From
the context of this passage, we know that the prophet was addressing those who
claimed to be religious, and who boasted that they were saved, but their hope
was really a fire of their own kindling, and sparks created by themselves. Before I discuss this subject, let me say
that since I have already told you that it was my intention to discuss the
nature of true and false conversion, it will only be useful to those who will
be honest in applying what I share with you tonight to themselves. If you want to profit from tonight’s
discussion, you must resolve to faithfully apply this message to yourselves,
and be just as honest as if you thought you were now going to the solemn judgment
seat of God Himself. If you will do
this, I can hope to be able to lead you to discover the true state of your
heart, and if you are deceived, I will direct you on the true path to salvation. If you will not do this, I will preach in
vain, and you will listen in vain.
I
plan to show the difference between true and false conversion, and I will
pursue the subject in the following order:
I.
I will show that the natural state of man is a state of pure selfishness.
II.
I will show that the character of the converted is that of benevolence
(unselfish love).
III.
I will show that the New Birth consists in a change from selfishness to
benevolence.
IV.
I will point out some areas where saints and sinners, or true and spurious
converts, may agree, and some areas where they differ. And,
V.
I will answer some objections that may be offered against the view that I have
taken, and conclude with some remarks.
I.
I will show that the natural state of the human race, or the state that all
people are in before conversion, is a state of pure, unmingled selfishness.
By
this, I mean that they have no gospel benevolence or no unselfish love. Selfishness is regarding one’s own happiness
supremely, and seeking one’s own good because it belongs to him. Anyone who is selfish places his own
happiness above other interests of greater value, such as the glory of God and
the best interests of the universe. You
can easily see that all men before conversion are in this state, simply from
considering the following.
Everyone
knows that everybody else is selfish.
All the dealings of the human race are conducted on this principle of
selfishness. If anyone ignores this,
and decides to deal with other people as if they were not selfish, people would
think he is crazy.
II.
The character of one who is converted is an unselfish character.
An
individual who is converted is unselfish, and not supremely selfish. This unselfish love, that the converted
person possesses, is loving the happiness of others, or rather, choosing the
happiness of others. Sometimes, this
unselfish love is called benevolence, which is a compound word that properly
means good willing, or choosing the happiness of others. This is God’s state of mind. We are told that God is love; in other words,
that God is benevolent. This
benevolence, or unselfish love, comprises His whole character. All His moral attributes are only so many
modifications of His unselfish love. An
individual who is converted is like God in this respect. I am not saying that no one is converted
unless he is purely and perfectly loving like God. But, I am saying that his prevailing choice, goal, or purpose is
unselfish. He sincerely seeks the good
of others for its own sake. And, when I
use the term unselfish love I do not mean that a person who is unselfish has no
interest in seeking his own goal, but that he seeks the happiness of others for
its own sake, and not for the sake of its relationship to himself in promoting
his own happiness. He chooses to do
good because he rejoices in the happiness of others, and desires their
happiness for its own sake. God purely
and unselfishly loves. He does not make
His creatures happy to promote His own happiness, but because He loves their
happiness and chooses their happiness for its own sake. Not that He is not happy in promoting the
happiness of His creatures, but that He does not promote their happiness for
the sake of His own gratification. The
unselfish man feels happy when he does good.
Otherwise doing good would not be virtue in him. In other words, if he did not love to do
good, and enjoy doing good, it would not be virtue.
Pure
unselfish love is holiness. It is what
the Law of God requires: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and you
shall love your neighbor as yourself”.
(Mark 12:30:31) The more the
converted person obeys the law of God, and the more he becomes like God, the
more he loves. The leading feature of
his character is that he seeks the happiness of others, and not his own
happiness, as his supreme purpose or goal in life.
III.
True conversion is a change from a state of supreme selfishness to unselfish
love.
It
is a change in the reason why you do everything you do, and not merely a change
in the things that you do to attain your goal.
