Text—“They feared the Lord, yet served their own
gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried
away” (II Kings 17:33)
When
the ten tribes of Israel were carried away as captives by the king of Assyria,
their land became occupied with strangers from different idolatrous nations who
knew nothing about the religion of the Jews.
Very soon, wild beasts increased in the land. Lions killed many people, and they thought it was because those
occupying strangers did not know the god of that country, and had therefore
ignorantly transgressed His religion, offended Him, and He had sent the lions
among them as a punishment. So they
went to the king, who told them to get one of the priests of the Israelites to
teach them the ways of the god of the land. They took this advice, and obtained
one of the priests to come to Bethel and teach them the religious ceremonies
and the methods of worship that had been practiced there. And the priest taught them to fear Jehovah,
as the God of that country. Still, they
did not receive Him as the only God.
They feared Him; that is, they feared His anger and His judgments, and
to avoid these they performed the prescribed rites. But they served their own gods.
They kept up their idolatrous worship, and this was what they loved and
preferred, although they felt obliged to pay some reverence to Jehovah as the
God of that country. Today, there are
still millions of people who profess to fear God, and perhaps possess a certain
kind of fear of the Lord, who nevertheless serve their own gods. Their hearts are devoted to other things,
and their trust is in other objects.
I’m
sure you all know that there are two kinds of fear. There is that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom,
which is based on love. There is also a
slavish fear, which is nothing more than a dread of evil. This fear is purely selfish. The people in our passage had this kind of fear. They were afraid that Jehovah would send His
judgments on them if they did not perform certain rites, and this was the
reason they used to worship Him. Those
who have this fear are completely selfish, and although they claim that they
love Jehovah, they have other gods whom they love and serve.
This
type of fear applies to many types of professing Christians, and my goal
tonight is to describe some of them in such a way that those of you here, who
fit this description, may know yourselves, and may see how your neighbors see
you, and help you to understand your true character.
To
serve a person is to be obedient to the will and devoted to the interests of
that person. It is not properly called
serving, where only certain acts are performed, without entering into the
service of the person; but to serve is to make it a business to do the will and
promote the interest of that person. To
serve God is to make religion the main business of your life. It is to devote your self, your heart, life,
powers, time, influence, and everything to promote the interests of God, to
build up the kingdom of God, and to advance the glory of God.
Who
are those people who, while they profess to fear the Lord, serve their own
gods?
1. Those of you, who have not, in your heart
and in your practice renounced the ownership of your possessions, and given all
of them them up to God.
If
you have not done this, you are not serving God. Suppose a gentleman hired a clerk to take care of his store, and
suppose the clerk continued to attend to his own business. When asked to do what is necessary for his
employer, who pays his wages, he replies, “I really have so much business of my
own to attend to, that I don’t have time to do everything my employer wants me
to do”. Wouldn’t everybody cry out
against that servant, and say he was not serving his employer at all? Shouldn’t he be fired? His time is not his own. His time is paid for, and yet he is serving
himself! Therefore, whenever someone
has not renounced the ownership of himself, not only in thought but also in
practice, he has not learned the first lesson in religion. He is not serving the Lord, but serving his
own gods.
2.
Anybody who does not make the business that he is engaged in a part of his
religion does not serve God.
Occasionally,
you may hear a man say, “I am so busy all day in the world, or in worldly
business, that I have no time to serve God”.
He thinks he serves God during his prayer time in the morning, and then
he attends to his worldly business.
Trust me, that man left his religion where he said his prayers. He is not serving God. It is pure fantasy for him to pretend to serve God. Perhaps he is willing to give God some time before breakfast,
before he gets ready to go to his own business, but as soon as his prayers end,
away he goes to his own work. Perhaps
He fears the Lord, enough to go through with his prayers before bedtime and in
the morning, but he serves his own gods.
That person’s religion is the laughing-stock of hell! He prays very devoutly, and then, instead of
engaging in any business for God, he serves himself. No doubt, the idols are well pleased with that arrangement, but
God is unhappy.
3.
You are serving your own gods if you only give to Jehovah that which costs you
little or nothing.
