Religion–a Reality

Religion–a Reality
A Sermon
(No. 457)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, June 22nd, 1862, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your
life."–Deuteronomy 32:47.
IT APPEARS from this closing remark of Moses, that there were men in
his time who thought religion to be vain, although, under the system
which then existed, there were many plain proofs of its usefulness: for
they who served God in those days prospered, and national advantages
always followed nation obedience to God. Under the theocratic
government of the Israelites in the wilderness, and in their early
history when established in Canaan, their offences against God's law
brought upon them famine, plague, or the scourge of marauding hosts;
while repentance and a return to allegiance always brought them a
deliverer, and a restoration of peace and plenty. They had visibly
before their eyes proofs that God did reward virtue; and yet,
notwithstanding this, there were some so besotted against God, that
they said, "It is a vain thing to serve the Lord." Do you wonder,
therefore, that there should be many such under the gospel? It would,
indeed, be marvellous if there were not many more, for the gospel is a
far more spiritual system than the Jewish dispensation, and its
blessings are not of a carnal order. No blessing apparent to carnal
eyes rests upon the godly, but sometimes the case appears to be
reversed: we see the wicked prosper, and the righteous are trodden
under foot. The Christian dispensation is one which requires much faith
to receive it. We walk not by sight, but by faith alone; and it is
little marvel that when ungodly men see the righteous afflicted, and
discover that their comfort lies in matters which only faith can
apprehend, they should cry out, "It is a vain thing," and should turn
aside from the ordinances of God. Besides, to confess the truth, there
have been so many counterfeits of true religion, that it is not
remarkable that unconverted men should consider even the genuine
article to be but a vain thing. Men have made pretences of wondrous
sanctity, whilst inwardly full of rottenness; and sinners have learned
to argue with terrible logic: "They are none of them good; they are all
deceivers; the best of them are hypocrites, and religion itself is a
vain thing." However false may be the conclusion here–and we believe
it to be utterly so–yet we do not wonder that men, desiring to believe
religion to be a falsehood, have found some support for their unbelief
in the hypocrisy of professors.
Now we will grant you this morning that much of the religion which is
abroad in the world is a vain thing. The religion of ceremonies is
vain. If a man shall trust in the gorgeous pomp of uncommanded
mysteries, if he shall consider that there resides some mystic efficacy
in a priest, and that by uttering certain words a blessing is
infallibly received, we tell him that his religion is a vain thing. You
might as well go to the Witch of Endor for grace as to a priest; and if
you rely upon words, the "Abracadabra" of a magician will as certainly
raise you to heaven, or rather sink you to hell, as the performances of
the best ordained minister under heaven. Ceremonies in themselves are
vain, futile, empty. There are but two of God's ordaining, they are
most simple, and neither of them pretend to have any efficacy in
themselves. They only set forth an inward and spiritual grace, not
necessarily tied to them, but only given to those who by faith perceive
their teachings. All ceremonial religion, no matter how sincere, if it
consist in relying upon forms and observances, is a vain thing. So with
creed-religion–by which I mean not to speak against creeds, for I love
"the form of sound words," but that religion which lies in believing
with the intellect a set of dogmas, without partaking of the life of
God; all this is a vain thing. Again, that religion which only lies in
making a profession of what one does not posses, in wearing the
Christian name, and observing the ritual of the Church, but which does
not so affect the character as to make a man holy, nor so touch the
heart as to make a man God's true servant–such a religion is vain
throughout. O my dear hearers, how much worthless religion may you see
everywhere! So long as men get the name, they seem content without the
substance. Everywhere, it matters not to what Church you turn your eye,
you see a vast host of hypocrites, numerous as flies about a dead
carcase. On all sides there are deceivers, and deceived; who write
"Heaven" upon their brows, but have hell in their hearts; who hang out
the sign of an angel over their doors, but have the devil for a host
within. Take heed to yourselves; be not deceived, for he who tries the
heart and searches the reins of the children of men is not mocked, and
he will surely discern between him that feareth God, and him that
feareth him not.
