziness, fear, or attachment to something unworthy, are content with just a little faith, hope, peace, and holiness. They live in doubt, are weak, and bear little spiritual fruit.

Communion with Christ is the privilege of those who are continually striving to grow in grace, faith, knowledge, and conformity to the mind of Christ in all things. They do not "look to the things behind" or "consider themselves to have attained," but "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12-16). Union is the bud, but communion is the flower; union is the baby, but communion is the full-grown man or woman. He who has union with Christ does well, but he or she who enjoys communion with Him does far better.

The secret of communion with Christ is to be continually living a life of faith in Him, consciously depending on Him for the supply that every hour requires. "To me," said Paul, "to live in Christ. I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Philippians 1:21; Galatians 2:20; Matthew 6:11, 34). Communion like this will "fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (Romans 15:13). The apostle Peter tells us that Christ's "divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). Faithful Christians throughout church history have used the divine nature Christ implanted in them boldly and confidently, becoming "more than conquerors through Him who loves us" (Romans 8:37). Like Paul they said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). 

The churches of these latter days are full of weak, powerless, and uninfluential believers, saved at last, "but so as by fire," never "turning the world upside down" and knowing nothing of an "abundant entrance" (1 Corinthians 3:15; Acts 17:6; 2 Peter 1:11). In the Christian classic The Pilgrim's Progress, the allegorical characters Despondency, Feeble-mind, and Much-afraid reached the Celestial City as really and truly as Valiant-for-truth and Greatheart. But they certainly did not reach it with the same comfort and did only a fraction of the same good in the world. In the matter of vital communion with Christ, how are you doing?

10. Last, are we ready for Christ's second coming? He is coming back for sure. The world has not seen the last of Him. We have it on His own authority as well as that of angelic eyewitnesses that as surely as the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven bodily on the Mount of Olives, so He will come again, "with power and great glory" (Acts 1:11-12; Matthew 24:30-31). He will come to raise the dead, change the living, reward His saints, punish the wicked, and renew the earth, taking away its curse and setting up a Kingdom where sin shall have no place and holiness shall be the universal way of life.

Are we living as if we long to see Christ return and love His appearing? Readiness for that appearing is nothing more than being a real, consistent Christian. It requires no man to cease from his daily business. Each and all cannot do better than be found doing his or her duty, but doing it as a Christian with a heart packed up and ready to be gone. The majority of professing Christians seem like the people in the times of Noah and Lot, who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building up to the day when flood and fire came. These words of our Master are very solemn and heart searching: "Remember Lot's wife. Take heed lest at any time your heart is preoccupied with the cares of this life, and that Day comes upon you unexpectedly" (Luke 17:32; 21:34). In the matter of readiness for Christ's second coming, how are you doing?

I end my inquiries here. I might easily add to them, but I trust I have said enough to stir up self-inquiry and self-examination. God is my witness that I have said nothing that I do not feel of paramount importance to my own soul. I only want to do good to others. Let me conclude with five points of application:

A. Is anyone reading this asleep and utterly thoughtless about religion? Awake and sleep no more! Look at the cemeteries. One by one the people around you are dropping into them, and one day you must lie there. Look to the world to come and lay your hand on your heart and say, if you dare, that you are fit to die and meet God. You are like one sleeping in a boat drifting down a stream toward the Niagara Falls! "Why are you sleeping at a time like this? Arise and call upon your God! Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Jonah 1:6; Ephesians 5:14).

B. Is anyone reading this feeling self-condemned and afraid there is no hope for his or her soul? Cast aside your fears and accept the offer of the Lord Jesus Christ to sinners. Hear Him saying, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). "Whoever comes to Me I never cast out" (John 6:37). Do not doubt that these words are for you as well as for anyone else. Bring all your sins, unbelief, sense of guilt, unfitness, doubts, and weaknesses—bring them all to Christ. "This Man receives sinners," and He will receive you (Luke 15:2). Do not stand still, halting between two opinions, waiting for a convenient season. "Get up, He is calling you!" (Mark 10:49). Come to Christ this very day.

C. Is anyone reading this a professing believer in Christ, but without much joy, peace, and comfort? Search your own heart and see whether the fault lies with you. Very likely you are sitting at ease, content with only a little faith, repentance, grace, and sanctification, unconsciously shrinking back from spiritual effort. Change your plan without delay if you love life and would see good days. Come out boldly and act decidedly. Be thorough, very thorough, in your Christianity, Lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset you. Strive to get nearer to Christ to abide in Him, cleave to Him, and sit at His feel like Mary, drinking full cups from the fountain of life. "These things we write to you that your joy may be full.... If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 John 1:4, 7).

D. Is anyone reading this a believer oppressed with doubts and fears because of his or her feebleness, infirmity, and sense of sin? Remember the text that says of Jesus, "A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench" (Matthew 12:20). Take comfort in the thought that this text is for you. If your faith is weak, it is better than no faith at all. The least grain of life is better than death. Perhaps you are expecting too much in this world. Earth is not heaven. You are in a fallen human body not yet refashioned. Expect little from self, but much from Christ. Look more to Jesus and less to self.

E. Is anyone reading this sometimes downcast by the trials he or she meets with on the way to heaven: bodily trials, family trials, and trials of circumstances from neighbors or the world? Look up to a sympathizing Savior at God's right hand, and pour out your heart to Him. "Because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Are you alone? So was He. Are you misrepresented? So was He. Are you forsaken by friends? So was He. Are you persecuted? So was He. Are you weary in body and grieved in spirit? So was He. The Lord Jesus can feel for you, and He can help as well as feel. Learn to draw nearer to Him. Time is short. "Surely there is an end and your hope will not be cut off" (Proverbs 23:18). "You have need of patience so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. In just a little while, the Coming One will come and will not delay" (Hebrews 10:36-37).



"Strive to enter in at the narrow door: many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able." Luke 13:24

There was once a man who asked our Lord Jesus Christ a very deep question: "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" Jesus seized the opportunity to direct the minds of all around Him to their own plain duty. "Strive," He cries, "to enter in at the narrow door!" Whether there be few or many saved, your course is clear: strive to enter. Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. A day will come when many seek to enter in, but will not be able. Strive to enter in now.

This text from Luke's Gospel deserves special remembrance in our present day. It teaches unmistakably about our personal responsibility for the salvation of our souls. It shows the immense danger of putting off the great business of religion, as so many unhappily do. Here is: 1. A description of the way of salvation: Jesus calls it "the narrow door." 2. A plain command: "strive to enter in." 3. A solemn prophecy: "many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." May all who read this know the way of salvation experientially, obey the command of the Lord practically, and be found safe on the great day of His second coming.

1. A description of the way of salvation: Jesus calls it "the narrow door." There is a door or gate that leads to pardon, peace with God, and heaven. Whoever goes in by that door will be saved. Never was such a door more needed because sin is such a vast mountain between man and God. How shall a man climb over it? God is in heaven, holy, pure, spiritual, undefiled, light without any darkness at all (1 John 1:5), a Being who cannot bear that which is evil. Man is a poor, fallen worm crawling on earth for a few years—sinful, corrupt, erring, defective; a being whose imagination is only evil (Genesis 6:5), and whose heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). How shall man ever draw near to his Maker without fear and shame? Blessed be God, there is a way! It is the door spoken of in the words of Christ.

This door was made for sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. From all eternity He committed that He would make it. In "the fullness of time" (Galatians 4:4) He came into the world and made that door by His own atoning death on the cross. By His death and resurrection He made satisfaction for man's sin, paid man's debt to God, and bore man's punishment. He built a great gate at the cost of His own body and blood. Jesus calls out to us, "I am the door. By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9). "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). "By Him," says Paul, "we have boldness and access with confidence" (Ephesians 3:12).

Jesus describes this door as narrow (Luke 13:24; Matthew 7:13-14). It is narrow to all who love sin and are determined not to part with it. It is narrow to all who set their affection on this world and seek first its pleasures and rewards. It is narrow to all who dislike trouble and are unwilling to take pains and make sacrifices for their souls. It is narrow to all who like company and want to keep in with the crowd. It is narrow to all who are self-righteous and think they are good people who deserve to be saved. God is not unwilling to receive them; their sins are not too many to be forgiven, but they are not willing to be saved in God's way. The door never alters. It is not elastic: it will not stretch to accommodate one more than another. It is narrow.

As narrow as this door is, it is the only one by which men and women can get to heaven. There is no side gate. All who will be saved are saved only by Christ and simple faith in Him. Although this door is narrow, it is always ready to open. No sinners of any kind are forbidden to draw near: whoever will believe in Christ may enter in and be saved (John 3:16). There is but one condition of admission: that you really feel your sins and desire to be saved by Christ on His own terms. Do you have a broken and contrite heart? Behold the gate of salvation and come in! He who made it declares, "Whoever comes to Me I will never cast out" (John 6:37).

As narrow as this gate is, it is one through which multitudes have gone in and been saved. No sinner was ever turned back and told he was too bad to be admitted if he came really sick of his sins. Thousands of all sorts have been received, cleansed, washed, pardoned, clothes, and made heirs of eternal life. Some of them seemed very unlikely to be admitted. You and I might have thought they were too bad to be saved. But He who built the door did not refuse them. As soon as they knocked, He gave orders that they should be let in.

King Manasseh went up to this gate. None could have been worse than he. He had despised his godly father Hezekiah's example and advice. He had bowed down to idols and filled Jerusalem with bloodshed and cruelty, even to the point of killing his own children. But as soon as his eyes were opened to his sins and he fled to God for pardon, the gate flew wide open and he was saved. The same can be said for Jewish people who called for Christ's crucifixion (Acts 2), Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9), and the Philippian jailer (Acts 16). 

But why stop short in Bible examples? Think of the multitudes who have gone through the narrow door since the days of the apostles. Thousands of all ranks, classes, and ages—educated and uneducated, rich and poor, old and young—have tried the door and found it ready to open, also finding peace for their souls and real happiness. They have found Christ's yoke to be easy and His burden to be light. Their only regrets have been that so few enter in and that they themselves did not enter in before.

Think of what a privilege it is to have a gate at all. You have the gate set plainly before you: you have Christ and full salvation offered to you. Consider what a mercy this is! Beware that you do not despise the gate and perish in unbelief. Better a thousand times not to know of the gate than to know of it and yet wait outside. How will you escape if you "neglect such a great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).

Think of what a thankful person you ought to be if you have really gone in through the narrow door. To be a pardoned, forgiven, justified soul—to be ready for sickness, death, judgment, and eternity—and to be always provided for in both worlds: surely this is a matter for daily praise! Singing songs of praise has long been a special mark of Christians. It is no mark of a healthy state of mind when there is much complaining and little praise. Always remember it is an amazing mercy that there is any door of salvation at all, but still a greater mercy when we are taught to enter by it and be saved.

2. Here is a plain command: Jesus says to us, "Strive to enter in at the narrow door." Jesus always chose His words with care. Strive speaks of diligent effort. Things like public worship, reading the Bible and hearing the Gospel preached stand in the middle between man and God. No one can change his own heart or make him or herself in the least degree acceptable to God, but if a person could do nothing but sit still, Christ never would have said strive.

Strive teaches that man is a free agent and will be dealt with by God as a responsible being. The Lord does not tell us to wait, wish, feel, hope, and desire. He says, "Strive!" He also says to sinners, "Come, repent, believe, labor, ask, seek, knock." The Scriptures clearly teach that our salvation, from first to last, is entirely of God, but I see with no less plainness that our ruin, if we end up lost, is wholly and entirely of ourselves. Sinners are always addressed as accountable and responsible. No better proof is there than strive.

Strive teaches that a man must expect many adversaries and a hard battle if he would have his soul saved. There are no "gains without pains" in spiritual things any more than in temporal. That roaring lion, the devil, will never let a soul escape from him without a struggle (1 Peter 5:8). What great and good thing was ever done without trouble? What does not grow without plowing and sowing? Riches are not obtained without care and attention; success in life is not won without hardships and toil. Heaven, above all, is not to be reached without the cross and the battle. The violent take the Kingdom "by force" (Matthew 11:12). A man and woman must strive.

Strive teaches that laziness in religion is a great sin. It is a breach of a plain commandment. "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). What shall be said of the man who neglects his soul and makes no effort to enter the narrow door? He is disobeying Christ, who says, "Strive" but he sits still. All outside the door are in danger of being lost forever. There is but a step between them and death. The Lord Jesus Himself experienced the uncertainty of life and the shortness of time, so He encouraged sinners to take heed that they not be too late.

Strive raises solemn thoughts in my mind. It condemns the ways and practices of many who profess and call themselves Christians. Most of them never swear, lie, steal, murder, or commit adultery, but neither can it be said that they ever strive to be saved. What shall I say about those who are irregular about public worship on Sundays or who come only as a matter of form without heart or care? How about those who seldom or never read God's Word, the Bible? What of those who never really pray? Is that striving? I write to readers of common sense. Let them judge what I say.

I am not writing from hearsay. I speak what I have seen in decades of ministry experience. I have seen how true are our Lord's words about the narrow way. I have discovered how few there are who strive to be saved. Earnestness about temporal matters is common enough: striving over money, business, politics, trade, science, fine arts, amusements, rent, wages, labor, and land. But I see few who take pains about their souls.


I am not surprised by all this. I read in the Bible that it is only what I am to expect. The Parable of the Great Banquet is an exact picture of things I have seen with my own eyes since I became a minister. I find, as my Lord and Savior tells me, that "men make excuses." One had his piece of land to see, another his oxen to test, and a third had his family hindrances. But all that does not prevent my feeling deeply grieved for the souls of men and women, that they should have eternal life so close to them, yet be lost because they will not strive to enter in and be saved.

Do not suppose it needs some great sin to bring you to the pit of destruction. You have only to sit still and do nothing, and you will find yourself there at last. Never give way to the idea that you are taking too much trouble about your spiritual condition, and that there is no need for such carefulness. Settle it rather in your mind that "in all labor there is profit" (Proverbs 14:23), and that no labor is as profitable as that bestowed on the soul. It should be a maxim among Christians that the more they do for their religion, the more their religion will do for them. Beware of shortening your prayers, Bible reading, and communion with God. Do not give way to a thoughtless, lazy manner of engaging in public worship, but be intentional, thoughtful, and cheerful. Whatever you do for God, do it with all your heart, mind, and strength. In other things be moderate and dread extremes. In matters of the soul, however, fear moderation as you would fear a pandemic. Do not care what others think of you. Let it be enough for you that your Master says strive.

3. The solemn prophecy the Lord Jesus delivers: "Many will seek to enter in, but will not be able." When shall this be? At what period will the door of salvation be shut forever? When shall "striving" to enter be of no more use? These are serious questions. The door is now ready to open to all kinds of sinners, but a day comes when it shall open no more.

The time foretold by our Lord is that of His own second coming to judge the world. The patience of God will at last have an end. The throne of grace will at length be taken down and the throne of judgment set in its place. The day of reckoning with a sin-laden world will finally begin. That is when Jesus's solemn prophecy will be fulfilled: "many will seek to enter in, but will not be able."

All prophecies of Scripture that have been fulfilled up to now have been fulfilled to the very letter. They seemed to many unlikely, improbable, and even impossible up to the very time of their accomplishment. Not one of them has ever failed. The promises of good things have come to pass in spite of difficulties that seemed insuperable. Sarah the wife of Abraham had a son when she was very old, the Israelites were brought out of bondage in Egypt and planted in the promised land, the Jews were redeemed from captivity in Babylon after the prophesied 70 years and enabled to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, and the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, lived, ministered, was betrayed, crucified, resurrected, and ascended precisely as Scripture foretold.

The predictions of judgment on powerful cities and nations have come to pass, thought at the time they were first spoken they seemed incredible. Egypt is nothing compared to what it once was; Edom is a wilderness; Nineveh, that "exceedingly great city," became a desolation; Babylon is a dry land and a wilderness; the Jewish people were scattered over the whole earth for centuries, yet remained intact as a people group and became a nation again in modern times.

The prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ on which I press your attention shall be fulfilled in a similar manner. A time is coming when seeking God shall be useless. Remember that! When Christ returns, "many will seek to enter in, but will not be able." This will not happen to a few: it shall be the miserable end of a vast crowd.

Knowledge shall come to many too late. They shall see at last the value of the immortal soul and the happiness of having it saved. They shall finally understand their own sinfulness and God's holiness, and the glorious nature of the Gospel of Christ. They shall comprehend at last why faithful Christians spoke to them so earnestly and so long to be converted.

Repentance shall come to many too late. They shall discover their own exceeding wickedness and be thoroughly ashamed of their past folly. They shall be full of bitter regret and piercing sorrows. The remembrance of their lives will be grievous to them; the burden of their guilt will seem intolerable.

Faith shall come to many too late. They will no longer be able to deny that there is a God, a devil, a heaven, and a hell. Skepticism and unbelief will be laid aside forever, as will scoffing and jesting. They will see with their own eyes and feel in their own bodies that the things of which ministers and others spoke were not cunningly devised fables, but great and real truths. They will find out at their own expense that evangelical religion was not fanatical, but the one thing needful.

What are the dear things now? Gold, silver, precious stones, currency, mines, lands, houses, transportation, food, drink, clothing, and the like. These are the things that are thought valuable. These are the things that command a ready market, things you can never get below a certain price.

What are the cheap things now? The knowledge of God, the free salvation of the Gospel, the favor of Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the privilege of being God's son or daughter, the title to eternal life, the right to the tree of life, the promises of an incorruptible inheritance. They are offered "without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1), freely and gratuitously. Whoever will may take his portion. Sadly, there is little appreciation and demand for these things.

But a day is coming when the value of everything shall be altered. Multitudes will care nothing for the things they once lived for, and will desire nothing so much as the things they once despised. The favor of the rich and influential will be remembered no more in longing for the favor of the King of kings. Hell is a truth known too late. Let these words from Wisdom personified motivate you now when it is not too late: "Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices" (Proverbs 1:24-31).

Some of you reading this may think the Christian faith is distasteful and not like the practice that the Gospel of Christ requires. You think us extreme when we urge you to repent and be converted. You think we ask too much to come out from the world, take up the cross, and follow Christ. But take notice that once day you will confess that we were right and you were wrong. Many of you reading this love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Take comfort looking forward. You have to bear hard words, unkind insinuations, and sometimes open persecution. You will see those who laugh at you now because you read the Bible, pray, and love Christ in a very different state of mind. They will come to you as the foolish virgins came to the wise, saying, "Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out" (Matthew 25:8). Confess Christ boldly before the world. Show your colors and do not be ashamed of your Master. Time is short; eternity hastens on. The cross is only for a little while; the crown is forever.

Now let me offer to everyone who reads this parting words of application. You have seen the picture of the way of salvation: it is a narrow door. You have heard the command of the King: "strive to enter in." You also know His future warning: "many will seek to enter in, but will not be able."

A. Have you entered in the narrow door or not? I am not asking whether you have heard of it and believe there is a door, or that you admire it and hope one day to go in. Have you gone up to it, knocked at it, been admitted, and are now inside?

If you are not inside, what good is your religion? You are not pardoned and forgiven. You are not reconciled to God. You are not born again and being sanctified throughout this life. If you die as you are, "you will die in your sins" (John 8:24) and face eternal judgment. Think: your life "is like a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:13-17). A few more years and you are gone. Your place in the world will soon be filled up, your house will be occupied by another, but your soul will be lost to all eternity. The door of salvation is open to you now. God invites you. Jesus Christ offers to save you. Are you willing to be saved?

B. Enter in without delay. Tell me, if you can, of anyone whoever entered in the narrow door and was afterwards sorry. I know of none. The footsteps on the threshold of that door are all one way. All have found it a good thing to serve Christ and have never regretted taking up His cross. Make a beginning this very day. Go to that merciful and mighty Savior in prayer, pouring out your heart and mind before Him. Confess to Him your guilt, wickedness, and sin. Keep nothing back. Tell Him you cast yourself and all your soul's affairs wholly in His hands, and ask Him to save you according to His promise and put His Holy Spirit within you.

C. Tell others of the blessings that come from entering the narrow door. All converted people are to be missionaries, not all to foreign lands, but to all around them. When Andrew was converted, he found his brother Simon (later called Peter) and said to him, "We have found the Messiah (which means Christ)! And he brought him to Jesus" (John 1:41-42). When Philip entered the narrow door, he found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote about, Jesus of Nazareth." Nathanael said dismissively, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip replied, "Come and see." Nathanael did and soon entered the narrow door himself (John 1:43-51). When the Samaritan woman was converted, "she left behind her water jar and went into the city, saying to the men, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?'" (John 4:28-29). When Saul the Pharisee was converted, "Immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'" (Acts 9:20). 

The great door of salvation is still ready to open, but the hour approaches when it will be closed forever. Let us, as Jesus said, do God's work while it is day since "night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). Let us tell our relatives and friends that we have proved the way of life and found it pleasant, that we have tasted the bread of life and found it good. Let us watch carefully for opportunities to speak with them. Let us tell them of the narrow door and urge them to "strive to enter in." Who can tell what a word "spoken in season" (Proverbs 15:23; Colossians 4:5-6) may do? It may be the turning point in some man or woman's history. 



"Rejected silver." Jeremiah 6:20
"Nothing but leaves." Mark 11:13
"Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth." 1 John 3:18
"You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead." Revelation 3:1

If we profess to have any religion at all, let us take care that it is real: that it is genuine, sincere, honest, and thorough, not hollow, false, counterfeit, and nominal. It may sometimes be weak and mingled with many infirmities, but real Christianity is something inward, solid, substantial, living, and lasting. I will endeavor to do two things: to show the importance of reality in religion and supply tests by which we may prove whether our own religion is real.

1. The importance of reality in religion. Can it be said that reality is rightly esteemed among professing Christians? I deny it entirely. Most people who profess to admire reality in religion seem to think everyone possesses it. They claim that most people have got good hearts at bottom, being sincere and true in the main, although they may make mistakes. They accuse Christians who doubt anyone's goodness of heart as uncharitable, harsh, and censorious. That widespread delusion is one of the reasons I take up this subject. What do the Scriptures say? Let us turn to our Bibles and examine them fairly.

A. Let us look at the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ. Observe how many of them put in strong contrast the true believer and the mere nominal disciple. The parables of the sower, the wheat and tares, the dragnet, the two sons, the wedding garment, the ten virgins, the talents, the great banquet, the 10 minas, and the two builders all have one great point in common: bringing out in striking colors the difference between reality and unreality in religion. They all show the uselessness and danger of any Christianity that is not real, thorough, and true.

B. Let us look at how the Lord described the scribes and Pharisees. Eight times over in one chapter (Matthew 23) we find Him denouncing them as hypocrites. In words of almost fearful severity He states, "You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?" What may we learn from these tremendously strong expressions? How is it that our gracious Lord and merciful Savior used such strong words about people who were more outwardly moral than the tax collectors and prostitutes He ministered to? It is meant to teach us the exceeding abominableness of false profession and mere outward religion in God's sight.  Open immorality and willful obedience to fleshly lusts are no doubt ruinous sins if not given up, but there seems nothing more displeasing to Christ than hypocrisy and unreality.

C. Let us look at the startling fact that there is hardly a virtue in the character of a true Christian of which you will not find a counterfeit described in the Word of God. 

* Is there not an unreal repentance? Consider the examples of Judas Iscariot and Kings Saul, Ahab, and Herod. They had many feelings of sorrow about sin, but never repented unto salvation.

* Is there not an unreal faith? We are told that Simon the sorcerer in Samaria  "believed," yet his heart was not right in the sight of God (Acts 8:9-24). It is written, "Even the devils believe—and shudder" (James 2:19). 

* Is there not an unreal holiness? Joash, king of Judah, was to all appearance very holy and good while Jehoiada the priest lived, but as soon as Jehoiada died, the religion of Joash died at the same time (2 Chronicles 24). Judas Iscariot's outward life was as correct as any of the apostles' up to the time he betrayed His Master. There was nothing suspicious about him at the time. Yet in reality he was "a thief" (John 12:6) and a traitor. 

* Is there not an unreal love and charity? Picture a great show of affection while the heart does not love at all. It is not for nothing that John writes, "Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth" (1 John 3:18), or that Paul says, "Let love be genuine" (Romans 12:9).

* Is there not an unreal humility? Paul warns against the mere "appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value" (Colossians 2:18-23).

* Is there not unreal praying? Our Lord said of the Pharisees, "You devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers" (Matthew 23:14). He did not charge them with not praying or making short prayers. Their sin was that their prayers were not real.

*Is there not unreal worship? Our Lord, quoting the prophet Isaiah, said of co-religionists at the time, "This people draws near to Me with their mouths and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Matthew 15:8; Isaiah 29:13). They had plenty of formal services in their synagogues and temple, but the fatal defect about so many of them was lack of reality and heart.

*Is there not unreal talking about religion? God warns the prophet Ezekiel about people who talk and speak like His people, "but their hearts pursue their own gain" (Ezekiel 33:31). Paul tells us we may speak with the tongues of men and angels, but be no better than sounding brass or a clanging symbol (1 Corinthians 13:1).

What shall we say about these things? Beware of base metal in religion. Be genuine. Be thorough. Be real. Be true.

2. Tests by which we may try the reality of our religion. I ask every reader to deal fairly, honestly, and reasonably with his or her soul. Believe me, it is no light matter. It is your life.

A. If you would know whether your religion is real, try it by the place it occupies in your inner self. It is not enough that it is in your head. You may know the truth, assent to it, and believe in it to some degree, yet be wrong in God's sight. It is not enough that it is on your lips. You may say amen to public prayer in church, yet have nothing more than an outward religion. It is not enough that it is in your feelings. You may weep when hearing something inspirational, yet be dead to God. Your religion, if it is real and given by the Holy Spirit, must be in your heart. It must lead your will, sway your real affections, direct your tastes, and influence your choices and decisions. Is this your religion? As Paul says, "With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10).

B. If you would know whether your religion is real, try it by the feelings toward sin it produces. The Christianity from the Spirit of God will not merely regard sin as a blemish and misfortune. It will see in sin the abominable thing God hates, the thing that makes man guilty and lost in his Maker's sight, the thing that rightly deserves God's wrath and condemnation.  It will look on sin as the cause of all sorrow and unhappiness, of strife and wars, of quarrels and contentions, of sickness and death—the blight of God's fair creation and the cursed thing that makes the whole earth groan. Above all, it will see in sin the thing that will ruin us eternally apart from the ransom provided only by the Lord Jesus Christ. Are these your feelings about sin? If not, you may well doubt whether your religion is real.

C. If you would know whether your religion is real, try it by the feelings toward Christ it produces. Nominal religion may believe that such a Person as Christ existed and that He was a great benefactor to mankind. It may show Him some external respect, but will go no further. Real religion will make a person glory in Christ as the Redeemer, Deliverer, Priest, and Friend without whom he or she would have no hope at all. It will produce confidence in Him, love toward Him, and delight and comfort Him as the food, light, life, and peace of the soul. Is this your religion? Do you know anything of feelings like these toward the Lord Jesus Christ?

D. If you would know whether your religion is real, try it by the fruit it bears in your heart and life. The Christianity from above will always produce repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, spirituality, kindness, self-denial, unselfishness, forgiveness, self-control, truthfulness, and patience. The degree to which these various virtues appear will vary in different believers. The germ and seeds of them will be found in all who are the children of God. By their fruits they may be known. Is this your religion? If not, you may well doubt whether it is real.


E. In the last place, if you would know whether your religion is real, try it by your feelings and habits regarding the means of grace. Prove it by the Sunday. Is it for you a day of weariness and constraint or a delight and refreshment, a foretaste of the rest to come in heaven? What are your feelings about public prayer and praise, the preaching of God's Word, and participating in the Lord's Supper? Do you find it essential to your comfort to read the Bible regularly in private and speak to God in prayer, or do you find these practices irksome and either rush them along or neglect them altogether? These questions deserve your attention so you can determine whether your religion is real. If your heart is right in the sight of God, you have no cause to flinch from examination. If it is wrong, the sooner you find it out the better.

The years of our life are fast passing away. Who knows whether this may be you last year of earthly life? Be a real and true Christian. Do not be base metal. The day is fast coming when nothing but reality will stand the fire. Real repentance towards God, real faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, real holiness of heart and life are what will matter then, and are what matter now.


4. PRAYER

"Men ought always to pray." Luke 18:1

"I desire that men pray everywhere." 1 Timothy 2:8

Prayer is the most important subject in practical religion. All other subjects are second to it. I now present 7 plain reasons why I use such strong language about prayer.

1. Prayer is absolutely needful for a person's salvation. I am not now speaking of infants and the like. A person cannot have salvation without asking for it. Nobody will be saved by his prayers, but without prayer nobody will be saved. By contrast, it is not absolutely needful to salvation that a man should read the Bible or hear the Gospel preached. He may live where the Gospel is not preached, be bedridden, blind, or deaf, yet believe the saving Gospel truth he has been exposed to. The same thing cannot be said about prayer.

No one can eat, drink, or sleep by proxy. No one can get the alphabet learned for him by another. All these are things everyone must do for him or herself or they will not be done at all. Just as it is with the mind and body, so it is with the soul. There are certain things absolutely needful to the soul's health and well being. Each one must attend to these things for himself. Each must repent for himself. Each must apply to Christ for himself. And for himself each one must speak to God and pray.

How can we expect to be saved by an unknown God? (Acts 17:22-24). If we wish to be with Him in heaven, we must be His friends on earth. If we wish to be His friends on earth, we must regularly talk to Him through prayer. There will be many at Christ's side in the Last Day. Saints gathered from north, south, east, and west will form "a great multitude that no one can number" (Revelation 7:9). The song of victory that will burst from their lips when their redemption is finally complete will be a glorious song indeed. It will be far above the sound of mighty waters and rolling thunder. They will sing with one heart and voice since their experience will be one and the same: all will have believed in Christ's atoning work for them, all will have been born again, all will have prayed. We must go through the school of prayer on earth to be fit for this holiday of praise. To be prayerless is to be without God and Christ and heaven. It is to be on the road to hell.

2. A habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian. All the children of God on earth are alike in this respect. From the moment there is any life and reality about their religion, they pray. Just like the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying. Jesus describes those who have been called to salvation, God's elect, as those who "cry out day and night to Him" (Luke 18:1-7). When we are adopted into God's family by the Holy Spirit, "we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15). It is as much a part of our new nature as genuine Christians to pray as it is of young children to cry. Like them, we feel our hunger and weakness. We cannot do otherwise; we must pray.

Look carefully over the lives of God's people from Genesis through Revelation in the Bible and you will see their devotion to God in prayer. In contrast, a major characteristic of the wicked is that they do not call upon the Lord (Psalm 14:4; 79:6; Jeremiah 10:25, Hosea 7:7; Isaiah 64:7). Read about the lives of eminent Christians from Bible times to the present day and you will find varieties in their levels of education, wealth, social status, and denominational backgrounds, but one thing they all have in common: they have all been men and women of prayer. People who have been converted to Christ from around the world are different from one another in many respects, but converted people always pray.

I do not deny that a person may pray without heart and sincerity. The mere fact of praying proves nothing about his or her soul. As in every part of religion, there is plenty of deception and hypocrisy. But this I do say: not praying is clear proof that a man is not yet a true Christian. He cannot really feel his sins, love God, sense himself a debtor to Christ, long after holiness, truly desire heaven, or be born again. He has yet to be made a new creature if he does not pray. A man may write books, preach, make fine speeches, and seem diligent in good works, yet be a Judas Iscariot.

