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A WORD OF EXHORTATION

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A WORD OF EXHORTATION

9 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

Addressed to the living Church of the living God, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus, and called.”

Brethren Beloved,

Permit a fellow-servant of our glorious Master to offer you a motto from His word, for the new year, with earnest prayer that the Holy Ghost may enable you to receive it, and act upon it, in these eventful and appalling times.

FLEE FROM IDOLATRY

We need not go to Pagan lands to see what idolatry is; alas! it has become the crying sin of this once Protestant country, nor is there a city or town in England in which it is not set up in some shape or other, so that as sure as the God of Israel is an unchanging God, the same judgments which were executed upon Israel of old, for their idolatry, may be expected to fall upon professing Israel again. The two books of the Kings of Israel, and the repetition of them in the two books of the Chronicles, are solemn memorials of Divine indignation against idolatry, in which we see that prosperity and punishment always kept pace with the pulling down or the setting up of idolatry among them, which changed almost as often as their king changed.

Idolatry is the setting up of anything material or immaterial as an object of worship, instead of, or in connection with, the Lord God of Israel.

Idolatry has fixed its headquarters at the seats of learning, and our Universities are become colonies of Antichrist; and thence the worship of God is desecrated with the traditions of men, the table of the Lord is thrown down to build altars to Baal—the priesthood of Christ is supplanted by the pretensions of idolatrous priests—and the very sun is insulted with lighted candles at noonday, while the false assumption of apostolic descent prompts men to despise the most apostolical ministers of the Church of God, as schismatics and intruders.

Idolatry in the clergymen begets its like in the people, who are instructed to cling to party and name, as the poor Hindoos are to their caste; hence it is common to hear persons utterly destitue of vital godliness, exclaim, “I belong to the Church,” “I have always been brought up to the Church,” without having any definite idea of what the Church is, or even what they themselves mean by it, so that if they can be supposed to worship at all, like the men of Athens, they worship an “unknown God;” which is, to say the least, blind idolatry, and is generally persevered in with so much obstinacy, that the pitiable devotees shut their eyes against the light, refuse to hear the truth, and join in the hue and cry of schism against the saints of God, the household of faith. What an awful proof of the total ruin of man under the fall, that minds decidedly great in every other subject, well educated in every science and language, should be so infatuated by an idolatrous ministry as to refuse to think, and consent to be chained to the car of superstition, to be dragged through the streets of mystic Babylon, as the victims of bigotry, the trophies of priestcraft, and the dupes of Antichrist. Truly “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” But, dearly beloved in Christ, let us add with adoring gratitude, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Therefore, let us flee from idolatry.

Nor is idolatry limited to the ministerial throng; alas! it disgraces the ranks of Nonconformity, for the bigotted attachment to what is called “our denomination” goes far to set up as objects of supreme admiration, if not of adoration, party names, “accredited agents,” human authorities, pools, and prejudices; so that the simplicity of the gospel, and the purity of Divine worship, are obscured and clogged with human inventions. And this is not the worst, for however each party differs in preferring their little idols, all seem agreed in setting up the great idol, Freewill, and offering to that parent of idolatry the homage which is due only to God. Dearly beloved, flee from this abominable idolatry.

This idol, Free-Will, is indeed sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, while the idolatrous multitudes invest him with the very attributes of Deity. He is declared to be an absolute Sovereign, so that even the God of heaven and earth is supposed to bow to his dictation, and though nothing is so capricious and fickle as man’s will, yet it is counted the immutable oracle which decides all that relates to God and man, for time and for eternity. Yea, so generally is this idol worshipped, that to refuse to bow down to it is considered almost as profane as Gideon’s demolition of the altar of Baal, or as Shadrach’s, Meshach’s, and Abednego’s despising the image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up in the plains of Dura. Nor were the idolators at Ephesus more angry with Paul for preaching down their great goddess Diana, than are modern idolators with those who preach down the idol free-will, and preach up the glory of the God of free grace.

Let us now glance at another species of idolatry, which I will call self-idolatry, in which I fear thousands of Christians are implicated, and to which some preachers seem determined to burn incense, though it is constantly bringing their hearers into bondage. The various exercises through which the believer passes; his conflicts and conquests, his crosses and comforts, his calamities and calms, are all way-marks or milestones in his road, which are of great use to prove that he is in the right road, and that he is progressing, yet, they afford him many a special errand to the throne, but if they are put in the place of Christ and His perfect work, they become idols, and those who set up certain emotions of the mind (which are often only the workings of nature) in the place which Christ alone should occupy, are not only idolators, but makers of idols.

Dearly beloved, “flee from this idolatry.” Let Jesus be all in all to your souls in light or darkness, in life and death; be satisfied with that which satisfies all the perfections of Deity, even the person and work of the glorious covenant Head of the Church. Let Him be the feast of savoury meat, and then receive the bitter herbs, or the sweet grapes of passing fluctuating frames and feeling as a (Assert, which you can do with or without, as the Master of the feast thinks best.

He is the most thriving Christian who lives like Paul, “by the faith of the Son of God,” because he is the most free from idolatry; but he who is constantly seeking some attainment in himself and setting up some standard of knowledge, feeling, or enjoyment in the place of Christ, is feeding on ashes, and will never be fat and flourishing in the courts of the Lord, until God cleanses him from all his idols.

There is yet one more kind of idolatry, which I must call sordid idolatry, which the apostle Paul couples with the grossest of sins in his exhortation to the Colossians. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 2:5).

Would to God there were no need to exhort Christians to flee from this idolatry, then we should hear no more of begging cases for the cause of God, nor of ministers of truth being with their families in a state of destitution. Were wealthy men who profess to be Christians as liberal in supporting the cause of God, as worldlings are in contributing to scenes of dissipation, we should have chapels built, ministers supported, and the aged poor of the flock provided for, in a manner and to an extent which would do honor to the name of Christianity. But if miserly hoards—splendid mansions—extravagant equipage and dress, are to be set up as idols by wealthy professors, what account can they give of their stewardship? How can such persons say with the apostle, “None of us liveth to himself?” Where is their love to Jesus, when their expressions of it are inferior to the expressions of a worldling’s love to Satan’s slavery?

If this paper should meet the eye of a parsimonious professor, he is exhorted to read the following Scriptures upon his bended knees. “Woe unto him that loadeth himself with thick clay” (Hab. 2.6). “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God (Mark 10: 24). “They that will be rich fall into temptation.” “The love of money is the root of all evil.” “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” That they do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Tim. 6:9-18).

“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry; I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say” (1 Cor. 10:5, 6). And may the Holy Spirit give you grace to deal with all your idols, as Moses did with the golden calf, that our covenant God may never say of you as He did of Ephraim, “He is joined to idols, let him alone,” but rather may He fulfil His precious promise, “From all your idols will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25). “

That the God of all grace may arise and plead His own cause, and revive His own work in the churches of the saints, is the prayer of His willing servant,

Shepherd’s Tent.

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van donderdag 1 december 1938

The Banner of Truth | 6 Pagina's

A WORD OF EXHORTATION

Bekijk de hele uitgave van donderdag 1 december 1938

The Banner of Truth | 6 Pagina's