But with all these allowances, we still this morning assert most
positively that the religion of Christ Jesus, that which has been
revealed to us of the Holy Ghost by the apostles and prophets, and
specially by the Messiah himself, when truly received into the heart,
is no vain thing. We shall handle the text four ways, taking the word
"vain" in different shades of meaning. It is no fiction it is no
trifle; it is no folly; it is no speculation. In each case we will
prove our assertion by the second sentence–"Because it is your life."
I. First, then, the true religion of Christ, which consists in a vital
faith in his person, his blood, and his righteousness, and which
produces obedience to his commands, and a love to God, IS NOT A
FICTION.
I am not going to argue this morning. I was never sent to argue, but to
teach and speak dogmatically. I assert in the name of all those who
have tried it, that true religion is not a fiction to us. It is to us
the grandest of all realities, and we hope that our testimony and
witness, if we be honest men, may prevail with others who may be
sceptical upon this point. We say, then, that the objects of true
religion are, to those who believe in Jesus, no fiction. God the Father
to whom we look with the spirit of adoption, is no fiction to us. I
know that to some men the Divine Being is a mere abstraction. As to
communing with him, as to speaking to him, they think such wonders may
have occurred to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, but to them such
things are impossible. Now we do solemnly assure you, as men who would
not lie in this matter, that God the Father is to us as real a person
as the man from whose loins we sprang, and that we have as surely
talked unto him, and he has as truly spoken to our hearts as ever we
have spoken with our friend, and have been answered by him. We tell you
that to us the being of God is a fact which influences our whole life,
checks us when we would sin, forbids our weaker passions to rebel, and
nerves our nobler powers to do or suffer. Our consciousness, our
experience, our emotions, and our whole being, tell us that there is a
God. We have had personal dealings with him; he has been with us in our
chamber; we have seen his face in the sanctuary; we have cast our cares
upon him; and therefore to us the Eternal and indwelling Father is no
fiction. So is it with Christ Jesus. To mere professors Christ Jesus is
never anything but a myth. They believe there was such a man, but he is
only an historical personage to them. To true believers in Christ,
however, he is a real person, now existing, and now dwelling in the
hearts of his people. And oh! I bear my witness that if there be
anything which has ever been certified to my consciousness it is the
existence of Jesus, the man, the Son of God. Oh friends, have we not,
when our soul has been in a rapture, thrust our finger into the prints
of the nails? Have we not been so drawn away from the outward world,
that in spiritual communings we could say, He was to us as our brother
that sucked the breasts of our mother, and when we found him without we
did embrace him, and we would not let him go? His left hand has been
under our head, and his right hand has embraced us. I know this will
sound like a legend even to men who profess to be Christ's followers,
but I question the reality of your piety if Christ be not one for whom
you live, and in whom you dwell; with whom you walk, and in whom you
hope soon to sleep that you may wake up in his likeness. A real Christ
and a real God–no man has real religion till he knows these. So again
the Holy Spirit, who is, with the Father and the Son, the one God of
Israel; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, indivisibly One and
yet everlastingly Three–the Holy Spirit is also real, for
"He, in our hearts of sin and woe
Makes living streams of grace arise,
Which into boundless glory flow."
Tell us there is no Spirit? Why, about this we can speak positively. A
fool may say that there is no magnetic influence, and that no electric
streams can flow along the wires, but they who have once been touched
by that mysterious power know it; and the Holy Spirit's influence on
men is quite as much within the sphere of our recognition, if we have
ever felt it, as is the influence of galvanism or magnetism. Those who
have once felt the spiritual life know when it is flowing in; when its
strength is withdrawn, and when it returns anew. They know that at
times they can do all things; their heaviest trial is a joy, and their
weightiest burden a delight; and that at other times they can do
nothing, being bowed down to the very dust with weakness. They know
that at times they enjoy peace with God through Jesus Christ, and that
at other times they are disturbed in spirit. They have discovered, too,
that these changes do not depend upon the weather, nor upon
circumstances, nor upon any relation of one thought to another, but
upon certain secret, mystic, and divine impulses which come forth from
the Spirit of God, which make a man more than man, for he is filled
with Deity from head to foot, and whose withdrawal makes him feel
himself less than man, for he is filled with sin and drenched with
iniquity, till he loatheth his own being. Tell us there is no Holy
Spirit! We have seen his goings in the sanctuary, but as we shall have
to mention these by-and-bye, we pass on, and only now affirm that the
Father, Son, and Spirit, are to true Christians no fiction, no dream,
no fancy, but as real and as true as persons whom we can see, things
which we can handle, or viands which we can taste.