A man does not shut his door and pour out his soul before God in secret unless he is in earnest. When the Lord Jesus sent Ananias to Saul in Damascus, He gave him no other evidence of Saul's change of heart than this: "Behold, he is praying" (Acts 9:11). Much may go on in a man's mind before he is brought to pray. He may have many convictions, desires, feelings, intentions, resolutions, hopes, and fears. But all those things are to be found in ungodly people, and often come to nothing. In many cases their "faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away" (Hosea 6:4). A real, hearty prayer flowing from a broken and contrite spirit is worth all those things put together.

The first act of faith will be to speak to God. Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to life. Your views of doctrine may be correct, but still may be nothing more than head knowledge and party spirit. The great point is whether you can speak to God as well as speak about God.

3. There is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer. I say this as a minister with experience. Many utter mere form prayers, but words said without heart are useless to the soul. Saul surely said many long prayers before the Lord met him on the way to Damascus, but it was not until his heart was broken that the Lord said he was really praying. Consider the slipshod lives many professing Christians live. Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer. Consider the deaths many die. I remember hearing of a lady who was anxious to have a minister pray with her in her last illness. He asked her what he should pray for. She did not know and could not tell. All she seemed to want was the form of a minister's prayers. Deathbeds are great revealers of secrets. I cannot forget what I have seen of sick and dying people. That also leads me to believe that few really pray.

4. Prayer is that act in religion in which there is the greatest encouragement. God has done everything on His part to make prayer easy if men and women will only attempt it. "All things are now ready" on His side (Luke 14:17). Every objection is anticipated. Every difficulty is provided for. The crooked places are made straight, and the rough places made smooth (Isaiah 40). There is no excuse left for prayerless people.

A. There is a way by which any man and woman, however sinful and unworthy, may draw near to God the Father. Jesus Christ has opened that way by His atoning sacrifice on the cross. The holiness and justice of God need not frighten sinners and keep them back. Only let them cry to God in the name of Jesus, and they shall find Him on a throne of grace, ready to hear. In that name they may draw near to God with boldness and pray with confidence (Hebrews 4:13-16). Is not this great encouragement?

B. There is an advocate and intercessor always waiting to present the prayers of those who will employ Him, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). He is now at the right hand of God, "able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Poor as our prayers are in themselves, they are powerful in the hands of our High Priest and Elder Brother. There was an officer in the city of Rome who was appointed to have his doors always open to receive any Roman citizen who came to him for help. Just so the ear of the Lord Jesus is always open to the cry of those who seek His mercy and grace. It is His job to help them. Their prayer is His delight. Think how encouraging this is!

C. There is the Holy Spirit always ready to help our infirmities in prayer. We do not always know what to pray for, but "the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us" (Romans 8:26). We do not need to be distressed by fear from not knowing what to say to God. The Spirit will give us words if we seek His aid. Surely the Lord's people may well hope to be heard; it is not merely they who pray. Think about this. Are you not encouraged?

D. There are many great and precious promises to those who pray. Jesus says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). He also promises, "Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matthew 21:22) and "whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13-14). Think about Jesus's parables of the friend begging for bread next door at midnight (Luke 11:5-13) and the widow relentlessly pursuing justice from an unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Can you think of any better encouragements to pray?

E. There are wonderful examples in Scripture of the power of prayer. Nothing seems to be too great, hard, or difficult for prayer to do. It has obtained things that seemed impossible and out of reach. It has won victories over fire, air, earth, and water. Prayer opened the Red Sea, brought water from a rock, and bread from heaven. Prayer made the sun stand still, brought fire from the sky on Elijah's sacrifice, turned the shrewd but ruthless counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, and overthrew the army of Sennacherib. It is understandable that Mary, Queen of Scots said, "I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of 10,000 men." Prayer has healed the sick, raised the dead, and brought about the conversion of souls. Think of all this. Are you not encouraged?

5. Diligence in prayer is the secret of holiness. There is a vast difference among true Christians. They are all fighting the same good fight, but how much more valiantly some fight than others! They are all running the same race, but how much faster some get on than others! They all love the same Lord and Savior, but how much more some love Him than others!

There are some of the Lord's people who seem never able to get on from the time of their conversion. They are born again, but remain babies. They are learners in Christ's school, but never seem to get beyond the milk of God's Word, feeling reluctant to taste strong doctrine, "which is for the mature, those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14). Year after year you see them in the same old besetting sins, the same feebleness, narrowness of heart, and lack of interest in anything beyond their own little circle. I say this with sorrow, but I ask any real Christian, is it not true?

There are others of the Lord's people who seem to be always getting on. They grow like grass after rain, always adding grace to grace, faith to faith, and strength to strength. Every time you see them their hearts seem larger and their spiritual stature bigger, taller, and stronger. Every year they appear to see more, know more, believe more, and feel more in their religion. They not only have good works to prove the reality of their faith, but are zealous about them. They not only do well, but continue faithfully (Titus 2:14; Galatians 6:9). They attempt great things and do great things. When they fail, they soon try again. These are those who make religion beautiful in the eyes of all with discernment. It does one good to see, be with, and hear them.

What accounts for the difference? I believe those who are spiritually weak pray little, and those who are strong pray much. People have different levels of giftedness, but spiritual as well as natural greatness depends far more on the use of means within everyone's reach rather than on anything else. When a person is converted to God, whether he will be strikingly bold or not depends chiefly on his own diligence in the use of God's appointed means. The principal means by which most believers have become great in the church of Christ is the habit of diligent private prayer. Prayer obtains fresh and continued outpourings of the Spirit. Prayer is the surest remedy against the devil and all besetting sins. We must plead our case before the Great Physician for Him to give us daily relief. Do we wish to grow in grace and be holy? Then let us never forget the value of prayer.

6. Neglect of prayer is one great cause of backsliding. Men may run well for a season but turn aside after false teachers, like the Galatians. Men may lose their first love, as the Ephesians did. Men may profess Christ loudly while their feelings are warm,  but in the hour of trial deny their Lord. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord's warning to "watch and pray," and then their strength is gone. Reader, do you want to move forward, not backwards? Watch and pray.

7. Prayer is one of the best means for happiness and contentment. We live in a world where sorrow abounds. This has always been its state since sin entered in. Sicknesses, deaths, losses, disappointments, partings, separations, ingratitude, slander—all these are common things. How shall we get through them with the least pain? I know no better way than the habit of taking everything to God in prayer. That is the plain advice the Bible gives in both the Old and New Testaments.

What do the psalmists write? That God Himself says, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15). "Cast your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:22).  What does Paul say? "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). How about James? "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray" (James 5:13).

That was the practice of all the saints whose history we have recorded in the Scriptures. It is what Jacob did when he feared his brother, Esau. It is what Moses did when the people were ready to stone him in the wilderness. It is what Joshua did when Israel suffered the humiliating defeat at Ai. It is what David did when he was in danger at Keilah. It is what King Hezekiah did when receiving an intimidating letter from the Assyrian Empire. It is what the church did when Peter was put in prison, and what Paul and Silas did when abused in the Philippian jail.

The only way to be really happy in a world such as this is casting our cares on God. It is trying to carry all their own burdens that so often makes believers sad. If they will only tell their troubles to God, He will enable them to bear them as Samson did the gates of Gaza. There is a friend waiting to help us who pitied the poor, sick, and sorrowful when He was upon the earth: a friend who knows the heart of man for He lived 33 years as a man among us. He is able to help us, for there never was an earthly pain He could not cure. That friend is Jesus Christ. The way to be happy is to be always opening our hearts to Him.

I now bring application to 3 groups of readers:

(1) A parting word to those who do not pray. It is useless to say you do not know how to pray. Prayer is the simplest act in all religion. It is simply speaking to God. It is useless to say you have no convenient place to pray in. Any person can find a place private enough if he or she is inclined. It is useless to say you have no time. When time is really wanted, it can be found. It is useless to say you cannot pray until you have faith and a new heart. That is to add sin to sin. It is bad enough to be unconverted and headed toward hell. It is even worse to say, "I know it, but I will not cry for mercy." What do the Scriptures say? "Call upon the Lord while He may be found ... while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). "Take words with you and return to the Lord" (Hosea 14:2). Do not lose heaven for lack of asking.

(2) A parting word to those who have a real desire for salvation, but do not know where to begin. In every journey there must be a first step. In every building the first stone must be laid and the first blow struck. When does the building of the Spirit begin to appear in the human heart? It begins, so far as we can judge, when a person first pours out his or her heart to God in prayer. Go now to the Lord Jesus Christ in the first private place you can find and ask Him earnestly to save your soul. Tell Him you have heard that He receives sinners and has said, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32).  Tell Him in your own way and in your own words. When you are sick and go to a doctor, you tell him or her where you feel pain. If your soul really feels its disease, you can surely find something to tell Christ. Pray to Him honestly and heartily, and you will be saved.

(3) A parting word to those who do pray. To all such I offer words of brotherly counsel and exhortation. The incense offered in the tabernacle was ordered to be made in a particular way. Not any kind of incense would do. Let us remember that and be careful about the matter and manner of our prayers. I am sure you want to do that as a sincere lover of Christ.

A. The importance of reverence and humility in prayer. Let us never forget who we are and what a solemn thing it is to speak with God. If I do not mean what I say, I am trifling with Him. "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66:18-20). Let us keep in mind the words of Solomon: "Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God" (Ecclesiastes 5:2). When Abraham spoke to God, he said, "I am nothing but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27). Humility guards against careless prayers.

B. The importance of praying spiritually. By this I mean we should labor always to have the direct help of the Spirit in our prayers and be wary of formality. I desire to touch this point with caution and delicacy. There are things we need daily, and there is nothing wrong with asking for them in more or less the same words. Of necessity we must go over old ground. If the skeleton and outline of our prayers are by habit almost a form, let us strive that the clothing and filling up of them come from a sincere mind and heart guided by the Spirit. Praying out of a book is much, I think, like a crutch: helpful when one is first recovering from a broken limb, but I would like to see him or her strong enough not to need a crutch anymore. If we can tell a doctor the state of our body without a book, we ought to be able to tell the state of our soul to God.

C. The importance of making prayer a regular business of life. There is value in regular times for prayer. God is a God of order. The hours for morning and evening sacrifice in the Jewish temple were not fixed as they were without meaning. Disorder is one of the fruits of sin, but I would not bring any under bondage. Just as you allot time for eating, sleeping, and working, do the same with prayer. Choose your own hours and seasons. At the very least, speak with God in the morning before you speak with the world, and speak with God at night, after you have done with the world. But settle it in your mind that prayer is one of the most important things you have to do each day.

D. The importance of perseverance in prayer. Once having begun the habit, never give it up. Your body will sometimes say, "You are unwell, or sleepy, or weary. You don't need to pray today." Your mind will sometimes say, "You have important business to attend to today; cut short your prayers." View all such suggestions as coming directly from the devil. They are all as good as saying, "Neglect your soul." Prayers should not always be the same length, but let no excuse tempt you to neglect praying. It is not for nothing that Paul said, "Continue in prayer" and "pray without ceasing" (Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). He did not mean we should always be on our knees, but our prayers should be like spring, summer, fall, and winter in dependable regularity.  Even in company, in business, or on the road you can be sending up swift messages to God, as Nehemiah did before answering King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:4-5). Never is time wasted that is given to God. A Christian never finds he is a loser by persevering in prayer.

E. The importance of earnestness in prayer. It is not necessary for a man to shout, scream, or be very loud to prove he means what he says. But in prayer it is desirable that we should be hearty, fervent, and sincerely interested in what we are doing and asking for. It is "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man" or woman that "avails much" (James 5:16), not the cold, sleepy, lazy, listless one. Think of the action words used to describe godly prayer in Scripture: crying, knocking, wrestling, laboring, and striving. Hear how Daniel pleaded with God, "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God! (Daniel 9:19). Of our Lord Jesus Christ we are told, "In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplication with strong cries and tears" (Hebrews 5:7). Show God you are sincere in what you are asking Him for by the godly way you ask and the godly way you live.

F. The importance of praying with faith. Believe your prayers are always heard and that if you ask according to God's will, you will always be answered. This is the plain command of our Lord Jesus: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24), governed by the prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdome come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9-10). The apostle John worded it like this: "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him" (1 John 5:14-15). God likes it when we take Him at His Word. Psalm 119 is full of things asked "according to Your Word." Let's get in the habit of pleading His promises in our prayers and patiently expecting His answers.

G. The importance of boldness in prayer. I am not speaking of presumption or overfamiliarity, but a holy boldness like Moses showed when he pleaded with God not to destroy Israel: "Why should the Egyptians say You brought out Israel from Egypt only to do them harm? Please turn from Your fierce anger!" (Exodus 32:12). Joshua prayed with similar boldness, genuinely concerned for God's reputation (Joshua 7:9). Martin Luther was was known for that kind of boldness. One who heard him praying said, "What a spirit, what confidence was in his very expressions! With such reverence he pleaded, as one begging of God, yet with the hope and assurance of speaking with a loving father or friend!" Let's take advantage of the believer's privileges, daring to pray often, "Lord, are we not Your own people? Is it not for Your glory that we should increase in holiness? Is it not for Your honor that the Gospel should increase throughout the world?"

H. The importance of fullness in prayer. While we must never forget our Lord spoke against vain repetition in prayer and the long, insincere prayers of the Pharisees, we do well to keep in mind our Lord's own example of how often and how long He prayed—sometimes all night. None of us are likely to err on the side of praying too much. Think: do we really want little from God? We are not limited in Christ, but in ourselves! The Lord says, "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalm 81:10). 

I. The importance of being specific in prayer. We ought not to be content with great general petitions, but specify our wants before the throne of grace. It should not be enough to confess we are sinners. We should name the sins our conscience tells us we are most guilty of. It should not be enough to ask for holiness. We should name the virtues we think we most lack. It should not be enough to tell our Lord we are in trouble or in need. We should describe our troubles and needs in detail, like Jacob did when he feared his brother, Esau (Genesis 32:11),  like Abraham's servant did when seeking a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:12-27), like Paul did when suffering a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Nothing is too small to be named before God. What should we think of the patient who told his doctor he was ill but never went into particulars? What about the wife who tells her husband she is unhappy, but does not specify the cause? Christ is the true bridegroom of the soul, the true physician of the heart, and the real father of His people. Let us show we feel this by being unreserved in our communications with Him.

J. The importance of intercession in our prayers. We are all selfish by nature, and unless we are careful, our selfishness is apt to stick to us even when we are converted. Let's take care to name other names beside our own before the throne of grace. We should try to bear in our hearts the whole world: skeptics, religious people who are influenced by teachings contrary to the Bible, the church to which we belong, our family, friends, and country. This will enlarge our sympathies and expand our hearts. Praying for others is one of the most loving things we can do for them. The wheels of all machinery for extending the Gospel are oiled by prayer. They do as much for the Lord's cause who pray like Moses on the mount as do those who fight like Joshua in the thick of battle.

K. The importance of thankfulness in our prayers. Asking God is one thing and praising God is another, but there is a close connection between prayer and thanksgiving. Notice that Paul says, "By prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6). "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2). He hardly ever wrote a letter without beginning with thankfulness. If we would be bright and shining lights in our day, we must cherish a spirit of praise to God. Above all, let our prayers be thankful prayers. 

L. The importance of watchfulness over our prayers. We must be regularly on our guard. Prayer is where true religion begins and also decays. Tell me what a man's prayers are and I will soon tell you the state of his soul. Prayer is the spiritual pulse: by it spiritual health may always be tested. Prayer is the backbone of our practical Christianity. Nothing will make up for the neglect of private prayer. Observe carefully what friends and activities leave your soul in the most spiritual frame and ready to speak with God. To these cleave and hold fast, and shun what tempts you away. If you will take care of your prayers, nothing shall go very wrong with your soul.

I offer these points for private consideration in all humility. I know no one who needs to be reminded of them more than I do myself. But I believe them to be God's own truth and would like all of us as God's people to feel them more. I want those who never prayed yet to arise and call upon God, and I want those who do pray to improve their prayers every year, being mindful and zealous daily.



"Search the Scriptures." John 5:39

"What is your reading of it?" Luke 10:26

Next to praying, there is nothing so important in practical religion as Bible reading. God has mercifully given us a Book that is "able to make us wise for salvation through faith in  Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). By reading the Bible we may learn what to believe, what to be, what to do, how to live in contentment, and how to die in peace. Blessed are those who possess a Bible! Happier still are those who read it. Happiest of all are those who not only read it, but also obey it, making it their rule of faith and practice.

Nevertheless, it is a sorrowful fact that man has an unhappy skill in abusing God's gifts. One sweeping charge may be brought against the whole of Christendom: neglect and abuse of the Bible. Give me your attention while I supply you with a few plain reasons why everyone who cares for his or her soul ought to value the Bible highly, study it regularly, and be thoroughly acquainted with its contents.

1. There is no book in existence written in such a manner as the Bible.  The Bible was "given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). In this respect it is utterly unlike all other writings. God taught the writers of it what to say. He put into their minds thoughts and ideas, and guided their pens in setting down those thoughts and ideas. When you read it, you are not reading the self-taught compositions of men like yourselves, but the words of the eternal God. When you hear it, you are not listening to the erring opinions of short-lived mortals, but to the unchanging mind of the King of kings. These men did not speak on their own, but "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). All other books in the world, however good and useful in their way, are more or less defective. The more you look at them, the more you see their defects and blemishes. The Bible alone is absolutely perfect. From beginning to end it is the Word of God. 

God made us reasonable creatures like Himself, and has supplied us with many sound reasons for trusting the Bible, but rather than providing long and labored proofs of that here, I will simply point out that the Bible itself is the best witness of its own inspiration. It is utterly inexplicable and unaccountable from any other point of view. He who dares to say the Bible is not inspired, let him give a reasonable account of its meticulously fulfilled prophecies, unity of theme despite being written over a 1,500 year span, close correspondence with history and archaeology, and other unique characteristics of this Book.

It proves nothing against inspiration, as some have said, that the writers of the Bible each have a different style. Isaiah did not write like Jeremiah, and Paul did not write like John. That is perfectly true, yet the works of those men are not less equally inspired. The waters of the sea have different shades. In one place they look blue and in another green, owing to the depth or shallowness of the part we see, yet the water in every case is the same salt sea. In the same way the Books of the Old and New Testaments are all inspired truth, yet the aspect of that truth varies according to the mind through which the Holy Spirit makes it flow. The writing styles and diverse backgrounds of each biblical author were all alike inspired by the same Divine Guide. Every chapter, verse, and word is from God.

People who are troubled with doubts and skeptical thoughts about the Bible would do well to calmly examine it for themselves. How many difficulties and objections would vanish away at once like mist before the rising sun? It is no light matter that God caused this Book to be "written for our learning" (Romans 15:4) and that we should have before us "the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2). Are you taking advantage of this opportunity by reading and studying the Bible?

2. There is no knowledge necessary for salvation other than what is in the Bible. We live in days when the words of Daniel are fulfilled before our eyes: "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4). Schools are multiplying on every side, new colleges set up, and old universities reformed and improved. New books and articles are continually coming out. More is being taught, more is being learned, more is being read than ever before, which is a mercy since an ignorant population is a perilous and expensive burden to any nation. It is ready prey to the first Absalom, Catiline, or Wat Tyler who arises to entice it to evil. Nevertheless, all the beneficial knowledge a person can receive will not save that person from hell unless he or she knows the truths of the Bible.

Chemistry never silenced a guilty conscience. Mathematics never healed a broken heart. No earthly philosophy ever supplied hope in death. A knowledge of the Bible is the one knowledge that is needful and eternally useful. A man may get to heaven without money, learning, health, or friends, but without Bible knowledge he will never get there at all. A man may have the mightiest of minds and a memory stored with all that mighty mind can grasp, yet if he does not know the things of the Bible, he will make shipwreck of his soul forever. 

3. No book in existence contains such important matter as the Bible. How glorious and soul-satisfying is the description it gives us of God's plan of salvation, the way by which our sins can be forgiven! The coming into the world of Jesus Christ, the God-man, to save sinners;  the atonement He made by suffering in our place, the just for the unjust; the complete payment He made for His people's sins by His own blood; the justification of every sinner who believes in Jesus; the readiness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to receive, pardon, and save to the uttermost—how unspeakably grand and cheering are all those truths! We would know nothing of them without the Bible.

How comforting is the account of the great Mediator of the New Testament! Four times over His picture is graciously drawn before our eyes. Four separate witnesses tell us of His miracles and ministry, His sayings and deeds, His life and His death, His power and His love, His kindness and His patience—His ways, words, works, thoughts, and heart. There is one thing in the Bible that even the most prejudiced reader can hardly fail to understand: the impeccable character of Jesus Christ.

How encouraging are the examples the Bible gives us of good people! It tells of many who were like us: men and women who had cares, families, temptations, afflictions, and diseases like ours, yet "by faith and patience inherited the promises" and got safely home (Hebrews 6:12). Their mistakes, infirmities, conflicts, experience, prayers, praises, useful lives, and triumphant deaths are faithfully recorded. The Bible reminds us that the God and Savior of those men and women still waits to be gracious to us today, and is altogether unchanged.

How instructive are the examples the Bible gives us of bad people! It tells us of men and women who, like us now, had light, knowledge, and opportunities, yet hardened their hearts, loved the world, clung to their sins, insisted on their own way, despised reproof, and ruined their own souls forever. It warns us that the God who punished Pharaoh, Kings Saul and Ahab, Queen Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, and Ananias and Sapphira is a God who never changes, and that there really is a hell.

How precious are the promises the Bible contains for the use of those who love God! There is hardly any possible emergency or condition for which there is not a timely word. God loves to be reminded of these promises. If He has said He will do something, His promise shall certainly be fulfilled.

How blessed are the hopes the Bible holds out to the believer in the Lord Jesus! Peace in the hour of death, rest and happiness on the other side of the grave, a glorious body in the morning of the resurrection, a full and triumphant acquittal on the day of judgment, an everlasting reward in the Kingdom of Christ, a joyful meeting with the Lord's people in the day of gathering together: these are the future prospects of every true Christian. They are all written in the Book that is wholly true.

How striking is the light the Bible throws on the character of man! It teaches us what men may be expected to be and do in every position and station of life. It gives us the deepest insight into the secret springs and motives of human actions, and the ordinary course of events under the control of human agents. The Word of God is the true "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). How deep is the wisdom contained in the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes!

We probably have not the least idea how little we should know about all those things if we did not have the Bible. We hardly appreciate as we should the value of the air we breathe and the sun that shines on us because we have never known what it like to be without them. Surely no tongue can fully tell the value of the treasures this one volume contains. How are you using this treasure?

4. No book in existence has produced such wonderful effects on mankind at large as the Bible. This is the Book whose doctrines turned the world upside down in the days of the apostles. Nearly two millennia have passed since God sent a few Jewish men from a remote corner of the earth to do a work that, according to human judgment, must have seemed impossible. The risen Lord  sent out His apostles at a time when the whole world was full of superstition, cruelty, lust, and all kinds of sin. He sent them to proclaim that the established religions of the earth were false and useless, and must be forsaken. He sent them to persuade people to give up old habits and customs, and to live different lives. He sent them to do battle with the most enslaving idolatry, the vilest immorality, a bigoted priesthood, sneering philosophers, an ignorant population, and bloody-minded emperors.

How did Jesus arm them for this battle? He simply put the Holy Spirit into their hearts and the Scriptures into their hands to expound and explain, to establish and publish the doctrines of the Bible. He was one holy Man with one holy Book. How did His disciples prosper? In a few generations the face of society changed in the light of those doctrines. God used the apostles and their disciples to famish idolatry, leaving it high and dry like a stranded ship. They brought into the world a higher tone of morality between man and man. They raised the status of women. The altered the standard of purity and decency. They put an end to many cruel and bloody customs, such as the gladiatorial combats. There was no stopping the change. Persecution and opposition were useless. One victory after another was won. One bad thing after another melted away. Whether people liked it or not, they were insensibly affected by the movement of the new religion, and drawn within the whirlpool of its power. The tide rose, and they found themselves obliged to rise with it. All this was done by the truths of the Bible. For extent, results, and completeness, there are no victories like the victories of the Bible.

Many of the good things that societies have adopted for public benefit may be clearly traced to the Bible. It has left lasting marks wherever it has been received. From the Bible are drawn many of the best laws by which nations are governed and kept in order regarding truth, honesty, care for the needy, and family relations. To the influence of the Bible we owe nearly every humane and charitable institution in existence. The sick, poor, aged, orphaned, mentally and physically disabled were seldom or never regarded or lovingly provided for before the Bible influenced the world. You will search in vain for any record of institutions for their aid in the histories of Athens or Rome.

Sadly, there are many who sneer at the Bible and say the world would get along well enough without it, but they do not realize how it has benefited their lives. Those who lie sick in great hospitals, originally founded by Christian charity, might have died in misery, uncared for, unnoticed, and alone. The world we live in is fearfully unconscious of its debts. The Last Day alone, I believe, will tell the full amount of benefit conferred upon it by the Bible. How is the Bible benefiting you now?

5. No book in existence can do so much for those who read it rightly as does the Bible. The Bible does not profess to teach the wisdom of this world. It was not written to explain mathematics or astronomy. It will not make you a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. But there is another world to be thought of beside that in which we now live. There are other ends for which man was created, besides making money and working. There are other interests we are meant to attend to, besides those of the body. It is the interests of the immortal soul that the Bible is especially able to promote. It is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ (2 Timothy 3:15). It can show you what you are: a sinner. It can show you what God is: perfectly holy. It can show you the great giver of pardon, peace, and grace: Jesus Christ. It is the glory and beauty of the Bible that it highlights the majesty of God, the beauty of Christ, and the desperate need of every man and woman from the first chapter to the last.

The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit is the grand instrument by which souls are first converted to God. That mighty change is generally initiated by a text or doctrine of the Word brought home to a person's conscience. The Bible has worked moral miracles by the thousands that way. It has made drunks sober, immoral persons pure, thieves honest, and violent people meek. It has taught worldly people to seek first God's Kingdom. It has taught lovers of pleasure to love God and Christ. It has taught people to think of heaven instead of always thinking of earth, and to live by faith instead of by sight. All this it has done in every part of the world. All this it is doing still.

The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit is the chief means by which men and women are built up and established in the faith after their conversion. It is able to cleanse them, sanctify them, instruct them in righteousness, and furnish them thoroughly for all good works (Psalm 119:9; John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible can teach a man how to glorify Christ in all his relationships, making him a good employer, worker, citizen, husband, father, and son. It can enable him to bear afflictions and hardships without complaining and with confident faith. It can enable him to look into the grave and say, "I will fear no evil" (Psalm 23:4). Is he drowsy in soul? It can awaken him. Is he mourning? It can comfort him. Is he in the wrong? It can restore him. Is he weak? It can make him strong. Is he in company? It can keep him from evil. Is he alone? It can talk with him. All this the Bible can do for all believers.

Now I know well that many say they have found no saving power in the Bible. They tell us they have tried to read it, but have learned nothing from it. They see nothing in it but hard and deep things. Consider this: the Bible no doubt contains hard things or else it would not be the Book of God, but is not humble acknowledgement of our own ignorance the foundation of all knowledge? Must not many things be taken for granted in the beginning of every science before we can proceed? Do we not require our children to learn many things they cannot perceive the meaning of at first? Therefore expect to find deep things when you begin studying the Word of God, yet believe that if you persevere, the meaning of most or all of them will one day be made clear. Read the Bible with humility and take much on trust with faithful guides. Remember also in fairness that many things in the Bible are easy and plain. Steer by those lights into the deeper waters.

Many raise the objection that thousands read the Bible, but do not seem any better for their reading. But the reason so many read the Bible without benefit is simple: they do not read it the right way. There is generally a right way and a wrong way of doing everything in the world. The Bible will not do anyone lasting good unless it is read with humility and earnest prayer. The fault is not in the Book, but in the careless reader. Never did a person read it like the fair-minded Bereans with intelligent perseverance (Acts 17:11) and miss the way to heaven. No one on the day of judgment will be able to say he or she went thirsting to the Bible and found in it no living water. The words spoken of Wisdom personified in Proverbs are true of God's Word: "If you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:3-5).


6. The Bible is the only rule by which all questions of doctrine and duty can be settled. The Lord God knows the weakness of our poor fallen understandings. He knows that, even after conversion, our perceptions of right and wrong can be indistinct for awhile. He knows how artfully Satan can coat error with an appearance of truth, dressing up wrong with plausible arguments until it bears some semblance to right. Knowing all this, God has mercifully provided us with an unerring standard of truth and error, right and wrong, in His Book. 

We are to try all religious teaching by one simple test: does it square with the Bible? What do the Scriptures say? Is the asserted teaching  biblical? If it is, it ought to be received and believed. If it is not, it ought to be refused and cast aside. A true minister will say, "Search the Scriptures, and if I do not teach you what is scriptural, do not believe me." A false minister will declare, "Hear the Church! Hear me!" A true minister will say, "Hear the Word of God!"

But the world is not only full of difficulties about points of doctrine, but also about points of practice. How does one discern his or her duty regarding such matters as one's employments, choice of amusements, and the upbringing of one's children?  By the letter or the spirit of the Bible he or she must test every difficult point or question. That is the reliable compass by which to steer throughout life. Make it your operating principle never to act contrary to the Word of God. You will never regret it. Do not listen to the common objection that the rule you have laid down is impossible and cannot be observed in a world such as this. People who object like that need to be told that by the Bible we shall all be judged at the Last Day. Let them learn to judge themselves by it here so they may avoid being judged and condemned by it hereafter.

7. The Bible is the Book all true servants of God have always lived on and loved. Every living thing God creates requires food. When the Holy Spirit raises a man from the death of sin and makes him a new creature in Christ, the new life in that man's soul requires food. The only food that will sustain it is the Word of God. Just as a child born into the world naturally desires the milk provided for its nourishment, so does the born-again believer desire "the pure milk of the Word" (1 Peter 2:2). His or her "delight is in the Law of the Lord" (Psalm 1:2).

Love for God's Word is a chief characteristic of the godly in Scripture. The patriarch Job said, "I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12). Love for the Word is a shining feature  throughout the magnificent 119th Psalm, which has this as its theme: "Oh, how I love Your Law!" (Psalm 119:97). Love for the Word also characterized Paul and his companions, who were "mighty in the Scriptures" (Acts 18:24). But love for the Word is especially prominent in our Lord Jesus Christ. He read it publicly, quoted it continually, expounded it frequently, and advised the religious leaders to "search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). He used Scripture as His weapon to resist the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). He said repeatedly, "The Scriptures must be fulfilled" and one of the last things He did before ascending to heaven was to open the understanding of His disciples so they could "comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). No man can be a true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who has not something of his Master's mind and feeling toward the Bible.

Love for the Word has been a prominent feature in the history of all the godly men and women we know about since the days of the apostles. It is the lamp Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Augustine followed. It is the well reopened by Wycliffe,  Tyndale, Luther, and Calvin after it had been blocked. It is the sword with which Latimer and Knox won their victories. It is the manna that fed Bunyan, Owen, and a noble host of Puritans. It is the armory from which Whitefield and Wesley drew their powerful weapons. Differing as those holy men did in some matters, on one point they were all agreed: they delighted in God's Word. So do faithful men and women in churches around the world today. Dear reader, do you follow in the footsteps of this flock?

8. The Bible is the only book that can comfort a man in the last hours of his life. We are all sadly apt to put away this subject. I want everyone to do his or her duty in life, but I also want everyone to think of death. I want everyone to know how to live, but also to know how to die. Death is a solemn event to all: the winding up of all our earthly plans and expectations, and a separation from all we have loved and lived with. It is often accompanied by much bodily pain and distress. It brings us to the grave and corruption. It opens the door to judgment and eternity—to heaven or to hell. "In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie" (Ecclesiastes 11:3). "It is appointed for man once to die, and then comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). It is an event after which there is no change or opportunity for repentance.

