SUNDAY MORNING No. 37.
Danger
Reproof. -- Apostolic warnings. -- Our dangers. -- A form of godliness. --
Seed and soil. -- Fructification a question of conditions. -- Failure. -- Demas.
-- The pleasures of the world. -- Temptations of the young. -- Reasons for
avoiding the pursuit of pleasure. -- Christ and his brethren not of the world.
-- Reasons for this.-- Not an overdrawn picture. -- God rejected. -- His purpose
to bring about a change. - Preparing the instruments in the developing of the
saints. -- Their present position. -- Their coming joy.
IN our readings this morning we have been informed that the Scriptures which are
elsewhere declared to be for comfort and patience, are also profitable for
reproof and instruction in righteousness. We have recently had occasion to look
at the comfort in the glory of the prospect opened up before us in the Gospel.
This is the bright side: today we glance at the dark side -- that side, namely,
that exhibits the position of saints in the present evil world -- taking the
word saints for present purposes, as including all upon whom the name of Christ
is called without reference to whether they are faithful or otherwise. Here we
shall find reproof and instruction in righteousness most salutary -- most
necessary. While in this position we are in danger. The greatness of the danger
is evidenced in the constant recurrence of the apostolic exhortation to be on
our guard. "Beware, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin." "Let us therefore fear, lest any should seem to come short." "Let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." "Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." "Redeem the time because
the days are evil." "Be ye holy in all manner of conversation." "Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world." "Pass the time of your
sojourning here in fear." Such are examples of the constantly recurring precepts
of the Spirit to the saints in relation to their present position. They point to
our danger, and danger calls for circumspection.
Let us look this morning at some of our dangers. The chapters read give us a
clue. We read therein of some who were to be "lovers of pleasure, more than
lovers of God." The persons so described were not unbelievers: they were
professors, for it is added that they had "a form of godliness but denied the
power thereof." This is a graphic description. It sets forth exactly who is
meant. It does not mean that the persons to whom it applies would deny there was
a form of godliness, or reject the form. The word "deny" has the same force here
as in the exhortation to believers to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts," that
is, put them away -- have no part with them. Don't consent to them -- deny them.
The persons in question believed the Gospel in theory, and submitted themselves
in form to its institutions, but there is a something in connection with these
which they practically denied in not being influenced by it: "the power
thereof." What is this?
If seed is put into the earth, and does not germinate, it has no "power in the
soil. It is powerless, and at last succumbs to corruption. This is a simile
employed by Jesus himself, in reference to the word: the word is seed: our minds
are soil: if the seed does not bring forth the results intended, we have the
form without the power. As a rule, the failure of seed to germinate is due to
some defect in the seed: in other cases the seed is good, but some one or more
of the conditions necessary to its fructification are wanting. There is a lack
of moisture, or the ground is too hard, or it is not sufficiently covered with
soil. In the case of the seed of the word, there is no defect in the seed:
failure in fructification must be due altogether to the surrounding conditions.
These conditions are most of them subject to control. The quality of the soil
cannot be altered: a man cannot by an act of will change himself at the start
from being what he is, as regards natural capacity and proclivity, but he can
regulate the external conditions which at last even affect the constitution of
the mental soil to some extent. A piece of poor ground well cultivated will show
a fair result, and even improve in quality, where good soil left untended will
yield a crop of weeds, and deteriorate in its own constitution. The parallel in
the case of mental tillage is perfect.
Certain conditions are essential to the fructification of the good seed sown in
the heart, and other conditions are hurtful and will positively arrest growth at
last and bring decay and death. The pursuit of pleasure is one of the latter
conditions. It is mentioned in the chapter read: "lovers of pleasure" are the
antithesis to "lovers of God." It is mentioned in other places. Paul speaks of
certain female professors, who living in pleasure were "dead while they lived."
The opposite condition is expressed as "living soberly, righteously and godly in
this present world, looking for that blessed hope." Incidentally, we have a
practical illustration of the two states in one of the chapters read. In the
10th verse (2 Tim. 4:10) Paul says, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world." Two years before, in writing to Philemon, Paul describes this
Demas as his "fellow labourer," and therefore a partaker of the sufferings that
are incident in all ages in one form or other to those who identify themselves
with the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus. So that here is the case
of a man, an actual companion of the apostles, turning aside from this cause,
that he "loved this present world." Now this is an influence to which we are
all, at all times, exposed. There are pleasures in the world. There is
recognition, entertainment, society, merry-making, and honour for those whom the
world loves, and these things make the time speed pleasantly away. Even for
those that the world does not love, there are many pleasures provided, if people
like to go in the way of them. There is a gratification to the natural mind in
going with the multitude in the ways of pleasure. There is always a fascination
about the thing, especially if it is "respectable," and engaged in as something
about which the lovers of pleasure can say there is "no harm" in it.
The temptation to give in to this kind of seduction is liable to be felt in the
loneliness, endurance and self-denial that belong to the present walk of
fellowship with Christ. The temptation is especially felt by the young, who have
not yet realized the hollow character of all the ways of man. They need
especially to be warned, and if they are wise, they will listen. There are two
strong reasons why they should listen -- always pre-supposing that they have
earnestly made Christ their portion, and not taken up with him merely because
friends have done so. There are two things which make it impossible for those,
whether old or young, who desire the approbation of Christ at his coming to
indulge in the pleasures of the world, whether in the form of the ball-room,
concert-hall, theatre, or any of the other devices which sinners have invented
for the whiling away of their heavy hours.