But further, we can also say that the experience which true religion
brings is no fiction. Believe me, sirs, it is no fiction to repent; for
there is a bitterness in it which makes it all too real. Oh, the agony
of sin lying on an awakened conscience! If you have ever felt it, it
will seem to you as the ravings of a madman when any shall tell you
that religion is not real! When the great hammer of the law broke our
hearts in pieces, it was a stern reality. These eyes have sometimes,
before I knew the Saviour, been ready to start from my head with
horror, and my soul has often been bowed down with a grief far too
terrible ever to be told to my fellow-man, when I felt that I was
guilty before God, that my Maker was angry with me, that he must punish
me, and that I deserved and must suffer his eternal wrath. I do assure
you there was no fiction there! And when the Spirit of God comes into
the heart and takes all our grief away, and gives us joy and peace in
believing in Christ, there is no fiction then. Of course, to other men
this is no evidence, except they will believe our honesty; but to us it
is the very best of evidence. We were bidden to believe on Christ; it
was all we were to do: to look to his cross, to believe him to be the
propitiation for sin, and to trust in him to save us; we did so, and
oh, the joy of that moment! In one instant we leaped from the depths of
hell to the very heights of heaven in experience; dragged up out of the
horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, our feet were set upon a rock,
and we could sing for very joy. Oh, the mirth! oh, the bliss! oh, the
ecstacy of the soul that can say–
"Happy, happy, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Happy, happy, happy day."
That was no fiction, surely. If it be so, I will continue to cry,
"Blessed fiction! blessed dream! may I contrive to believe thee; may I
always be so deluded if this is to be deluded and misled!" Since then,
look at the believer's experience. He has had as many troubles as other
men have, but oh, what comforts he has had! He lost his wife, and as he
stood there and thought his heart would break, he could still say, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord." Child after child sickened before his loving gaze, and as they
went one after the other to the tomb where he often wished he could
have slept instead of them–while he mourned and wept as Jesus did, yet
still he could say, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him." When
the house was burned–when the property vanished–when trade ran
ill–when character was slandered–when the soul was desponding and all
but despairing, yet there came in that one ray of light, "Christ is
all, and all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are called according to his purpose." I can tell you, that
Christians have often had their brightest days when other people
thought they were in their darkest nights; and they have often had the
best of dainties when there was a famine abroad. Is this a fiction? O
sirs, we challenge you to find so blessed a fiction as this elsewhere!
I saw last Friday a sight, enough to make one weep indeed: there in the
back-room of the house, lay a fine youth, a member of this Church,
sickening and near to death of consumption, and he talked to me
joyously of his prospect of entering into the rest which remaineth for
the people of God; there in the front-room, on the same floor, lay his
sister, I suppose but some two years younger, withering under the same
disease; and there sat the tender mother with her two children,
thinking to lose them both within a few days, and though she said, it
was natural to weep, yet she could say even under this sharp trial,
"The Lord's name be magnified in it all." I say there was no fiction
there. If you who think there is a fiction in such things could live
among Christians–if you could see the poor cheerfully suffering –if
you could mark the sick and how joyously they bear their pains-if you
could see the dying and hear their shouts of triumph, you would say,
"There is a reality here; there is something in true religion; let me
die the death of the righteous; let my last end be like his!"