It becomes every thoughtful and sensible person to consider calmly how he or she is going to meet death. The good things of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. Money can buy the best medical advice and attendance for a man's body, but it cannot buy peace for his conscience, heart, and soul. The pleasures of the world will give him no pleasure: he cannot hide from himself that they are hollow, empty, powerless things. Honors and delights he once may have craved are out of harmony with his condition. They cannot stop one gap in his heart, where the last enemy is coming in like a flood. They cannot make him calm in the prospect of meeting a holy God. The latest news and novels he will ignore. Their time will be past. Whatever they may be in health, they are useless in the hour of death.

There is but one fountain of comfort for a man drawing near to his end in this life, and that is the Bible. I do not say that the Bible will do good to a dying man if he has not valued it before, as if it were a good-luck charm, but I do say positively that no dying man will ever get real comfort except from the Word of God. All comfort from any other source is a house built upon sand. Chapters, passages, texts, promises and doctrines of Scripture that are heard, received, believed, and rested on are solid ground and a firm foundation here and for eternity. As a minister I have seen not a few dying persons in my time. I never saw anyone enjoy what I should call a real, solid, calm, reasonable peace on his deathbed who did not draw his  peace from the Bible. Surely it is no light matter whether you read that Book or not.

For application I conclude by addressing a few, plain words to the conscience of every class of readers:

A. Those who can read but never do read the Bible at all. You are in danger because your neglect of the one and only Word of God is plain evidence that you do not love the God of the Word. Beware lest the day come when you feel, "Had I but honored the Bible as much as I have honored the news or other books, I should not have been left without comfort in my last hours, and now must face God without hope!" Hope remains for you now if you read the Bible and believe its saving message.

B. Those who are willing to begin reading the Bible, but need advice. Listen to me and I will give you a few short hints:

(1) Begin reading the Bible this very day. It has never been easier than now to access the Bible for free in one's heart language. Read it yourself, persuade someone else to read it to you, or listen to an audio Bible. One way or another, through eyes or ears, the words of Scripture must actually pass before your mind.

(2) Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand. It also has never been easier to access free, reliable Bible commentaries and other helps. Do not think for a moment that the grand object is to pass through a certain number of pages. They mean nothing without understanding. Say to yourself often as you read, "What is all this about?" Dig for the meaning like a man digging for gold. Work hard and do not give up. Humbly ask for help from Christians you know and respect, for the godly will be happy to give it.

(3) Read the Bible with childlike faith and humility. Open your heart as you open your Book, saying, "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears" (1 Samuel 3:8-10). Resolve to believe implicitly whatever you find there, however it may run counter to your own prejudices. Resolve to receive heartily every statement of truth, whether you like it or not. Beware this miserable habit of mind into which some readers of the Bible fall: they receive some doctrines because they like them, but reject others because they are convicting to themselves or to others they know and love. The Bible is useless to such people. Are we to be judges of what ought to be in God's Word? Do we know better than God? Settle it in your mind you will receive and believe it all, and what you cannot currently understand you will take on trust. Remember that when you pray, you are speaking to God and He hears you. But when you are reading the Bible, God is speaking to you and you must listen.

(4) Read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self application. Sit down to  study it with a daily determination that you will live by its rules, rest on its statements, and act on its commands. Consider as you travel through every chapter, "How does this affect my conduct? What does it teach me?" It is poor work to read the Bible from mere curiosity while you do not allow it to influence your heart and life. The Bible is read best that is practiced most.

(5) Read the Bible daily. Make it a part of every day's business to read and meditate on some portion of God's Word. This nourishment for your soul is every bit as needful as food and clothes are for your body. Yesterday's food will not help today's labor, nor will today's food feed the laborer tomorrow. Do as the Israelites in the wilderness did and gather your manna fresh every day. Do not hurry your reading. Give your Bible the best, not the worst part of your time.

(6) Read all the Bible in an orderly way. "All Scripture ... is profitable" (2 Timothy 3:16). Some people's Bible reading is a system of perpetual dipping and picking, which works against broad, well-proportioned views of truth. In times of sickness and affliction it is allowable to search out seasonable portions, but with that exception, I believe it is best to begin the Old and New Testaments at the same time: to read each straight through to the end, and then begin again.

(7) Read the Bible fairly and honestly. Determine to take everything first in its plain, obvious meaning, and regard all forced interpretations with great suspicion. As a general rule, whatever a verse of the Bible seems to mean, it does mean. Take Scripture as you find it without any attempt to force it into any particular system. Interpret literature by its literary type: historical narrative, law, instruction, poetry, prophecy, proverb, or parable. You will be able to tell the difference between statements and symbols. Help is available when you need it.

(8) Read the Bible with Christ continually in view. The primary object of all Scripture is to testify of Jesus. Old Testament ceremonies are shadows of Christ. Old Testament judges and deliverers are types of Christ. Old Testament history shows the world's need for Christ. Old Testament prophecies are full of Christ's ministry, sufferings, atoning death and resurrection, and return in glory yet to come. His first coming and His second, the Lord's humiliation and His Kingdom, the cross and the crown shine everywhere in the Bible. Keep a fast hold on this clue, and it will help you read the Bible correctly.

C. Those who believe the Bible, but read it little. Listen to me and I will say a few things that deserve your serious attention. First, you are likely to get little comfort from the Bible in time of need. Second, you are not likely to be established in the truth, which leaves you vulnerable to false teaching and many doubts. Third, you are likely to make many mistakes in life without reliable guidance from God's Word. The world you steer through is full of rocks, shoals, and sandbanks. You are not sufficiently familiar with either the lights or the charts.

Do not merely read your Bible a little, but read it a great deal. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). Do not be a mere babe in spiritual knowledge, but seek to become well instructed in the Kingdom of heaven, continually adding new things to old as Jesus said (Matthew 13:51-52). A religion of feeling is an uncertain thing. It is like the tide or the moon: sometimes high and sometimes low. A religion of deep Bible knowledge is a firm and lasting possession. It enables the man or woman who possesses it not merely to say, "I feel hope in Christ," but "I know who I have believed" (2 Timothy 1:12).

D. Those who read the Bible often, but doubt the good it is doing them. This is a crafty temptation of the devil he will use when he cannot fool you into not reading the Bible at all. Let me encourage you. The greatest effects are often silent and hard to detect at the time they are being produced. Think of a child's daily growth, the influence of the moon upon the earth, and that of air upon human lungs. Your Bible reading is doing far more good to your soul than you can readily perceive. Often when one's memory has difficulty readily recalling facts, one's character is receiving everlasting impressions. Is sin becoming every year more hateful to you? Is Christ becoming every year more precious? Is holiness becoming every year more lovely and desirable in your eyes? If so, take courage. The Bible is doing you good, though you may not be able to trace it out day by day.

The Bible may be restraining you from sin or delusion into which you would otherwise run. It may daily be keeping you back from many a false step. You might soon find this out to your cost if you cease reading the Word! Resist the devil. Settle it down in your mind as an established rule that, whether you feel it at the moment or not, you are inhaling spiritual health by reading the Bible and steadily gaining strength.

E. Those who really love the Bible, live by it, and read it often. Give me your attention and I will mention a few things we all shall do well to take to heart for times to come.

(1) Let us resolve to read the Bible more and more every year. Let us try to get it rooted in our memories and engraved onto our hearts. Let us be well provisioned with it on our voyage throughout life and death. Who knows but that we may have a very stormy passage? Oh, to have the Word hidden in our hearts (Psalm 119:11) for all such times!

(2) Let us resolve to be more watchful over our Bible reading. Let us be jealously careful about the time we give to it, and how that time is spent. Let us beware of omitting our daily reading without sufficient cause. Let us not be yawning or dozing over our Book as we read. Never exalt any minister, denomination, theological system, trendy idea, book, or friend above the Word. Cursed be any human counsel that creeps in between us and the Bible, blocking the Bible from our view! As Jesus said, do not lay aside any Commandment of God for any traditions or ideas of men (Mark 7:1-13). Oh, to read with a hungry spirit and a simple desire for edification!

(3) Let us resolve to honor the Bible more in our families. Let us read it morning and evening to our children and households, and not be ashamed for others to see that we do so. Do not be discouraged if not all are faithful Christians. The Bible reading in a family has kept many from jail, debt, and scandal if not from hell, but where there is life there is still hope.

(4) Let us resolve to meditate more on the Bible. It is good to take with us two or three texts when we go out, and turn them over and over in our minds whenever we have a little leisure. It keeps out many vain thoughts. It preserves our souls from stagnating and becoming like ponds where the frogs live but the fish die. It sanctifies and sharpens our memory.

(5) Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. That helps our conversations to be profitable and to steer clear of anything frivolous or uncharitable. Bringing up the Bible more will help us help each other keep our hearts in tune. May we strive to walk together in this evil world that Jesus would often draw near and go with us, as He did with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus (Luke 24).

(6) Let us live by the Bible more and more every year. Let us frequently take account of our opinions, practices, and habits in public and in private, measuring all by the Bible. God help us to conform to it and keep our way pure, as Psalm 119:9 directs, by living according to God's Word.



"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." 1 Corinthians 11:28

Perhaps no part of the Christian religion is as misunderstood as the Lord's Supper. Some professing Christians neglect it while others go to the opposite extreme of exalting it to a position it was never meant to occupy. My hope is that the fog, mystery, and obscurity with which it is surrounded in some minds may be cleared away by plain Bible truth. Let's ask and answer 4 practical questions.

1. Why did our Lord institute the Lord's Supper? He ordained it for the continual remembrance of His sacrificial death and the benefits we receive from it. The bread is meant to remind us of Christ's body given on the cross for our sins. The wine reminds us of Christ's blood shed on the cross for our sins. We have 4 separate accounts of the first appointment of the Lord's Supper: by Matthew (Matthew 26:26-28), Mark (Mark 14:22-25), Luke (Luke 22:19-20), and Paul (1 Corinthians 11:23-31). Only two of them give the reason our Lord gave for instituting this practice: "Do this in remembrance of Me," with Paul adding this inspired comment, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He returns" (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:25-26). 

Is it not reasonable that our Lord would appoint a regular way of keeping His death in remembrance? Of all the facts in His earthly ministry, none are equal in importance to His death. It was the great atonement to which every sacrifice of animals from the fall of man continually pointed, and the grand end for which Messiah came into the world. Christ would have lived, taught, prophesied, and done miracles in vain if He had not crowned all by dying for our sins as our substitute. His death brings life. His death was the payment of our debt to God. It is the very thing poor, weak, sinful humanity needs to be reminded of continually.

Does the New Testament teach that the Lord's Supper was ordained to be a sacrifice in and of itself perpetually, and that in it Christ's actual body and blood are present under the forms of bread and wine? No. When the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "This is My body and this is My blood," He clearly meant, "This bread in My hand is a symbol of My body, and this wine is an emblem of My blood." The disciples were accustomed to hearing Him use such language. For example, "The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38).  The clear teaching of the New Testament is that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Before His death on the cross, every priest was "ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins." But the Lord Jesus Christ, "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:10-12). Jesus Himself taught that His Supper is a remembrance, not an offering, reminding us to be thankful for His perfect sacrifice for sin, which never needs to be repeated but should often be proclaimed.

2. Who is meant to participate in the Lord's Supper? Not just anyone. Paul is the one New Testament writer who gives us details on this matter: "Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep [are dead]. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:27-31). The Lord's Supper is only for those who understand and believe in what the bread and wine represent, having personally benefited from Christ's death on the cross by their saving faith in Him.

That faith demonstrates itself not by a perfect life, but a worthy life. Those living in open sin and determined not to stop must not come to the Lord's Table. To do so is to insult Christ and pour contempt on His Gospel. It is nonsense to profess to remember Christ's death while clinging to the accursed thing that made it needful for Christ to die! In addition, self-righteous people who think they are to be saved by their own works have no business coming to the Lord's Table. They may be outwardly moral, but at the Table we publicly profess that all our hope is in what Christ accomplished on the cross since we have no goodness, righteousness, and worthiness of our own.

The plain truth is that the Lord's Supper or Communion is not meant for dead souls, but for living ones. The careless, ignorant, willfully wicked, and self righteous are no more worthy to come for Communion than dead people are to be guests at a king's feast! A worthy communicant, or one who is biblically qualified to celebrate Communion, is characterized by repentance, faith, and love. Does that person truly repent of sin and hate it? Does he put his trust in Jesus Christ as his only hope of salvation? Does she demonstrate love for others in her life as a rule? Let such people draw near with confidence and feel assured that the great Master of the banquet is pleased.

Such a person's repentance may be very imperfect. Never mind; is it real? Does she truly repent at all? His faith in Christ may be weak. Never mind; is it real? The first 12 communicants, when Christ Himself gave the bread and wine, were weak indeed: weak in knowledge, faith, courage, patience, and love. But 11 of them had something about them that outweighed all defects: they were real, genuine, sincere, and true. Show me  a man who really feels his sins, really leans on Christ, and really struggles to be holy and I will bid him welcome in my Master's name.

3. What benefits may be expected by those who rightly participate in the Lord's Supper? Let us settle it firmly in our minds that the Lord's Supper was not given to be a means of justification or conversion. It was never mean to give grace where there is no grace already or to provide pardon when pardon is not already enjoyed. It cannot possibly make up for a lack of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an ordinance for the penitent, not for the impenitent; for the believing, not the unbelieving; for the converted, not the unconverted. The person who eats the bread and drinks the wine in a right spirit will find him or herself drawn into closer communion with Christ, knowing Him more and understanding Him better.

A. Right reception of the Lord's Supper has a humbling effect on the soul. The sight of the bread and wine representing Christ's body and blood reminds us how wicked sin truly is since nothing less that the death of God's own Son could make satisfaction for us and redeem us from its guilt. 

B. Right reception of the Lord's Supper has a cheering effect on the soul. The bread and wine remind us how full, perfect, and complete is our salvation. They remind us of the enormous price paid for our redemption, pressing on us the mighty truth that our living faith in Christ leaves us with nothing to fear since sufficient payment has been made for our spiritual debt. The "precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19) answers every charge that can be brought against us. "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:33-39). 

C. Right reception of the Lord's Supper has a sanctifying effect on the soul. The bread and wine remind us how great our debt of gratitude is to our Lord, and how thoroughly we are bound to live for Him who died for our sins. They seem to say to us, "Remember what Christ has done for you and ask yourself whether there is anything too great to do for Him."

D. Right reception of the Lord's Supper has a restraining effect on the soul. Participating in the Lord's Supper reminds us of what a serious thing it is to be a Christian and our obligation to lead a consistent life. Bought with such a price as that bread and wine call to remembrance, ought we not to glorify Christ in body and spirit, which rightfully belong to Him? Those who go regularly and intelligently to the Lord's Table will find it increasingly hard to yield to sin and conform to the world.

4. Why do many professing Christians not come to the Lord's Supper? Our Lord Jesus Christ's instructions to His disciples are clear, plain, and unmistakable. He says to all, "Eat and drink. Do this in remembrance of Me." Did He leave it to our discretion whether we obey His instructions or not? Certainly not! The idea is absurd and never dreamed of in apostolic times. Paul obviously took it for granted that every Christian participated in the Lord's Supper. Why is it not that way now?

A. Many are careless and thoughtless about the first principles of Christianity. They are the dead weight of true churches and the scandal of Christianity. What such people need is light, knowledge, grace, a renewed conscience, and a changed heart. In their present state they have no part or lot in Christ, and are therefore unfit for heaven, let alone the Lord's Supper.

B. Many know they are living in the habitual practice of some sin or habitual neglect of some Christian duty. Their conscience tells them that so long as they live in this state and do not break off from their sins, they are unfit to come to the Lord's Table. They are right, but need to carry their thinking further. If they are unfit for Holy Communion, they are unfit to die, and if they die in their present condition, they will be lost eternally. The same sins that disqualify them from the Lord's Supper also disqualify them from heaven. I urge all such persons to repent and be converted, to stop doing evil and break off from their sins.

C. Many fear participating wholeheartedly in the Lord's Supper will add to their responsibility. They are not at all ignorant and careless about religion, but are reluctant to take a public stand. They fear they might afterwards fall away and bring scandal on the cause of Christ. They think it wisest to be on the safe side and not commit themselves. Such people do well to realize that if they avoid responsibility of one kind by not participating in the Lord's Supper, they incur responsibility of another kind, also grave and injurious to the soul: open disobedience to a command of Christ. Jesus said to participate often in the special remembrance of His death for His people's sake, even as often as we gather. Taking Communion is a serious step that requires self-examination, but if the direction of your life is faith in Christ and increasing holiness and love, you pass the test. It is never wise, prudent, or safe to neglect a plain command of Christ.

D. Some fear they are not yet worthy to participate in the Lord's Supper. They are right if they are not characterized by true faith in Christ, righteousness, and love, but wrong if they are confusing the direction of their lives with perfection. The Lord's Supper is not intended for angels, but for men and women living in a world full of temptations and needing mercy and grace every day they live. A sense of our own unworthiness is the best worthiness we can bring to the Lord's Table. A deep feeling of our entire indebtedness to Christ for all we have and hope for is the best feeling we can bring with us.

E. Some object to participating in the Lord's Supper because they see others doing so whom they deem unworthy. Remember that Paul called for self-examination, not the judgment of others! Jesus Himself said, "Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-6). When Peter asked the Lord, "What about this man?" Jesus told him, "What is that to you? You follow Me!" (John 21:21-22). Do not deny yourself a great privilege merely because others abuse it. Luke's description of the night on which our Lord was betrayed makes it clear that Judas the betrayer participated in the Lord's Supper. If others are foolish enough to eat and drink unworthily, let us not turn our backs on Christ's ordinance and refuse to eat and drink at all.

I do not know in what state of mind this book will find its readers, but I will conclude by offering to all warnings I think are particularly required by the times.

(1) Do not neglect the Lord's Supper. The man who coolly and deliberately refuses to use an ordinance the Lord Jesus Christ appointed for his profit may be sure his soul is in a wrong state. There is yet a judgment to come and an account to be rendered of our conduct on earth. How can anyone look forward to that day and expect to meet Christ with comfort and in peace if he has refused to meet Christ in His own ordinance?

(2) Do not receive the Lord's Supper carelessly, irreverently, and as a matter of form. The woman who eats the bread and drinks the wine while her heart is far away is committing a great sin and robbing herself of a great blessing. God cares about our attitude and state of mind. He who draws near without repentance, faith, and love but with a heart full of sin and the world instead will end up worse, not better, by participating in Communion.

(3) Do not make an idol of the Lord's Supper. The person who insists that Holy Communion is the principal ordinance of Christianity is not reflecting what the Bible teaches. In the great majority of the New Testament Books, the Lord's Supper is not even named, including in the letters to Timothy and Titus about a minister's duties. To repent and be converted, to believe and be holy, to be born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit—all these are far more important than observing Communion. Without them we cannot be saved. Without the Lord's Supper we can. The penitent thief on the cross was not a communicant; Judas Iscariot was! Are you tempted to make the Lord's Supper override and overshadow everything in Christianity, placing it above prayer and preaching?

(4) Do not use the Lord's Supper irregularly. Strive never to be absent when this ordinance is administered. Regular habits are essential for maintaining the health of our bodies. Regular use of every means of grace is essential to the prosperity of our souls. The man who finds it a weariness to attend when the Lord's Table is spread may well doubt whether all is right within him and whether he is ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9; 21:1-4).

(5) Do not do anything to bring discredit on your profession as a participant in the Lord's Supper. Remember that your participation is to proclaim the Lord's death until He returns. Lying, drunken, adulterous, dishonest communicants are walking sermons on behalf of the devil, giving occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Seek to draw others toward Christ, not away from Him and His people.

(6) Do not despond if, with all your desires, you do not yet feel any great good from the Lord's Supper. Very likely you are expecting too much and are not an accurate judge on this matter. Your soul's root may be strengthening and growing during this period of apparently slow progress. Remember that earth is not heaven, and that here we walk by faith, not by sight, and must not expect perfection. Do not write bitter things against yourself without cause. Tell the Lord Jesus how you feel and commit yourself to Him as you honor what He did on the cross for you.

To every reader I commend the whole subject of the Lord's Supper as deserving serious and solemn consideration. Resolve to obey what the Bible plainly teaches about it.


7. LOVE

"Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

Love, translated as charity in older English Bibles, is rightly called the queen of Christian graces. It is a virtue all people profess to admire, and seems a plain, practical thing everyone can understand. However, there are false ideas about it that need to be dispelled. My heart's desire and prayer to God is that the growth of love may be promoted in this sin-burdened world. In nothing does the fallen condition of mankind show itself so strongly as in the scarcity of Christian love. Let us therefore embrace the prominence the Bible gives to this kind of love, what it really is, where it comes from, and why it is the greatest virtue.

1. The prominence the Bible gives to love. Hear what Paul says to the Corinthians: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). 

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says about love: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).  Let us read our Lord's account of the last judgment, paying close attention to the lack of love that will condemn millions (Matthew 25:41-46).

Hear what Paul says to the Colossians: "Above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14). Hear what he says to Timothy: "The purpose of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). 

Hear what Peter says: "Above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). 

Hear what Paul says to the Romans: "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law" (Romans 13:8). Hear what he says to the Ephesians: "Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us" (Ephesians 5:2).

Hear what John says: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). 

The evidence of these texts is clear, plain, and incontrovertible. They show the immense importance of love as one of the "things that accompany salvation" (Hebrews 6:9). They prove that love has the right to demand the serious attention of all who call themselves Christians.

2. What love actually is as described in the Bible. Here are where mistakes about love begin:

A. Christian love does not consist of giving to the poor. Remember that Paul warned us about people who bestow all their goods to give to the poor, "but have not love." The loving Christian, of course, will eagerly "remember the poor" (Galatians 2:10), but there is more to Christian love than that.

B. Christian love does not consist in never disapproving of anyone's conduct.  Thousands pride themselves on never calling anyone or anything wrong, perverting Christ's prohibition against rash judgments into a prohibition of all judgment whatsoever. Jesus commanded, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24). It is not biblical love to throw a veil over sin and refuse to call things by their right names—to talk of hearts being good when lives are flatly wrong.

C. Christian love does not consist in never disapproving of anyone's religious opinions. There are many who pride themselves on never pronouncing others mistaken, whatever views they may hold. Such foolishness pours contempt on the Bible and talks as if God has not given us a written test of truth. True love, out of genuine concern, cries out, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.... If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him" (1 John 4:1; 2 John 10).

D. Christian love for God and man is the fruit of God's Spirit. Love is what Paul  lists first among the fruits that the Spirit of God brings forth in the lives of genuine Christians (Galatians 5:22-23). Our Lord Jesus Christ described sincere, all-encompassing love for God and others as the greatest of God's commands (Matthew 22:36-40). 

E. Christian love always displays itself in loving deeds. It will make a believer ready to do kind acts to the body and soul everyone within his or her reach. It will not let him be content with soft words and wishes. It will make her diligent in doing all in her power to lessen the sorrow and increase the happiness of others.  Like their Master, His faithful disciples will care more for ministering than in being ministered to, and will look for nothing in return. They join Paul in saying, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" (2 Corinthians 12:15). 

F. Christian love always displays a readiness to bear hardships. It will make believers patient under provocation, forgiving when injured, meek when unjustly attacked, and gentle or even quiet when slandered. It will make them put up with much and look over much, submit often and deny themselves often, all for the sake of peace. It will make them exercise mastery over their tongues and tempers. Those characterized by Christian love are not always asking, "What are my rights?" and "Am I being treated as I deserve?" but instead, "What can I do that is most edifying to others?" and "How can I best promote peace and harmony?"

G. Christian love always displays itself in the general spirit and demeanor of a believer. It will make her kind, unselfish, good natured, and considerate of others. It will make him gentle, pleasant, and courteous in all his daily interactions, thoughtful about the comfort of others, tender for the feelings of others, and much more eager to give pleasure than to receive it. Those characterized by Christian love do not envy others when they prosper or rejoice in the calamities of others when they are in trouble. They will try to think the best of others and even with those at their worst, they will be full of pity, mercy, and compassion.

Do you know where we can find all these characteristics of Christian love displayed most prominently? In the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10), who left us an example to follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21). Love shines in all His doings. In His daily life He "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). Throughout His ministry Jesus  was increasingly hated, persecuted, slandered, and misrepresented, but He patiently endured it all. No ill temper ever appeared in His demeanor. "When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). Among weak and impatient disciples, among sick and sorrowful crowds needing help, among the most disreputable members of society, and among the religious leaders He was kind and patient to all.

Yet also remember that our blessed Master never flattered sinners or winked at sin. He never shrunk from exposing wickedness in its true colors or from rebuking those who would cleave to it. He never hesitated to denounce false doctrine by whomever it might be held or to expose false practices and the certain end to which they lead. He called things by their right names. The Lord Jesus spoke as freely of hell and the fire that is not quenched as He did of heaven and the Kingdom of glory. He has left on record everlasting proof that perfect love does not require us to approve everyone's life or opinions, and that it is quite possible to condemn false doctrine and wicked practice, yet be full of love at the same time.

3. Where Christian love comes from. This love I have described from the Bible is not natural to man. By nature we all are more or less selfish, envious, ill-tempered, spiteful, and unkind. We have only to observe children left to themselves to see proof of that. Let boys and girls grow up without Christian training, and you will not see any of them possessing Christian love. Some of them will think first of themselves and their own comfort and advantage; others will be full of pride, greed, and anger. The natural heart knows nothing of true love, but a heart prepared by the Holy Spirit will. Christian love is a tender plant that grows in one soil only.

The heart in which such love grows is changed, renewed, and transformed by God's Spirit. The image and likeness of God, marred by the Fall of our first parents in the Garden, has been restored to it, however feeble and imperfect the restoration may at first appear. It is a "partaker of the divine nature" by union with Christ and sonship to God. One of the first features of that new nature is love (2 Peter 1:3-7). Such a heart sees sin for what it is, hates it, flees from it, and fights it from day to day—especially against selfishness and lack of love.

Such a heart is deeply sensible of its mighty debt to our Lord Jesus Christ. It feels continually that it owes to Him who died for us on the cross all its present comfort, hope, and peace. How can it display its gratitude? If it can do nothing else, it strives to be like Him, drink of His Spirit, walk in His footsteps, and be full of love like Him. "The love of God ... poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5) is the surest fountain of Christian love. Love will produce love.

Careful attention is required here: many profess to admire Christian love, but care nothing about vital Christianity. They like some of the fruits and results of the Gospel, but not the root from which those fruits alone can grow, or the doctrines with which they are inseparably connected. Hundreds will praise love and charity who hate to be told of man's corruption, the sacrificial death of Christ, and the inward work of the Holy Spirit. Many parents would like their children to grow up unselfish and good tempered, but do not want conversion, repentance, and saving faith in Christ alone brought to their attention. All such feelings are futile: you cannot have the fruits of Christianity without its roots.

Once in awhile you see a person who seems very charitable and amiable without any distinctive doctrinal religion, but such cases are so rare and remarkable that, like exceptions, they only prove the truth of the general rule. All too often, it may be feared, the apparent charity is only surface and in private completely fails. Holy practice will not flourish without sound doctrine. What God has joined together, it is useless to expect to have separate and apart. Beware that where you do find them separate is in the realm of novels, romances, and tales of fiction. The greater part of them give a false or incorrect view of human nature. They paint their model men and women as they ought to be and not as they really are. Real love comes down from above. He or she who would really have it must sit at Christ's feet and learn from His Word.

4. Why Christian love is called the greatest of the graces. As noted at the head of this chapter, Paul concludes his great treatise on love like this: "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). What are we to understand when we hear of love being greater than the highly exalted biblical virtues of faith and hope? It does not mean that love can atone for our sins or make our peace with God. Nothing can do that for us but the sacrificial death of Christ, and nothing can apply  His death to our account apart from our faith in Christ (Romans 3:19-31). As valuable as faith and hope are, however, there are three things that set love above those virtues:

A. Love displays some likeness between God and His people. God has no need of faith. He is dependent on no one. God has no need of hope. To Him all things are certain, whether past, present, or future. But "God is love" (1 John 4:8), and the more love His people have, the more they are like their Father in heaven.

B. Love is most useful to others. Faith and hope, however precious, are for the believer's own, private benefit. Faith unites the soul to Christ, bringing peace with God and opening the way to heaven. It does not do those things for others. Hope fills the soul with cheerful expectation of things to come. Amid the many discouragements of things seen, hope brings comfort with visions of things unseen. But love is preeminently the grace that makes people useful. It is the spring of good works and kindness. It is the root of missions, schools, and hospitals. Love made the apostles spend and be spent for the souls of others. Love raises up workers for Christ and keeps them working. Love smooths over quarrels and stops strife, in that way "covering over a multitude of sins" (James 5:20; 1 Peter 4:8). Christian love adorns the Christian faith and commends it to the world. Faith and hope can sometimes be invisible, but love cannot.

C. Love endures the longest. In fact, it will never end. Faith will one day be swallowed up in sight and hope in certainty. But love will live on through the endless ages of eternity. The inhabitants of heaven will be full of love, and in ever-increasing quantities since they cannot exhaustively know our great God, who is the essence of love itself!

I conclude with a question: Does Christian love have an obvious home in your heart and life? The strong language Paul uses in the love chapter deserves a fresh look: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:1-8).

Look at your daily life. What is your temper like? How do you behave toward all around you at home and at work? What is your manner of speaking, especially in trying times and circumstances? What do you know of the mind of Him who "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), who had a heart wide enough to feel for all? Give yourself no rest until you know something by experience of real Christian love. Go and learn from Him who is meek and lowly of heart, and ask Him to teach you how to love. Ask the Lord Jesus to put His Spirit within you, to take away your old heart and give you an new nature. Happy indeed will your life be when you really understand what it is to "walk in love" (Ephesians 5:2)!

For those of you who are characterized by Christian love and long to feel more of it every year, I urge you to practice it diligently and teach it to others. Love grows by constant exercise. Watch over your tongue and temper throughout each day, especially in your dealings with children, near relatives, and people who serve you one way or another. Remember the character of the excellent woman "who opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness" (Proverbs 31:26). "Let all that you do be done with with love," says Paul (1 Corinthians 16:14), and not just any kind of love, but "fervent love," as Peter clarifies (1 Peter 4:8). It takes effort to keep all these things in mind, and there may be little encouragement from the example of others, but persevere. Love like this brings its own rewards. Teach your children, grandchildren, and anyone else you influence to above all things "put on love, which is the bond of perfection" (Colossians 3:14).


8. ZEAL

"It is good to be zealous in a good thing always." Galatians 4:18 

Zeal is a subject, like many others in religion, most sadly misunderstood. Many would be ashamed to be thought of as zealous Christians, but notice what the Bible says: "Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14). What does our risen Lord Jesus Himself say? "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent!" (Revelation 3:19). Therefore I want to strike a blow at the lazy, easy, sleepy Christianity of these latter days, which sees no beauty in zeal and uses the word Zealot only as a word of reproach. Remember that Zealot was a name given to one of our Lord's apostles. Let us therefore examine what zeal is, right and wrong expressions of religious zeal, and why real zeal in religion is such a good thing and a true blessing to the world.

1. What real zeal in religion truly is. Real zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, do His will, and advance His glory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire no one feels by nature, but which the Holy Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he or she is converted. Some believers come to feel it so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called zealous. This desire is so strong, it impels them to make any sacrifice, go through any trouble, deny themselves any amount, to suffer, work, toil, and even to die if only they can please God and honor Christ.

A zealous man in religion in preeminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, wholehearted, and fervent in spirit. He  sees only one thing, cares for one thing, lives for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and advance His glory. We all know the habit of mind that makes men great in this world, men such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, or Robert E. Lee. They threw themselves into one grand pursuit. They counted everything else as second-rate compared to the one thing they put before their eyes. That is true not only of military and political leaders, but also of scientists and businessmen. This single-minded zeal is especially true of God's people.