The first is, these things are hurtful to the new man formed within them by the
word: they check the fructification of the seed of the word. They hang a heavy
weight on the spiritual racer: they help the sin which doth already too easily
beset us: they tend to hold the mind in a carnal sympathy, and to keep at a
distance the things of God. They make us feel one with the world, which is God's
enemy. They are therefore a hindrance. They do not help us to Christ, but they
rather widen the distance between us and him. Who has not at one time or other
experienced the mental blank -- the spiritual desolation -- caused by the
peculiar mental excitement called "pleasure"? Therefore on the score of
spiritual expedience, spiritual men and women (and none others are the children
of God) should never be found in the paths of pleasure-seeking. They should be
found taking care of the seed of the word that has been sown in their hearts. To
follow pleasure is as if a man should water his garden with vinegar or lime
water. Let him water it rather with the pure water of the word, and manure it
with those self-restraints and sobrieties which will make it healthful and
strong and vigorous.
But there is a stronger reason why we should "stand not in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of the scornful." It is one of the plainest teachings of
Christ concerning himself and his brethren that they are "not of the world." By
the world he does not mean the earth, or air, or sky; he means the people that
inhabit the earth; the people who compose the present order of society. Not
being of the world is a sufficient reason of itself why we should not be found
consorting with the world in its particular pleasures and festivals. But we are
expressly commanded to "love not the world." We are further informed that if in
spite of this exhortation we do love the world and have its friendship, it will
be at the price of God's friendship, for "the friendship of the world is enmity
with God." There is substantial reason for the invitation to "come out from
among them and be separate," that God may receive us, and that we may be His
sons and daughters. That reason is the one given by John: "All that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father"; that is, these sentiments are not such as the Father
approves as the motives of action in those whom He has formed in His own image.
Now these feelings mentioned by John are the conspicuous features of every
worldly gathering of pleasure-seekers, and of worldly people when they do not
gather. When we attain to any growth in Christ, we see this clearly, and more
clearly every year. At first, to youth and inexperience (and always to the
carnal mind, whether old or young) it seems not so bad. Things seem fair and
harmless, and the apostolic portraiture overdrawn, and the scruples of such as
are guided by the apostles over strong. But at last, with maturer judgment of
all things and enlarged appreciation of things that are truly "good," the world
looks all that it is, and if we are wise, we stand aside as God's friends have
always stood aside from the enemy of God. We get to see that the world in all
its ways is wrong, at the root. What root is that God. The world sprang from
God; and in a right state of the world, God would be its highest honour, its
highest concern, its highest pleasure. But in the actual state of the world, God
is not there at all. He is unknown, unregarded where professedly recognized,
sneered at where not actually denied in words -- blasphemed everywhere in the
actions of men. His Word neglected where admitted, despised where not avowedly
cast out, spurned and denounced where the carnal mind openly unfurls the flag of
its rebellion. While casting God behind their backs: the world scruples not to
use, as if it were its own, the goodness God has distributed with open hand on
every side. It lays hand on everything as if it were creator and lord of all. It
puts itself in the place of God. The word tells us that for the pleasure of God
creation exists. The world ignores this, and acts on the theory that all things
are for the pleasure of man. Thus God is dethroned in His own house. God
purposes a great change in this respect. He intends to humble the haughtiness of
man, that the Lord alone may be exalted in that day. He intends to exhibit His
glory to the eyes of all flesh, when, because of His judgments, all nations
shall come and worship before Him. He will say, "Be still, and know that I am
God, I will be exalted in the earth. The day is coming when one shall not say to
his neighbour, "Know the Lord, for all shall know him, from the least even to
the greatest." Every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess.
Meanwhile He is making preparation for that day in the selection from men, by
the preaching of the Gospel, of a family who shall shadow forth His glory, and
execute His authority in the age to come. They are called to the fellowship of
His Son, who is the first-born of the family, and their elder brother. This
fellowship consists in walking as he walked (1 John 2: 6), and being in the
world as he was in the world (1 John 4:17), doing the will of the Father, and
glorifying His name, even to the point of enduring the contradiction of sinners
against themselves. Now shall these -- the appointed executioners of divine
vengeance on the world, the appointed reflectors of divine wisdom in the age to
come, the appointed instruments of enlightenment and blessing to all mankind in
the day of holiness to Jehovah [Yahweh] -- shall these be found consorting in
the pleasure-seeking of a world that knows not God, and obeys not the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ? Can the sons of God give countenance to assemblies and
occasions in which God is dethroned, and pleasure placed on the seat of honour
and power?
It is scarcely possible for a heart in true sympathy with God to falter in the
answer to this question. David is a true instance of such a heart, and he says,
"I have hated the congregation of evil-doers; I will not sit with the wicked."
"I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers." Such
will be the account that every faithful son and daughter of the Lord God
Almighty will give of themselves. And what if such a course may bring present
weariness (though a righteous man is less weary in solitude than in the crowd of
those who set not God before them)? What if it shut you off from much that looks
agreeable and entertaining and advantageous in the present time? The day that
hastens is a day of great recompense for those who take up the cross and follow
Christ. It is a day when the present evil world will be no more, when it will
have passed like a dream, when the children of vanity shall lament in vain with
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, mourners shall be comforted, and the
despised shall be exalted. There is no human joy, and no earthly pleasure
comparable to the joy and gladness that will electrify the ranks of those who
shall come to Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting and unspeakable joy in
the day when, for them, sorrow and sighing shall flee away.