But yet further; as we are sure there is a reality in the objects and
in the experience of true godliness, so are we quite clear that there
is a reality in its privileges. One of the privileges of the Christian
is prayer. It is the believer's privilege, to go to God an ask for what
he wants, and have it. Now, sirs, I am absolutely certain that prayer
is a reality. I shall not tell here my own experience. One reads not
his love-letters in the streets, one tells not his own personal
dealings with God in public; but if there be a fact that can be proved
by ten thousand instances, and which therefore no reasonable man has
any right to doubt –if there be anything that is true under heaven, it
is true that God hears prayer when it cometh not out of feigned lips,
and is offered through Jesus Christ. I know when we tell the story out,
men smile and say, "Ah, these were singular coincidences!" Why, I have
seen in my life, answers to prayer so remarkable, that if God had rent
the curtain of the heavens and thrust out his arm to work a
deliverance, it could not have been more decidedly and distinctly a
divine interposition than when he listened to my feeble cry for help. I
speak not of myself as though I were different from other men in this,
for it is so with all who have real godliness. They know that God hears
them; they prove it to-day; they intend to prove it at this very hour.
Communion with Christ is another reality. The shadow of his cross is
too refreshing to be a dream, and the sunlight of his face is too
bright to be a delusion. Precious Jesus! thou art a storehouse of
substantial delights and solid joy. Then, the privileges of Christian
Love towards one another are real. I know they are not with some men.
Why, look you at some of your fashionable Churches; if the poor people
were to speak to the richer ones, what would the rich ones think of
them? Why, snap their heads half off, and send them about their
business! But where there is true Christianity, we feel that the only
place in the world where there can ever be liberty, equality, and
fraternity, is in the Church of Christ. To attempt this politically, is
but to attempt an impossibility; but to foster it in the Church of God,
where we are all allied to God, is but to nourish the very spirit of
the gospel. I say there is a reality in Christian love, for I have seen
it among my flock; and though some do not show it as they should, yet
my heart rejoices that there is so much hearty brotherly love among
you, and thus your religion is not a vain thing.
Once more upon this point, for I am spending all my time here while I
need it for other points. The religion of Christ is evidently not a
vain thing if you look at its effects. We will not take you abroad now
to tell you of the effects of the gospel of Christ in the South Sea. We
need not remind you of what it has done for the heathen, but let me
tell you what it has done for men here. Ah! brethren, you will not mind
my telling out some of the secrets, secrets that bring the tears to my
eyes as I reflect upon them. When I speak of the thief, the harlot, the
drunkard, the sabbath-breaker, the swearer, I may say "Such were some
of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye rejoice in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ." How many a man has been going by the
door there, and has said "I'll go in and hear Old Spurgeon." He came in
to make merriment of the preacher, and very little that troubles him.
But the man has stood there until the Word has gone home to him, and he
who was wont to beat his wife, and to make his home a hell, has before
long been to see me, and given me a grip of the hand and said, "God
Almighty bless you, sir; there is something in true religion!" "Well,
let us hear your tale," We have heard it, and delightful it has been in
hundreds of instances. "Very well, send your wife, and let us hear what
she says about you." The woman has come, and we have said "Well, what
think you of your husband now, ma'am?" "Oh, sir, such a change I never
saw in my life! He is so kind to us; he is like an angel now, and he
seemed like a fiend before; Oh! that cursed drink, sir! everything went
to the public-house; and then if I went up to the house of God, he did
nothing but abuse me. Oh! to think that now he comes with me on Sunday;
and the shop is shut up, sir; and the children who used to be running
about without a bit of shoe or stocking, he takes them on his knee, and
prays with them so sweetly. Oh! there is such a change!" Surly people
say "Will it last? Will it last?" Well, I have seen it last the eight
years of my pastorate, in many cases, and I know it will last for ever,
for I am persuaded that it is God's work. We will put it to all the
Social Science Societies; we will put it to all the different religions
under heaven, whether they know the art of turning sinners into saints;
whether they can make lions into lambs, and ravens into doves. Why I
know a man who was as stingy a soul as could be, once, and now he is as
generous a man as walks God's earth. There is another, he was not
immoral, but he was passionate, and now he is as quiet as a lamb. It is
grace that has altered these characters, and yet you tell me that this
is a fiction! I have not patience to answer you. A fiction! If religion
does not prove itself to be true by these facts, then do not believe
it; if it does not, when it comes into a neighborhood, turn it upside
down, sweep the cobwebs out of its sky, clean the houses, take the men
out of the public-houses; if it does not make swearers pray, and
hard-hearted men tender and compassionate, then it is not worth a
button. But our religion does do all this, and therefore we boldly say,
it is not a vain thing.