A. The single-minded zeal of the apostles. Notice what the apostle Paul says when he speaks to the Ephesian elders for the last time: "None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24). He says something similar here: this "one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things ... ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). All the apostles and prophets were characterized by this true religious zeal and paid for it with their blood. Everyone who reads and believes their sacred writings are direct beneficiaries of their zeal.

B. The single-minded zeal of the early Christians. They are described as those "who have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6) and were "spoken against everywhere" (Acts 28:22). They often lost everything in the world for their religion's sake. They generally gained nothing but the cross, persecution, shame, and reproach. If they could not convince their adversaries by respectful reasoning from the Scriptures, at any rate they could die and prove that they themselves were in earnest. Consider Ignatius cheerfully traveling to the place where he was to be devoured by lions and saying as he went, "Now do I begin to be a disciple of my Master, Christ." Hear old Polycarp before the Roman governor, saying boldly when called upon to deny Christ, "Eighty-six years I have served Christ and He has never offended me in anything. How then can I revile my King?" That is true zeal.

C. The single-minded zeal of Martin Luther. He boldly defied the most powerful hierarchy the world had ever seen. He unveiled its corruptions with an unflinching hand. He preached the long-neglected truth of justification by faith in Christ alone despite anathemas and excommunications. See him going to the Diet at Worms to plead the Gospel cause before the emperor and papal legate. Hear him saying when men were dissuading him from doing so, "Though there were a devil under every tile on the roofs of Worms, in the name of the Lord I shall go forward." That is true zeal.

D. The single-minded zeal of the English Reformers. You have it in the first English Reformer, the linguist and scholar John Wycliffe, who rose from his sickbed and said to those who wanted him to retract all he said against unbiblical teachings and practices, "I shall not die, but live to declare against these abuses." You have it in Thomas Cranmer, dying at the stake, holding out to be burned first the hand that, in a moment of weakness, signed a retraction, now saying, "This unworthy hand!" You have it in 70-year-old Hugh Latimer, standing boldly on his burning stake and saying to the younger believer tied with him, "Courage, brother Ridley! We shall light such a candle this day as, by God's grace, shall never be put out." That is true zeal.

E. The single-minded zeal of the greatest missionaries. You see it in Dr. Adoniram Judson, William Carey, David Brainerd, and so many others. Henry Martyn reached the highest academic honors Cambridge could bestow. Whatever profession he chose to follow, he had the most dazzling prospects of success. He turned his back upon it all and chose to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known. In that land, as he came to understand the condition of the people, he wrote, "I could bear to be torn in pieces if I could hear sobs of penitence and see eyes of faith directed to the Redeemer!" That is true zeal.

F. The supremely single-minded zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him it was written hundreds of years before He came to earth that He would be "clad with zeal as with a cloak" (Isaiah 59:17), and zeal for God's house would consume Him (Psalm 69:9). He said of Himself, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34). Where shall we begin and end if we try to give examples of His zeal? Surely if there ever one who was all zeal, it was our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since these things are so, we should beware not only of running down zeal, but also allowing it to be run down in our presence. Like fire, it is one of the best of servants, but also the worst of masters. Zeal may be badly directed and then it becomes a curse, but it may be turned to the highest and best ends, becoming a mighty blessing. 

2. Right and wrong expressions of religious zeal. It is one of Satan's devices to place distorted copies of believers' virtues before others to bring the true virtues into contempt. No virtue has suffered so much in this way as zeal. We must therefore clear the ground of all rubbish on this question.

A. True zeal is according to knowledge. It must not be a blind, ignorant zeal. It must be a calm, reasonable, intelligent principle that can show the warrant of Scripture for every step it takes. Paul or Saul, the former Pharisee and persecutor of the church, said of religious leaders like he once was, "I bear  them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2). That is why he told them himself, "I was zealous toward God as you all are today" (Acts 22:3). James and John had zeal when they would have called down fire on a Samaritan village, but our Lord rebuked them, saying, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them" (Luke 9:55-56). Peter had zeal when he cut off the ear of Malchus as Jesus was arrested, but he was quite wrong. The Lord told Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18:11). We see similar types of misplaced zeal throughout church history and in other religions, but that zeal God does not approve of. Only what is detailed in His Word is zeal "according to knowledge."

B. True zeal is from true motives. Such is the subtlety of the heart that men will often do right things from wrong motives. Amaziah and Joash, kings of Judah, are striking proofs of that. They had zeal about things that were good and right, but not from a desire to please God. Such zeal is worth less than nothing. The Lord Himself tells us in His Word, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

One false motive for zeal is a party spirit. People can be unwearied in promoting the interests of their own religious group or denomination, but have no love for Christ and no grace in their hearts. Such was the zeal of the Pharisees. They traveled land and sea to make one convert, yet that person became "twice as much a son of hell" as themselves, said Jesus (Matthew 23:15). This zeal is not true.

Another false motive for zeal is mere selfishness. There are times when it is in men's interest to be zealous in religion. Power and favor are sometimes given to godly men. Whenever that is the case, there is no lack of false zeal. Such was the zeal of King David's treacherous general Joab.

Yet another false motive for zeal is love of praise. Jehu the avenger boasted, "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord!" (2 Kings 10:16). He obviously ignored what Solomon the Wise wrote here: "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth" (Proverbs 27:2). Such is the zeal John Bunyan speaks of in Pilgrim's Progress about those who journey toward Mount Zion merely "for praise." Some people feed on the praise of their fellow creatures. They would rather have it from Christians than have none at all.

C. True zeal reflects God's mind and is sanctioned by plain examples from His Word. 

(1) Zeal for growth in personal holiness. Such zeal will make a believer feel that sin is the mightiest of all evils and conformity to Christ the greatest of all blessings. Borrowing from our Lord's proverbial illustrations in His Sermon on the Mount, it will lead that believer to cut off his right hand or pluck out his right eye—make the necessary sacrifices to grow in godliness. That is what we see in Paul's life as he writes, "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.... I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 9:27; Philippians 3:13-14).

(2) Zeal for the salvation of souls. Such a zeal will make a man and woman burn with desire to bring light to the darkness engulfing the souls of multitudes, seeing men, women, and children come to a joyful saving knowledge of the Gospel. Can we not see that most prominently in our Lord Jesus Christ? He and His apostles ministered faithfully with so many coming and going, they sometimes "did not even have time to eat" (Mark 6:31). When Jesus led a Samaritan woman at a well to saving faith Himself while His disciples went to buy food, she went into town to tell everyone about Jesus. When His disciples returned, they  urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat you do not know of!" Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work" (John 4:31-34).  Jesus was too excited to eat! He was zealous to reap the harvest of souls that would soon happen. 

(3) Zeal against evil practices. Such zeal will make a man hate everything God hates, such as all forms of substance abuse, slavery, and infanticide, and long to sweep them from the face of the earth. We see this kind of righteous zeal in Phinehas, son of the high priest Eleazar, and in Kings Hezekiah and Josiah.

(4) Zeal for maintaining Gospel truth. Such a zeal will make a person hate unscriptural teaching and religious error, doing all he or she can to set the record straight. This is what we see in Paul at the church in Antioch when he opposed Peter to the face for misrepresenting the Gospel by his actions (Galatians 2:11-14). These are the kinds of things true zeal is concerned with and are honorable before God.

D. True zeal is always tempered by love. It will not be bitter and fierce against persons, ready to take up the sword, so to speak. The weapons of true zeal are not material, but instead spiritual. Indeed, they "have divine power to destroy strongholds." How? By persuasion with God's Word, "the sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17), as our foremost weapon. With it "we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). True zeal will hate sin, and yet love the sinner, following the example of Jesus.

True zeal will warn others, as Paul did the Galatians, yet feel tenderly toward them, like a nursing mother toward her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:1-13). It will expose false teachers, as Jesus did the scribes and Pharisees, yet weep over the spiritual state of Jerusalem (Matthew 23). True zeal will be resolute, like a surgeon dealing with a diseased limb, yet as gentle as one dressing the wounds of a child. True zeal will speak the truth boldly, like Athanasius did against the world, yet speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

3. The benefits and blessings of real zeal in religion. 

A. Zeal is good for a Christian's own soul. What exercise does for our bodies, zeal will do for our souls. None have so much enjoyment of Christ as those who are ever zealous for His glory, careful over their own walk, tender over their own conscience, full of concern over the souls of others, doing all they can to extend the knowledge of Jesus Christ upon earth. Such people live in the full light of the sun, so their hearts are always warm.

B. Zeal is good for the church. Zealous Christians are like salt and light. None but this kind can revive churches when ready to die or encourage them to greater deeds. "Your zeal has stirred up the majority," wrote Paul with gratitude (2 Corinthians 9). There is little danger of  too much zeal for the glory of God. It is far easier to catch a chill than impart a glow. The church seldom needs a bridle, but often needs a spur: it seldom needs to be checked, but often needs to be urged on.

C. Zeal is good for the world. The world little knows what a debt it owes to Christian zeal. How many souls it has saved, how much crime it has checked, how much obedience to law and love of order and good deeds it has promoted!

As a concluding application, I warn you against misplaced zeal for earthly concerns: family, pleasure, and daily pursuits. What can be more worthy of zeal than eternal things: God, heaven, your own soul and the souls of others? Read the New Testament straight through. Do you find nothing there to make you zealous and earnest about your soul? Go and look at the cross of Christ and never rest until you feel some zeal for the glory of God and the extension of the Gospel throughout the world. The risen Christ says in the last Book of the New Testament, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent!" (Revelation 3:19). Try to live so as to be missed. There is far more to be done in 12 hours than most of us have ever yet done on any day in our lives. Life is short. Resolve that for the time to come you will spend and be spent for Christ!



"If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36

The minds of many are wholly absorbed in politics, but there is a freedom independent of all political changes. Do we know anything of it? Are we free? That leads me to discuss the general excellence of freedom, the best and truest kind of freedom, and the way the best kind of freedom may become your own. If you are not free, I want to guide you into true liberty. If you are free, I want you to know the full value of your freedom.

1. The general excellence of freedom. Two of the worst types of tyranny are the crushing tyranny of a cruel military or political despot, and the intolerant tyranny of an unreasoning mob. Liberty is one of the greatest temporal blessings a person can have this side of the grave. It is an unmatched privilege to live in a land where our bodies are free. So long as we hurt no one's person, property, or character, no one can touch us. When we live where our actions are free, so long as we support ourselves, we are free to choose what we will do, where we will go, and how we will spend our time. When we live where our consciences are free, so long as we hold quietly on our own way and do not interfere with others, we are free to worship God as we believe best, and no one can compel religious faith or practices.

To win and preserve freedom has been the aim of many national struggles that have deluged the earth with blood. Liberty has been the cause in which myriads of Greeks, Romans, Europeans, and Americans especially have laid down their lives. The champions of freedom in every age have been justly esteemed among the greatest benefactors of mankind. Such names as Moses in Jewish history, the Spartan Leonidas, the Roman Horatius, the German Martin Luther, the Swiss William Tell, the Scots Robert Bruce and John Knox, the English King Alfred, and the American George Washington are deservedly honored in history, and will never be forgotten. The enemies of freedom in every age have rightly been regarded as blights on the one ground that they would not let people be free.

Let us beware of undervaluing any liberty we enjoy, but thinking beyond this life, I caution you against overvaluing it. Temporal slavery is not the only slavery, and temporal freedom not the only freedom. What does it ultimately profit you to be a citizen of a free country so long as your soul is not free? What is the lasting advantage of enjoying free thought, speech, action, and conscience if you are, in fact, a slave to sin and a captive to the devil? Yes, there are tyrants no eye can see as real and destructive as Pharaoh or Nero. There are chains no hands can touch as heavy and soul-withering as ever crushed the limbs of an African slave. It is from those tyrants and chains I want you to be free. Look higher and further than any temporal freedom. In the highest sense let us take care that we are indeed free.

2. The best and truest kind of freedom. No power of earth can prevent a man, woman or child from having this freedom if they have the will to receive it, and no one can take it away. The true freedom I speak of is spiritual freedom, freedom of the soul. It is the freedom Christ bestows "without money" (Isaiah 55). If the Son makes you free, "you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, "there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). No other freedom compares to this.

A. Freedom from the guilt of sin. This means that the heavy burden of unforgiven transgressions, which lies so heavy on many consciences, no longer presses them down. Those who come to saving faith in Christ's work on the cross have good reason for believing their guilt has been cleansed away. They rightly feel pardoned, reconciled, justified, and accepted in God's sight. They can look back on black deeds and years of carelessness and worldliness, saying, "You can condemn me no longer!" There is therefore now "no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).

B. Freedom from the power of sin. Paul goes on to explain, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of fallen mortal flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.... If you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:2-4, 13). The New Covenant Christ inaugurated is the fulfillment of this promise from God: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Sin no longer rules in believers' lives, carrying them like a flood. Through the power of Christ's Spirit they progressively gain victory over the evil inclinations that remain from living in this fallen world. The flesh will fight, but it will not conquer them. Devils will tempt, but will not overcome them since they are no longer enslaved by their lusts, appetites, passions, and tempers. Over all those things they are "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) through Him who loved them. That is true liberty.

C. Freedom from the fear of man. Listen to what Christ said to His own disciples: "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4-5). Believers are not afraid of eternal punishment and do not have a slavish fear of God, but they rightly fear displeasing Him nonetheless. By being adopted into God's family,  they look to God as Father and rejoice in His love as adoring children (Galatians 4:4-7). The "fear of man" was once a snare to them (Proverbs 29:25). They trembled at the thought of what others would say, think, or do, daring not to run counter to the current fashions and ideas of those around them. But the snare is now broken and they are delivered.

D. Freedom from the fear of death. Through Christ, believers can look this last enemy calmly in the face and say, as the Heidelberg Catechism so eloquently summarizes biblical truth on hope in life and death: "I am not my own, but belong body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.  Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him."

Christians will experience the fulfillment of these promises: "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall arise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!" (Isaiah 26:19). The Lord "will swallow up death forever. He will wipe away tears from their faces. The reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, 'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him!'" (Isaiah 25:8-9). God Himself says, "I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Hell, where is your sting?" (Hosea 13:14). Then shall come to pass the sayings that are written: "Death is swallowed up in victory.... O Death, where is your sting?... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). In the meantime we say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalm 23:4). This is true freedom.

E. Freedom that lasts forever. The highest privileges of this world's freedom can endure only for a lifetime. The freest citizen on earth must at last submit to death and lose his franchise forever, but the franchise of Christ's people is eternal. They carry it to the grave and it lives still. Once enrolled in the list of heavenly citizens, their names shall never be struck off. Paul explains, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:20-21). This is everlasting freedom.

3. The way the best kind of freedom may become your own. The freedom of Christ's people has been procured, like all other freedoms, at a mighty cost and by a mighty sacrifice. Great was the bondage in which they were naturally held, and great was the price necessary to be paid to set them free. The price that Christ paid for His people was nothing less than His own lifeblood. He became their Substitute, suffering for their sins on the cross: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53; Psalm 22). He satisfied every possible demand of God's Law against us by fulfilling its righteous requirements to the uttermost. I therefore join Paul and his mighty companions by saying this to you: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). This is the freedom above all others. We can never value it too highly; there is no danger of overvaluing it.

How does this spiritual freedom become your own? First you must realize that no one is born spiritually free. We are all born slaves and servants of sin. We are by nature "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:1-3) and destitute of any title to heaven. Second, realize no one becomes spiritually free by baptism or church membership. Those are important acts of obedience after simple faith in Christ as the only Savior and Redeemer. 

Paul succinctly explains salvation like this: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus Himself says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.... He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (John 3:3; 5:23-24). This truth is of priceless importance, accessible to all regardless of educational, social, ethnic, or physical status.

Therefore I conclude by asking if you are free. Do not let political struggles, party strife, or anything else make you forget your precious soul. Never forget there is a liberty far higher and more lasting than any politics can give you. Do not rest until that liberty is your own and your soul is free. Seek Christ, repent, believe, and be free. Christ has a glorious liberty to bestow on all who humbly cry to Him for freedom. Know that "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed!" (John 8:36). 

Freedom like this is the secret of true happiness. None go through the world with such ease and contentment as those who are citizens of a heavenly country. Earth's burdens press lightly upon their shoulders; earth's disappointments do not crush them down as they do others; earth's duties do not shrivel their spirits. In their darkest hours they have this sustaining thought to fall back on: I have something that makes me independent of this world: I am spiritually free.

Are you free? Then in faith and hope look toward good things yet to come. Our redemption has begun, but is not yet complete. We have redemption now in the root, but not in the flower. Paul gives us important parting words on our spiritual freedom: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). He explains throughout the chapter that it can be tempting to focus on religious externals, but what really matters is "faith working through love."

Our great Redeemer has gone before us to prepare a place for His people (John 14:1-3), and when He returns, our redemption will be complete. Then, and not until then, we shall be completely free. The liberty we enjoyed by faith shall be changed into the liberty of sight (2 Corinthians 4:16—5:9), and the freedom of hope into the freedom of certainty (Hebrews 11:1, 6). Let us therefore resolve to wait and watch, hope and pray, living like men and women who have something laid up for them in heaven.  The night is far spent, and the day is at hand (Romans 13:11-14). Our King is not far off; our full salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The signs of the times are strange, demanding every Christian's serious attention. The powers of this world, both secular and religious, are everywhere reeling and shaking to their foundations (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36). How happy are the citizens of Christ's eternal Kingdom, ready for anything that may come, knowing they are free!



"Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!" Psalm 144:15

The story is told of a man trying to persuade a crowd in the open air that there is no God, devil, heaven, hell, resurrection, judgment, or life to come. He talked boldly. The crowd listened eagerly. It was, as Jesus would phrase it, the blind leading the blind. Both were falling into a ditch (Matthew 15:14). A poor old woman  slowly moved up front and asked him loudly, "Sir, are you happy?" He looked scornfully at her and gave no answer. She said, "Sir, I ask you to answer my question. You want us to throw away our Bibles, not listen to ministers of the Gospel, and think as you do. Before we take your advice, we have a right to know what good we shall get by it." The skeptical speaker stammered and tried hard to turn the subject, saying he had not come there to preach about happiness, but the crowd began to press the woman's wise question. At last he walked away in confusion. His conscience would not let him answer the question: he dared not say he was happy.

Whenever people you know begin to take up new views of religion or criticize Bible Christianity, thrust onto their consciences the old woman's question. Ask whether their new views make them feel comfortable within. Ask whether they can say, with honesty and sincerity, that they are happy. This is a significant matter because the Bible teaches the heart cannot be right in the sight of God that knows nothing of happiness. That man or woman cannot be in a safe state of soul who feels nothing of peace within.

1. Things essential to all happiness. The desire for happiness is planted deeply in the human heart. We all naturally like comfort and gladness, disliking pain, sorrow, and discomfort. Solomon the Wise tells us that God "has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts.... I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God" (Ecclesiastes 3:11-13). Few, however, really think about what they mean when they talk of happiness. They dream of a happiness that would never satisfy their nature's wants.

A. Happiness does not require freedom from sorrow and discomfort. The happiness I am inquiring about is such as a poor, dying, sinful creature may hope to attain. Evil abounds in this world. Sickness, death, and change are daily doing their sad work on every front. In such a state of things, the highest happiness a man and woman can attain on earth must necessarily be a mixed thing. If we expect to find any perfect happiness this side of the grave, we expect what we shall not find.

B. Happiness does not require laughter and smiles. Many laugh out loud and are merry in company, but are miserable in private and almost afraid to be alone. The eternal Word of God teaches us that even "in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief" (Proverbs 14:13). Like Shakespeare's Hamlet said, a man "may smile and smile and be a villain." A truly happy man will often show his happiness on his face, but not always. A woman may have a very happy face, yet not be happy at all. Of all deceptive things on earth, few exceed mere gaiety and merriment. There is a temporary elevation of spirits about it, but do not call it by the sacred name of happiness. The most beautiful cut flowers stuck into the ground do not make a garden.

C. Happiness does require the highest wants of human nature to be satisfied. What are those wants? Can we do nothing but hear, see, smell, taste, and feel? No, we have a thinking mind and conscience. Do we have consciousness of any world except that in which we live and move? A still, small voice within us all often makes itself heard: This life is not all! There is a world unseen: there is life beyond the grave. Yes, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). It is foolishness to pretend that food, clothes, and other material things can make us happy. They can do nothing for the immaterial needs of the soul and conscience. There can be no true happiness until those needs are satisfied.

D. Happiness does require sources of gladness not dependent on anything in this world. There is nothing upon earth that is not stamped with the mark of instability and uncertainty. All the good things money can buy are fleeting: they either leave us or we are obliged to leave them. All the sweetest relationships in life are liable to come to an end: death may come any day and cut them off. The person whose happiness depends on those things is like the man building his house on sand (Matthew 7:24-27).

E. Happiness does require being able to face the past, present, and future with justified comfort. To be really happy, a man must be able to look back at the past without guilty fears, to look around him without discontent, and look forward without anxious dread. Are you able to look steadily either before or behind you? Your present position may be easy and pleasant. But stop and think quietly over your past. Can you reflect calmly on all your omissions and commissions? How will they bear God's inspection? How will you answer for them at the last day? Now think of the years yet to come, especially the certain end: death and judgment. Are you prepared? If you cannot look comfortably at any season but the present, you do not yet know what real happiness is like.

2. Common mistakes about the way to be happy. There are several roads thought by many to lead to happiness. On each multitudes of men and women are continually traveling. They think if only they get what they want, they will be happy. If they do not, they are more likely to blame their luck than their choice of road. I will mention by name some of the principal delusions about happiness, which I do out of love and compassion to warn people against cheats, quacks, and imposters.

A. Rank and greatness. The rulers of this world are seldom happy. They have troubles none know but themselves, seeing a thousand evils they are unable to remedy. The Roman Emperor Antonine often said that the imperial power was an ocean of miseries. Queen Elizabeth I of England, when hearing a milk maid singing, said she wished she had been born to a position like hers. Shakespeare's Henry IV sums it up well: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

King Solomon had power, wisdom and wealth far beyond any ruler of his time. We know from his own confession in the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes that he made a grand experiment of how far the good things of this world can make a person happy. Never, surely, was such an experiment tried under such favorable circumstances; never was anyone so likely to succeed. Yet what is Solomon's testimony? You have it in his melancholy words, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!" (Ecclesiastes 1:14; 2:17).

B. Riches. They can enable a person to command and possess just about everything but inward peace. They cannot buy a cheerful spirit and a light heart. There is care in the getting of riches, along with the cares of keeping, using, and distributing them. A wise man said money is another word for trouble.

Walk down the street of any major business district and study the faces of businessmen and women leaving near the close of day. What tale do the deep lines furrowing brow and cheek tell? What about the air of anxious preoccupation that characterizes five out of every six we see? They tell us  something greater than gold and bank notes is needed to make people happy.

C. Learning and science. They may profitably occupy people's time and attention, but cannot make them happy. Like Solomon, those with vast learning discover that "in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (Ecclesiastes 1:18). The heart wants something as well as the head; the conscience needs food as well as the intellect. All the secular knowledge in the world will not give men and women joy and gladness, especially when faced with sickness, death, and the grave.

D. Rest and leisure. It is easy to assume those things bring bliss if you regularly have to venture out to work early on a cold morning, but the most miserable creature on earth is the one who has nothing to do. Work for the hands or head is essential to human happiness. Without it the mind feeds upon itself, and the whole inward man becomes diseased. The machinery within us, so to speak, is made for work; without something to work upon, it is likely to wear itself to pieces. Work was invented by God before the Fall: Adam and Eve were joyfully tasked with tending the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). There will be no idleness in heaven: God's servants shall serve Him in bliss (Revelation 22:3).

E. Pleasure and amusement. Of all weary, flat, dull, and unprofitable ways of spending life, this exceeds all. To think of a dying creature with an immortal soul expecting happiness in feasting and reveling, dancing and singing, playing games and watching entertainment—in crowds, laughter, noise, music, and wine! Surely it is a sight to make the devil laugh and the angels weep. Even children will not play with their toys all day long. They must have food. But when grown-up men and women think to find happiness in a steady stream of amusement, they sink far below a child.

Do you doubt what I say? Then stand with me in the most fashionable parts of town in the height of the season. We soon will see many who seem to possess the choicest gifts of this world: beauty, wealth, rank, fashion, and troops of friends. Sadly, few will appear happy. On many faces we shall read weariness, dissatisfaction, discontent, sorrow, or unhappiness as clearly as if written with a pen. This is a humbling lesson to learn, but a wholesome one. It applies not only to town life, but also to more modest settings. You will soon discover that backbiting, lying, slandering, envy, pride, laziness, lust, substance abuse, and petty quarrels murder happiness anywhere. Fallen human nature is the same evil thing everywhere.

All the wrong roads to happiness are like bright fountains of waters that at first taste sweet. A crowd stands around them that refuses to leave, but you may know that God has written over each fountain, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again" (John 4:13). Remember all these mistakes about happiness and be wise!

3. The way to be truly happy: to be a real, enthusiastic, true-hearted Christian. This is a sure road to happiness and open to all. None are excluded but those who exclude themselves. The people I have in view are not mere talkers, but real Christians in heart and life, who rest all their hopes on the Lord Jesus Christ and His atonement, who have been born again and live holy lives. Their religion is a mighty energizing and constraining  principle governing every day of life.

A. Christian consistency despite the ebbs and flows of life. Christians are subject to the same difficulties and frailties as anyone else, but deep down inside they have a mine of solid peace and substantial joy that is never exhausted. This is true happiness. Not all true Christians are equally happy, for there are differing levels of maturity, and all have their ebbs and flows of comforts. Some tides, like those of the Mediterranean Sea, are almost imperceptible; others, as in Wales, come 50 or 60 feet at a time. The bodily health of believers is not always the same, and the same goes for their earthly circumstances. The souls of those they love fill them at times with distress; they themselves are sometimes overtaken by a fault and temporarily walk in darkness.  But as a general rule, the true Christian has a deep pool of peace within him or her, which even at the lowest is never entirely dry.

B. Christian peace of mind and conscience. Christians are at rest within because they know Christ made atonement on the cross for all their sins, cleansing them forever from guilt. They see in the priesthood and mediation of the risen Christ now in heaven (Romans 8:33-34; Hebrews 7:24-26) a complete answer to all their fears. Conscience is no longer the enemy of the true Christian, but his friend and adviser. Therefore he is happy. He can look behind him and before him, within him and around him, feeling, All is well. He can think calmly about his past life, and however many and great his sins, take comfort in the truth that they are all forgiven. The righteousness of Christ covers all. He can think calmly about things to come, yet not be afraid. Sickness is painful, death is solemn, and Judgment Day is an awe-full reality, but having Christ for him the Christian has nothing to fear. He or she can think calmly about Almighty God, saying, "He is my Father, my reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. I am weak and unworthy, yet in Christ He regards me as His dear child and is well pleased." What a blessed privilege it is to think and not be afraid!

C. Christian hope independent of this world. Christians have something that cannot be affected by sickness, death, private losses, or public calamities: "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" (Philippians 4:6-7). They have reserved for them in heaven "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away" (1 Peter 1:4). A believer's wife may die, his darling children may be taken away from him, and he may be left alone in this cold world; his earthly plans may be crossed; his health may fail. But all this time he has a portion nothing can hurt, and one Friend who never dies. His lower springs may fail, but his upper springs are never dry. This is real happiness.

D. Christian priorities in the right order. All the powers of his being are directed to right ends. His mind and affections are set "on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1-4). His will is not bent on self-indulgence, but is submissive to the will of God. Christians realize that "the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17). Their minds are not absorbed in perishable trifles; they desire useful employment, especially the privilege of doing good.

Who has not seen the misery of disorder and discomfort of a house where everything and everyone are in their wrong places: last things first and first things last? The heart of an unconverted man or woman is such a house. Grace puts everything in that heart in its right position. The things of the soul come first and the things of the world come second. Christ reigns over the whole man, and each part of him does his proper work. This new heart is really a light heart, unburdened from pride and self will. The Christian sits at the feet of Jesus and is in his right mind. He loves God and loves man, so he is happy. In heaven all are happy because all do God's will perfectly. The nearer a man or woman gets to this standard, the happier he or she will be.

The plain truth is that without Christ, there is no lasting happiness in the world. He alone can give the Comforter who abides forever. He is the sun; without Him you never feel warm. He is the light; without Him you are in the dark. He is the bread; without Him you are starving. He is the living water; without Him you remain thirsty. Take what you like, go where you will, be surrounded by all the comforts you can imagine—it does not matter: apart from Christ, the Prince of Peace, you cannot be happy.

E. Christian contentment despite adverse circumstances. Give a man a sensible interest in Christ, and he will be happy in spite of poverty. He will tell you he is lacking nothing that is truly good. He is provided for: he has food to eat the world does not know of (John 4:32-34) and  friends who will never leave him or forsake him (Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5-6). The Father and the Son have come to him and made Their home with him (John 14:23). The risen Christ Himself says, "I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

Give a woman a sensible interest in Christ, and she will be happy in spite of sickness. Her flesh may groan and her body be worn out with pain, but her heart will rest and be at peace. One of the happiest people I ever met was a young woman who had been ill for many years with a disease of the spine, and lived in a cold attic. Her case was incurable, but she was always rejoicing in the Lord Jesus. Her spirit triumphed mightily over her flesh. She was happy because Christ was with her.

Give a man a sensible interest in Christ, and he will be happy in spite of abounding public calamities. The government of his country may be thrown into confusion, rebellion and disorder may turn everything upside down, laws may be trampled under foot, and might may prevail over right, but still his heart will not fail. He will remember that the Kingdom of Christ will one day be fully established, so that man will say, "It is all right: it is well with the righteous."

I desire to make an affectionate appeal to the many different people who are reading this: Man of the world, caring for nothing but the things of time, neglecting the Bible, making a god of business or money, providing for everything but the day of judgment, planning about everything but eternity: Are you happy? You know you are not.

Foolish woman, trifling life away in levity and frivolity, spending hours on that frail body that must soon pass away, making an idol of fashion, amusement, and human praise, as if this world were all: Are you happy? You know you are not.

Young man or woman, bent on pleasure and self-promotion, fluttering from one  pursuit to another, fancying yourself clever and knowing, too wise to be led by godly ministers, yet ignorant that the devil is leading you like a beast to the slaughter: Are you happy? You know you are not.

You will never be happy until you are converted to Christ. You might as well expect the sun to shine on your face when you turn your back to it as to feel happy when you turn your back on God and Christ. The keys of the way to happiness are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is appointed by God the Father to give the bread of life to all who hunger, and the water of life to all who thirst. Come to Him, confessing you are weary of your own ways and want rest, that you now realize you have no power to make yourself happy or holy, and have no hope but Him. This is coming to Christ.

You have everything to encourage you. The Lord Jesus Himself invites you. He proclaims to you as well as to others, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Multitudes have walked in the way you are invited to enter, and have found it good. Once like you they served the world and became enmeshed in folly and sin. Once like you they became weary of their wickedness and longed for deliverance and rest. They heard of Christ and His unmatched ability and willingness to save. They came to Him by faith and prayer after many doubts and hesitations, but found Him a thousand times more gracious than they had expected. Walk with them to Christ.

Those of you who know and love Christ have no doubt experienced such sweetness in Christ's peace that you would love to know more of it. I urge us all to have an increase of happiness in Christ's service by laboring every year to grow in grace. Let us beware of standing still and instead search the Scriptures more earnestly, pray more fervently, hate sin more, mortify self-will more, love others more, and become more humble. Let us also be laboring every year to be more thankful and to do more good. May we be more and more like God, who not only is good, but does good (Psalm 119:68). There is much we might do if only we had the will. For God's glory, the enrichment of others, and our own happiness, let us be fervent and faithful Christians!