Many
make religion consist only in those acts of piety that don’t interfere with
their selfishness. You pray in the
morning with your family, because you can do that very conveniently, but you
never allow the service of Jehovah to interfere with your service to your gods,
or stand in the way of your getting rich, or your enjoying the world. And the gods you serve never complain that
you slight or neglect them for the service of Jehovah.
4.
You are serving your own gods if you believe that the six days of the week
belong to you and only Sunday is the Lord’s Day.
Many
believe that the week belongs to man, and Sunday belongs to God; that they have
a right to do whatever they want to do during the week; and they have a right
to serve themselves, and promote their own interests, if they will only keep
the Sabbath and serve God on Sunday.
For example: a celebrated preacher used this illustration to demonstrate
the wickedness of breaking the Sabbath.
“Suppose a man had seven dollars in his pocket. He met a beggar in great distress, and gave
him six dollars, keeping only one for himself.
The beggar, seeing that he kept one dollar, later returned and robbed
him of that last dollar; would not every heart despise his wickedness”? This illustration suggests that it is very
ungrateful to break the Sabbath, because God has given to men six days to do
what they want to do, and God only reserves the Sabbath Day for Himself. To rob God of that seventh day is basic
ingratitude.
If
you do this, you do not serve God at all.
If you are selfish during the week, you are selfish, period. To believe you have any true piety would imply
that you were converted every Sunday and unconverted every Monday. If a man would serve himself all week long
and really possess religion on Sunday, he would have to be converted to do
this. But, is this the idea of the
Sabbath? Is Sunday a day to serve God,
exclusive of the other six days? Does
God need your services on Sunday to keep His work going? God needs your services just as much on the
other six days, only He has appropriated the Sabbath for peculiar duties, and
required its observance as a day of rest from bodily toil and from those fatiguing
cares and labors that concern the present world. But because God uses us to accomplish His purposes, and we have
bodies as well as souls, and the gospel is to be spread and sustained by the
things of this world, therefore God requires you to work all the six days at
your secular employments. But it is all
for His service, as much as Sunday worship.
Sunday is no more given for the service of God than Monday. You have no more right to serve yourselves
on Monday than you have on Sunday. If
any of you have thought about this, and believe that the six days of the week
belong to you, it shows that you are completely selfish. I beg you, don’t even think that you are
serving God in prayer and on Sunday, if the rest of the time you serve
yourself. You have never known the radical
principle of serving the Lord.
5.
Those who will not make any sacrifices of personal ease and comfort in religion
are serving themselves, or their own gods.
For
example, many object to Free Churches because they require a sacrifice of
personal gratification. They talk like
this: “We want to sit with our families”; or, “We want cushioned seats;” or,
“We always like to sit in the same pew”.
They admit that Free Churches are necessary in order to make the gospel
accessible to the thousands that are going to hell in this city. But they cannot make these little sacrifices
that are needed to throw open the doors of God’s house to the great mass of
impenitent sinners around them.
These
little things often indicate the state of people’s hearts. Suppose your servant said, “I can’t do
this,” or “I can't do that”, because it interferes with his personal ease and
comfort. He can’t do this because he
likes to sit on a cushion and work. Or,
he can’t do that because it would separate him from his family for an hour and
a half. What! Is that doing service?
When a man enters into service, he gives up his ease and comfort for the
interest and the will of his employer.
Can any man be supremely devoted to the service of God, when he shows
that his own ease and comfort are more important to him than the kingdom of
Jesus Christ, and that he would rather sacrifice the salvation of sinners than
sit on a hard seat, or be separated from his family for an hour or two?
6.
Those who give their time and money to God’s service grudgingly, rather than
with a cheerful heart are serving their own gods.
What
would you think of your servant, if you had to harass and badger him every time
you want him to do something for you?
Wouldn’t you say he was a servant in name only? Many people engage in religious activities
grudgingly. If he does anything, it’s a
big sacrifice. If you go to one of
these people, and want his time or money for any religious purpose, it is
difficult to get him involved. It seems
to go against his grain, and is not easy or natural for them to do it. It is clear that he does not consider the
interests of Christ's kingdom as important as his own interest. He may pretend to fear the Lord, but he
serves gods of his own making.
7.
Those who are always ready to ask how little they may do for religion, rather
than how much they may do, are serving their own gods.
