Feb 20
18
A soporific influence?
(by Horatius Bonar)
“Let us not sleep as others do.” 1 Thes. 5:6
We all have a tendency to slumber.
As the disciples, both on the transfiguration
hill and in Gethsemane, fell asleep, so do we
in the most solemn circumstances and times.
The atmosphere of earth seems loaded with
slumberous vapors. This present evil world
exercises a soporific influence.
Satan, its god, the prince of the power of
the air, does all he can to lull us asleep.
It is a struggle to keep awake.
Hence the necessity for the solemn and
startling words “awake,” “arise,” “watch.”
Be ever on your guard, as sentinels at their
post; as watchmen on the towers of some
beleaguered fort; as seamen navigating
some difficult stream with windings, and
sand banks, and rapids; or as servants
sitting up at night to wait for their master’s
return.
“What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.”
“Be vigilant, for your adversary the devil
walks about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.”
In the midst of a heedless world and an
unwatchful church, how needful the perpetual
warning, “Watch.” And all the more as we see
the day approaching. The more that we see a
world “sleeping;” or wasting its hours in vanity,
and pleasure, and lust, and gaiety, the more
let us feel the necessity for resisting the wide
spread influence, and keeping awake.
“Let us not sleep as others do.” 1 Thes. 5:6
A fictitious god?
Winslow’s, “The Enmity of the Carnal Mind”
“The carnal mind is enmity against God.”
Romans 8:7
How completely this declaration sweeps away
all the fancied reverence and admiration for God
which floats before the imagination of the carnal
mind in its profound slumber! The carnal mind may
own its belief in the existence of a god. But what
God? Plainly not the God of the Bible; but a deity
of its imagination.
The god of whom he has thus been dreaming, is not
the God of Scripture, but the god of his own creation!
He is not the holy God whom the Bible makes known;
of whom Jesus is the living and visible embodiment;
but an imaginary being clothed with attributes, and
administering a government harmonizing with the
corrupt tastes and sinful propensities of his carnal mind.
Away with your religion of nature, of sentiment, of poetry!
The god whom you profess to adore and worship is not
the God manifested in Christ, whose justice and holiness,
whose wisdom and truth, are blended and harmonized
with grace and love in the cross of Calvary.
“Anyone who hates Me hates My Father as well.” John 15:23
Of what value is your fancied admiration of God’s
character, while yet hating, despising, and rejecting
the Son, who is the “radiance of God’s glory and
the exact representation of His being”?
Your heart is a stranger to holiness, and your mind
to peace, while prostrate before a deity of your own
imagination; a fictitious god!
There is nothing in your creed; nothing in your vague,
shadowy, unreal conception of deity, to fix your thoughts,
to soothe your spirit, to allay your fears, to awaken your
affections, and to inspire your hope. Your altar is reared,
and your incense is offered, but it is to the “unknown god.”
No oil?
(Bonar, “Religion Without the Holy Spirit”)
“The five who were foolish took no oil for
their lamps.” Matthew 25.3
This parable has many sides and aspects.
It is prophetical; it is also practical.
It suits all ages, but especially the last days.
It suits the world, but especially the church of God.
It is searching and sifting.
It is also quickening and comforting.
It suits us well in these days of . . .
profession,
fashionable religion and
religiousness.
It is a parable for the church.
It comes in to the inner circle of Christian
profession, and sifts it, divides it.
There are points of likeness between the two classes.
They get the same name, virgins;
they wear the same dress;
they are on the same errand;
they both have lamps;
they both slumber and sleep.
They have thus many features in common.
The peril of mere externalism is that which our
Lord points out here. This externalism may not
always be hypocrisy, but it is imitation. It is not
the flower in its natural color and growth, but
painted, artificial. Let us watch against an
artificial life, and an artificial religion. What
does it profit now? What will it profit in the
day of wrath? The name, the dress, the lamp,
the outward show, will all go for nothing in
that day of universal discovery and detection.
Though in most respects they were all alike,
yet there was a difference. It was within; it
was imperceptible from without; it could only
be discovered when the bridegroom came. Up
until then all were completely similar. Only
then the deficiency came out in the foolish.
Then was it seen who were wise, and who
were foolish. That day is the day of certain
and unerring detection. It is the day of
weighing in the balances! It is the separation
of the false from the true.
The difference was confined to a single point,
the lack of oil. The oil is the Holy Spirit. Thus
a man may be very like a Christian, and yet
not be one. He may come very near the kingdom,
and yet not enter in. He may have all the outward
features of a Christian, and yet be lacking in the
main one. He may have the complete dress of
the saint, and yet not be one.