"Having a form of godliness but denying its power." 2 Timothy 3:5

"He is not a Jew who is one outwardly ... but he is a Jew who is one inwardly ... of the heart, in the spirit ... whose praise is not from men but from God." Romans 2:28-29

Let us try to discover whether our Christianity is a thing of mere form or of heart and mind. I know of no better way of unfolding the subject than by turning to the Pauline passage in Romans 2 above: "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter;  whose praise is not from men but from God." Three instructive lessons stand out: 1. Formal (merely outward) religion is not true religion, and a formal Christian is not a true Christian in God's sight. 2. The heart is the seat of true religion, and the true Christian is the Christian in heart. 3. True religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of men, but of God.

1. Formal (merely outward) religion is not true religion, and a formal Christian is not a true Christian in God's sight. What is formal religion? When a man or woman is a Christian in name only and not in reality: in profession only, not practice; in outward things only, not inward convictions and feelings. He or she possesses only the form, husk, or skin of religion,  not its substance and power. 

These are the kinds of people who participate in religious services, but know nothing of experimental Christianity. They are not familiar with the Scriptures and take no delight in reading them. They do not separate themselves from the ways of the world. They draw no distinction between godliness and ungodliness in their friendships and marriages. They care little or nothing about the distinctive doctrines of the Gospel. They appear indifferent to what they hear preached. You may be in their company regularly and see nothing to separate them from agnostics and atheists. Their religion is an empty form.

Look in another direction at people whose whole religion seems to consist in talk. They know the theory of the Gospel and profess to delight in their doctrinal positions; they say much about the soundness of their own views and the darkness of all who disagree with them. But when you examine their inner lives, you find they know nothing of practical godliness. They are neither truthful, loving, humble, kind, gentle, or honorable. Their religion is likewise an empty form.

One of the wickedest things Machiavelli said is that the appearance of religion is useful, but the reality and practice of it is cumbersome. Such a notion is of the earth or deeper still: it smells of the pit. Hear what Paul says to the Romans: "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh" (Romans 2:28). Those are strong words! Paul is saying a man might be a son of Abraham according to the flesh, circumcised the eighth day of his birth, a regular worshiper in the temple, yet in God's sight not be a Jew. Just so a man may be a baptized member of a Christian church who participates in its services and ceremonies, yet in God's sight not be a Christian.

Hear what the prophet Isaiah writes from the Lord: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams.... I do not delight in the blood of bulls.... Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me.... Your new moons, sabbaths, and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood" (Isaiah 1:10-15). Keep in mind that those sacrifices, sabbaths, festivals, and the incense were appointed by God Himself! He pronounces His own institutions to be useless when they are used formally and without heart by the worshiper. In fact, they are worse then useless: they are offensive and hurtful. Formal religion is worthless in God's sight. It is not worth calling religion at all.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says: "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'" (Matthew 15:7-9; Isaiah 29:13). We see Him repeatedly denouncing the formalism and hypocrisy of the religious leaders. Eight times in one chapter (Matthew 23) He says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" For many kinds of sinners Jesus had a word of kindness and held out to them an open door for repentant hearts, but He wants us to know that unrepentant formalists must be exposed in severe terms.

A. Formalism is common. It is one of the great family diseases of the whole race of mankind. It is born with us, grows with us, and is never completely cast out of us in this life. It meets us in church and out, among rich and poor, among the highly educated and minimally educated, among Roman Catholics and Protestants, among Evangelicals and any other Christian grouping you can think of. If you think there is no formal religion in your own camp, you are unobservant. If you love life, beware of formalism.

B. Formalism is dangerous. Familiarity with the form of religion while neglecting its reality has a fearfully deadening effect on one's soul and conscience. It builds up a thick crust of insensibility over the whole inner person. None seem to become so desperately hard as those who are continually repeating holy words and handling holy matters while their hearts are running after sin and the world. They are gradually hardening their hearts and searing the skin of their consciences. If you love your own soul, beware of formalism.

C. Formalism is foolish. Can formalists really suppose the outward Christianity they profess will comfort them in the day of sickness and the hour of death? A painted fire cannot warm, a painted banquet cannot satisfy hunger, and a formal religion cannot bring peace to the soul. Do they really think God does not see the heartlessness and deadness of their Christianity? Although they may deceive acquaintances, fellow worshipers, and ministers with a form of godliness, do they think they can deceive God? "He who formed the eye, shall He not see?" (Psalm 94:9). God knows the very secrets of the heart and "will judge the secrets of men" at the last day (Romans 2:16). The risen, ascended Christ, who said to each of the 7 churches in the Book of Revelation, "I know your works" (Revelation 2-3) has not changed. He who said, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" (Matthew 22:12) will not be deceived by a little cloak of outward religion. If you would not be put to shame at the last day, once more I say to beware of formalism.

2. The heart is the seat of true religion, and the true Christian is the Christian in heart. The heart is the real test of a man's character. It is not what he says or does by which he may always be known. He may say and do right things from false and unworthy motives reflecting his heart. As a man "thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Man "looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). This is what Paul lays down distinctly as the standard measure of the soul: "He is a Jew who is one inwardly ... and circumcision is that of the heart" (Romans 2:28-29). Who can doubt that this mighty sentence was written for Christians as well as for Jews? He is a Christian, the apostle would have us know, who is one inwardly, and baptism is that of the heart.

The heart is where saving religion must begin. It is naturally irreligious, which is why the promise of the New Covenant is this: "A new heart I will give you.... I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26-27). "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). We read that the Lord "opened" the heart of Lydia to believe what Paul was telling her about Christ (Acts 16:14).

The heart is the seat of true saving faith. "With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). A man may believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world, as the devils do, yet remain in his sins. He may believe he is a sinner and even be convinced that Jesus is the only Savior, feeling occasional lazy wishes that he were a better man. But no one ever lays hold of Christ and receives pardon and peace until he or she believes with the heart. It is heart faith that justifies.

The heart is the spring of true holiness and steady continuance in doing good. True Christians are holy because their hearts are interested. They obey from the heart. They do the will of God from the heart. Weak, feeble, and imperfect as all their doings are, they please God because they are done from a loving heart. He who commended the widow's small coins more than all the offerings of the wealthy regards quality far more than quantity (Mark 12:41-44). He likes to see things done with "an honest and good heart" (Luke 8:15). There is no real holiness without a right heart.

Paul teaches us about this matter in 3 parallel texts: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but ... faith working through love (Galatians 5:6) ... a new creation (Galatians 6:15) ... [and] keeping the commandments of God is what matters" (1 Corinthians 7:19). True religion consists of far more than circumcision or any other external form, but of being born again to obey God's Word from the heart.

A. When the heart is wrong, all is wrong in God's sight. The ark was the most sacred thing in the Jewish tabernacle. On it was the mercy seat. Within it were the tablets of God's Law, written by God's own finger. The high priest alone was allowed to go into the place where the ark was kept, behind a veil, but only once a year. The presence of the ark within the camp was thought to bring a special blessing. And yet this very ark could do the Israelites no more good than any common wooden box when they treated it like an idol, their hearts full of wickedness. They said, "Let us bring the ark that it may save us from the hand of our enemies" (1 Samuel 4:3). When it was brought into the camp, they shouted with joy to show it reverence and honor, but it was all in vain. God allowed the Philistines to defeat them and take away the ark. Why? They honored the ark, but did not give the God of the ark their hearts.

There were kings of Judah and Israel who did many things that were right, yet were never written in the list of godly rulers. Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, for 3 years walked in the ways of David and Solomon (2 Chronicles 11:17), but afterwards "he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord" (2 Chronicles 12:14). Abijam of Judah said many things that were right and fought successfully against wicked King Jeroboam of Israel, but the general verdict is against him because "his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David" (1 Kings 15:3). Amaziah "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart" (2 Chronicles 25:2). Jehu, king of Israel, was raised up by God's command to put down idolatry. He was a man of special zeal in doing that work, but unhappily it is written of Jehu, "He took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin" (2 Kings 10:31). One general remark applies to all those kings: they were all wrong inwardly, rotten at heart.

There are many fair places of worship in the world, but God sees nothing with an eye of favor in such buildings, services, ministers, or people if He does not see converted, renewed, broken, penitent hearts. Bowed heads, bended knees, and loud amens are nothing in God's sight without right hearts.

B. When the heart is right, God can look over many things that are defective. There may be faults in judgment and infirmities in practice. There may be many deviations from the best course in the outward things of religion, but if the heart is sound in the main, God is not extreme to mark that which is amiss. He is merciful and gracious, pardoning much that is imperfect when He sees a true heart and a single eye.

Jehoshaphat and Asa were kings of Judah who were defective in many things. Jehoshaphat was a timid, irresolute man who did not know how to say no, even to making an alliance with Ahab, Israel's wickedest king. Asa was an unstable man who at one time trusted in the king of Syria more than in God, and punished a prophet who rightly rebuked him. Yet both of them had one great redeeming point in their characters: with all their faults, they had right hearts (2 Chronicles 22:9, 2 Chronicles 15:17).

The long-neglected Passover feast, which the good King Hezekiah sought to restore, was quite irregular. The proper forms were not observed by many. They ate the Passover "otherwise than as prescribed," but with true and honest hearts. Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God ... even though not according to the sanctuary's rules." We are told that God honored his prayer (2 Chronicles 30:18-20). The Passover feast kept by King Josiah years later must have been far smaller and worse attended than Hezekiah's, not to mention the glory years under David and Solomon, but notice what we are told about it: "There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept" (2 Chronicles 35:18). There is but one explanation. The Lord does not look at the quantity of worshipers so much as the quality. The glory of Josiah's Passover was the state of the people's hearts.

There are many assemblies of Christian worshipers today that meet in humble buildings, sing unmusically, pray meekly, and hear the Word of God proclaimed plainly, yet the Holy Spirit is in the midst of them. Sinners are often converted in them and the Kingdom of God prospers far more than in any gorgeous cathedral or church. This applies to any assembly where heart religion is taught and lived out. The consequence is that God is pleased and grants His blessing.

One word of caution before moving to my last point: do not suppose that because formal religion will not save that all forms of religion are of no use. The misuse of a thing is no argument against the right use of it. Use the forms of Christianity diligently and you will find them a blessing, but remember that the state of your heart comes first.

3. True religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of men, but of God. As eager as I am to commend heart religion, I will not try to conceal what it entails. Remember, Paul said at the beginning of this chapter that praise of heart religion comes "not from men, but from God" (Romans 2:28-29). God's truth and biblical Christianity have never been popular and never will be as long as the world stands. No one can rationally consider what human nature is as described in the Bible and reasonably expect anything else.

Atheism and rank unbelief, as a general rule, are never very popular, but a religion that does not require much or trouble a man and woman's heart and lifestyle is what many people crave. Formal religion gratifies the secret self-righteousness within. We are all of us more or less Pharisees. Formal religion also pleases the natural laziness of man. It attaches an excessive importance to the easiest part of religion, the mere externals. Formalism seems to open a wider gate and a more easy way to heaven.

But facts are stubborn things. Look over the history of religion in every age of the world and observe what has always been popular. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague that characterized the Jewish religion when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Formalism ate out the life and vitality of the early church. In the Middle Ages formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the Gospel lay as one dead. Look at the history of churches in the last several centuries. How few are the places where the Christian religion is a living thing! Formal religion continues to be popular. It has the praise of men.

John tells us this about false religious teachers: "They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them" (1 John 4:5). Only say your prayers, go to church with tolerable regularity, and receive the Lord's Supper occasionally, and the vast majority of religious people will set you down as an excellent Christian. "What more would you have?" they say. "If that is not Christianity, what is?" To require more of anyone is thought bigotry, intolerant, and fanatical. To insinuate a doubt whether a person like this will go to heaven is called uncharitable. Formal religion will always be popular until Christ returns.

Turn now to the religion of the heart, and you will hear a very different report. As a general rule it has never had the good word of mankind, but instead laughter, mockery, ridicule, scorn, contempt, enmity, hatred, slander, persecution, imprisonment, and even death. Its lovers have been faithful and ardent, but they have always been few.

A. Heart religion is too humbling to be popular. It leaves no room for boasting. It tells men and women that they are guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinners who must flee to Christ alone for salvation. It tells them they are spiritually dead and must be made alive again, born of the Spirit. The pride of mankind rebels against this. People hate to be told their case is so bad.

B. Heart religion is too holy to be popular. It interferes with their worldliness and sin. It requires things their fallen nature hates: conversion, faith, repentance, spiritual-mindedness, Bible reading, and prayer. It bids them to give up many things they love and cling to, and cannot make up their minds to lay aside. It seems to them a killjoy.

Was heart religion popular in Old Testament times? We read poor David moaning, "Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of drunkards" (Psalm 69:12). We find the prophets persecuted and ill treated because they preached against sin and called people to give their hearts to God. Elijah, Micaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos are all cases in point. The people never seem to have objected to formalism and ceremonialism, but they often displayed their unwillingness to serve God from the heart.

Was heart religion popular in New Testament times? The scribes and Pharisees would have willingly received a Messiah who encouraged formalism and exalted ceremonialism, but they could not tolerate a religion with the first principles of humiliation and sanctification of heart.

What matters, however, is that God approves and honors heart religion, He looks down from heaven and reads the hearts of all. God is well pleased whenever He sees repentance from sin, faith in Christ, holiness of life, and love for His Son, Word and will. He writes a book of remembrance for His faithful people, and gives His angels special charge over them. He gives them daily supplies of peace, hope, and strength. One day all who have served Christ from the heart will hear Him say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You were faithful over a few things; I will make you rulers over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord! You confessed Me before others, and I will confess you before My Father and His holy angels" (Matthew 25:21-34; Luke 12:8).

Those words will not be addressed to the formalists, the hypocrites, the wicked, and the ungodly. They indeed will stand by and see the fruits of heart religion, but will not eat them. Only then shall we fully understand how much better it is to have the praise of God than the praise of man. In the meantime, "We must through many tribulations enter the the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22), and "all who determine to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). If the world hates you, God will love you. If the world forsakes you, Christ has promised He will never forsake or fail you. Whatever you may lose by your heart religion, be sure that the praise of God will make up for all.

I close with applications for 3 groups of readers: In the first place, is your religion a matter of form and not of heart? Answer this question honestly and in the sight of God. If it is, consider solemnly the immense danger in which you stand. You have nothing to comfort your soul in the day of trial, nothing to save you at the last day. Like base metal, formal religion will not stand the fire. I earnestly beseech you to open your eyes and repent.

In the second place, if you heart condemns you and you want to know what to do, consider seriously the only course you can safely take. Go to the Lord Jesus Christ without delay and spread before Him the state of your soul. Confess before Him your formalism in times past and ask Him to forgive it. Seek from Him the promised grace of the Holy Spirit and ask Him renew your inner self. Know that the Lord Jesus is appointed and commissioned to be the Physician of each person's soul. There is no case too hard for Him. Seared and hardened as the heart of a formalist may be, healing is available: "Ask and it shall be give you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you" (Luke 11:9).

In the last place, if your heart does not condemn you and you have well-grounded confidence in your Christian faith by God's grace, consider seriously the many responsibilities of your position. Praise God daily for calling you out of darkness into light and making you different. Have pity for those still in darkness and pray for them. Watch your heart and be on guard against formalism in your Bible reading and prayer, your temper and your tongue, your family, work, and church life. Look forward to the return of our Lord. Your best things are yet to come. One thing His return will make abundantly clear: there never was an hour in our lives when we gave our hearts too thoroughly to Christ.



"'Come out from among them and be separate,' says the Lord." 2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 52:11

Separation from the world is a Christian duty and a grand evidence of a work of grace in the heart, but is often misunderstood. I therefore invite attention to God's Word on these 4 points: 1. The world is a source of great danger to the soul, 2. What is not meant by separation from the world, 3. What is meant by separation from the world, 4. The secrets of victory over the world.

World in Holy Scripture refers to two things: God's creation and something else that is fallen and dangerous. All that God created in this material world is "very good" by God's own declaration (Genesis 1:31). The sun, moon, and stars; mountains, valleys, and plains; seas, lakes, and rivers; animal and vegetable life are full of resources and lessons that proclaim daily, "The hand that made us is divine!" World in the bad sense refers the effects of the Fall on this world's people in their ways, habits, customs, opinions, practices, aims, spirit, and tone that lead them to think more about time than eternity, more about the body than the soul, and more about what pleases themselves than what pleases God.

1. The world is a source of great danger to the soul. Let us first hear from the apostle Paul: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). "Christ gave Himself for us that He might deliver us from this present evil world" (Galatians 1:4). "You  He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world" (Ephesians 2:1-2). "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10).

Here is what James, the half brother of our Lord, says: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

The apostle John wrote the final words on this subject in the New Testament: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17). "The world does not know us because it did not know Him" (1 John 3:1). "Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which ... is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them" (1 John 4:3-5). "Whoever is born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4). "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).

Let us hear last from our Lord Jesus Christ: "The cares of this world choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Matthew 13:22). He said to unbelieving antagonists, "You are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8:23). To His disciples He explained that the Father "will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him" (John 14:16-17). "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19). "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Shortly before going to the cross, Jesus prayed saying this about His people : "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:16).

Those 21 texts speak for themselves that the world is an enemy to the Christian's soul. There is utter opposition between friendship with the world and friendship with Christ. Turning to matters of experience, what turns more people away from Christ than the cares, business, money, pleasures, prestige, and favor of the world? That is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck. Many do not object to any doctrine of the Christian faith. They do not deliberately choose evil or openly rebel against God, but they cannot give up their idol: they must have the world, so they go down the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). To prevent that is the reason for this order from our Lord: "Come out from among them and be separate" (2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 52:11).

2. What is not meant by separation from the world. You will sometimes see sincere and well-meaning Christians doing things God never intended them to do in the matter of separation from the world, yet honestly believing they are in the path of duty. Their mistakes often do great harm. They give occasion for the wicked to ridicule all religion, and supply them with an excuse for having none. God's Word cautions us that some zeal for God is, from His perspective, "not according to knowledge" (John 16:2; Romans 10:2).

A. Separation from the world does not mean Christian ought to give up all worldly callings, trades, professions, and business. The New Testament says no such thing! Luke the physician, Cornelius the Roman centurion, and Zenas the lawyer are examples to the contrary. Work is a good gift from God, established before the Fall. Since idleness is a sin, a lawful calling is a remedy against temptation. As Paul said regarding the idle, "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The right plan is to carry our religion into our business or service, not to give it up under the specious notion that it interferes with our religion.

B. Separation from the world does not mean Christians ought to avoid interacting with unconverted people. Think about the examples of our Lord and His disciples! They did not refuse to go to a marriage feast and share meals with a wide variety of people up and down the social scale. When Paul was asked what to do about dinner invitation from unbelievers, he did not say not to go, but gave instructions on how to behave (1 Corinthians 10:27-33). It is a dangerous thing to begin judging people too closely, and settling who are converted and who are not, and what society is godly or ungodly. We are sure to make mistakes. Who wants to be cut off from many opportunities of doing good? If we carry our Master with us wherever we go, by His grace we "might save some," blessing them and ourselves in the process (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).

C. Separation from the world does not mean Christians ought to take no interest in anything except religion. To neglect science, art, literature, and politics—to know nothing about what is going on among mankind and care nothing about the government of one's country, utterly indifferent to the persons who guide its counsels and make its laws—is a neglect of duty. Paul urged us to pray for our leaders, knowing the value of good government as one of the main helps to leading "a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way" (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Paul was not ashamed to read Pagan authors and quote their words when relevant. He did not think it beneath himself to show an acquaintance with the laws, customs, and callings of the world.

D. Separation from the world does not mean Christians ought to be singular, eccentric, or peculiar in their appearance and demeanor. Anything that attracts notice in those matters is to be avoided. There is not the slightest proof that the Lord Jesus and His disciples did not dress and behave like others in their own ranks of life. One of the charges our Lord brought against the Pharisees was making their phylacteries broad and enlarging the borders of their garments "to be seen by others" (Matthew 23:5). True sanctity and sanctimoniousness are entirely different things. Those who try to show off their unworldliness by wearing conspicuously ugly clothes, speaking in an exaggerated way, or affecting an unnatural gravity of manner miss their mark altogether, and only give occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.

E. Separation from the world does not mean Christians ought to prefer solitude. Monks, nuns, and hermits have made the mistake of assuming that holiness is to be obtained by retiring from the world. Separation of that kind is not according to the mind of Christ. He says distinctly in His prayer before His arrest, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). There is not a word in the Acts or the Epistles to recommend such a separation; in fact, Paul speaks twice against asceticism (Colossians 2:18, 23). True believers are always represented as mixing in the world, doing their duty in it, and glorifying God by patience, meekness, purity, and courage in their various positions, not by desertion of them. True religion and unworldliness are best seen by bravely standing our ground and showing the power of God's grace to overcome evil.

F. Separation from the world does not mean Christians ought to withdraw from churches with  unconverted people. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself deliberately allowed Judas Iscariot to be an apostle for 3 years and gave him the Lord's Supper. He taught us in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares that the converted and unconverted will "grow together until the harvest," which is when they will be separated with divine accuracy (Matthew 13:30). In our Lord's 7 letters to the churches in Revelation and in all of Paul's letters, we often see faults and corruptions mentioned and reproved, but we are never told they justify desertion of the assembly or neglect of the Lord's Supper. We must not look for a perfect church, a perfect congregation, and a perfect company of communicants until the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-10). If others are unworthy church members or partakers of the Lord's Supper, the sin is theirs and not ours; we are not their judges. Seek to be content with the best and most faithful church you can actively attend.

I commend these 6 points to the calm consideration of all who wish to understand the subject of separation from the world. I have seen so much misery and unhappiness caused by these mistakes that I want to put Christians on their guard. For new or young Christians, resist the temptation to quarrel with your unconverted relatives, cut out all your old friends, and give up every act of courtesy and civility to supposedly devote yourself to the direct work of Christ. Know that there is such a thing as winning "without a word" (1 Peter 3:1). Strive to show unconverted people that your Christian principles make you cheerful, amiable, considerate of others, and ready to take an interest in things that are good and innocent. Let there be no needless separation between you and the world.

3. What is meant by separation from the world. What separation consists of is not always easy to show. On some points it is not hard to lay down particular rules; on others it is impossible to do more than state general principles for each Christian to apply intelligently to his or her own situation.

A. Separation from the world means steadily and habitually refusing to be guided by the world's standard of right and wrong. The rule of the bulk of mankind is to go with the stream, follow the fashion, and keep up with the way of the times. True Christians are never content to do that. On each issue of life they ask, What is written in the Word of God? They will maintain politely but firmly that nothing can be right that God says is wrong. They will never think lightly of sins just because they are common. Miserable arguments like, Everybody thinks so, says so, does so, or will be there count for nothing with the godly. If a Christian has to stand out from the crowd, he or she will do so rather than disobey the Bible. That is genuine Scriptural separation.

B. Separation from the world means being very careful about how one spends leisure time. Honorable occupation and lawful business are great safeguards to the soul, and the time spent upon them is comparatively the time of our least danger. The devil finds it hard to get a hearing from a busy man, woman, or child. But when the day's work is over and the time of leisure arrives, then comes the hour of temptation. If we love our souls and would not become worldly, let us mind how we spend our evenings. Tell me how a man spends his evenings, and I can generally tell what his character is.

The true Christian will do well to make it a settled rule never to waste his evenings. Whatever others may do, let him resolve always to make time for quiet, calm thought that includes Bible reading and prayer. This rule may prove hard to keep and bring charges of being unsocial and overly strict. Never mind, for it is far better than habitual late hours in company, hurried prayers, slovenly Bible reading, and a bad conscience.

C. Separation from the world means steadily and habitually determining not to be absorbed in the business of the world. Faithful Christians will strive to do their duty in whatever position they find themselves, and do it well, but they will not let their occupations get between themselves and Christ. If a believer finds his business beginning to eat up his Sundays, his Bible reading, his private prayer, and to bring clouds between him and heaven, he will say, "Stand back! There is a limit. Here you may go, but no further. I cannot sell my soul for position, fame, or gold." Like Daniel, he will make time for his communion with God, whatever the cost may be (Daniel 6). He may find that he stands almost alone. Many will laugh at him and tell him they get on well enough without being so strict. But the godly man and woman will resolutely hold the world at arm's length, whatever present loss or sacrifice it may entail. Better to be less prosperous in this world than not to prosper in soul. To stand alone in this way, to run counter to the ways of others, requires immense self-denial. But this is genuine Scriptural separation.

D. Separation from the world means abstaining from all enterprises inseparably connected with sin. This is obvious, yet does require honest discernment of our particular situations and amusements. Things like sports and viewing entertainment may or may not be innocent, but often what flows from them is not, such as drunkenness, sexual immorality, violence, and the enslaving vices of gambling and betting. These are things God will judge. In the meantime, our friends and relatives are likely to judge us for being too strict in what we avoid. If we love our souls, however, we must have nothing to do with amusements or anything else that is bound up with sin. Nothing short of this can be called genuine Scriptural separation from the world.

E. Separation from the world means being moderate in the use of lawful and innocent recreations. In a world of wear and tear, relaxation is a blessing. Body and mind alike require seasons of lighter occupation. Exercise itself is a positive necessity for the preservation of mental and bodily health. Athletic recreations and games of skill strengthen nerves, brain, digestion, lungs, and muscles, making us more fit for Christ's work. 

It is the excess of those innocent things that a true Christian must watch against if he wants to be separate from the world. He must not devote his heart, soul, mind, strength, and time to them, as many do, if he wishes to serve Christ. Healthful medicine that is good in small quantities is poison when swallowed in large doses. The use of innocent recreations is one thing; the abuse of them is another. Ask yourself questions like these: Is this interfering with my Christian faith? Does this occupy too much of my thoughts and attention? Is this having a secularizing effect on my soul? This matter requires courage, self-denial, and firmness. Such integrity will often bring on us the ridicule and contempt of people who do not know what moderation is, but instead regard serious things as trifles and trifles as serious things. But if we mean to be separate from the world, we must be sweetly firm.

F. Separation from the world means being careful in friendships and close relationships with worldly people. We will interact with many unconverted people throughout our lives. Paul pointed out the absurdity of thinking to do otherwise, saying it would require us to "go out of the world" (1 Corinthians 5:9-10). To treat these people with the utmost courtesy and kindness is a positive duty. But acquaintance is one thing, and close friendship quite another. To choose their company without good cause and cultivate intimacy with them is very dangerous to the believer's soul. Scripture warns plainly, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20). "Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33).

If a Christian chooses for his friends those who either do not care for their souls, the Bible, God, Christ, and holiness or regard them of secondary importance, how can he live consistently for Christ and grow spiritually? He will soon find that their ways are not his ways, nor their thoughts his thoughts, nor their tastes his tastes. A separation must take place if he is to remain faithful to Christ. Of course, such a separation will be painful, but if we have to choose between the loss of a friend and injury to our souls, there ought to be no doubt in our minds. If friends will not walk in the narrow way with us, we must not walk in the broad way to please them.

To attempt to keep up close intimacy between a converted and an unconverted person, if both are consistent with their natures, is to attempt an impossibility. That is why Christians are to marry "only in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:39). "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). When a Christian marries a person who takes no serious interest in true religion, what can the results be but injury to the Christian and immense unhappiness? Health is not infectious, but disease is. As a general rule, the good go down to the level to the bad, not the inverse. If you are at all serious in separating from the world, obey the Word of God here and elsewhere.

When in doubt on any of these 6 biblical principles of separation from the world, think about this: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). Claim this promise from God: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8). Ask yourself honestly, Do I want God to see me doing this or going there? Do I want to be found in this company or employed in this way? Make the effort to find out how the most faithful Christians have handled themselves in similar circumstances. If we do not clearly see our own way, we have good examples to follow.

4. The secrets of victory over the world. Separation from the world in the biblical sense requires a constant effort and sometimes conflict. That tempts many to shrink back with aching, dissatisfied hearts, for they have too much religion to be happy in the world, but too much of the world to be happy in their religion. Yet there are some in every age who seem to gain victory over the world. They come out decidedly from its ways and are unmistakably separate.  They are independent of its opinions and unshaken by its opposition. They move like planets in an orbit of their own, rising equally above the world's smiles and frowns. Why?

A. A right heart. The first secret of victory over the world is a right heart. By that I mean a heart renewed, changed, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This is a heart in which Christ dwells (John 14:23), a new creation: "the old has passed away and the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17). This heart has new tastes and affections. The owner of such a heart soon finds he no longer craves the things of the world and willingly gives them up. He no longer has an appetite for the company, conversation, amusements, occupations, and books he once loved; to come out from them seems natural. Great indeed is the expulsive power of a new principle! Just as the new spring buds in a bush push off the old leaves and make them quietly fall to the ground, so does the new heart of a believer invariably shed the old loves for new ones that please Christ. This is a process, but if the heart is really right, everything else will be right in time. As Jesus said metaphorically, "If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light" (Matthew 6:22). If your affections are not right, there never will be right action.

B. A lively, practical faith in unseen realities. "This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith" (1 John 5:4). That involves looking steadily at invisible realities presented in Scripture as if they were visible, for soon enough they will be: our souls, God, Christ, heaven, hell, judgment, eternity. Cherish the abiding conviction that what we do not currently see is just as real as what we do see, but thousands of times more important! This is the victorious faith of the noble saints described in Hebrews 11. Armed with that faith, victorious Christians regard this world as a shadow compared to the world to come, caring little for its praise, blame, enmity, or rewards (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). If you want to come out from the world and be separate, but shrink back for fear of what you see, do this: pray and strive to have faith in unseen realities. Jesus said encouragingly to a struggling man, "All things are possible for one who believes" (Mark 9:23).

C. The habit of boldly confessing Christ on all proper occasions. To be clear, I want no one to blow a trumpet and thrust his religion on others at all seasons, but I encourage all who strive to come out from the world to show their colors: to speak and act as those who are not ashamed to represent Christ (Colossians 4:3-6). A steady, quiet assertion of our principles as Christians, an habitual readiness to let others see we are guided by other rules than they are and do not mean to swerve from them, and a calm, firm, courteous maintenance of our standards among all types of people will produce in us a settled, separate character. It will be hard at first, but gets easier with practice. Christ is eager to build good habits in us. Once our characters are known, we shall be saved much trouble. People will know what to expect from us. He who shows his colors boldly from the first and is never ashamed to let others see whose he is and whom he serves will soon find he has overcome the world, and is apt to be let alone. Bold confession is a long step towards victory.

Now that the danger of the world ruining the soul, the nature of true separation from the world, and the secrets of victory over the world have been presented to you, I conclude with words of application for your personal benefit. My first word is a question: Are you overcoming the world or are you overcome by it? Do you know what it is to come out from the world and be separate, or are you yet entangled by it and conformed to it? If you know nothing of such separation, I warn you with concern that your soul is in danger. This world is passing away, and those who cling to it will pass away with it to everlasting ruin. Awake to know your peril before it is too late! The time is short. The end of all things is at hand. The shadows are lengthening and the sun is going down.

My second word is a counsel. If you want to come out from the world, but do not know how to begin, go before Christ in prayer as a penitent sinner and pour out your heart before Him. Tell Him your whole story and keep nothing back. Tell Him you are a sinner wanting to be saved from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Ask the Lord Jesus to save you, remembering that He "gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world" (Galatians 1:4). He knows personally what the world is like, for He lived in it as a man for over 30 years. He as God the Son became a man for our sakes. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him. Hard as it may seem to you now to come out from the world and be separate, you will find by faith that with Jesus nothing is impossible.