Besides, to the man who really possesses it, it is his life. He is not
a man and a Christian, but he is all a Christian. He is not as some
are, men and Members of Parliament, who have many things to attend to,
and attend Parliament also; but the man who is thoroughly a Christian
is a Christian every bit of him. He lives Christianity; he eats it; he
drinks it; he sleeps it; he walks it. Wherever you see him, he has his
religion. His religion is not like a man's regimentals which he can
take off an go in undress; it is inside of him; it is woven right
through and through him. When the shuttle of his religion was thrown,
it went right through the core of his heart, and you must kill that man
to get his religion out of him. Racks may tear his nerves and sinews,
but they cannot tear away his hope, for it is essentially and vitally
part and parcel of himself. Ah! my ladies and gentlemen, you who think
religion is no more real than the life of a butterfly, it is you who
are unreal in your fancies, and your follies; religion is the
substance, and your life is only the shadow! Oh! you workingmen, who
think that to be godly is but to indulge a dream, you know not what you
say. All else is fiction but this; all else is but a moon-beam phantom,
but this is sun-lit reality. God give you grace to get it, and then you
will feel we have not spoken too strongly, but rather have spoken too
little of that which is essentially and really true.
II. Secondly, "It is not a vain thing"–that is, IT IS NO TRIFLE.
If religion be false, it is the basest imposition under heaven; but if
the religion of Christ be true, it is the most solemn truth that ever
was known! It is not a thing that a man dares to trifle with if it be
true, for it is at his soul's peril to make a jest of it. If it be not
true it is detestable, but if it be true it deserves all a man's
faculties to consider it, and all his powers to obey it. It is not a
trifle. Briefly consider why it is not. It deals with your soul. If it
dealt with your body it were no trifle, for it is well to have the
limbs of the body sound, but it has to do with your soul. As much as a
man is better than the garments that he wears, so much is the soul
better than the body. It is your immortal soul it deals with. Your soul
has to live for ever, and the religion of Christ deals with its
destiny. Can you laugh at such words as heaven and hell, at glory and
at damnation? If you can, if you think these trifles, then is the faith
of Christ to be trifled with. Consider also with whom it connects
you–with God; before whom angels bow themselves and veil their faces.
Is HE to be trifled with? Trifle with your monarch if you will, but not
with the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Recollect that those who
have ever known anything of it tell you it is no child's play. The
saints will tell you it is no trifle to be converted. They will never
forget the pangs of conviction, nor the joys of faith. They tell you it
is no trifle to have religion, for it carries them through all their
conflicts, bears them up under all distresses, cheers them under every
gloom, and sustains them in all labour. They find it no mockery. The
Christian life to them is something so solemn, that when they think of
it they fall down before God, and say, "Hold thou me up and I shall be
safe." And sinners, too, when they are in their senses, find it no
trifle. When they come to die they find it no little thing to die
without Christ. When conscience gets the grip of them, and shakes them,
they find it no small thing to be without a hope of pardon–with guilt
upon the conscience, and no means of getting rid of it. And, sirs, true
ministers of God feel it to be no trifle. I do myself feel it to be
such an awful thing to preach God's gospel, that if it were not "Woe
unto me if I do not preach the gospel," I would resign my charge this
moment. I would not for the proudest consideration under heaven know
the agony of mind I felt but this one morning before I ventured upon
this platform! Nothing but the hope of winning souls from death and
hell, and a stern conviction that we have to deal with the grandest of
all realities, would bring me here.