Many
people want to know what is the least they can do in their service for
God. You hear such a person going over
his profits and losses. “I made so much
this year. Now I have to subtract so
much for charity, and subtract what I have to give for religion.” (Imagine!
He HAS to give for the interests of religion!) “And so much lost by fire, and so much lost due to bad
debts.” And so on. Is that person serving God? It is a simple matter of fact, that person
has never set his heart on the object of promoting religion in the world. If he had, he would ask, “How much can I do
for this goal and for that goal? Can I
do this much, or that much, or SO MUCH?”
8.
Those who accumulate wealth for their own families to elevate and increase
their reputation, are serving gods of their own, and not Jehovah.
Those
who are aiming to elevate their own families into a different sphere, by laying
up wealth for them, show that they have some other object to live for than
bringing this world under the authority of Jesus Christ. They have other gods to serve. They may pretend to fear the Lord, but they
serve their own gods.
9.
Those who are making it their goal to accumulate so much property that they can
retire from business and live at ease, are serving their own gods.
Many
people claim that they are servants of God, but they are eagerly engaged in
gathering property, and planning to retire to their country estate some day and
live comfortably. What do you mean? Has God given you a right to a perpetual
Sabbath, as soon as you have made a certain amount of money? Did God tell you, when you claimed to enter
into His service, to work hard for so many years, so you can have a perpetual
holiday? Did God promise to excuse you
from making the most of your time and talents, and let you live comfortably the
rest of your days? If you believe that,
I tell you, you are not serving God, but your own selfishness and sloth.
10.
Those people are serving their own gods, who would rather gratify their
appetites than deny themselves things that are unnecessary, or even hurtful,
for the sake of doing good.
You
find people that really love things that do them no good, and others even form
an artificial appetite for something that is positively loathsome or harmful. They will pursue that thing, and no arguments
will force them to abandon their appetite or desire for the sake of doing
good. Are such people absorbed in the
service of God? Certainly not! Will they sacrifice their lives for the
kingdom of God? Why, you cannot make
them even give up one pack of cigarettes, a weed that damages their health and
is loathsome to society. They cannot
give it up, even if it would save a soul from death.
Who
does not see that these people are ruled by selfishness? It shows the astonishing strength and power
of selfishness. You see the strength of
selfishness showing up in little things more often than in big things. The real state of a person’s mind stands
out, that self-gratification is the law of his or her life, so strong that the
person will not yield, even in little things, to those great interests for
which he should be willing to lay down his life.
11.
Those people, who are very easily moved to act by appeals to their own selfish
interests, show that they are serving their own gods.
You
can see the motives that influence such a man.
Suppose I want to get him to contribute to building a church, what
should I say? I have to show how it
will improve the value of his property, advance his political party, or gratify
his selfishness in some other way. If
he is more excited by these motives, than he is by a desire to save perishing
souls and advancing the kingdom of Christ, you can easily see that he has never
given himself up to serve the Lord. He
is still serving himself. He is more
influenced by his selfish interests than by all those unselfish principles that
religion revolves around. The character
of a true servant of God is just the opposite of this.
Take
the situation where you have two servants, the first servant is devoted to your
interests, and the second servant has no conscience or concern but to collect
his wages. Go to the first servant, and
he sets aside all personal considerations, and devotes his heart and soul to
achieve your goal. The second servant
will not act unless you present some selfish motive, unless you say, “If you do
this, I will raise your wages, or set you up in business”, or something
similar. Isn’t there a radical
difference between these two servants?
Isn’t this a good illustration of what actually takes place in our
churches? Propose a plan to do good
that will cost nothing, and everyone will support it. But propose a plan which is going to affect their personal
interest, to cost money, or take up time during a busy season, and you will see
them begin to divide into two groups.
Some hesitate, some doubt, some raise objections, and some stubbornly
refuse. Some enlist at once, because
they see it will do a lot of good.
Others wait until you think of some ways to stir up their selfishness in
your favor. Why are these people so
different? Because, some of them are
serving their own gods.
12.
Fake Christians are more interested in other subjects than in religion.