It is not true that the converted and the unconverted differ only in the
things that they do, while both aim at the same goal. It is not true that Gabriel and Satan are pursuing the same end,
and both alike are aiming at their own happiness, only pursuing their happiness
in different ways. Gabriel does not
obey God for the sake of promoting his own happiness. A man may change the way he does things, and still have the same
end: his own happiness. He may do good
for the sake of some temporary benefit.
He may not believe in religion, or in eternity, and yet he may see that
doing good will be to his advantage in this world. Suppose, then, that his eyes are opened, and he sees the reality
of eternity. Then, he may take up
religion as a means of obtaining happiness in eternity. Now, everyone can see that there is no
virtue in this. Your purpose gives
character to what you do and not the things that you do. The things that you do produce those results
that appear to come from a different purpose.
This is one place where true and false converts differ. The true convert chooses, as his goal in
life, the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. He chooses this goal for its own sake because he views this goal
as the greatest good; even a greater good than his own individual
happiness. It is not that he is
indifferent to his own happiness, but he prefers God’s glory, because God’s
glory is a greater good. He looks on
the happiness of every individual according to its real importance, as far as
he is capable of evaluating it, and he chooses the greatest good as his supreme
object.
IV.
Some areas where true saints and deceived people may agree, and areas where
they differ.
1.
Both saints and deceived people may agree to lead a strictly moral life.
The
difference is in their motives. The
true saint leads a moral life because he loves holiness; the deceived person
leads a moral life because he is selfish.
The sinner uses morality as a means to his goal, which is to bring about
his own happiness. The true saint loves
morality as a goal all by itself.
2.
Saints and falsely converted people may be equally prayerful, as far as the
form of praying is concerned.
The
difference is in their motives. The
true saint loves to pray; the other prays because he hopes to receive some
benefit for himself from praying. The
true saint expects to benefit from praying, but that is not the reason why he
prays. The sinner prays from no other
motive but from what he may selfishly gain from it.
3.
Saints and deceived people may be equally zealous in religion.
One
may have great zeal, because his zeal is based on his knowledge, and he
sincerely desires and loves to promote religion for its own sake. The other may show equal zeal for the sake
of having his own salvation more assured, and because he is afraid to go to
hell if he does not work for the Lord, or he become zealous to quiet his
conscience, but not because he loves religion for its own sake.
4.
Saints and deceived Christians may be equally conscientious in doing their
duty; the true convert loves to do his duty, and the sinner because he is
afraid not to do it.
5.
Saints and deceived people may pay equal attention to what is right; the true
convert pays attention to what is right because he loves what is right, and the
sinner pays attention to what is right because he knows that he cannot be saved
unless he does what is right. He is
honest in common business transactions because it is the only way that he can
secure his interests. Truly, they have
their reward. They get the reputation
of being honest among men, but if they have no higher motive, they will have no
reward from God.
6.
They may agree in their desires, in many respects. They may agree in their desire to serve God; the true convert
because he loves to serve God, and the deceived person serves for the reward,
just like a hired servant serves his master for pay.
They
may agree in their desire to be useful; the true convert desires to be useful
for its own sake, the deceived person because he wants God’s favor. And the more he realizes the importance of
having God’s favor, the more he desires to be useful.
Both
saints and falsely converted people may desire to convert souls. The true saint desires to convert souls
because it will glorify God. The
deceived person will convert souls to gain God’s favor. The deceived person will be motivated to do
this just like he is motivated to give money.
Does anybody doubt that a person can give money to the Bible Society, or
the Missionary Society, or tithe from selfish motives alone? He gives simply to buy happiness, or
applause, or to win God’s favor. He can
just as easily desire the conversion of souls, and labor to promote their salvation
for purely selfish reasons.
Both
may glorify God. The true saint
glorifies God because he loves to see God glorified, and the deceived person
glorifies God because he believes that is the way to be saved. The true convert has his heart set on the
glory of God as his great goal, and he desires to glorify God as a goal, for
its own sake. The sinner glorifies God
as a means to his great goal, which is his own benefit.