A pastor's office is no sinecure. A man that has the destinies of a
kingdom under his control, may well feel his responsibility; but he who
has the destiny of souls laid instrumentally at his door, must travail
in birth, and know a mother's pangs; he must strive with God, and know
an agony and yet a joy which no other man can meddle with. It is no
trifle to us, we do assure you; oh! make it no trifle to yourselves. I
know I speak to some triflers this morning, and perhaps to some
trifling professors. Oh! professors, do not live so as to make
worldlings think that your religion is a trifling thing! Be cheerful,
but oh! be holy! Be happy, for that is your privilege; but oh! he
heavenly-minded, for that is your duty. Let men see that you are not
flirting with Christ, but that you are married to him. Let them see
that you are not dabbling in this as in a little speculation, but that
it is the business of your life, the stern business of all your powers
to live to Christ, Christ also living in you.
III. But next, and very briefly, for time will fly; the religion of
Christ is no vain thing–that is, IT IS NO FOLLY.
Thinking men! Yes, by the way, we have had thinking men who have been
able to think in so circuitous a manner that they have thought it
consistent with their consciences to profess to hold the doctrines of
the Church of England, and to be Romanists or infidels! God deliver us
from ever being able to think in their way! I always dislike the
presence of man who carries a gun with him which will discharge shot in
a circle. Surely he is a very ill companion, and if he should turn your
enemy how are you to escape from him? Give me a straightforward,
downright man, who says what he means, and means what he says, and I
would sooner have the grossest reprobate who will speak plainly what he
means, than I would have the most dandy of gentlemen who would not hurt
your feelings, but who will profess to believe as you do, while in his
heart he rejects every sentiment, and abhors every thought which you
entertain. I trust I do not speak to any persons here who can think so
circuitously as this. Still, you say, "Well, but the religion of
Christ, why, you see, it is the poor that receive it." Bless God it is!
"Well, but not many thinking people receive it." Now that is not true,
but at the same time, if they did not we would not particularly mind,
because all thinking people do not think aright, and very many of them
think very wrongly indeed; but such a man as Newton could think and yet
receive the gospel, and master-minds, whom it is not mine just now to
mention, have bowed down before the sublimity of the simple revelation
of Christ, and have felt it to be their honour to lay their wealth of
intellect at the feet of Christ. But, sirs, where is the folly of true
religion! Is it a folly to be providing for the world to come? "Oh,
no." Is it altogether a folly to believe that there is such a thing as
justice? I trow not. And that if there be such a thing as justice it
involves punishment? There is no great folly there. Well, then, is it
any folly to perceive that there is no way of escaping from the effects
of our offences except justice be satisfied? Is that folly? And if it
be the fact that Christ has satisfied justice for all who trust in him,
is it folly to trust him? If it be a folly to escape from the flames of
hell, then let us be fools. If it be folly to lay hold of him who
giveth us eternal life–oh, blessed folly! let us be more foolish
still. Let us take deep dives into the depths of this foolishness. God
forbid that we should do anything else but glory in being such fools as
this for Christ's sake! What, sirs, is your wisdom? your wisdom dwells
in denying what your eyes can see–a God; in denying what your
consciences tell you–that you are guilty; in denying what should be
your best hope, what your spirit really craves after-redemption in
Christ Jesus. Your folly lies in following a perverted nature, instead
of obeying the dictates of one who points you to the right path. You
are wise and you drink poison; we are fools and we take the antidote.
You are wise and you hunt the shadow; we are fools and we grasp the
substance. You are wise, and you labour and put your money into a bag
which is full of holes, and spend it for that which is not bread, and
which never gives you satisfaction; and we are fools enough to be
satisfied, to be happy, to be perfectly content with heaven and God–
"I would not change my bless'd estate
For all the world calls good or great;
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner's gold."