If
you find them more willing to talk about other subjects, more easily excited by
other subjects, more willing to listen to the news, they are serving their own
gods. Many are more interested in the
stock market, or the latest gossip magazine, or the latest political scandal,
or anything of a worldly nature, than they are about revivals, missions, or
anything connected with the interests of religion. You find them involved in politics or finances, but if you bring
up the subject of religion, ah, they are afraid to get excited, and mumble
something about carnal feelings and emotionalism, thus revealing that religion
is not the subject that is nearest their heart. A man is always most easily excited on that subject that is
closest to his heart. Bring that
subject up, and he is interested. When
you can talk early and late about the news and about other worldly topics, and
when you are not interested in the subject of religion, you know that your
heart is not in it, and if you pretend to be a servant of God, you are a
hypocrite.
13.
When people are more jealous for their own fame than for God’s glory, it shows
that they live for themselves and serve their own gods.
You
may see someone who is more vexed or grieved by what is said against him than
against God. Whom does he serve? Who is his God, himself, or Jehovah? Look at that minister, thrown into a fit of
anger because somebody has said a derogatory word about his scholarship, or his
dignity, or his infallibility, while he is as cool as ice at all the
indignities thrown against the blessed God.
Is that minister a follower of Paul, willing to be considered a fool for
the cause of Christ? Did that man ever
learn the first lesson in religion? If
he had, he would rejoice to have his name cast out as evil for the cause of
Christ. No, he is not serving God. He is serving his own gods.
14.
Those who do not make the salvation of souls the great and leading object of
their lives, serve their own gods.
The
goal of all religious institutions, that which gives value to all of them, is
the salvation of sinners. The goal that
Christ lives for, and for which He has left His church in the world, is the
salvation of sinners. This is the
business God’s servants are sent forth to accomplish. If anyone is not doing this as his business, as the leading and
main goal in his life, he is not serving Jehovah. He is serving his own gods.
15.
Those who are doing little for God, or who accomplish little for God, are not
properly serving Him.
Suppose
you ask a professing Christian, “What are you doing for God? Are you making anything happen? Are you instrumental in the conversion of
any sinners? Are you making impressions
in favor of religion, or helping advance the cause of Christ?” He replies, “Why, I don’t know. I hope so.
Sometimes, I think I love God, but I am not sure I am doing anything in
particular right now.” Is that man
serving God? Or is he serving his own
gods? “I talk to sinners sometimes,” he
says, “but they don’t seem to feel much”.
Then you don’t feel much! If
your heart is not in it, it is no wonder why you can’t make sinners feel. If your heart is involved in your duty,
sinners cannot help becoming emotionally affected.
16.
Those who seek after happiness in religion, rather seeking to be useful, are
serving their own gods.
Their
religion is completely selfish. They
want to enjoy religion, and they are always asking how they can get into a
happy frame of mind, and how becoming involved in religious exercises can
pleasurably excite them. And they will
only go to those meetings and only listen to those sermons that make them
happy. They never ask if that’s the best way to do the most good or not. Now, suppose your servant took the same approach,
and constantly planned ways to enjoy himself at your expense, and wondered if
he could be happier in the parlor, stretched out on your sofa with a down
pillow under his head and another servant to fan him, while he refused to do
the work that you told him to do, work that urgently requires your
interest. Instead of displaying a desire
to work for you, caring for your interest, and willing to place himself at your
disposal, he only wants to be happy!
The same thing is true with those professing Christians, who want to do
nothing but sit on their pretty little comfortable cushions, and have their
minister feed them. Instead of seeking
how to do good, they are only seeking their own happiness. Their daily prayer is not like the prayer of
the converted Saul of Tarsus, “Lord, what will you have me do?” but, “Lord,
tell me how I can be happy”. Is that
the spirit of Jesus Christ? No! Jesus said, “I delight to do Your will, O
God”. Is that the spirit of the apostle
Paul? No, he went forth as a light to
the Gentiles, that he should take salvation to the ends of the earth. (Acts 13:47)
17.
Those who make their own salvation their supreme goal in religion, are serving
their own gods.
Many
people in the church today, demonstrate by their conduct and their language,
that their purpose is to secure their own salvation, and their great
determination is to get their own souls planted on the firm battlements of the
heavenly Jerusalem, and walk those golden streets of Canaan above. If the Bible is not in error, all such
characters will go to hell. Their religion
is pure selfishness. And “whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it.” (Matt 16:25)
REMARKS
1.