Both
may repent. The true convert hates sin
because of its hateful nature, because it dishonors God, and therefore he wants
to repent of it. The other desires to
repent, only because he knows that if he doesn’t repent, he will be damned.
They
may both believe in Jesus Christ. The
true saint believes in Christ to the glory of God, and because he loves the truth
for its own sake. The other wants to
believe so that he may have a stronger hope of going to heaven.
Both
want to obey God. The true saint obeys
God so he may increase in holiness; the false professing Christian because he
desires the rewards of obedience.
7.
Saints and deceived Christians may not only agree in their desires, but also in
their resolutions. They may both resolve
to give up sin and obey God, and to devote their time in promoting religion,
and building up the kingdom of Christ; and they may both resolve it with great
strength of purpose, but they will have different motives.
8.
Both of them may also agree on their plans.
They may both really plan to glorify God, and to convert men, and to
extend the kingdom of Christ, and to have the world converted; the true saint because
he loves God and holiness, and the other for the sake of securing his own
happiness. One chooses it as a goal,
the other as a means to promote his selfish goal.
They
may both plan to be truly holy; the true saint because he loves holiness, and
the deceived person because he knows that he can’t be happy any other way.
9.
Saints and sinners may agree not only in their desires, resolutions, and plans,
but also in their affection towards many objects.
Both
of them may love the Bible. The true
saint loves the Bible because it is God’s truth, and he delights in it and
feasts his soul on it. The other loves
the Bible because he thinks it can help him, and from it, he will find hope for
himself.
Both
of them may love God. The one loves God
because he sees that God’s character is supremely lovely and excellent, and he
loves God for His own sake; the other loves God because he thinks God is his particular
friend, that God is going to make him happy forever, and he connects the idea
of God with his own selfish interests.
Both
of them may love Christ. The true
convert loves His character, the deceived person thinks Christ will save him
from hell and give him eternal life, so why shouldn’t he love Him?
They
may both love Christians. The true
convert loves Christians because he sees in them the image of Christ, and the
deceived person loves Christians because they belong to his own denomination,
or because they are on his side, and he shares the same interests and the same
hopes with them.
10.
Saints and sinners may also agree in hating the same things. They may both hate infidelity and
strenuously oppose it, the true saint because infidelity is opposed to God and
holiness, and the deceived person because it hurts an interest that he is
deeply concerned about, and if true, destroys all his own hopes for eternity. So they may hate error; one because it is
detestable and contrary to God, and the other because it is contrary to his
views and opinions.
I
remember seeing in writing, a long time ago, an attack on a minister for
publishing certain opinions, “because,” said the writer, “those opinions would
destroy all my hopes for eternity”. A
very good reason indeed! That is all a
selfish being needs to oppose an opinion!
Both
of them may both hate sin; the true convert because sin stinks before God, and
the deceived person because it hurts himself.
Countless times, an individual has hated his own sins, and yet not
forsaken them. How often the drunkard,
as he looks back at what he once was and contrasts his present degradation with
what he might have been, hates his drink; not for its own sake, but because it
has ruined him. Yet, he still loves his
alcohol, and continues to drink, even though, when he looks at what alcohol has
done, he hates it.
They
may both be opposed to sinners. The
opposition of true saints is a loving opposition, viewing and abhorring their
character and conduct, because their conduct is designed to subvert the kingdom
of God. The other is opposed to sinners
because they are opposed to the religion he supports, and because they are not
on his side.
11.
So, they may both rejoice in the same things.
Both may rejoice in the prosperity of Zion, and the conversion of souls;
the true convert rejoices because he has his heart set on it, and loves it for
its own sake as the greatest good, and the deceived person rejoices because
that particular thing he has such a great interest in is advancing his own
interest.
12.
Both saint and sinner may mourn and feel distressed at the low state of
religion in the church; the true convert because God is dishonored, and the
deceived person because his own soul is not happy, or because religion is not
in favor.
Both
of them may love the fellowship of the saints; the true convert loves fellowship
because his soul enjoys their spiritual fellowship, the other loves fellowship
because he hopes to gain some advantage from their company. The saint enjoys it because out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; the sinner because he loves to talk
about the great interest he feels in religion, and the hope he has of going to
heaven.