Blessed folly! Oh, blessed folly! But it is not a foolish thing; for it
is your life. Ah, sirs, if you would have philosophy it is in Christ.
If you would accomplish the proudest feat of human intellect, it is to
attain to the knowledge of Christ crucified. Here the man whose mind
makes him elephantine, may find depths in which he may swim. Here the
most recondite learning shall find itself exhausted. Here the most
brilliant imagination shall find its highest flights exceeded. Here the
critic shall have enough to criticise throughout eternity; here the
reviewer may review, and review again, and never cease. Here the man
who understands history may crown his knowledge by the history of God
in the world; here men who would know the secret, the greatest secret
which heaven, and earth, and hell can tell, may find it out, for the
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them
his covenant. All the learning of man is doubtless folly to the angels,
but the foolishness of God in the gospel is wisdom to cherubim and
seraphim, and by the Church shall be made known to them in ages to come
the manifold wisdom of God.
IV. And now for the last point, hurriedly again: "It is not a vain
thing,"–that is, IT IS NO SPECULATION, no hap-hazard.
People sometimes ask us what we think about the heathen, whether they
will be saved or not. Well, sirs, there is room for difference of
opinion there; but I should like to know what you think about
yourselves–will you be saved or not?–for after all that is a question
of a deal more importance to you. Now the religion of Christ is not a
thing that puts a man into a salvable state, but it saves him. It is
not a religion which offers him something which perhaps may save him;
no it saves him out and out, on the spot. It is not a thing which says
to a man "Now I have set you a-going, you must keep on yourself." No,
it goes the whole way through, and saves him from beginning to end. He
that says "Alpha" never stops till he can say "Omega" over every soul.
I say the religion of Christ: I know there are certain shadows of it
which do not carry such a reality as this with them, but I say that the
religion of the Bible, the religion of Jesus Christ, is an absolute
certainty. "Whosoever believeth on him hath eternal life, and he shall
never perish, neither shall he come into condemnation." "I give unto my
sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand." "There is therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus." "Well," says one, "I should like to
know what this very sure religion is." Well, it is this–"Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Trust Christ with all
that you have and you shall be saved. "Well," says one, "but when?"
Why, now, here, this morning, on the spot: you shall be saved now. It
is not a vain thing; it is not a speculation, for it is true to you
now. The word is nigh thee; on thy lip and in thy heart. If thou wilt
with thy heart believe on the Lord Jesus Christ thou shalt be saved,
and saved now. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are Christ Jesus." This is a great and glorious truth, and it is true
to-day–"Whosoever believeth in him hath everlasting life." "But is it
true to me?" saith one. My text says "It is not a vain thing for you."
"Oh, it will suit other people; it will not do for me." It will suit
you, sir–"It is not a vain thing for you because it is your life." If
you have come up from the country, it is no vain thing for you, my dear
friends; if you reside in town, amidst its noise and occupations, it is
not a vain thing for you, my dear hearers. It is not a vain thing for
any; if you do but lay hold of it, and it lays hold of you–if you
receive the reality and vitality of it into your soul, be you who you
may, it will not be a vain thing to you; not a "perhaps" and an "if," a
"but" and a "peradventure," but a "shall" and a "will," a divine, an
eternal, an everlasting and immutable certainty. Whosoever believeth in
Christ–let the earth shake; let the mountains rock; let the sun grow
old with age, and the moon quench her light–shall be saved. Unless God
can change his mind–and that is impossible; unless God can break his
word–and to say so is blasphemy; unless Christ's blood can lose its
efficacy–and that can never be; unless the Spirit can be anything but
Eternal and Omnipotent–and to suppose so were ridiculous–he that
believeth on Christ, must at last, before the eternal throne, sing
hallelujah to God and the Lamb. "Well," says one. " 'tis a vain thing,
I'm sure, to me, for I'm only a poor working-man; religion no doubt, is
a very fine thing for gentlefolk, but it doesn't do for a man as has to
work hard, for he's something else to think on." Well, you are just the
man that I should think it would do for. Why, it is little enough you