Do you see why so little is accomplished in this world for Jesus Christ?
It
is because there are so few people today who will do anything for Jesus
Christ. It is because Jesus Christ has
so few real servants in the world. How
many professing Christians do you think there are in this church, or how many
professing Christians do you know, who are really working for God, and making a
business of religion, and sacrificing themselves to advance the kingdom of
Christ. The reason why religion does
not advance any faster is because there are so few to advance it, and so many
to hinder it. You see a large group of
people at a fire, trying to get the merchandise out of a store. Some are determined to save everything they
can, but the rest of them are not doing anything. They divert the attention of those helpers by talking about other
things, or they positively hinder the workers by finding fault with the way
that they are doing it, or by interfering with their work. The same is true in the church. Those who desire to do God’s work are
greatly hindered by the backwardness, the objections, and the positive
resistance of the rest of those who are in the church.
2.
Do you see why so few Christians today have the spirit of prayer?
How
can they have the spirit of prayer?
What should God give them the spirit of prayer for? Suppose a man is engaged in his worldly
ambitions, and God gives that man the spirit of prayer. He would naturally pray for what lies
closest to his heart; that is, he will pray for success in his worldly
ambitions so he can serve his own gods.
Will God give him the spirit of prayer for such purposes? Never!
Let him go to his own gods for a spirit of prayer, but don’t let him
expect Jehovah to bestow the spirit of prayer while he is serving his own gods.
3.
Many professing Christians have not even begun to be religious.
Someone
once said to one of them, “Do you feel that your property and your business
belongs to God, and do you hold and manage them for God?” “Oh, no,” he replied, “I haven’t gotten that far yet.” Haven’t gotten that far yet? That man had been a professing Christian for
years, and yet he had never gotten to the place where he considers that his
property, his business, and all that he has as belongs to God! No doubt, he was serving his own gods. For I insist, that this is the very
beginning of religion. What is
conversion, but turning from the service of the world to the service of
God? Yet, this person never realized
that he was God’s servant. And he felt
that he was still a long way from feeling that all he had belonged to the Lord.
4.
It is dishonest for people to claim they serve the Lord, and yet they reality
serve themselves.
You,
who perform religious duties from selfish motives, are really trying to make
God your servant. If your own interest
is your supreme goal in life, all your religious services are only desires to
persuade God to promote your interests.
Why do you pray, keep the Sabbath, or give your property for religious
purposes? You answer, “for the sake of
promoting my own salvation”.
Indeed! Not to glorify God, but
to get to heaven! Don’t you think the
devil would do all of that, if he thought he could get to heaven, and still
remain the devil? The most deceptive
form of selfishness is to get God, with all His attributes, enlisted in the
service of your mighty self!
Now,
patient listeners, where do you stand?
Are you serving Jehovah, or are you serving your own gods? What have you been doing these past six
months while I have been away? Have you
done anything for God? Have you been
living as servants of God? Is Satan’s
kingdom weakened by what you have done?
Could you say now, “Come with me, and I will show you this and that
sinner converted, or this and that backslider reclaimed, or this and that weak
saint strengthened and aided?” Could
you bring living witnesses of what you have done in the service of God? Or would your answer be, “I have been going
to church every Sunday. I have listened
to a lot of good preaching, and I have attended most of the prayer
meetings. We had some precious
meetings, and I have prayed with my family, and two or three times a day in my
closet, I read the Bible.” Everything you
have done has been merely passive concerning anything done for God. You have feared the Lord, and served your
own gods.
“Yes,
but I have sold so many goods, and made so much money, of which I intend to
give a tenth to the missionary cause.”
Who
has required you to do this instead of saving souls? Who has required you to send the gospel to the heathen, while you
let sinners right under your own nose go down to hell! Don’t be deceived. If you love souls, if you were dedicated to serve God, you would
think of souls here, and do the work of God here. What should we think about a missionary going to the heathen, who
had never said a word to sinners around him at home? Does he love souls? The
idea of sending such a man to the heathen is ludicrous. The man that will do nothing at home is not
fit to go to the heathen. And the
person, who pretends to be saving money for missions while he will not try to
save sinners here, is an outrageous hypocrite.