13.
Both of them may love to attend religious meetings; the true saint because his
heart delights in acts of worship, in prayer and praise, in hearing the word of
God, and in communion with God and his saints, and the sinner because he thinks
a religious meeting a good place to prop up his hope. He may have a hundred reasons for loving them, and yet none of
them are for their own sake, or simply because he loves the worship and service
of God.
14.
Both of them may find pleasure in the duties of the prayer closet. The true saint loves his closet because he
can draw near to God, and find delight in communion with God. He can be in a place where there are no embarrassments
to keep him from going straight to God and conversing. The deceived person finds a kind of
satisfaction in it, because it is his duty to pray in secret, and he feels a
self-righteous satisfaction in doing it.
In fact, he may feel a certain pleasure in it, perhaps an excitement in
his mind that he mistakes for communion with God.
15.
Both of them may love the doctrines of grace, the true saint because they
glorify God, the deceived person because he thinks that they guarantee his own
salvation.
16.
They may both love the precept of God’s law; the true saint because it is so
excellent, so holy, just, and good; the deceived Christian because he thinks it
will make him happy if he loves it, and he does it as a means of happiness.
Both
may consent to the penalty of the law.
The true saint consents to it in his own case, because he feels it to be
just in itself for God to send him to hell.
The deceived person because he thinks he is in no danger from it. He feels a respect for the law, because he knows
that it is right, and his conscience approves of it, but he has never consented
to it in his own life.
17.
They may be equally liberal in giving to benevolent societies. None of you doubt that two men can give
equal sums for benevolent purposes, but from totally different motives. One gives to do good, and would be just as
willing to give even if he knew that no other living person would give. The other gives for the credit he can get
from it, or to quiet his conscience, or because he hopes to purchase God’s favor.
18.
Both may be equally self-denying in many things. Self-denial is not confined to true saints. Look at the sacrifices and self-denials of
the Muslims, going on their pilgrimages to Mecca. Look at the heathen, throwing themselves on an altar of
sacrifice. Look at the poor ignorant
papists, going up and down over sharp stones on their bare knees, until their
legs are covered with blood. A
Protestant congregation may not say that there is any religion in that. But, there IS self-denial! The true saint denies himself for the sake
of doing more good to others. He would
rather do this than indulge in his own interests. The deceived person may do similar things, but from purely
selfish motives.
19.
Both of them may be willing to suffer martyrdom. Look at many of the terrorist groups today, and you will have no
doubt that many are willing to suffer from a wrong idea of the rewards of martyrdom,
and would rush to their own destruction because they are persuaded it is a sure
road to eternal life.
In
all these cases, the motives of one group are completely different than the
other. The difference lies in the
choice of different goals in life. One
chooses his own selfish interest; the other chooses God’s interest as his
purpose in life. For a person to
pretend that both these groups are aiming at the same goal is to claim that an
unrepentant sinner is just as loving as a real Christian; or that a Christian
is not unselfish like God, but is only seeking his own happiness, and seeking
it in religion rather than in the world.
And
here is the proper place to answer a question that is often made: “If these two
groups of people are alike in so many different ways, how can we know our own
true character, or how can we tell which group we belong to? We know that our heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9).
Then, how can we know whether we love God and holiness for their own
sake, or whether we are seeking the favor of God and aiming at heaven for our
own benefit?” I answer:
1.
If we are truly unselfish, it will appear in our daily activities. Our character, if it is real, will reveal
itself in our business, if anywhere. If
selfishness rules our conduct in our daily activities, as sure as God reigns we
are truly selfish. If we are selfish in
our dealings with other people, we will also be selfish in our dealings with
God. “If someone says, ‘I love God’,
and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom
he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (I John 4:20) Religion is not merely love for God, but love for your neighbor
also. And, if our daily transactions show
that we are selfish, we are unconverted; otherwise unselfish love must not be essential
to religion, and a person can be religious without loving his neighbor as
himself.