My third and last word is encouragement. If you have learned by experience what it is to come out from the world, take comfort and persevere. You are in the right road; you have no cause to be afraid. The everlasting hills are in sight. Your salvation is nearer that when you first believed (Romans 13:11-14). No doubt you have had many a battle, and made many a false step. You have sometimes felt ready to faint, but your Master has never left you (Matthew 28:20) and will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). Settle it firmly in your mind that the most decided Christians are the happiest; none have ever said at the end of their course that they had been too holy or lived too near to God.

Hear what is written in the Word of God: First, our Lord Jesus promised, "Whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8). He also said reassuringly, "There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the Gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life" (Mark 10:29-30). Therefore, "do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 'For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry'" (Hebrews 10:35-37). These words were written for our sakes. Let us persevere to the end and never be ashamed of being separate from the world. We may be sure it brings its own reward.



"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.  And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus at his side." Luke 16:19-23

The story or parable of Lazarus and the rich man is one of those passages of Scripture that leave an indelible impression on the mind. Like the parable of the prodigal son, once read it is never forgotten. Instead of readers, we become lookers on. We see, we hear, we almost feel like we can touch the rich man's banquet, his purple and linen finery, the gate, the beggar lying beside it, his sores, the crumbs, the dogs, the two deaths, the ministering angels, the rich man's burial, the unrelenting flames, the gulf, the hopeless remorse. It is the attainment of a famous Arabian standard of eloquence: "He speaks the best who turns the ear into an eye."

It is one thing, however, to admire the masterly composition of this parable, and quite another to receive the spiritual lessons it contains. I invite you to consider leading truths this parable is meant to teach us. Notice that since this chapter is on Riches and Poverty, I will not be discussing the entire parable, but mainly the verses highlighted at the chapter's beginning.

1. God allots different conditions to different people. The Lord Jesus begins the parable by telling us of a rich man and a beggar. He says not a word in praise either of poverty or riches. The contrast between the two men is painfully striking. One possessed an abundance of the world's finest things, while the other had literally nothing. Both are living in the same land and subjects of the same government, yet how different is their condition! Here we must be careful not to draw lessons from the parable it was never meant to teach. The rich are not always bad people who go to hell; the poor are not always good people who go to heaven. It is not necessarily wrong to be rich or for people to exist in different financial conditions. There is nothing in our Lord Jesus Christ's words to warrant that all people should be financially equal, any more than that they should all be the same height, weight, strength, and cleverness.

Universal equality is a high-sounding and  popular idea, but so long as human nature is what it is, this inequality cannot be prevented. So long as some are wise and foolish, strong and weak, healthy and diseased, lazy and diligent, careful and careless—so long as children reap the fruit of their parents' misconduct—so long as sun, rain, heat, cold, wind, waves, drought, blight, storms, and earthquakes are beyond our control: there will continue be some who are rich and some who are poor. All the political economy in the world cannot make the poor altogether to "cease from the land" (Deuteronomy 15:11). If you doubt me, imagine your own country taken by force and divided equally among the inhabitants. Where do you think it would be at the end of 50 years? Is it not likely you would find things as unequal as before? Some would have worked and some not. Some would have sold and others would have bought. Some would have wasted and others would have saved. As a result, some would be rich and others poor.

Settle it in your mind that the main cause of all the suffering you see around you is sin. Sin is the root cause of the excessive luxury of the rich and the painful degradation of the poor, of the heartless selfishness of the highest classes and the helpless poverty of the lowest. Sin must be first cast out of the world. Hearts must be renewed and sanctified. The devil must be cast into everlasting destruction. The Prince of Peace must come down and reign personally. All that must be before there ever can be universal happiness and the gulf filled up that now divides the rich and poor.

Do not expect anything like that to be brought about by any method of government, system of education, or political party. Nevertheless, work hard to "do good to all" (Galatians 6:10). Pity the poor and help every reasonable endeavor to raise them from their low estate. Seek to increase knowledge and  promote morality to improve the temporal condition of the poor. But never forget you live in a fallen world, that sin is all around you, and that the devil roams about. Realize that Lazarus and the rich man are emblems of two classes that will always be in the world until our Lord returns.

2. A person's temporal condition is no test of the state of his or her soul. The rich man in the parable seems to have had everything money could buy. In that temporal sense Solomon the wise wrote, "Money answers everything" and "the rich has many friends" (Ecclesiastes 10:19; Proverbs 14:20).

But who can fail to notice who reads the parable through that in the highest and best sense, the rich man was pitiably poor? Take away the temporary good things of this life and he had nothing left. With all his riches, he had no "treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). With all his regal purple and fine linen clothing, he had no "garments of salvation" (Isaiah 61:10). With all his feast companions, he had no Friend and Advocate at God's right hand (1 John 2:1). With all his sumptuous fare, he had never tasted the Bread of Life (John 6:22-40). Without God, Christ, faith, grace, pardon, and holiness he lives to himself a few short years and then goes down hopelessly into the pit. How hollow and unreal was all his prosperity!

Lazarus appears to have been one who had literally nothing in the world. It is hard to conceive a case of greater misery and destitution than his. He had neither house, money, food, health, nor clothes, it is likely. His picture is one that cannot be forgotten: he laid at the rich man's gate covered in sores that mongrel dogs licked. He longed to be fed with the mere crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. It is not for nothing that Solomon observed, "The poor is hated even by his own neighbor"; "the destruction of the poor is their poverty" (Proverbs 14:20; 10:15).

But who can fail to see that in the highest sense, Lazarus was obviously not poor but rich? He was a child of God. He possessed durable riches and righteousness. His place was prepared for him in heaven. He actually had the best of clothing: the righteousness of the Savior. He had the best of friends: God Himself. He had the best of food: that which the world knows nothing about. They supported him in life. They did not leave him in the hour of death. They went with him beyond the grave. They remain his for eternity. Surely from this divine point of view we say not "poor Lazarus," but "rich Lazarus." 

Likewise we do well to measure all people by God's standard: not by the amount of their income, but by the condition of their souls. The risen Christ encouraged a group of suffering believers by telling them, "I know your ... poverty (but you are rich)" (Revelation 2:9). He told another group something very different: "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:17-19).

We may therefore be sure that riches and worldly greatness are no certain marks of God's favor. They are often instead snares to the soul by tempting people to love the world and forget God. Listen to what Solomon learned, "Do not overwork to be rich" (Proverbs 23:4). Hear the prayer of fellow wise man Agur: "Give me neither poverty nor riches—feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30:8-9). Notice this warning from Paul: "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts that drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Timothy 6:9). 

We may similarly be sure that poverty and adversity are no certain proofs of God's anger. They are often blessings in disguise, always sent in love and wisdom. They often serve to wean us from the world and teach us to set our affections on things above. "Happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). "Whom the Lord loves He chastens" (Hebrews 12:6).

One great secret of happiness in this life is to be patient and content. Strive daily to realize the truth that this life is not the place of reward. The time of retribution and recompense is yet to come. Judge nothing hastily before that time. Consider these words from the wise: "If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them" (Ecclesiastes 5:8). Yes, there is a final judgment to come. That day shall put all in their right places. At last there shall be seen a mighty difference between "the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him" (Malachi 3:18). The children of Lazarus and the children of the rich man shall be seen in their true colors, and  shall be treated accordingly.

3. Death comes to all. The rich man in the parable died, and Lazarus died also. Different and divided as they were in their lives, both had to drink of the same cup. Death is a mighty leveler. Oh, that all would live as those who will one day die! Would that preachers faithfully remind us as England's King Charles II said of this minister: "That man preaches as though death was behind his back. When I hear him I cannot go to sleep!" Truly it is a poor work to set our affections on a dying world and its short-lived comforts, yet for the sake of an inch of time lose a glorious eternity! Here we are toiling over trifles and running to and fro like ants, yet after a few years we shall all be gone and other generations will fill our place. Let us live for eternity, seeking a portion that can never be taken from us.

4. A believer's soul is precious in the sight of God. Perhaps the rich man had a splendid funeral, but the next thing the parable tells us after he died and was buried is that he was in hell. Poor Lazarus died first and nothing is said about what was surely a humble burial, but what we are told is glorious: he was "carried by angels to Abraham's bosom," a place of rest, where all the faithful are waiting for the resurrection of the just. Another description of that blessed company is "the assembly of the Firstborn who are enrolled in heaven ... the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23).

This beautiful description by our Lord of the care Lazarus received speaks of the care bestowed on the least and lowest of us among Christ's disciples by the King of kings Himself. No one has such friends and attendants as the believer, however little he or she may think of it. Angels rejoice over him the day he is born again by the Spirit (Luke 15). Angels minister to her throughout her life (Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:13-14). They encamp around him in the wilderness of this world, and take charge of his soul in death, bearing him safely home.

The world foolishly thinks little of those whom they are despising when they mock Christ's people. They are mocking those whom angels serve. They are mocking the brothers and sisters of Christ Himself (Hebrews 2:11-13). Little do they consider that these are the ones for whom worldwide tribulation will one day be shortened (Matthew 24:21-22). These are they by whom governments rule peacefully (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Worldly people fail to realize that the prayers of those like Lazarus and other humble believers have more weight in the affairs of nations than armed companies. I urge all faithful Christians reading this to acquaint yourselves with the fullness of the treasure laid up for you in Christ even now. Learn to live by faith more than you have done. This world must always be a place of trial while we are in the body, but still there are comforts provided for us brethren of Lazarus to enjoy.

5. Selfishness is a dangerous and soul-ruining sin. We meet the rich man in the parable dressed in fine clothing. We part with him at the end tormented in flames. There is nothing to show that he was a murderer, thief, adulterer, or liar. There is no reason to think he was a  religious skeptic or blasphemer. Perhaps he attended to all the ordinances of the Jewish religion. We read nothing recorded against him that might not be recorded of hundreds and thousands of rich men and women in the present day who are considered respectable people. But we do know the rich man in the parable was lost forever. Surely that deserves serious attention.

A. Beware of living only for ourselves. These are serious questions to ask ourselves: Whom do I live for: myself or Christ? What is the great end, aim, object, and ruling motive of my life? Notice how Paul describes the aim of Christ's death on the cross for all kinds of people throughout history: that those who have new life in Him  "should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). If, like the rich man, we live only for ourselves, we shall ruin our souls.

B. Sins of omission are damning. It does not seem that it was so much the things the rich man did, but the things he left undone that made him miss heaven. Lazarus was living in a pitiable state at his very gate, but the rich man left him alone. The Lord Jesus described a similar scenario in His Parable of the Sheep and Goats: "I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me" (Matthew 25:42-43). Unless we take care, sins of omission may likewise bring our souls to final judgment.

C. Riches bring special danger with them. That is ironic because the vast majority of people eagerly seek after and spend their lives on that which brings immense spiritual peril. The possession of riches has a hardening effect on the soul. They chill. They can close the eye to the things of faith. They insensibly produce a tendency to forget God. What did our Lord Jesus say? "How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God" (Mark 10:23-25). What did Paul say? "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:10). There are plenty of biblical examples: For money Achan brought defeat on the armies of Israel and death to himself and his family (Joshua 7). For money Balaam sinned against light and tried to curse God's people. For money Delilah betrayed Samson to the Philistines (Judges 16). For money Gehazi lied to Naaman and Elisha, and became a leper (2 Kings 5). For money Ananias and Sapphira became the first hypocrites in the early church, and lost their lives (Acts 5). For money Judas Iscariot sold Christ and was ruined eternally. Surely those facts speak loudly.

Money, in truth, is one of the most unsatisfying possessions. It takes away some cares, no doubt, but brings with it more than it takes away. There is first the trouble of acquiring it. Then follows anxiety in keeping it. Temptations abound in how to use it. Guilt occurs from the abuse of it. Sorrow comes from the loss of it, and perplexity from disposing it. Perhaps two-thirds of all the quarrels and lawsuits in the world arise from one simple cause: money. It seems desirable from a distance, but often proves  poisonous when in hand. Many who did well in humble circumstances forget God when they suddenly become rich. I draw the conclusion that those who have abundant resources, like the rich man in the parable, need to be aware they live in an unhealthy spiritual atmosphere. They have double need to be on guard for the sake of their souls.

D. Selfishness will characterize the last days. We have this special warning: "Understand this, that in the last days ... people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant ... heartless, unappeasable ... without self-control, brutal, not loving good ...  reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:1-4). The vices of the rich man in Jesus' parable are not limited to ancient times. We often like to boast about how civilized we are in modern times, but we are much the same as the people of Jesus' day and are getting worse. Sometimes, however, we are poor judges of our own times since we may exaggerate its evils because we see and feel them. Nevertheless, I doubt whether there ever was more need of warnings against selfishness than now. Was there ever a time when all classes of people have had so many comforts and so many temporal good things? Sadly, that corresponds with an increasing disproportion between people's expenditure on themselves and their outlay of time and money on deeds of mercy.

I ask all professing Christians to consider well what Scripture says against covetousness and selfishness, and on behalf of liberality in giving money. Is it for nothing that Jesus said, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions?" He went on to tell the Parable of the Rich Fool, who decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones, saying to himself, "You have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease: eat, drink, and be merry!" But God claimed his foolish soul that very night, saying to him, "Now whose will those things be that you have provided?" Jesus concluded, "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, but is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:13-21). Is it for nothing that He mentions "the deceitfulness of riches" (Matthew 13:22) as one reason the seed of the Word bears no fruit in a person's life? Is it for nothing that He gave us the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), warning us against the priest and Levite who saw the wounded traveler, but passed by on the other side, and praising the good Samaritan who denied himself to show kindness to a needy stranger?

Our Lord Jesus had much to say about the wise use of money. For example, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you true [spiritual] riches?... No servant can serve two masters ... you cannot serve God and money" (Luke 16:10-13). "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:12-14). "Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys" (Luke 12:33). "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Is there not a striking and painful difference between this language and the habits and feelings of our culture about money? I appeal to anyone who knows the world.

Knowing that giving to the poor cannot atone for sin is good. So is realizing our good works cannot justify us before God, but let us not go to the opposite extreme by not giving at all, or hardly at all, because our money cannot save us. Are you wealthy? Then do as Jesus said by taking care to "beware of covetousness" (Luke 12:15). Remember you carry weight in the race to heaven. All who love the Lord are urged to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and ... run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Abraham, Job, and David were all rich and yet saved. With God nothing is impossible, but look to yourself, reminding yourself often that money is a good servant, but a bad master.

Do you have very little money yourself? Then do not envy those who are richer than you. Pray for them and even pity them. Remember that high places are giddy places, so do not be hasty to condemn their conduct. Perhaps if you had their difficulties, you would do no better yourself. Beware of loving money, for that all-consuming love rather than money itself "is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). A man may love money fiercely while having little to none of it himself. Beware of going to the opposite extreme by assuming your poverty will save you. If you would sit with Lazarus in glory, you must have fellowship with him not only in suffering, but also in "the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1).

Do you desire to know the remedy against selfishness, which ruined the rich man's soul and cleaves to us all by nature, like our skin? Nothing will ever cure it but an experimental knowledge of Christ's redeeming love. You must realize the misery and guilt of your fallen human condition. You must experience the power of Christ's atoning blood sprinkled upon your conscience by faith, making you whole. You must taste the sweetness of peace with God through the mediation of Jesus, feeling the love of a reconciled Father poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:1-11). Then and only then will the mainspring of selfishness be broken. Feeling that you have been loved much when you deserved nothing, you will heartily love in return, saying, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?" (Psalm 116:12). Realizing you have been "bought with a price" and are no longer your own, you will labor to glorify God with your body and spirit, which are His (1 Corinthians 6:20).

A believing apprehension of the love of Christ is the only effective cure for selfishness. Other remedies may palliate the disease, but that alone will heal it. An easy, good natured temper may cover over selfishness in one person. A love of praise may conceal it in a second. A self-righteous asceticism and affected spirit of self-denial may keep it out of sight in a third. But nothing will ever pull up selfishness by the roots except the love of Christ revealed in the mind by the Holy Spirit, and felt in the heart by faith. Only let a man see the meaning of the words "Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20), and he will delight to give himself to Christ and all that he has to His service and people.

I conclude by urging on every reader the great duty of self-inquiry after considering the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Ask yourself Where am I going? What am I doing? What is likely to be my condition after death? Am I prepared to leave the world? Have I any home to look forward to in the world to come? Am I really one with Christ and a pardoned soul? Do what you need to do to be right with Him. If you already have, do all that you can to be generous when you have the opportunity to help people in your life who are like Lazarus in some shape or form.

I ask no one to neglect his or her worldly calling and omit providing for family. Diligence in business is a positive Christian duty. Provision for those dependent on us is proper Christian stewardship. But as we journey through this world, let us look around us and "remember the poor" (Galatians 2:10), the poor in body and in soul. We are here for only a few short years. How can we do the most good with our money while we are here? How can we spend it so as to leave the world a somewhat happier and holier place? Is there anyone we can do good to, someone whose sorrows we might lessen and whose comforts we might increase? There are none to whom such appeals ought to come home with such power as professing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  For a poor Lazarus-like world He came down from heaven and humbled Himself to become a man, doing good and caring for men's bodies as well as their souls, which led Him to the cross. In supporting works of charity and mercy as best we can, we are doing that which is according to the mind of Christ.


14. THE BEST FRIEND

"This is my friend." Song of Solomon 5:16

A friend is one of the greatest blessings on earth. Affection is better than money and sympathy is better than lands. He who has no friends is a poor man. The world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. Therefore it is often a dark, lonely, and disappointing place, but the brightest sunbeam in it is a friend. Friendship halves our troubles and doubles our joys.

A real friend, however, is rare. Many will eat, drink, and laugh with us in days of prosperity, but few will stand by us in days of darkness: when we are sick, helpless, or poor. Fewest of all will care for our souls. Do you want a real friend? I know of One "who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). He is ready to be your friend for all time and eternity if you will receive Him. Happy is the person whose chief friend is the Lord Jesus Christ!

1. The Lord Jesus is a friend in need. Man is the neediest creature on earth because he is a sinner. There is no need so great as that of sinners: poverty, hunger, thirst, cold, sickness are all nothing in comparison. Sinners need pardon, but they are utterly unable to provide it for themselves. They need deliverance from a guilty conscience and the fear of death, but have no power of their own to obtain that. This need the Lord Jesus came into the world to relieve. We are told specifically, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15).

We are all by nature poor dying creatures, all sick of a mortal disease of soul. Whether we know and feel it or not, we are all dying daily.  The plague of sin is in our blood. We cannot cure it ourselves and we are hourly getting worse. But the Lord Jesus came to bring "health and healing" (Jeremiah 33:6), deliver us "from the second death" (Revelation 2:11), abolish death, and bring "life and immortality to light through the Gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).

We are all by nature deep in debt to God, bankrupt without any ability to free ourselves from our daily-increasing load of liabilities. All that the Lord Jesus perceived and undertook to remedy. He came "to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). He "redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Jesus canceled "the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14).

We were all by nature shipwrecked and cast away. We never could have reached the harbor of everlasting life. We were sinking in the midst of the waves, foundering under the chain of our sins and the burden of guilt. But the Lord Jesus came down from heaven to be our "helper" (Psalm 118:6; Hebrews 13:5-6). He came "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), and deliver us "from going down to the Pit" (Job 33:24).

Could we have been rescued without the Lord Jesus Christ coming down from heaven? Without the friendship of Christ, we should all have been lost forever in hell. Was He obliged to come down to save us? No, it is in His divine nature to be full of love, mercy, and pity. He came unsought and unasked for because He is gracious. There never was such a friend in need as the Lord Jesus.

2. The Lord Jesus is a friend in deed. The true extent of a man's friendship must be measured by his deeds. Friendly is who friendly does—not feels, says, or wishes. Never were there acts of kindness and self-denial on behalf of humanity like those of our Lord Jesus Christ. For our sakes He who is very God and equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit   condescended to take our human nature upon Himself by being born of a woman as a humble baby and experiencing our bodily weaknesses and infirmities, except sin (Hebrews 4:14-15). "Our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich," yet for our sakes He became poor, that we "through His poverty might become rich"  (2 Corinthians 8:9). 

For us He lived about 33 years in this evil world. Although He is the King of kings, He often had no place to lay His head; although He is Lord of lords, He was frequently weary, hungry, thirsty, and poor. He took "the form of a servant" and "humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). Although innocent and without fault, He allowed Himself to be condemned and found guilty. He who is the Prince of Life was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Truly He "died for us" (1 Thessalonians 5:10).

Was our Lord Jesus Christ obliged to do that? No, He might have summoned to His help more than 12 legions of angels or scattered His enemies with a mere word.  He suffered voluntarily, of His own free will, to make atonement for His people's sins. He knew that nothing but the sacrifice of His body and blood as the God-Man could ever make peace between sinful man and holy God (1 Timothy 2:5; Isaiah 53). He laid down His life to pay the price of our redemption. Christ "suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). He "who knew no sin" was on the cross made  "sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Such friendship as this passes our full understanding. Friends who would die for those who love them we hear of sometimes. But who can find a man who would lay down his life for those who hate him? Yet that is what Jesus has done for us. "God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.... If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life!" (Romans 5:6-10). Inquire from one end of the earth to the other and you will nowhere hear of a deed like that. No one was ever so high and stooped so low as God the Son; none ever gave so costly a proof of His friendship and endured so much to do good to others. Never was there a friend in deed like our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
3. The Lord Jesus is a mighty and powerful friend. Many desire to do good to others, but lack the power to help where most needed. They feel for the sorrows of others and would gladly relieve them if they could; they can weep with their friends in affliction, but are unable to take their grief away. Although the best of our earthly friends are limited, Christ is almighty. He declared shortly before His ascension to heaven, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). No one can do so much for those He befriends than Jesus.

A. He is able to pardon and save the worst sinners. Listen to the testimony of the apostle Paul: "I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy.... This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me ... Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:13-16; Acts 9). The Lord Jesus can deliver the most guilty conscience from all its burdens and give it peace with God. Obedient faith in Jesus, who shed His blood for His people, "cleanses us from all sins" (1 John 1:7).

B. He is able to convert the hardest of hearts and create in man a new spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ can take the most thoughtless and ungodly people, and give them another mind by the Holy Spirit He puts in them. He can cause old things to pass away and all things to become new. He can help His people love good things they once hated and hate evil things they once loved. To as many as receive Him for who He really is, Savior and Lord, He gives "the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

C. He is able to preserve to the end all who believe in Him and become His disciples. The Lord Jesus can give them grace to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil so they fight the good fight to the end. He can lead them safely through every temptation, carry them home through a thousand dangers, and keep them faithful, even when they stand alone with none to help them. He is  "able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him" (Hebrews 7:25).

D. He is able to give those who love Him the best of gifts. In this life Jesus can give them inward comforts money can never buy, such as peace in poverty, joy in sorrow, and patience in suffering. As they approach death He can give them bright hopes that enable them to walk through that dark valley without fear. After death He can give them a "crown of glory that does not fade away" (1 Peter 5:4) and other rewards no earthly ruler can come near to bestowing.

In the Lord Jesus Christ is power indeed, true greatness and real strength. Think with compassion, for example, on the Hindu seeking peace by afflicting his body, but after decades of self-imposed suffering unable to find it; on the Roman Catholic giving money for priests to pray for her soul, yet dying without comfort; on the worldly rich man spending thousands or millions in search of happiness, but remaining discontent and unhappy. Then turn to Jesus and think what He can do, and is daily doing, for all who trust Him. Think how He heals the broken-hearted, comforts the sick, and cheers all the poor who trust in Him, supplying their daily needs. The fear of man is strong, the opposition of this evil world is mighty, the lusts of the flesh rage horribly, the reality of death is dreadful, and the devil is a roaring lion that seeks to devour, but Jesus is stronger than them all. He can make us "more than conquerors" over all those foes (Romans 8:37). There never was so mighty a friend as Jesus the Christ.

4. The Lord Jesus is a loving and affectionate friend. Kindness is the very essence of true friendship. Money, advice, and help lose half their grace if not given in a loving manner. How is the love of Jesus for mankind described? As that "which passes knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). It shines forth in His reception of all kinds of sinners. He refuses none who come to Him in sincerity for salvation, however wicked they may be. He is not ashamed to befriend those whom the world casts off as hopeless. He has kindness, mercy, and healing medicine for all. The Lord Jesus has long proclaimed this to be His rule: "the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). 

His love also shines forth in His dealings with sinners after they have believed in Him and become His friends. He is very patient with them, even though their conduct is often very trying and provoking. He never tires of hearing their complaints, however often they come to Him. He sympathizes deeply in all their sorrows. He know what pain is: He is "acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). In all their afflictions He Himself is afflicted. He never allows them to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear. He supplies them with daily grace for their daily needs. Their poor services are acceptable to Him: He is as well pleased with them as a parent with his or her own little child's attempts to speak and walk. It is written in His Book that "the Lord takes pleasure in His people ... in those who fear Him" (Psalm 149:4; 147:11). 

No love on earth compares to this. We love those in whom we see something that deserves our affection; the Lord Jesus loves sinners in whom there is no good thing. We love those from whom we get some return for our affection; the Lord loves those who can do little or nothing for Him compared to what He does for them. We love where we can give some reason for loving; the great Friend of sinners draws His reasons out of His everlasting compassion. His love is purely disinterested, purely unselfish, purely free. Never was there so loving a friend as the Lord Jesus.

5. The Lord Jesus is a wise and prudent friend. Sometimes we lead our friends astray in the unwise counsel we give, even though we mean to help them. Sometimes we entangle them in the vanities of the world when they otherwise would have escaped. Friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ is never like that. It always does us good and never evil.

He never spoils His friends by injudicious indulgence. He gives them everything that is truly for their benefit, but He requires them  take up their cross daily and follow Him. He calls them to endure hardships as good soldiers, calling on them to fight the good fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

The Lord Jesus makes no mistakes in caring for His friends. He orders all their concerns with perfect wisdom: all things happen to them at the right time and in the right way. He gives His friends as much sickness and health, poverty and riches, sorrow and joy as their souls require. Like the Great Physician He is, He takes care that the dosage He prescribes is not a drop too strong or weak. Sometimes His people misunderstand His dealings, but in the resurrection day they will thank God that not their will, but Christ's, was done.

Notice how friends are much more ready to encourage one another in worldliness and levity than in love and good deeds. Turn now to the great Friend of sinners and listen to Him as He walks with His disciples. You hear Him comfort, reprove, and exhort them with perfect wisdom. He times His visits to His friends, such as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, with great precision for their benefit (Luke 10:38-42; John 11). His company is always sanctifying, His gifts are always for our soul's good, His kindness is always wise, His fellowship is always edifying. Never was there such a wise friend as Jesus Christ.

6. The Lord Jesus is a tried and proved friend. Over hundreds of years, many have refused His friendship and been lost, but thousands multiplied have enjoyed the mighty privilege of His friendship and been saved.

A. He has friends of every rank and station in life. Some of them were kings and rich men, like David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Job. Some were poor, such as the shepherds of Bethlehem and the Galilean fishermen Peter, Andrew, James, and John, but they were all alike Christ's friends.

B. He has friends of every age. Some of them did not have the privilege of knowing Him until they were advanced in years, like Manasseh, Nicodemus, and perhaps Zacchaeus and the Ethiopian eunuch. Some were friends of the pre-incarnate Christ from early childhood, like Joseph, Samuel, and Josiah. Young adult Timothy became a friend of Christ after His ascension.

C. He has friends of every possible temperament and disposition. Some are plain men, like Isaac; some are mighty in word and deed, like Moses; some are fervent and warm-hearted, like Peter; some are stormy yet loving, like John; some are busy and service-oriented, like Martha; some love to sit quietly and learn, like Mary; some live unknown among their own people, like the Shulamite bride; some go everywhere and turn the world upside down, like Paul. They were all alike Christ's friends.

D. He has friends of every condition in life. Some are married and have sons and daughters, like Enoch; some live and die unmarried, like John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and perhaps Daniel; some are sick, like Lazarus and Ephaphroditus; some are strong workers, like Persis, Tryphena, and Tryphosa; some are masters, like Abraham and Cornelius; some are servants, like the saints in Nero's household; some of them had bad servants, like Elisha; some of them had bad masters, like King Ahab's servant Obadiah; some of them had bad wives and children, like King David. But they were all alike Christ's friends.

E. He has friends of every nation, people, and tongue. Christ's Gospel has spread to every portion of the globe through the centuries, and continues to be translated into the languages of all the world's people. Shortly before our Lord returns, we are told of this magnificent sight: "a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus], clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Revelation 7:9-10). All of these—past, present, and future—have tried Christ's friendship and proved it to be good. They all found nothing lacking when they began and nothing wanting as they went on. No lack, no defect, no deficiency was ever found, or will be found by any of them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Never was there a friend so fully tried and proved as Him.

7. The Lord Jesus is an unfailing friend. The saddest part of all good things on earth is their impermanence. Riches make themselves wings and fly away, youth and beauty are for only a few years, strength of body eventually decays, mind and intellect fade. All is passing away, but one splendid exception to this general rule is friendship with Christ.

A. He never changes. There is no fickleness about Him. Whom He loves, He loves to the end. Husbands have been known to forsake their wives, and parents have been known to cast off their children. Human vows and promises of faithfulness have often been forgotten. Many have been neglected in their poverty and old age who once were honored when they were young and rich. But Christ never changes in His commitment to His friends. He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

B. He never goes away from His friends. There is never a parting between the Lord Jesus and His people. From the time He makes His abode in the sinner's heart, He abides in it forever. The world is full of farewells and departures. Grown children go forth to make their way in life and to marry. Death eventually breaks up even the most united family. How many we have tearfully watched as they drove away from our doors, whose pleasant faces we have never seen again? How many we have sorrowfully followed to the grave, and then come back to a cold, silent, and lonely home? But thanks be to God, there is One who never leaves His friends! Our Lord Jesus Christ has promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).

C. He goes with His friends wherever they go. There is no possible separation between Jesus and those whom He loves. No place or position on earth or under the earth can divide them from the great Friend of their souls. When  duty calls them far away from home, He is their companion. When they pass through the fire and water of fierce tribulation, He is with them. When they lie down on the bed of sickness, He stands by them and makes all their troubles work for their good. When they go down the valley of the shadow of death to the point where friends and relatives can go no further, He goes down by their side. When they wake up in what is to them the unknown world of Paradise, they are still with Him. When they receive a new body on resurrection day, they will not be alone. He will make good His own words: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). 
Think of the partings, separations, disappointments, and bereavements that are so much a part of life and consider what a privilege it is that there is One who never fails and in whom no one was ever disappointed. Never was there so unfailing a friend as our Lord Jesus Christ! 

To conclude with words of plain application, let me first ask you solemnly whether Christ is your Friend and you are His. There are thousands, I am grieved to say, who have been baptized in His name and are outward members of His church, but are not Christ's friends. How can you tell? Do they hate the sins Jesus died to put away? No. Do they care for the souls of others, which are so precious in His sight? No. Do they delight in all parts of His Word? No. Do they speak with the Friend of sinners in prayer? No. Do they seek close fellowship with Him? No. How is it with you?

If Christ is not your friend, know that you are in the midst of a failing, sorrowful world without any lasting source of comfort or refuge for your greatest needs. You are a dying creature, but you are not ready to die. You have sins, but they are not forgiven. You are going to be judged, but you are not prepared to meet God. It does not matter what your income is: without Christ's friendship, you are very poor.

If you really want to, Christ is willing to become your friend. He has invited you and is ready to receive you, as unworthy as you may feel, and write you name down in the list of His friends. He is ready to pardon all the past, clothe you with righteousness, give you His Spirit, and make you His own dear child. All He asks you to do is come to Him. Come with all your sins, acknowledging their evil and confessing that you are ashamed. Wait for nothing: come and be wise, safe, and happy. Jesus bids you to come and be His friend.