He may have a good life, a sound creed, a strict
profession; he may be one who says and does
many excellent things; he may be a subscriber
to all the religious societies in the land, a member
of all their committees, or a speaker at all their
meetings, and supporter of all their plans; he
may profess to be looking for Christ’s coming,
and going forth to meet the bridegroom, yet
not necessarily a Christian!
He may lack the oil, the Holy Spirit.
A religion without the Holy Spirit profits nothing.
There is the religion . . .
of the intellect,
of the sense,
of the imagination,
of the flesh,
of the creed,
of the liturgy,
of the catechism,
of nature,
of poetry,
of sentiment,
of mysticism,
of humanity.
But what are these without the Spirit?
Christianity without Christ, what would that be?
Worship without God, what would that be?
So religion without the Holy Spirit, what would that be?
The five who were foolish took no oil for their lamps.
“Sir! Sir!” they said. “Open the door for us!”
But He replied, “I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.”
False faith!
(Don Fortner)
There is a false faith in which multitudes are confidently resting.
There is a false faith by which multitudes are deceived and will perish for ever in Hell.
A false faith may be greatly enlightened and knowledgeable in gospel truth (Heb. 6:4).
A false faith excites the affections (Stony Ground Hearers).
A false faith reforms the outward life (The Pharisees).
A false faith may speak very well of Christ (The Jews).
A false faith confesses sin (Saul).
A false faith may humble itself in sackcloth and ashes (Ahab).
A false faith may repent (Esau – Judas).
A false faith may diligently perform religious works (The Pharisees).
A false faith may be very charitable and generous (Ananias).
A false faith may tremble at the Word of God (Felix).
A false faith may experience much in religion (Heb. 6:1-4).
A false faith may enjoy great religious privileges (Lot’s wife).
A false faith may preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons (Matt. 7:23).
A false faith may attain high office in the church (Diotrephes).
A false faith may walk with great preachers (Demas was Paul’s companion).
A false faith may be peaceful and carnally secure (The Five Foolish Virgins).
A false faith may even persevere and hold out until the day of judgment (Matt. 7:22-23).
If you have the faith of God’s elect, it will bear examination.
If you do not, if you are resting in a false faith, you need to be awakened so that you may flee to Christ in true faith.
Their religion is hollow, unsubstantial, and unreal
(From Winslow’s, “Christ’s Intercession for Tried Faith”)
The most beautiful ritual,
the most accurate creed,
the most costly religion,
the most splendid profession,
without Christ in the heart,
is but as fuel preparing for the
final and eternal conflagration.
What, my reader, if your religion
should prove to be nothing but chaff?
Does the bare probability startle you?
Ah! there are multitudes whom it might well
startle; for multitudes are thus deceived.
Not a grain of saving grace is found in their souls.
There is….
no vitality in their faith,
no solidity in their profession,
no substance in their religion.
Before every wind of false doctrine they bend, and
by each blast of temptation they are carried away.
The stubble of the field, and the chaff of the
threshing floor (fit emblems of their profession),
are not more unsubstantial and fleeting than it.
All is woeful deception!
They have substituted….
a form of godliness for its power;
union to the church for union to Christ;
the baptism of water for the regeneration of the Spirit;
gospel ordinances for sanctifying grace;
works of benevolence for faith in the Lord Jesus.
And thus their religion is hollow, unsubstantial, and
unreal; possessing a “name to live, they are dead.”
And what will be the end of such?
Departing into eternity in this state of soul deception;
building their hope of heaven upon this false foundation;
in their sad experience must be realized the awful
description which the evangelist gives of the judgment
power of Christ; “whose fan is in his hand, and he will
thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his
barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Thus will perish….
all human religions,
all false hopes,
all hollow professions,
all soul destroying doctrines;
the ‘wood, the hay, the stubble,’ of a
form of godliness, destitute of the power.
Intolerant!
Spurgeon, “Fire: the Want of the Times”
Of all things under heaven, the most
intolerant is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel demands obedience to itself.
Within its own realm its power is absolute.
Its arguments cut and kill error.
Its teachings lay low every proud
hope, and expose every false way.
The gospel is merciful to the
sinner, but merciless to sin.
It will not endure evil, but wars against
it to overturn it, and to set up a throne
for him whose right it is to reign.
The gospel of Jesus Christ will never
join hands with infidelity or Popery.
It will never enter into league with idolatry.
It cannot be at peace with error.
False religions can lie down side by side
with one another, for they are equally a lie,
and there is a brotherhood between them.
But the true religion, will never rest until
all superstitions are utterly exterminated,
and until the banner of the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, shall wave over every
mosque and minaret, temple and shrine.