2.
If you are not biased in religion, religious duties will not be a chore for
you. You will not treat religion as the
working person treats his job, for the sake of making a living. The worker often takes pleasure in his work,
but it is not for its own sake. He
wouldn’t do it if he could help it. In
its own nature, it is a chore, and if he takes any pleasure in it, it is simply
for the pay, the support and comfort of his family, or the increase of his
property.
The
state of some people concerning religion is very similar. They tend to their religion like sick people
tend to take medicine, because they desire the benefits from that medicine, and
they know they must have it or perish.
These people would never do any religious duty for its own sake. Suppose people loved work, like a child
loves play. They would do it all day
long and never be tired of doing it without any other incentive than the
pleasure they enjoy from doing it. The
same is true in religion; when they love it for its own sake, there is no weariness
in it.
3.
If selfishness is the prevailing character of your religion, it will sometimes
take on one form; and sometimes it will take on another form. For example: If there is a time of general
coldness in the church, real converts will still enjoy their own secret
communion with God, although there may not be enough activity to attract
attention in public. But the deceived
person will invariably be found sliding into the world. Now, let the true saints rise up, and make a
noise, and speak their joys aloud, so that people begin to talk about religion
again; and perhaps the deceived professing Christian will soon begin to bustle
about, and appear to be even more zealous than the true saint. He is motivated by his convictions, and not
his affections. When there is no public
interest, he feels no convictions; but when the church awakes, he is convicted,
and he becomes compelled to do things to keep his conscience quiet. This is only another form of selfishness.
4.
If you are selfish, your joy from religion will depend mainly on the strength
of your hope of going to heaven, and not on the exercise of your
affections. If you are selfish, your
joy does not come directly from being involved with religion, but your joy is
completely different kind from the joy of the true saint. Your joy comes mostly from
anticipating. When your hope is
renewed, and you feel very certain that you are going to heaven, then you will
enjoy religion a lot. It depends on
your hope, and not on your love for the things that you hope for. You hear people say that they don’t enjoy
religion when they lose their hope. The
reason is simple. If they loved
religion for its own sake, their joy would not depend on their hope. A person who loves what he does is happy
anywhere. And if you loved working in
God’s vineyard, you would be happy even if God should put you in hell, provided
He would only let you do what you love.
As long as you could pray and praise God, you’d feel that you could be
happy anywhere in the universe; for you would still be doing those things that
make you happy. If you don’t enjoy
religious duties, and if everything you do depends on your hope, you have no
true religion; your religion is all selfishness.
I
do not say that true saints don’t enjoy their hope. But, that is not very important to them. They think very little about their own
hope. Their thoughts are occupied with
other things. The deceived person, on
the other hand, is aware that he does not enjoy religious duties; but only that
the more he becomes involved in religious activities, the more confident he is
of going to heaven. He somewhat enjoys
being involved, somewhat like a man does when he thinks that by working hard he
will receive a lot of money.
5.
If you are selfish in religion, your joy will mainly come from
anticipation. The true saint already enjoys
the peace of God, and heaven has begun in his soul. He not only has the prospect of heaven, but eternal life has
actually begun in him. He has that
faith which is the very substance of things hoped for. In fact, he has the very feelings of heaven
in him. He anticipates joys higher in degree,
but the same in kind. He knows that he
has heaven begun in him, and he doesn’t have to wait until he dies to taste the
joys of eternal life. His joy is in
proportion to his holiness, and not in proportion to his hope.
6.
Another difference by which you can know whether you are selfish in religion is
this: the deceived person only has a purpose of obedience, while the other has
a preference of obedience. This is an
important distinction, and I fear few people notice it. Millions have a purpose of obedience, but no
true preference of obedience.
Preference is an actual choice.
It is obedience of the heart.
You often hear people speak about wanting to do this act of obedience or
that good deed, but they fail to do it.
And they will tell you how difficult it is to do good and to be
religious. The true saint, on the other hand, really prefers obedience. He chooses obedience in his heart, and
therefore, he finds it easy to obey.