If Christ already is your friend, know that you have great privileges and walk worthy of them. Seek every day to have closer communion with your Friend and know more of His grace and power. True Christianity is not only believing the wonderful truths God has revealed in His Word, but also daily personal communication with an actual living person, the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead never to die again and ascended in glory, who will return in great power. He "who has friends must himself be friendly" (Proverbs 18:24), and surely no man or woman is under such obligation as the friend of Christ. Seek to honor and reflect Him in all you do, and avoid anything that would grieve Him. Tell others about Him faithfully, for He loves to make new friends and add to our fellowship. Think of Him often and thank Him often, no matter what. He is the Best Friend ever who has your very best interests at heart. One day your Friend will come to take you home to live with Him and all His friends forever. How rich and happy are all who have Christ as their friend!



"He whom You love is sick." John 11:3

The chapter that text is taken from is well known to Bible readers. There is something here no unbeliever can ever account for, so striking is its account of God at work. It begins with a short, desperate message to Jesus from Mary and Martha regarding their brother, Lazarus. Christ's help was their first thought in the day of trouble. Christ Himself was the refuge to which they fled in their great need. Blessed are all who do likewise (Psalm 2:12; 34:8).

Notice the simple humility of what they write about Lazarus: they do not say, "He who loves You, believes in You, and serves You" but "He whom You love." Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were well taught. They had learned that Christ's love towards us and not our love towards Christ is the true ground of expectation, and true foundation of hope. Notice also that Lazarus, although a believer in Christ, friend of Christ, and heir of glory, is sick. Therefore, sickness is no sign that God is displeased. Sickness for the believer is intended as a blessing, not a curse, since "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Blessed are all who can say when they are ill, "This is my Father's doing. It must be for ultimate good."

1. The universal prevalence of sickness and disease. Sickness is everywhere, among all classes, and of every sort and description. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city" (Proverbs 18:11), but there are no doors and bars that can keep out disease and death. Sickness is one of the most humbling and distressing trials that can come upon a person, for it can soon make a strong man afraid of heights and feel like the weight of a mere "grasshopper is a burden" (Ecclesiastes 12:5). There are ailments of the nervous system that can reduce a Solomon in mind to the thinking of the youngest child.

The average duration of life may be somewhat lengthened, and the enforcement of wise sanitary regulations will greatly lower the death rate in a land. We are rightfully thankful for the skill of doctors in discovering new remedies, but what Moses wrote about 3,400 years ago is still generally true: "The days of our lives are 70 years; and if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10). 

How shall we account for the universal prevalence of sickness? How shall we answer the perceptive child who asks, "Why do people get ill and die?" Can we suppose for a moment that God created sickness and disease at the beginning? Did He who formed our world in such perfect order create needless suffering and pain? Did He who made all things "very good" (Genesis 1:31) make Adam's race to sicken and die? No! The only explanation that makes sense is what the Bible gives: something came into the world that dethroned man from his original position and stripped him of his original privileges. Like a handful of gravel thrown into masterful machinery, that something has marred the perfect order of God's creation. That something is sin: "sin entered the world, and death through sin" (Romans 5:12).

Sin is the cause of all the sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death that prevail on earth. They are all part of the curse that came into the world when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and fell. There would have been no sickness if there had been no fall, no death apart from sin. Those biblical doctrines directly challenge atheists and deists. Atheists believe there is no God, no Creator, no First Cause, and that all things came together in this world by chance. Take such a person to a surgical school and show him the matchless skill with which every joint, vein, valve, muscle, nerve, bone, and limb has been formed. Show him the perfect adaptation of every part of the human frame to the purpose it serves. Show him the myriad delicate contrivances for serving wear and tear. Ask him if this wonderful mechanism is the result of chance. Would he think that of the watch he looks at, the bread he eats, or the coat he wears? Design is an insuperable difficulty in the atheist's way. There is a God.

Deists, sometimes calling themselves agnostics or liberals, believe there is a Creator God, but not the God of the Bible. Take such a person to a hospital and show her some of the dreadful effects of disease. Take her to the bed of a child, scarce knowing good from evil, with an incurable cancer. Take her to a ward where a loving mother of a large family is in the last stage of some excruciating disease. Ask her to give account for the racking pains and agonies to which flesh is subject. Ask this woman who sneers at Christian theology, thinking herself too wise to believe in the fall of Adam, how to explain the universal prevalence of pain and disease. Sickness and suffering are insuperable difficulties for the deist, agnostic, and theological liberal.

The Bible alone looks the subject in the face. It boldly proclaims that man is a fallen creature, and with equal boldness proclaims remedy from God in Christ. Christianity is revelation from heaven. "Your Word is truth," declares Jesus (John 17:17). Anchor your soul firmly on this safe principle: that the whole Book is God's truth. Tell enemies of the Bible that there is no book that compares: none that so thoroughly explains the state of mankind and meets our needs. Regarding the hard things in the Bible, tell them you are content to wait. You will find enough plain truth in the Book to satisfy your conscience and save your soul. The hard things will be cleared up one day. What we do not know now, we will know later. 

2. The  benefits sickness brings to mankind. I use that word benefits advisedly, for I am aware that many consider the existence of sickness proof against the goodness of God. But that is as unreasonable as doubting the existence of a Creator because the earth is disturbed by earthquakes, hurricanes, and other storms. Cast your eyes on the world around you and notice the extent to which we submit to present pain and loss for the sake of future joy and gain. The seed is thrown into the ground and rots, but we look for a future harvest. A child is sent to school for many tears, but we hope for him or her to gain wisdom and skill. A man undergoes a painful operation in the hope of future health. Similarly, God allows pain, sickness, and disease in this fallen world not because He loves to trouble mankind, but because He desires to benefit our heart, mind, conscience, and soul for all eternity.

A. Sickness reminds us of death. Most people live as if they were never going to die. They follow business, pleasure, politics, and science as if earth were their eternal home. They plan and scheme for the future like the rich fool in the parable, as if  they had a long lease on life and were not tenants subject to God's will. A significant illness sometimes goes far to dispel such illusions, which is a great good to the soul. 

B. Sickness helps us to think seriously about God, our souls, and the world to come. Most in their days of health find no time for such thoughts. They dislike them and shove them aside, but a severe affliction can have the wonderful power of mustering all those thoughts before the eyes of the soul. Pagan sailors, when death was in sight, were afraid "and every man cried out to his god." They soon honored the one true God when they saw Him at work through the disobedient prophet Jonah (Jonah 1).

C. Sickness helps to soften our hearts and teach us wisdom. As a result of the Fall, the natural heart of every person is as hard as a stone. It can see no good in anything not of this life, and no happiness except in this world. A long illness can go far to correct those ideas. It exposes the hollowness of what the world calls good, and teaches us to hold them with a loose hand. The man of business finds that money alone is not everything the heart requires.  The worldly woman finds that costly apparel and the latest news and events are miserable comforters in a sick room. Surely anything that obliges us to alter our weights and measures of earthly things is beneficial.

D. Sickness helps to level and humble us. We are all naturally proud and high minded. Few, even the poorest, are free of this defect. Most people look down on others and secretly flatter themselves that they are not like them. A sick bed is a mighty tamer of such base thoughts. It forces on us the reality that we "dwell in houses of clay,"  easily crushed like a moth (Job 4:19). We realize that rulers and the ruled, rich and poor are all dying creatures who will stand side by side at the judgment seat of God. It is not easy to be proud in the sight of the coffin and the grave. Surely anything teaching that lesson is good.

E. Sickness puts our religion to the test. Whether that religion is no religion or other beliefs gained from one's upbringing, few have a religion that will bear inspection. Most are content with traditions received from family or friends, and can offer no reason for the hope that is in them. Disease is sometimes most useful to a man in exposing the worthlessness of his soul's foundation. It often shows him he has nothing solid under his feet. It may make him find out that, although he may have had a form of religion, he has been all his life worshiping an "unknown god" (Acts 17:23). Many beliefs that look fine on the smooth waters of health prove unsound and useless on the rough waves of sickness. Just as the storms of winter reveal the defects in a man's house, illness exposes the chinks in a man's soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith is good.

I do not say that sickness confers all those benefits on all to whom it comes. Sadly, many are laid low by illness and restored to health who evidently learn nothing from the experience. Even sadder, many are passing from sickness to the grave, yet receiving no more spiritual impression from it than the beasts that perish. While they live they have no feeling, and when they die "there are no pangs in their death" (Psalm 73). These are dreadful things to say, but they are true. The degree of deadness to which a man or woman's heart and conscience can attain is a depth I cannot fathom. But many do learn and profit spiritually from the school of sickness. Churches and missions have had a blessed ministry to such people since the days our Lord walked this earth.  The sickness of people's bodies has often led, in God's wonderful providence, to the salvation of people's souls. Let us therefore never complain about sickness, but seek to learn what we can from it.

3. The special duties to which sickness calls us. What lessons can we learn? What, in a fallen world of disease and death, ought we to do?

A. Live habitually prepared to meet God. Sickness is a reminder of death, the door through which we pass to judgment, when we see God face to face. When are you prepared to meet God? Only when your heart is renewed, your sins forgiven, and your will taught to delight in the will of God. The atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ alone can cleans those sins away. His righteousness alone can make you acceptable in the sight of God. Faith in Him alone gives you a stake in Christ and all His benefits. To live in the actual possession of those things in a world full of sickness and death is the first duty I press home upon your soul.

B. Bear patiently with our afflictions. Sickness is a great trial to flesh and blood. To feel our nerves unstrung and our natural force abated; to be obliged to sit still and be cut off from our usual activities, to see our plans set aside and our purposes frustrated, and to endure long hours, days, and nights of weariness and pain is a severe strain on poor sinful human nature. The temptations to irritation and impatience are great. How shall we learn to bear sickness patiently when it is our turn? We must store up grace in our times of health, seeking out the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit over our unruly tempers and dispositions. Daily ask God for strength to endure His will as well as to do it. Such strength is to be had for the asking, for our Lord invites us, saying, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14). He likes being asked. James cautions us, "You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2).


I believe some graces of Christianity receive far less attention than they deserve. Meekness, gentleness, patience, faith, and long-suffering are mentioned in the Word of God as fruits of the Spirit. They are passive graces that glorify God by manifesting His character. They often make people think, even those who are repelled by the more active side of the Christian faith. Never do those graces shine so brightly as in the sick room. They enable many gravely ill people to preach a silent sermon that those around them never forget. Do you want to adorn the doctrine you profess? Would you make your Christianity beautiful in the eyes of others? Practice your gentle patience now and when sickness comes, whether it leads to death or not, it shall be "for the glory of God" (John 11:4).

C. Sympathize with and assist others who suffer. Sickness is never very far from us. Few are the families who do not have a sick relative. Few are the churches where you will not find someone struggling with a significant illness. Wherever there is sickness is a call to duty. A little timely assistance in some cases, such as a kindly visit, a friendly inquiry, or a mere expression of sympathy may do vast good. Those are the sorts of things that soften rough edges, bring people together, and promote good feeling. They can help you lead suffers and their families to saving faith in Christ. These are good works every professing Christian should be ready to do. In a world full of sickness and disease, we ought to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) and "be kind to one another" (Ephesians 4:32).

Conscientious attention to these little acts of brotherly kindness is one of the clearest evidences of having "the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16). Our Lord Himself always "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), especially to the sick and sorrowful. They are acts to which He attaches great importance in a solemn passage describing the last judgment. He says there, "I was sick and you visited Me" (Matthew 25:36). Beware of unfeeling selfishness and neglect of your sick brethren. Assist them if they need aid. Show your sympathy and try to lighten their burdens. Above all, try to do good to their souls. It will do you good even if it does no good to them. God is testing and proving us by every case of sickness within our reach.

In conclusion I ask a few questions. First, what will you do when you are ill? Where do you mean to turn for comfort? On what do you mean to build your hope? Please do not ignore those questions. Allow them to work on your conscience and do not rest until you can give them a satisfactory answer. The body that now takes up so much of your attention must one day return to the dust. Think what a dreadful thing it would be to have provided for everything except the one thing most needful: your eternal soul.

My counsel is you acquaint yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ without delay. Repent and be converted; flee to Christ and be saved. Of all the gambling in the world, there is none so reckless as the man or woman who lives unprepared to meet God, yet puts off repentance. Either you have sins or you have none. If you have—who is foolish enough to deny it?—turn away from those sins without delay and go to the only One who is able to grant you complete forgiveness and give you new desires. Commit your soul to Christ's keeping. Cry mightily to Him for pardon and peace with God. He will hear and honor your prayer if you are sincere for He has promised, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). 

Beware, I beseech you, of a vague and indefinite Christianity. Do not rest until you can say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Timothy 1:12). Mere perfunctory church attendance will never do in the day of sickness. It will break down entirely when death is in sight. Nothing will do but real union with Christ, with Him interceding for us at God's right hand as our Priest, Physician, and Friend. He alone "can release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15). Turn to Christ first in the day of sickness, like Martha and Mary did. Keep on looking to Him to the last breath of your life. The more you know Him the better you will love Him.

I exhort all true Christians to remember how much they may glorify God in the time of sickness. Are you one of them? Be sure to lie quiet in God's hand when you are ill. I have marked how prone some good people are to torment themselves with morbid thoughts at such seasons, like, God has forsaken me. Please remember you may honor God as much or more by patient suffering than by active work. It often shows more grace to sit still than perform considerable exploits. Christ cares for you deeply whether you are sick or well. He is working in both states for your good. He felt specially for the sick in the days of His flesh. He feels for them specially still. Sickness and suffering, I often think, make believers more like their Lord than does health. Fulfilling prophecy, He took their illnesses and bore their diseases, and was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:3).

Keep up a habit of close communion with Christ and never be afraid of going too far in your religion. Love Him more deeply, copy Him more thoroughly, confess Him more boldly, follow Him more fully. Religion like that will always bring its own reward, especially when facing illness and death. Worldly people may laugh at it, weaker brothers may think it extreme, but it will wear well. At all times it will bring us light, in sickness it will bring us peace, in the world to come it will give us a crown of glory that will not fade away. We travel towards a world where there is no more sickness, where parting, pain, crying, and mourning are done with forever. In just a little while, "He who is coming will come and will not tarry" (Hebrews 10:37). Christ shall wipe away all tears from His people's eyes. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; death itself shall one day die (Revelation 20:14; 21:4). 

In the meantime, let us live a robust life of faith in the Son of God. He is alive and powerful, declaring, "O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!" (Hosea 13:14). He has already redeemed His people from death and will one day change their mortal bodies into their own unique likeness of His glorious body. In sickness and in health, in life and in death, let us lean confidently on Him.



"The whole family in heaven and earth." Ephesians 3:15

There lives not a man or woman who is not a member of some family. Family gatherings are natural, right and good. Next to the grace of God, I see no principle that unites people so much in this world as family feeling. Nevertheless, family gatherings are often sorrowful things that show gaps and vacant places. Changes and deaths make sad havoc as time goes on.

There is one family to which I want everyone reading this to belong. It is a family more important than any on earth. To belong to it entitles one to far greater privileges than being the son or daughter of the wealthiest and most prominent people imaginable. It is the family of God, which the apostle Paul describes above as "the whole family in heaven and earth."

1. What is God's family? This family consists of all true believers in God and Christ from every age, nation, and tongue. Other names of this family from the Bible and from creeds are the Body of Christ, the elect of God, the household of faith, the Israel of God, the Bride of Christ, the living temple, the holy Catholic [universal] Church. Membership into this family does not depend on any earthly connection. It comes not by natural birth, but by the new birth (John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:3; Ezekiel 36:25-27). Ministers cannot impart it to their hearers. Parents cannot give it to their children. Only the Holy Spirit can make you a living member of His family. Those who are born again are born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13). Why does the Bible describe this company of all true Christians as a family?

A. True Christians are called family because they all have one Father. They are all children "of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). They are all "born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). This is what "the Lord Almighty" Himself says: "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters" (2 Corinthians 6:18). Paul explains, "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15). Christians do not regard God with slavish fear, as if He were an austere Being ready only to punish. They look up to Him with tender confidence as a reconciled and loving parent who forgave all their sins because of their faith in Jesus, and is full of pity for the feeblest among them. It is our Lord Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father" first and foremost (Matthew 6:9-13). That is because true believers in Him instantly become part of God's family.

B. True Christians are called family because they all rejoice in one name. That name is the name of their great Head and Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as a common family name is the uniting link to all the members of a Scottish Highland clan, so does the name of Jesus tie all believers together in one vast family. As members of outward visible churches, they have various names, but as living members of Christ, they all with one heart and mind rejoice in one Savior. Every one of them feels drawn to Jesus as the only object of hope. All freely confess that Christ is all in all in His death on the cross for them; His triumphant resurrection, ascension, and daily intercession for them; and His coming again to unite them to Himself in one glorified company forever. You might as well take away the sun from the sky as take away the name of Christ from believers. No wonder they are called a family.

C. True Christians are called family because there is a strong family likeness among them. They are all led by one Spirit and are marked by the same general features of life, heart, taste, and character. All true sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty hate sin and love God, resting their hope of salvation on Christ and having no confidence in themselves. They all endeavor to separate from the ways of the world and set their affections on things above. They all turn naturally to the same Bible as the only food for the souls and only sure guide in their pilgrimage toward heaven as a lamp for their feet and a light to their path (Psalm 119:105). They all go to the same "throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16) in prayer, finding it as needful and natural to speak to God as to breathe. They all live by the same rule, the Word of God, striving to conform their daily lives to its precepts. They all have the same inward experience of repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, and spiritual discipline. No wonder they are called a family.

The family likeness among true believers deserves special attention as one of the strongest indirect evidences of the truth of Christianity. It is one of the greatest proofs of  the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself, Jesus said, is like the wind (John 3:8) in that He is invisible, but His effects are not, ranging from a gentle breeze to a mighty hurricane. Among true Christians around the world, some are highly educated and some unable to read; some are rich and some poor; some are old and some young; some attend formal churches and some informal. Notwithstanding, there is a marvelous oneness of heart and character among them all: their joys and sorrows, loves and hatreds, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears are very much the same. The Englishman will find he has more in common with an African brother in Christ than with non-Christian family members and school fellows. The same Spirit inhabits and guides each member of the forever family of God.

2. What is the present position of God's family? The family of God is currently in two places: part of the family is in heaven and part is on earth, but they form one Body in God's sight. Their union is sure to take place in the future.

Two places, and two only, contain the family of God. There is no third habitation, such as purgatory, which is not a biblical concept. There is no house of purifying, training, or probation for those who are not true Christians when they die. 

A. Some of God's family are safe in heaven. They are in a joyful, active state of rest in the place Jesus referred to as Paradise (Luke 23:43). They have finished their course on earth, having fought their battles and completed their appointed work. They learned their lessons and carried their crosses. They passed through the waves of this troubled world and reached the safe harbor. Little as we know of what their lives are like in detail, we do know they are happy, no longer troubled by sin and temptation, poverty and anxiety, pain and sickness, sorrow and tears. They are with Christ Himself, who loved them and gave Himself for them. Being with Him is "far better" than anything we can imagine or experience here (Philippians 1:23). They have nothing to fear when looking back and nothing to dread when looking forward. Three things only are lacking to make their happiness complete: the second coming of Christ in glory, the resurrection of their own bodies, and the gathering together of all believers. And of those things they are sure.

B. Some of God's family are still upon earth. They are scattered to and fro in the midst of a wicked world. All are more or less occupied in the same way, according to the gifts of God's grace (Romans 12:3-8). All are running a race, doing a work, engaging in spiritual warfare, carrying a cross, striving against sin, resisting the devil, crucifying the flesh, struggling against the world, witnessing for Christ, hearing the Word of God, reading, and praying—however feebly—for the nourishment of their souls. Each and all stay on their path, a wonder to the ignorant world around them and often a wonder to themselves.

However divided God's family may be now in location, it is still one family. Both parts, in heaven and on earth, are one in character, possessions, and relation to God. The part in heaven has not so much superiority over the part on earth as at first sight may appear. The difference between the two is only of degree.

(1) Both parts of the family love our Savior and delight in God's will. The part on earth loves with much imperfection and infirmity, living by faith not sight. The part in heaven loves without weakness, doubt, or distraction. It walks by sight, not faith, and sees what it once believed.

(2) Both parts of the family are saints. The saints on earth are often poor, weary pilgrims who find their flesh lusting against their spirit and the spirit lusting against the flesh, so they do not do the things they wish they would (Galatians 5:17). They live in the midst of an evil world and are often sick of themselves and the sin they see all around them. The saints in heaven, on the contrary, are delivered from the world, the flesh, and the devil, enjoying a glorious liberty. They are called "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23).

(3) Both parts of the family are God's children. But the children in heaven have all learned their lessons, finished their appointed tasks, and have begun an eternal holiday. The children on earth are still at school. They are daily learning wisdom, though slowly and with much trouble, often needing to be reminded of their past lessons with disciplinary actions. Their holiday is yet to come.

(4) Both parts of the family are God's soldiers. The soldiers on earth are still on duty. Their fight is not yet over, which is why they need every day to "put on the full armor of God" (Ephesians 6:10-18). The soldiers in heaven are all triumphant. No enemy can hurt them now. No fiery dart can reach them. Helmet and shield may be laid aside. No longer do they need to watch and stand on guard.

(5) Both parts of the family are secure. Both are secured by "an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and secure" (2 Samuel 23:5). The members on earth, through the burden of the flesh and the dimness of their faith, may neither see nor feel their own safety. But they are safe. The whole family is "kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1 Peter 1:5). The family members yet on the road are as secure as those already home. Not one shall be found missing at the last day.

Learn not to measure the numbers or privileges of God's family by what you see with your eyes. You see only a small body of believers in this present time. Do not forget that a great company has got safe to heaven already, and that when all are assembled at the last day they will be a multitude no one can number (Revelation 7:9). You currently see only the part of the family that is struggling on earth. The family of God is far more rich and glorious that you can even imagine. It is no small thing to belong to the "whole family in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 3:15).

3. What are the future prospects of God's family? They are good and happy!

A. The members of God's family shall all be brought safe home. Here on earth they may be scattered, tried, and bowed down with afflictions, but to quote the Lord Jesus, "they shall never perish" (John 10:28). The weakest lamb shall not be left to perish in the wilderness.

B. The members of God's family shall all have glorious bodies. When Jesus comes the second time, the dead saints shall all be raised and the living shall all be changed. They shall no longer have a mortal body, full of weaknesses and infirmities; they shall have a body like that of their risen Lord, without the slightest liability to sickness and pain. Nothing will hinder them in their desire to serve God night and day without weariness or distraction. The former things will have passed away and this divine saying will then come true: "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).

C. The members of God's family shall all be gathered into one company. It does not matter where and when they have lived and died. All shall be gathered together from north, south, east, and west to meet in one happy assembly, and never to be parted from our Lord and each other again.

D. The members of God's family shall all be united in mind and judgment. They are not so now about many little issues. About the things needful to salvation there is a marvelous unity among them. One day partial knowledge and dim vision shall be at an end forever (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).

E. The members of God's family shall all be perfected in holiness. They are not literally perfect now, although complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10). Though born again and renewed after the image of Christ, they offend and fall short in many things (James 3:2). No one knows that better than they do, but one day they will be presented by their Head "without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27), "fair as the moon, clear as the sun" (Song of Solomon 6:10). Those are word pictures representing perfect holiness. Grace even now is a beautiful thing when it lives, shines, and flourishes in the midst of imperfection. How much more beautiful will it appear pure and unmixed when Christ comes to be glorified in His saints at the last day!

F. The members of God's family shall all be eternally provided for. When the affairs of this sinful world are finally settled, there shall be an everlasting portion for all the sons and daughters of the Lord almighty. The smallest vessel of grace, as well as the greatest, shall be filled to the brim with glory. The precise nature of that reward is beyond what eye has seen or hear has heard (1 Corinthians 2:9). It is enough for us to know we will be satisfied when we see our Savior face to face, reflecting His likeness (Psalm 17:15). The inheritance reserved for us when we come of age is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away ( 1 Peter 1:4). 

These prospects of God's family are great realities. They are not vague, shadowy talk of human invention. These are real, true things that will be seen before long. They deserve your serious consideration. Examine them well. Do you yet belong to the family of God? Do not miss the priceless opportunity set before you. If you indeed belong to the whole family in heaven and earth, count your privileges and learn to be more thankful. Think what a mercy it is to have something the world can neither give nor take away. Living by the grace of God, we shall make "our calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:3-15), both to ourselves and others, inclining them by God's grace to say, "We will go with you."



"Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations." Psalm 90:1

That is a verse to make one lean back and think. It is from the only Psalm ascribed to "Moses, the man of God." 

1. What this world truly is. It is a beautiful world in many respects, but many things in it remind us that it is not home.

A. It is a changing world. All around us is continually moving, altering, and passing away. Families, properties, landlords, tenants, workers, and students are regularly on the move. To find the same name in the same dwelling for three generations is so uncommon, it is the exception, not at all the rule. A world so full of change cannot be called home.

B. It is a trying and disappointing world. Trials in married and single life, trials with children and brothers and sisters, trials in money and health matters—how many they are! Yet not the tenth part of them perhaps ever comes to light, for all families have their secrets. A world so full of trials and disappointments cannot be called home.

C. It is a dying world. Death is continually about us or near us. Few are the family gatherings when there are not empty chairs and vacant places. Where are the boys and girls we played with when we went to school? Surely a world so full of death can never be called a home.

D. It is a scattered and divided world. Families are continually breaking up and going in different directions. How rarely do  members of a family ever meet together again after the surviving parent is laid in the grave. The cement seems withdrawn from the parts of the building and the whole principle of cohesion is lost. How often some miserable squabble about trinkets or money makes a breach that is never healed. A world so full of division can never be home. 

These are all ancient things, the bitter fruits of sin that entered the world when Adam and Eve transgressed. We must not fret or complain, however, but must steadily resolve to make the best of everyone and everything around us. Learn to moderate your expectations and not regard this world as your lasting home. This state of things will not last forever. The Word of God tells us that "the time is short: it remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy as though they possessed not; and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away" (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). 

2. What Christ truly is, even in this life, to true Christians. Heaven is the final home in which a true Christian will dwell at last. Towards that end he is daily traveling; nearer to that she is daily coming. We know that if the earthly house of our body, "this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). Body and soul united once more, renewed, beautified, and perfected, will live forever in the Father's great house in heaven. To that home we have not yet come; we are not yet in heaven.

But is there in the meantime no home for our souls? Thank God, there is no difficulty in finding an answer to that question. There is a home now provided for all laboring and heaven-laden souls: that home is Christ Himself. To know Christ by faith, to live the life of faith in Him, abiding in Him daily by faith, fleeing to Him in every storm of conscience, our refuge in every day of trouble, employing Him as our Confessor, Absolver, and spiritual Director every morning and evening is to be at home spiritually even before we die. Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). The risen Christ declared, "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). In the midst of a dying, changing, disappointing world, a true Christian has a home in Christ no power on earth can take away. Like those humblest of God's creatures that carry their shells on their backs, wherever they are, so the Christian, wherever he goes, carries his home.

A. No home like Christ: In Him there is room for all sorts. No matter how prodigal, those who repent and turn to Him will find the best robe, the fatted calf, the ring, and the shoes always ready for all comers (Luke 15:11-32). All may be pardoned. There is a home and refuge where your soul may be admitted this very day. That home is Christ. "Come to Me," He cries. "Knock and the door shall be opened to you" (Matthew 11:28; 7:7).

B. No home like Christ: In Him there is boundless and unwearied mercy for all, even after admission. None are rejected and cast out. This is no probationary home. Whom Christ receives, He keeps. What good work He begins in a life He completes (Philippians 1:6). Whom He  justifies before God through His saving work on the cross, He progressively sanctifies in this life and instantly glorifies in the next. No hopeless characters are ever sent away from His house. No men are women are ever found too bad to heal and renew. Nothing is too hard for Him to do who made the world out of nothing. He who is Himself the Home has declared, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37).

C. No home like Christ: In Him there is unvarying kindness, patience, and gentle dealing for all. He is not  austere, but is "gentle and lowly of heart" (Matthew 11:29). None who apply to Him are ever treated roughly or made to feel that their company is not welcome. The Holy Spirit is placed inside them and dwells in them as in a temple. Leading, guiding, and instruction are daily provided for them. If they err, they are brought back into the right way; if they fall, they are raised again; if they sin willingly, they are chastised to make them better. But the rule of the whole house is love.

D. No home like Christ: In Him there is no change. From the youngest to the oldest, He loves all who come to Him and never tires of doing them good. Earthly homes, by comparison, are full of fickleness and uncertainty. Favor is deceitful. Courtesy and civility may be on your hosts' lips, but inwardly they may be weary of your company and wish you were gone. You seldom know how long your presence is welcome or to what extent your friends really care to see you. But it is not at all like that with Christ. He "is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

E. No home like Christ: Friendship once begun with Him shall never be broken off. Once joined to the Lord by faith, you are joined to Him for an endless eternity. Earthly homes always come to an end sooner or later; the dear old furniture is sold and dispersed. It is not like that with Christ. Faith will at length be swallowed up in sight; hope shall be changed into certainty. We shall one day see with our eyes and no longer need to believe. Those whose names are inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life belong to a home that shall continue forever.



"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Romans 8:14-17

The people of whom Paul speaks in those verses are the richest people on earth. The inheritance of these people is the only inheritance really worth having. All others are unsatisfying and disappointing by comparison. They bring with them many cares. They cannot cure an aching heart, lighten a heavy conscience, or keep away family troubles. They cannot prevent sickness, separations, and death. But there is no disappointment among the heirs of God. Their inheritance is the only one that can be kept forever because it is eternal. It is also the only inheritance that is within everyone's reach. Most people cannot obtain riches and greatness, though they work hard for them all their lives. But glory, honor, and eternal life are offered to every person freely who is willing to accept them on God's terms.

If you wish to have a portion of this inheritance, you must become one of God's children on earth if you desire to have glory in heaven. None but true Christians are the children of God. None but the children of God are heirs of God.

1. The relation of all true Christians to God: They are "sons of God." To be servants, disciples, soldiers, and friends of God are all excellent titles, but to be sons and daughters of God is a step higher still. As Jesus said, "A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever" (John 8:35).  To be the child of wealthy and powerful parents is commonly reckoned a great temporal advantage and privilege. But to be a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords—to be a son or daughter of the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity—that is something far greater. Yet this is the exalted position of every true Christian.

How can sinful men and women like ourselves become sons and daughters of God? When do we enter into this glorious relationship? We were not born so when we came into this fallen world. No one has a natural right to look to God as his or her Father. The Book of Ephesians tells us plainly, "You were by nature children of wrath," just as all others are born (Ephesians 2:3). First John 3:10 states, "The children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God." Sin is hereditary and runs in the family of Adam. Grace is anything but hereditary, and holy men do not automatically have holy sons. How then and when does this mighty change come about?

We become sons and daughters of God when the Holy Spirit of God leads us to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, and not before. Galatians 3:26 says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." What does the Gospel of John say? To as many as receive Christ, God gives the power and privilege to become children of God, specifically meaning "those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Faith unites repentant sinners to the Son of God and makes them part of His forever family. The Bible also teaches that the children of God are chosen from eternity and predestined to adoption, but it is not until individuals are called in due time and believe that you and I can recognize they are sons and daughters of God. It is at that point when there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). 

Beware of the delusive notion that all men and women are alike children of God, whether they have faith in Christ or not. The sonship we have by creation belongs to stones, trees, animals, and even to the devil (Job 1:6), but it gives no one a title to heaven. God is full of love and compassion for all His creation, but He is also perfectly just and holy. That is why there is only one Mediator between God and man: the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). 