have here, my dear friend, and that is the very reason why you should
have eternal joys hereafter. If there be one man that religion can
bless more than another–and I do not know that there is–it is the
poor man in his humble cot. Why, this will put sweets into your cup;
this will make your little into enough, and sometimes into more than
enough; you shall be rich while you are poor, and happy when others
think you are miserable. "Well," says the rich man, "It is nothing to
me; I do not see that it will suit me." Why, it is the very thing for
you, sir; in fact, you are the man who ought to have it, because, see
what you have to lose when you die, unless you have religion to make up
for it! What a loss it will be for you when you have to lose all your
grandeur and substance! What a loss it will be for you to go from the
table of Dives to the hell of Dives! Surely it is not a vain thing for
you. "Well," says another, "but I am a moral and upright person;
indeed, I do not think anybody can pull my character to pieces." I hope
nobody wants to; but this is not a vain thing for you, because, let me
tell you, that fine righteousness of yours is only fine in your own
esteem. If you could only see it as God sees it, you would see it to be
as full of holes as ever beggars' rags were when at last they were
consigned to the dust-heap. I say your fine righteousness, my lady, and
yours, Sir Squire from the country, no matter though you have given to
the poor, and fed the hungry, and done a thousand good things; if you
are relying on them, you are relying on rotten rags, in which God can
no more accept you than he can accept the thief in his dishonesties.
"All our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we are all as an unclean
thing." It is not a vain thing for you, then. "Oh, but I am a young man
just in my teens, and growing up to manhood; I think I ought to have a
little pleasure." So I think, friend, and if you want a great deal of
it, be a Christian. "Oh, but I think young people should enjoy
themselves." So do I. I never was an advocate for making sheep without
their first being lambs, and I would let the lambs skip as much as they
like; but if you want to lead a happy and a joyous life, give you young
days to Jesus. Who says that a Christian is miserable? Sir, you lie; I
tell you to your teeth that you know not what Christianity is, or else
you would know that the Christians are the most joyous people under
heaven. Young man, I would like you to have a glorious youth; I would
like you to have all the sparkle and the brilliance which your young
life can give you. What have you better than to live and to enjoy
yourself? But how are you to do it? Give your Creator your heart, and
the thing is done. It is not a vain thing for you. "Ah!" says the old
man, "but it is a vain thing for me; my time is over; if I had begun
when I was a lad it might have done; but I am settled in my habits now;
I feel sure, sir, it is too late for me; when I hear my grand-children
say their prayers as they are going to bed, pretty dears, when they are
singing their evening hymn, I wish I was a child again; but my heart
has got hard, and I cannot say "Our Father' now; and when I do get to
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against
us,' I get stuck there, I do not know how to get over that, for I have
not forgiven old Jones yet who robbed me in that lawsuit; and then you
know I am infirm, and have these rheumatics, and a hundred other pains;
I do not think religion will suit me." Well, it is just the very thing
that will suit you, because it will make you young again. What, "Can a
man be born again when he is old?" That is what Nicodemus asked. Yes, a
man can be born again, so that the babe shall die a hundred years old.
Oh! to make the autumn of your life and the coming winter of your last
days into a new spring and a blessed summer-this is to be done by
laying hold of Christ now; and then you shall feel in your old veins
the young blood of the new spiritual life, and you will say, "I count
the years I lived before a death, but now I begin to live."
I do not know whether I have picked out every character; I am afraid I
have not; but this thing I know, though you may be under there, or up
in the corner yonder where my eye cannot reach you, yet you may hear
this voice and I hope you may hear it when you are gone from this house
back to your country-towns and to your houses–
"'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasures while we live!
'Tis religion must supply
Solid comfort when we die.
After death its joys will be
Lasting as eternity!
Be the living God my friend,
Then my bliss shall never end."
And this is the gospel which is preached unto you. "Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ"–that is trust him–"and thou shalt be saved." May God
bless you for Christ's sake. Amen.