The one has a desire to obey, like the kind of desire that Paul had
before he was converted, as he tells us in the seventh chapter of Romans. Paul had a strong desire to obey, but did
not obey, because his heart was not in it.
The true convert prefers obedience for its own sake; he actually chooses
it, and does it. The other desires to
be holy, because he knows that is the only way to be happy. The true saint chooses holiness for its own
sake, and he is holy.
7.
The true convert and the deceived person also differ in their faith. The true saint has a confidence in the
general character of God that leads him to completely submit to God. A lot is said about the kinds of faith, but
without much meaning. True confidence
in the Lord’s special promises, depends on confidence in God’s general
character. There are only two
principles on which any government, human or divine, is obeyed, fear and
confidence. It does not matter whether
it is the government of a family, or a business, or a nation, or a
universe. All obedience springs from
one of these two principles. In the
case of fear, individuals obey because they hope for the reward and they fear
the penalty. In the case of confidence,
individuals obey from a confidence in the character of the government. This kind of obedience works by love. One child obeys his parent because he has
confidence in his parent. He has faith
that works by love. The other yields an
outward obedience out of hope and fear.
The true convert has this faith or confidence in God that leads him to
obey God because he loves God. This is
the obedience of faith. He has such a
confidence in God that he submits himself completely into His hands.
The
other has only a partial faith, and he only submits partially. The devil has a partial faith. He believes and trembles. A person may believe that Christ came to
save sinners, and on that ground, he may submit to Christ to be saved, while he
does not submit completely to Him to be governed and disposed of. His submission is only on condition that he
will be saved. It is never with that
unreserved confidence in God’s whole character, that leads him to say, “Let
Your will be done”. (Matt 6:10) He only submits to be saved. His religion is the religion of law. The other possesses gospel religion. One is selfish; the other is unselfish. Here lies the true difference between the
two groups of people. The religion of
one is outward and hypocritical. The
religion of the other comes from the heart.
It is holy and acceptable to God.
8.
I will mention only one more difference.
If your religion is selfish, you will rejoice particularly in the
conversion of sinners as long as you are involved in it, but you will have very
little satisfaction in it if it comes through the agency of others. The selfish person rejoices when he is
active and successful in converting sinners, because he thinks he will be
rewarded. But, instead of delighting in
it when others lead someone to Christ, he will be envious. The true saint sincerely delights to see
others useful, and rejoices when sinners are converted by the instrumentality
of others as much as if it was his own.
Some will take interest in a revival, only as long as they are connected
with it. It seems that they would
rather have sinners remain unconverted, than that the ministry of another
evangelist, or another minister of another denomination or church should save
them. The true spirit of a child of God
is to say, “Send, Lord, whoever You want to send, only let souls be saved, and
let Your name be glorified!”
V.
I will answer some objections that are made against this view of the subject.
Objection
1. “Can’t I have any regard for my own
happiness?”
Answer. You should regard your own happiness
according to its relative value. Put
your happiness on this scale next to the glory of God and the good of the
universe, and then decide, and give it the value that belongs to it. This is precisely what God does. And this is what He means when He commands
you to love your neighbor as yourself.
In
fact, you will promote your own happiness, precisely in proportion as you leave
it out of view. Your happiness will be
in proportion to your impartiality.
True happiness consists mainly in gratifying virtuous desires. There may be pleasure in gratifying desires
that are selfish, but that is not true happiness. However, to be virtuous, your desires must be impartial. Suppose a man meets a beggar on the
street. There he sits on the curb, cold
and hungry, without friends, and ready to die.
The man’s feelings are touched, and he goes into a grocery nearby, and
buys him a loaf of bread. Immediately,
the beggar’s face lights up with a look of indescribable gratitude. Now it is easy to see, that the gratification
of the man who did this is precisely in proportion to the singleness of his motive. If he did it purely and solely out of
unselfish love for the beggar, his gratification is complete in the act itself. But if he did it because he wanted others to
know that he is a charitable and humane person, then his happiness is not
complete until what he did is told others.