The Gospel sets an open door before every man and woman. Its promises are wide and full. Its invitations are earnest and tender. Its requirements are simple and clear: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Proud and worldly people are fooling themselves if they think they can  refuse God's terms yet dare to consider God their Father in any familial sense. 

Ask yourself consciously in God's sight whether you have repented of your sins and believed in Christ. If you have not, see and feel your sins and flee to Christ for salvation. Confess them before Him and He will faithfully and justly forgive your your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). You will be pardoned by God the Father and "accepted in the Beloved," who is Christ (Ephesians 1:6). Be forever thankful, saying, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). How wonderful that holy God should set His affections on sinful men and women and admit them into His family! The people who can rightfully call God their Father and Christ their elder Brother need never be ashamed.

2. The special evidences of sonship: True Christians are "led by the Spirit." They have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the "witness of the Spirit." They "suffer with Christ." Those are the marks, signs, and tokens by which the true sons and daughters of God may be known.

A. True Christians are "led by the Spirit." Romans 8:14 declares, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." They are all under the leading and teaching of the Almighty. No longer do they follow their own ways and desires. The divine Person of the Holy Spirit guides their hearts, lives, and affections towards increasing holiness.

They are led away from sin, away from self-righteousness and worldliness. Those whom God adopts He teaches and trains. He makes them weary of their own ways and long for inward peace.

They are led to Christ, who leads them to the Bible, prayer, and holiness. That is the beaten path along which the Spirit makes them travel. Those whom God adopts He always sanctifies. He makes sin very bitter to them and holiness very sweet. The sons of God are a people led by the Spirit of God. Their experience will tally wonderfully when they compare notes in heaven. This is one mark of sonship.

B. True Christians have "the Spirit of adoption." They have the feelings of adopted children towards their Father in heaven. We are told, "You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15). The sons of God are delivered from the slavish fear of God that sin produces in the unredeemed heart. They are redeemed from the same feeling of guilt that made Adam "hide himself in the trees of the Garden" and Cain "go out from the presence of the Lord" (Genesis 3:8; 4:16). They are no longer afraid of God's holiness, justice, and majesty. They no longer feel  the great barrier between themselves and God. Some of them have this feeling more vividly than others, but very few could be found who would not say that since they knew Christ, they have had very different feelings towards God than before. They feel as if something like the old Roman form of adoption had taken place between themselves and their Father in heaven, who said, "Will you be My son?" and heard in reply, "I will."

C. True Christians have "the witness of the Spirit." Romans 8:16 states, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." This lets them know deep down inside that there is a relationship between them and God. They know that for them old things are passed away and all things become new: guilt is gone, peace is restored, heaven's door is open, and hell's door is shut. It is a felt, positive, and reasonable hope. They have what Paul calls the seal, earnest, or down payment of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13). This witness of the Spirit embedded in the conscience is another mark of sonship.

D. True Christians "suffer with Christ." A final comment from Romans 8 on sonship is this: If we are children of God, that means we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17). All children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials, troubles, and afflictions to go through for the Gospel's sake from the world, the flesh, and the devil. They have trials of feeling from relatives and friends: hard words, treatment, and judgment. They have trials in the matter of character: slander, misrepresentation, mockery, and insinuation of false motives. They often have to choose whether they will please others and lose glory or gain glory and offend others. They have trials from their own hearts, their own home-devil, who is their worst foe.

Suffering is part of belonging to the Lord's family. "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.... If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons" (Hebrews 12:6-8). "We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). Suffering is a part of the process by which the children of God are sanctified. The Captain of their salvation was "made perfect through suffering," and so are they (Hebrews 2:10; 12:10). 

Beware of a sonship without evidences. When a person has no leading of the Spirit, no spirit of adoption to tell of, no internal witness of the Spirit, and no cross in his or her experience, is that person really a son or daughter of God? Dare not to say so. On the other hand, embrace what evidence there is. Who made you love Christ and hate sin? Who made you long and labor to be holy? Where did those feelings come from? Not from the natural man or woman's heart. Cheer up and take courage. Press forward. Ask, seek, knock. That is how you will see that you number among the sons and daughters of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The privileges of sonship: True Christians are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." The text from Romans 8 that heads this chapter summarizes, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Being heirs means that something is prepared for all true Christians that has yet to be revealed. They are "heirs of God." To be heirs of the rich on earth is something. How much more then is it to be children and heirs of the King of kings! They are "joint heirs with Christ." They shall share in His majesty and take part in His glory. They will be glorified together with Him. 

God takes care to provide for all His children. None  are disinherited. None will be cut off. Each shall stand in his place and have a portion in the day when the Lord brings many sons to glory. Who can tell the full nature of what Colossians 1:12 describes as "the inheritance of the saints in light"? Language falls short. It is a true saying of the apostle John: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). Some of the truths we know from 1 Peter and the Book of Revelation are that there will be no corruption, no fading, no withering, no devil, no curse of sin, no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, and no death. What bliss! These are positive realities for the heirs of God to derive strength from now:

A. Is knowledge pleasant to you now? Is the little you know of God, Christ, and the Bible precious to your soul, and do you long for more? We shall have it perfectly in glory. As Paul writes, "Now I know in part, but then shall I know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Blessed be God, there will be no more disagreements among believers! All will at length see eye to eye. The former ignorance will have passed away. We shall marvel to find how childish and blind we have been.

B. Is holiness pleasant to you now? Do you long for entire conformity to Christ, to "be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Ephesians 5:1)? Is sin the burden and bitterness of your life? Take heart: "Christ gave Himself for the church," not only that He might sanctify it on earth, but also "that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Oh, the blessedness of an eternal goodbye to sin! No more tainting of our motives, thoughts, words, and actions.

C. Is rest pleasant to you now? Do you often feel "exhausted yet pursuing" (Judges 8:4)? Do you long for a world in which we need not always be watching and warring? We shall have it perfectly in glory, being assured that there remains a rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). The daily, hourly conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil will come to an end. There shall be great calm and peace.

D. Is service pleasant to you now? Do you find it sweet to work for Christ, yet groan being burdened by a feeble body? The spirit is often willing, but the flesh is weak. Take comfort: you will be able to serve perfectly in glory and without weariness. Revelation 7:15 speaks of blissful service to God day and night before His throne.

E. Is satisfaction pleasant to you now? Do you find the world empty? Do you long for the filling up of every void place and gap in your heart and mind? You shall have it in heaven. No longer will you say with Solomon, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit!" (Ecclesiastes 1). Instead of saying, "I have seen a limit to all perfection" (Psalm 119:96), you will say to God with David, "I will see Your face in righteousness;  I will be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness" (Psalm 17:15).

F. Is communion with the saints pleasant to you now? Are you never so happy as when you are with what Psalm 16:3 well describes as the excellent of the earth? Are you ever so much at home as in their company? We will enjoy this happy communion forever in glory. Jesus tells us, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.... And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 13:41; 24:31). Praise God, we shall see all the saints whom we have read about in the Bible and in whose steps we have tried to walk! We shall enjoy the company of apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, reformers, missionaries, ministers, and so many others of whom the world was not worthy. We shall see the faces of those we have known and loved in Christ on earth over whose departure we shed bitter tears. We shall see them more bright and glorious than they ever were before. Best of all, we shall see them without hurry and anxiety, not feeling that we only meet to part again. In the coming glory there is no death, parting, or farewell.

G. Is communion with Christ pleasant to you now? Do you find His name precious to you? Do you feel your heart burn within you at the thought of His sacrificial love for His people? You shall have perfect communion with Him in heaven. When He returns for us, "we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). We shall be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43). These eyes of ours will see His beloved face, the hands and feet pierced with nails, and regal head that was crowned with thorns. Where He is, there the sons and daughters of God will be. When He comes, they will come with Him. When He sits down in His glory, they shall sit down by His side.

If you are one of those who are sons and heirs, you may well rejoice. You may well wait, like the boy Patience in The Pilgrim's Progress: your best things are yet to come. You may well bear crosses without complaining: your light affliction is but for a moment (2 Corinthians 4:17). The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is yet to be revealed (Romans 8:18). When Christ, who is our life, appears,  we also shall appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Honor Him now by implicit obedience to all His commands and hearty love for all His children. Labor to travel through this world like a child of God and heir to glory. Let others be able to trace a family likeness between you and the One who adopted you.

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." 2 Thessalonians 2:1

"Our gathering together": those three words touch a note that finds a response in every part of the world. People are by nature social beings; we do not like being along. Go where you will on earth, people generally like meeting together and seeing one another's faces. It is the exception rather than the rule to find those who do not. Even in the best of gatherings, however, there is no unmixed pleasure about any of them. The Bible speaks of an assembly to come with complete joy and no sorrow attached.

1. What and when is the gathering together of true Christians to come? This gathering shall take place at the end of the world, when Christ returns to earth the second time. As surely as He came the first time, so shall He come the second. In the clouds of heaven He went away, and in clouds He shall return. He went away visibly and bodily the first time, and that is how He will return. The first thing Christ will do then is gather together His people: "He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31). 

The manner of this gathering together is plainly revealed in Scripture. The dead saints shall all be raised and the living saints shall all be changed. It is written, "The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Every member of Christ will there be found, not one missing, each glorified soul joined to his or her glorified body.

A. This gathering together will be great. All true children of God who have ever lived, from Abel the first saint down to  the last born again just before Jesus returns, all from every age, nation, church, people, and language shall be assembled together. Now when scattered, true Christians seem like a little flock, but when gathered like this will be "a great multitude which no one could number" (Revelation 7:9).

B. This gathering together will be wonderful. The saints from distant lands who never saw each other and could not understand each other's speech if they met shall all be brought together in one harmonious company. Believers who died 5,000 years ago and whose bones are mere dust shall find their bodies raised and renewed as quickly as those who are alive when the trumpet sounds. Many miracles of grace will be revealed. We shall see some in heaven whom we never expected would have been saved at all. The confusion of tongues shall at last be reversed and done away with. The assembled multitude will cry out with one voice and heart, "Oh, what God has done!" (Numbers 23:23).

C. This gathering will be humbling. It will make an end of bigotry and narrowmindedness forever. The Christians of one denomination shall joyfully find themselves side by side with those of another, worshiping and praying together. No more sectarianism, party spirit, jealousy, and pride. At last we shall be completely "clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5). 

Gatherings of other kinds incessantly occupy our minds, but the hour comes when social, political, scientific, and economic meetings will be completely forgotten. One thought alone will swallow up men and women's minds then: Shall I be gathered with Christ's people into a place of safety and honor, or left behind to eternal woe?

2. Why is this gathering together so desirable? Paul's concluding words about our being gathered together to be always with the Lord are these: "Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). 

A. It will be a state totally unlike the present condition. To be scattered and not gathered seems the rule of man's existence now. Of all the millions who are annually born into this world, how few continue together until they die? Children who draw their first breath under the same roof are likely to draw their last breath far apart. The same applies to the people of God, who are spread abroad like salt, one in one place and one in another, and seldom able to continue long side by side. It is good for the world that their light and salt penetrate many dark and decaying corners, but it is no small trial to believers. Many days they long for more communion with those who love the Lord. They may look forward with hope and comfort: the hour is coming when they shall have no lack of godly companions.

B. It will be a united assembly of one mind. There are no such assemblies now. Mixture, hypocrisy, and false profession creep in everywhere. To borrow from the parables of Jesus, wherever there is wheat there are sure to be tares. Wherever there are good fish there are sure to be bad. Wherever there are wise virgins there are sure to be foolish. There is no such thing as a perfect church now. All that shall come to an end one day. Our Lord shall at length present "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). We will all see eye to eye with miserable controversies and squabbling buried forever. Everyone's graces will be fully developed and besetting sins dropped off like leaves in autumn. No wonder Paul encourages us to look forward!

C. It will be a meeting at which none shall be absent. The weakest lamb will not be left behind in the wilderness. We shall once more see our beloved friends and relatives who died in Christ and left us in sorrow now better, brighter, more beautiful and more pleasant than ever we found them on earth. We shall enjoy the mighty company of all the saints of God who have fought the good fight before us, from the beginning of the world to the end. If to read their words and works has been pleasant, think how much more delightful it will be to talk with them and ask them questions! To sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and hear how they kept the faith without any Bible; to converse with Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Daniel and hear how they could believe in a Christ yet to come; to converse with Peter, Paul, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and listen to their wondrous tales of what their Master did for them.

D. It will be a meeting without a parting. There are no such meetings now. We seem to live in an endless hurry and can hardly sit down and take a breath before we are off again. Goodbye treads on the heels of hello. The cares of this world, the necessary duties of life, the needs of our families, the work of our various employments all appear to eat up our days and make it impossible to have long, quiet times of communion with God's people. It shall not always be so. We will meet in a world where the former things have passed away into an endless state of being calm, restful, and unhurried without change or tears.

3. How can one be a part of this great gathering? Here is a plain means of testing your own soul's condition if you want to know your own chances of being gathered into God's home. Ask yourself what kind of gatherings you like best here on earth. Do you love the assembling together of God's people? Your tastes on earth are a sure evidence of the state of your heart. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. He who hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven while he loves only the gathering of sinners on earth is deceiving himself. Grasp hold by faith on "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." Believe it, think often about it, and rest on it. It is all true. 


20. THE GREAT SEPARATION

"His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:12

1. The two great classes into which mankind may be divided. The passage of Scripture above was spoken by John the Baptizer. It is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ that has not yet been fulfilled. Viewed with the eye of man, the earth contains many different sorts of inhabitants. Viewed with the eye of God it contains only two. Man's eye looks at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart. Tried by the state of their hearts, the two classes are illustrated here by wheat and chaff.

A. The wheat. The wheat are all men and women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been led by the Holy Spirit of God to feel themselves sinners and flee for refuge to the salvation offered in the Gospel for all. They therefore love the Lord Jesus, serving and obeying Him, taking the Bible for their only guide, regarding sin as their deadliest enemy, and looking to heaven as their only home. All such individuals of every church, name, nation, people, language, rank, station, condition, and degree constitute God's wheat.

They are the sons and daughters of God the Father. They are the delight of God the Son. God the Holy Spirit regards them as spiritual temples He Himself has erected.

B. The chaff. The chaff are all men and women who have no saving faith in Christ and no sanctification of the Spirit. Some are irreligious and some are very religious. Some are sneering Sadducees and some self-righteous Pharisees. Some of them make a point of keeping up religious practices and some are careless of everything except their own pleasures. What they have in common is no faith and no sanctification or holiness in God's sight.

They bring no glory to God the Father, for "he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). They neglect that mighty salvation countless angels admire. They disobey the Word of God, which was graciously written for their learning. They do not listen to the voice of Him who condescended to leave heaven and purchase salvation through His righteous life, death, and resurrection. They pay no tribute of service and affection to Him who gives them "life, breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25). Therefore God takes no pleasure in them. He pities them, but He reckons them no better than chaff, which is useless vegetation.

This is humbling truth: You may have rare intellectual gifts and high attainments; you may sway many by your influence, but if you have never submitted yourself to the yoke of Christ and honored His Gospel by heartfelt reception of it, you are spiritually lacking in His sight. Natural gifts without grace are of no eternal value. You do not honor God with heart, will, intellect, and body, which are all His. You invert His order and arrangement, living as if time is more important than eternity and body better than soul. You are cold about the subject that fills all heaven with hallelujahs. So long as that remains the case, you belong to the ultimately worthless part of mankind: you are the chaff of the earth.

See now what cause there is for self-inquiry! Are you among the wheat or the chaff? Neutrality is impossible. Either you are in one class or in the other. Which is it of the two? Do not rest until you know how it is between you and God. Better a thousand times to find you are in a dreadful spiritual state and then repent than to live on in uncertainty and be lost eternally.

2. The time when the wheat and the chaff  shall be separated. There is no separation yet. Good and bad are now all mingled together in the world and even in the visible church of Christ. But it shall no always be so. Christ shall come the second time with His winnowing fan in His hand to separate the wheat from the chaff.

A. Before Christ returns, separation is impossible. It is not in man's power to effect it. There is no minister on earth who can read the hearts of everyone in his congregation. The winnowing fan is not put in their hands. Grace is sometimes so weak and feeble that it looks like nature. Nature is sometimes so plausible and well dressed that it looks like grace. Judas looked as good as any of the apostles, yet he was proved to be a traitor only at the end. Peter looked like chaff when he denied the Lord Jesus, yet he repented immediately and rose again. We are all fallible, for we "know in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9) and scarcely understand our own hearts. It is no great wonder we cannot read the hearts of others. 

But it will not always be so. One is coming who never errs in judgment and is perfect in knowledge. Jesus shall purge His floor, sifting the lightweight chaff from the dense wheat. Until then, we are to lean on the side of charity in our judgments. As Jesus taught in His Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, it is better to tolerate some chaff in the church than cast out one grain of wheat. The certainty about every one shall be known soon enough.

B. Before Christ returns, it is useless to expect to see a perfect church. There cannot be such a thing now. I pity those who leave one church and join another because of a few minor faults and unsound members. They are seeking that which cannot be found on this earth. Only when Christ returns will there be a "glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Then, and not until then, the floor will be purged.

C. Before Christ returns, it is futile to look for the conversion of the world. How can it be since He is to find wheat and chaff side by side in the day of His second coming? I see nothing in the Bible or in the world around me to make me expect it. What we can expect to see is a few raised up as witnesses to Christ in every nation and place. Then I expect the Lord will return with His fan in His hand. When He has purged His floor, and not until then, His Kingdom will be realized in full.

3. The Lord's provision for His people.

A. The Lord takes pleasure in His people. It is comforting to know that "the Lord takes pleasure in His people" (Psalm 149:4) and "cares for [them]" (1 Peter 5:7). But how much He cares for them I fear is little known and dimly seen. Believers have their many trials, the flesh is weak, the world is full of snares, the cross is heavy, the way is narrow, and the companions are few. But still they have strong consolations if their eyes are widely opened. Like Hagar, they have a well of water near them in the wilderness (Genesis 21:19) and like Mary Magdalene, they have Jesus standing by their side, though their eyes are blinded by tears (John 20:14). They need to be reminded they are sons and daughters of God by adoption and enjoy full and perfect forgiveness. They have a place in the Book of Life and a name on the breastplate of the Great High Priest in heaven.

He took them for His own with a perfect understanding of their liabilities and infirmities. He will never break His covenant and cast them off. When they fall, He will raise them again. When they wander, He will bring them back. Their prayers are pleasing to Him. As a father loves the first stammering efforts of his child to speak, so the Lord loves the petitions of His people. He endorses them with His own mighty intercession and gives them power on high. Their services are pleasant to Him. As a father delights in the first daisy his child picks up and brings him, even so the Lord is pleased with the weak attempts of His people to serve Him. Not a cup of cold water shall lose its reward. Not a word spoken in love shall ever be forgotten. 

B. The Lord cares for His people in life. Their addresses are intimately known by Him. The street called Straight where Saul/Paul temporarily lodged and the seaside place where Peter prayed were familiar to their Lord (Acts 9-10). No one has better assistants than His people. Angels rejoice when they are born again, angels minister to them, and angels encompass them for protection. No one has better food. Their daily bread is provided and they are nourished by the water of life. They have food to eat of which the world knows nothing. No one has better company than they do. The Spirit indwells them and the Father and the Son make Their home with them (John 14:23). Their steps are all ordered from grace to glory. Their difficulties are all measured out by a wise Physician: not a grain of bitterness is ever mixed in their cup that is not good for the health of their souls. Their temptations, like Job's, are all under God's control. Satan cannot touch a hair of their head without their Lord's permission or tempt them beyond what they are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). When they are transplanted from place to place, it is so they may bloom more brightly. All things are continually working together for their good (Romans 8:28).

C. The Lord cares for His people in death. Their times are all in His hand. The hairs of their heads are all numbered and no one can ever fall to the ground without their Father (Matthew 10:29-31). They are kept on earth until they are ripe and ready for glory, and not one moment longer. When they have had sun, rain, wind, and storm enough, when the grain is perfect in the stalk, only then will they be harvested. It is a blessed thing to be Christ's wheat. Death opens the door to believer and instantly lets him or her into paradise.

D. The Lord will protect His people on the awesome and dreadful day of His return. The voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God shall proclaim no terrors to their ears. They shall lift up their heads with joy as they see their full redemption approach. They shall be instantly changed, putting on their beautiful garments in the blink of an eye, caught up together "to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Jesus will do nothing to a sin-laden world until all His people are safe, just like there was an ark for Noah when the Flood began. There will be a barn for all the wheat on Judgment Day. Whether then or now, Christ's people persevere throughout life. "My sheep," says the Good Shepherd, "shall never perish" (John 10:28). They shall all be gathered into the same fold and barn. 

4. The Lord's punishment of those who are not His people. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns to purge His floor of the chaff, all who are found impenitent and unbelieving—who "suppress the truth unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18), clinging to sin and the world instead of Christ and His Word, will come to an awful end. Christ will "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." There is no pain like burning. Fire is of all elements most opposed to life. Creatures can live in air, earth, and water, but nothing can live in fire. This punishment will be eternal. The fuel of that fire will never waste away or be consumed. These are sad and painful things to speak of, yet they are written for our learning and it is good to consider them. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).

A. Hell is real. Some believe there is no hell at all, thinking such a place is inconsistent with the mercy of God. They say it is too awful an idea to be really true. The devil delights in the views of such people, for they are preaching his favorite doctrine: "You surely shall not die" (Genesis 3:4). Jesus at His return, however, will say to those who wickedly forget God and His people, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.... These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:41-46). The same blessed Savior who now sits on a throne of grace will one day sit on a throne of judgment. Terrified people will discover there is such a thing as "the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16). The same lips that now say, "Come to Me" will then say, "Depart from Me."

B. Hell is eternal. These are all biblical descriptions of hell: eternal fire, eternal punishment, their worm does not die, torment of thirst, weeping and gnashing of teeth, darkness, blackness, and the second death. All are figures of speech, but they describe something real and even worse than what mere words can describe. The present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future will never be thoroughly known except by those who go there. "Trembling has seized the godless: 'Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?'" (Isaiah 33:14). "Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.... He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:16-36).

C. Hell should be spoken about. It is striking to observe the many texts about it in Scripture. No one says more about hell than our gracious and merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. John, the most loving apostle, wrote often about hell. The most loving thing we can do for others is to speak the truth in love about supremely important matters. What would you say of the man who saw his neighbor's house in danger of being burned down but never said a word of warning? Beware of manufacturing a god of your own who is all mercy, but not just; all love, but not holy; a god who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a god who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a god is an idol. The hands of your own sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.

5. The Lord's merciful provision for people now. Realize you are reading this by God's design. The truth about hell is for you to know and take to heart. Never mind now what it means for others. You will be either gathered with the wheat when Jesus returns or burned with the chaff. If you are willing to be of the wheat, the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to receive you. Do you suppose He is not willing to see His barn filled? Do you think He does not desire to bring many sons and daughters to glory? If so, you know little of the depth of His mercy and compassion. He wept over unrepentant Jerusalem. He mourns over the impenitent and careless in the present day. He sends you an invitation right now to hear and live, to forsake the way of the foolish and go in the path of understanding. "I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" (Ezekiel 18:32).

If you are determined to have the world and the things of the world, all its pleasures and rewards, all its follies and sins; if you must have your own way and cannot give up anything for Christ and the sake of your soul, there is but one end before you. Sooner or later you will come to the unquenchable fire. But if you want to be rescued from that fate, the Lord Jesus stands ready to save you. "Come to Me," He says, "and I will give you rest. Come, guilty and sinful soul, and I will give you free pardon. Come, lost and ruined soul, and I will give you eternal life" (Matthew 11:28). Arise and call upon the Lord. Let the angels of God rejoice over one more saved soul.

Settle it down in your mind that if you have committed your soul to Christ, He will never let you perish. The everlasting arms are around you. Lean back in them and know your safety. The same hand that was nailed to the cross is holding you. The same wisdom that framed the heavens and the earth is maintaining your cause. Take comfort and know your privileges. Cast every care on Jesus. Tell Him about every need. He loves serving as your High Priest. He loves to be trusted and seeing His people ceasing from the vain effort of carrying their fears, anxieties, and doubts for themselves. Be among Christ's wheat now and then, on the great day of separation, you will be gathered into Christ's barn.



"The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

There are star depths in the heavens that the most powerful telescopes cannot pierce, yet it is well to look into them and learn something if we cannot learn everything. There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity that mortal man can never comprehend, but God has spoken of it and we have no right to turn away from it altogether. In examining points like these we have nothing to do with preconceived notions about God's character and what we think God ought to do with man after death. The thoughts we have a right to hold are the thoughts He has been pleased to reveal to us in His written Word, the holy Bible. If you are tempted to doubt that, consider this: Imagine a judge who calls in witnesses and pretends to examine them while simultaneously issuing a statement that no matter what they say or evidence they give, their cause is so absurd and unjust that no evidence will be sufficient to prove it. Do not be that kind of judge.

1. We live in a world where all things are temporal and passing away. Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end. In a practical sense, there is nothing undying about us except our souls. That is what this line by a dying poet in the hymn Abide with Me attempts to capture: "Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me."

Beauty is only temporal. Sarah was once the fairest of women and the admiration of the court of Egypt, yet a day came when her husband, Abraham, said, "Let me bury my dead out of my sight" (Genesis 23:4). Strength of body is only temporal. David was once a mighty man of valor, the champion of Israel against Goliath, yet the day came when he had to be nursed like a child in his old age. As humbling and painful as these truths may sound, it is good for us to take them to heart. The houses we live in, the relations we enter into,  the professions we follow, the riches we accumulate, the plans we form are only for a time. "The form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Think of pleasures, amusements, profits, and earthly callings as poor ephemeral things that cannot last. Love them not too well or grasp them too tightly: they are useful as servants but dreadful as idols. You cannot keep them and must lose them. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," said Jesus, and then everything else needful will be added as well (Matthew 6:33). "Set your mind on things above," not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). The world and its lusts are passing away, "but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

If you take these things to heart, you may take heart because your trials and conflicts are only temporary. They will soon come to an end and even now are working for you "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Bear them patiently and quietly. Look upward, forward, and far beyond them. The cross shall soon be exchanged for a crown and you shall sit down at a feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11).

2. We are all going toward a world where everything is eternal. The Bible teaches that the great unseen state of existence lying behind the grave is forever. Whether it be happy or miserable, in one respect it is utterly unlike this world: it is eternal. There will be no change and decay, no end, no goodbyes, no mornings and evenings, no annihilation. "The things unseen are eternal." We cannot fully grasp this: the contrast between now and then, between this world and the next, is so enormously great that our feeble minds will not take it in. The consequences it entails are so tremendous, they almost take away our breath and we shrink from looking at them. But when the Bible speaks plainly, we have no right to turn away from a subject.

A. Future happiness. The future is eternally bright for those who, by definition, have been rescued by their saving faith in Christ's righteous life, death, and resurrection on their behalf. At God's "right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). Awaiting them is "an inheritance ... imperishable, undefiled, and unfading," including "an unfading crown of glory" (1 Peter 1:4; 5:4). Their fight is over; their work is done. No more will they hunger and thirst. They are traveling towards an "eternal weight of glory," towards a home that shall never be broken up, a meeting without parting, a family gathering without separation, a day without night. Faith shall be swallowed up by sight and hope by certainty. They "shall always be with the Lord." No wonder Paul adds, "Comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).

B. Future misery. For those who have no faith in Christ, the future is eternally bleak. That is a solemn truth and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it, but it is plainly and mercifully revealed in Scripture. Whoever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? No one warned more about hell than Him, describing it as a place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:47-48). No one has written more eloquently about love than the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13), yet he warns that the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The same words that describe the eternality of heaven likewise describe the eternality of hell. 

Sin and death entered the world by the devil's daring falsehood, "You surely shall not die" (Genesis 3:4). Thousands of years later, the great enemy of our souls is still using his old weapon, trying to persuade men and women that they may live and die in sin, yet at some distant period be finally saved. Let us not be taken advantage of by being "ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). There is nothing Satan desires more than we should believe he does not exist and that there is no such thing as eternal torment.

Think: what was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, living a perfect life, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make a substitutionary atonement for sin for all who trust in Him if people can be finally saved without believing in Him? Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death? We are told, "It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Where is the need for the Holy Spirit if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Hear what Solomon the wise says to curb youthful lusts: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Unrepented sin is an eternal evil and can never cease to be sin. He "to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13) is an eternal God. 

The words of Psalm 145 are strikingly beautiful: "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You.... 

"The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works ...  near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy" (Psalm 145:8-20).

3. Our state in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely upon what we are in time. The life we live on earth is short and soon gone: "We finish our years like a sigh.... What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (Psalm 90:9; James 4:14). The life before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without a bottom and an ocean without a shore. "Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). But as short as our life is here and endless as it will be hereafter, it is of utmost importance that eternity hinges upon time. Our lot after death depends, humanly speaking, on what we are while we are alive. It is written that God "will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath" (Romans 2:6-8).

We ought never to forget that we are all, while we live, in a state of probation. We are constantly sowing seeds that will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives. Eternal consequences result from our thoughts, words, and deeds, of which we take far too little account. Jesus said, "For every idle word men speak, they will  give account of it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36). No wonder Paul was inspired to write, "He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Galatians 6:8). So what we sow in life we shall reap after death and to all eternity.

The Bible teaches clearly that as we die, whether converted to Christ or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds. There is no repentance in the grave. There is no purgatory. Now is the time to believe in Christ and lay hold of eternal life. As Jesus said, "The night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4). "In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie" (Ecclesiastes 11:3). If we leave this world impenitent and unbelieving, we shall rise the same in the resurrection morning and find, as Jesus said of Judas, that it would have been better not to have been born.

Remember this and make good use of time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made and never waste it or throw it away. The means of grace, including prayer, Bible reading, and faithfully attending public worship, are given to help you toward an eternal world. Not one of them should be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled. Use them all as one who remembers eternity.

Place in the face of temptation the thought of eternity, setting aside thoughts such as, "It is only a little one," "Never mind. What is the harm? Everyone is doing it." The soon-to-be- martyred English Reformer John Hooper was tempted to recant his faith in Christ in exchange for safety with a concerned enemy telling him this: "Life is sweet and death is bitter." But Hooper  remembered eternity when giving his memorable reply: "True, quite true, but eternal life is more sweet and eternal death is more bitter."

4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend whom we all must look to for help, both in time and eternity. The reason the eternal Son of God came into the world is to give us hope and peace while we live among "the things that are seen," which are transient, and glory and blessedness when we go into "the things that are unseen," which are eternal. He came to bring "life and immortality to light through the Gospel" and to "release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:15). He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us. 

These mighty privileges our Lord Jesus Christ purchased for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute and bore our sins in His own body on the cross and then rose again for our justification. Christ "suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." He who knew no sin was temporarily made sin for us that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and righteousness while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus offers these blessings freely to everyone who will turn from his or her sins, come to Him, and believe. "I am the light of the world," He says. "The one who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). Whoever believes in Christ "shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The only way to pass through "things seen" with comfort and look forward to "things unseen" without fear is to have Christ as our Savior and Friend. If you and I have no comfort amid the temporal and no hope for the eternal, the fault is all our own. It is because, as Jesus said, we will not come to Him that we may have life (John 5:40).

Are you wasting your time or turning it to good account? Are you preparing to meet God? It is not too late if you are reading this. Christ waits to be gracious: He invites you to come to Him. Before the door is shut and the judgment begins, repent, believe, and be saved. Cling to Christ and live a life of faith in Him. Follow Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, seeking to know Him better every day. So doing you will look forward to eternal things with unfailing confidence, and feel and "know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). 




at

No comments:

Post a Comment