Suppose there is a sinner who is very wicked and very wretched. Your compassion is moved, and you convert
and save him. If your motive was to
obtain honor among men and to secure the favor of God, you are not completely
happy until the deed is told, and perhaps put in the newspaper. But, if you simply wanted to save a soul
from death, then as soon as you see that it is done, your gratification is
complete, and your joy is pure. The
same is true in all your religious duties; your happiness is proportional to
your impartiality and unselfishness.
If
you aim at doing good for its own sake, then you will be happy in proportion to
the good you do. But if you directly
aim at your own happiness, and if you do good simply as a means to secure your
own happiness, you will fail. You will
be like a child chasing his own shadow; he can never outrun it because it always
stays just so far in front of him.
Suppose, in the situation I have mentioned, you have no desire to
relieve the beggar, but you are only interested in the applause of a certain individual. Then you will have no pleasure at all in the
beggar’s relief; but when an individual hears about it and praises you for it,
then you are gratified. But you are not
satisfied in the thing itself. Or,
suppose you aim at converting sinners; but if it is not your love for sinners
that leads you to do it, how can the conversion of sinners make you happy? It has no tendency to gratify the desire
that prompted your effort. The truth
is. God has so made our mind, that we
must seek the happiness of others as our goal, or we cannot be truly
happy. Here is the true reason why an
entire world, that seeks its own happiness and not the happiness of others,
fails to accomplish their goal. It is
always just so far in front of them. It
is always just out of reach. If you
will forget about seeking your own happiness, and simply do good, you would be
happy.
Objection
2. “Didn’t Christ regard the joy set
before him? (Heb 12:2) And didn’t Moses esteem the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the
reward? (Heb 11:26) And does not the Bible say we love God because
He first loved us?” (I John 4:19)
Answer
1. It is true that Christ despised the
shame and endured the cross, and had regard to the joy set before Him. However, what was the joy set before Him? It wasn’t His own salvation, or His own happiness,
but it was the great good He would do in the salvation of the world. He was perfectly happy in Himself. But the happiness of others was His goal. That was the joy set before Him. And that He obtained.
Answer
2. Also, Moses knew that he would
receive his reward. But was that his
comfort? Far from simply knowing that
he would receive his reward. The reward
he received was the salvation of the people of Israel. What did he say? When God proposed to destroy the nation, and make of Him a great
nation, if Moses had been selfish he would have said, “That is right, Lord; be
it unto Your servant according to Your word.”
But what does he say? Why, his
heart was so set on the salvation of his people, and the glory of God, that he
did not think about it for a moment, but immediately responded, saying, “Yet
now, if You will forgive their sin but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book
which You have written.” (Ex
32:32) And at another
time, when God said He would destroy the people of Israel, and make of Moses a
greater and a mightier nation, Moses thought about God’s glory, and said, “Now
if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your
fame will speak, saying, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to
the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the
wilderness.’” (Num 14:15-16) Moses could not bear to think of having his
own interest exalted at the expense of God’s glory. It was really a greater reward to his unselfish mind to have God
glorified and the children of Israel saved, than to receive any personal advantage
from God.
Answer
3. Where the Bible tells us, “We love
Him because He first loved us,” the wording clearly has two interpretations;
either that His love for us has provided the way for our return and His love
was the influence that brought us to love Him, or that we love Him for the
favor that He shows us. We can easily
see that the latter is not the meaning because Jesus Christ clearly rebuked
this principle in his sermon on the mount: “For if you love those who love you,
what reward do you have? Do not even
the tax collectors do the same?” (Matt
5:46) If we love God, not for His
character but for the favors that He bestows on us, Jesus Christ has written us
reprobate.
Objection
3. “Doesn’t the Bible offer happiness
as the reward of virtue?”
Answer. The Bible speaks about happiness as the
result of virtue, but nowhere does it state that virtue consists in pursuing
one’s own happiness. The Bible disagrees
with this, and always represents virtue as consisting in doing good to
others. We can see by the philosophy of
our mind that this must be true. If a
person desires the good of others, the more he gratifies that desire, the
happier he will become. Happiness is
the result of virtue, but virtue does not consist in the direct pursuit of
one’s own happiness. In fact, true
happiness is totally inconsistent with pursuing one’s own happiness.
Objection
4. “God wants us to be happy, and shall
we be more loving than God? Should we
not be like God? Shouldn’t we aim at
the same thing that God aims at?
Shouldn’t we be seeking the same end that God seeks, which is our own
happiness?"
Answer. There is some truth to this objection, but
it is futile and rotten. God loves
others unselfishly. He aims at the
happiness of others, as well as our happiness.
And to be like Him, we must aim at the happiness of others, especially
God. In other words, we delight in His
happiness and glory, and the honor and glory of the universe, according to
their real value.
Objection
5. “Why does the Bible appeal
continually to the hopes and fears of men, if a regard for our own happiness is
not a proper reason to labor for the Lord?”
Answer
1. The Bible appeals to our natural ability
to be affected by strong feelings, not to our selfishness. Man dreads harm, and it is not wrong to
avoid it. We may have a proper regard
for our own happiness, according to its value.
Answer
2. Mankind is so saturated with sin
that God cannot get their attention to consider His true character and the
reasons for loving Him unless He appeals to their hopes and fears. But as soon as these hopes and fears are
awakened, then He presents the gospel to them.
When a minister has preached the terrors of the Lord until he has got
his hearers alarmed and aroused so that they are really paying attention, he
has gone far enough in that direction; and then he should spread out the whole
character of God before them, to engage their hearts to love Him for His own
excellence.
Objection
6. “Don’t the inspired writers say,
‘Repent, and believe the gospel, and you shall be saved?’”
Answer. Yes; salvation requires true repentance;
that is, forsaking sin because it is hateful all by itself. It is not true repentance to forsake sin on
condition of pardon, or to say, “I will be sorry for my sins, if you will
forgive me”. Therefore, salvation
requires true faith, and true submission, not conditional faith, or partial submission. This is what the Bible insists on. It says that the sinner shall be saved, but
it must be un-biased repentance, and un-biased submission.
Objection
7. “Does not the gospel hold out pardon
as a motive to submit?”
Answer. This depends on how you use the word
‘motive’. If you mean that God spreads
out before the entire human race His whole character, and the whole truth of
the situation, as reasons to engage the sinner’s love and repentance, I say,
Yes; His compassion and willingness to pardon are reasons for loving God because
they are a part of His glorious excellence, which we are required to love. But if you mean by motive, a condition, and
that the sinner is to repent on condition he shall be pardoned, then I say,
that the Bible nowhere holds out any such view of the matter. It never authorizes a sinner to say, “I will
repent if you will forgive”, and nowhere offers pardon as a motive to repent in
such a sense as this.
I
will close with two short remarks:
1.
From this subject, we see why professing Christians have such different views
of the nature of the gospel.
Some
view the gospel as something to accommodate mankind, where God becomes less
strict than He was under the law; so that we may be fashionable or worldly, and
the gospel will come in and make up our deficiencies and save us. Others view the gospel as a provision of
God’s love, its main purpose is to destroy sin and promote holiness. Therefore, as far from making it proper for
us to be less holy than we should to be under the law, its whole value consists
in its power to make us holy.
2.
We can see why some people are more anxious to convert sinners, than to see the
church sanctified and God glorified by the good works of His people.
Many
feel a natural sympathy for sinners, and want to see them saved from hell; and
if that is gained, they have no further concern. But sin dishonors God.
And many are more distressed to see Christians sin because it dishonors
God more. Some people seem to care very
little how the church lives if they can only see the work of conversion go
forward. They are not anxious to have
God honored. It shows that they are not
motivated by the love of holiness, but only by a compassion for sinners.
In
my next lecture, I propose to show you how people whose religion is selfish may
become truly religious.