Worldly men......

Worldly men varnished over with religion

(Horatius Bonar, "Christ and the World")

"Having a form of godliness but denying its power."
2 Timothy 3:5

There are many religious professors, whose object
seems to be, to get hold of both worlds. They want
as much of worldly comfort and pleasure as will
gratify their carnal tastes. Their life is a
compromise. Their object is . . .
to balance between two adverse interests;
to adjust the conflicting claims of this world
and of the world to come;
to please and to serve two masters;
to gratify two tastes;
to walk in two opposite ways at once;
to secure the friendship of the world without
losing the friendship of God.

These are, in fact, worldly men varnished over
with religion--that is all. There are many of these
in our day, when religion is fashionable. They have
never broken with sin, nor crucified self, nor taken
up the cross. Their heart is not right with God.

Some of these are people who have been brought
up in worldliness, and who have, as they grew up,
added a little religion to their worldliness--to
make it respectable. They have merely 'religionized
the outer man'--leaving the inner man unmelted,
unbroken, and unrenewed. They have passed
through a certain religious process--but not
experienced the heavenly change, without
which they cannot enter the kingdom of God.
There has been . . .
no broken-heartedness;
no breaking off from sin;
no surrender of the soul to God;
no crucifixion of the old man;
no resurrection to newness of life.

After a while, in such cases, a deep and fixed
'formalism' settles in. Earnestness has faded away,
and left nothing but its dregs. The soul has become
sapless and insensible. The edge of feeling, both
upon heart and conscience, has become blunted.
The 'routine of religion' is still gone through, and
the 'profession' still kept up; but all within is dried
up and withered . . .
there is no enjoyment of spiritual things;
the service of God is a burden;
praise and prayer are irksome;
sermons and sacraments are wearisome;
and the poor professor moves on in his heartless
career. Outwardly he is still religious--but at heart
he is unspiritual and worldly.

These are the 'ambiguous disciples' of our age,
who belong to Christ only in name. These are the
stony-ground or thorny-ground hearers. Such a
man's whole religious life is one grand delusion;
and every step he takes in it is a blunder, and a
stumble, and a snare. Let such a man know that,
in his present half-worldly, half-religious condition,
he has no real religion at all. It is a fabrication,
a delusion.

O worldly formalist, fling away your vain hopes!
Give up your fond idea of securing both earth and
heaven. Go straight to Calvary; there be crucified
to the world, and the world to you, by the cross of
Christ. Go straight to Him who died and rose again,
and drink into His love. One draught, no, one drop
of that love will forever quench your love of sin,
and be the death of that worldliness which
threatens to be your eternal ruin!

If you wish to become weak-headed,
unstable, and good for nothing

(Harvey Newcomb, "The Young Lady's Guide to the
Harmonious Development of Christian Character" 1843)

Novel reading produces a morbid appetite for mental
excitement. The object of the novelist generally is, to
produce the highest possible degree of excitement,
both of the mind and the passions. The effect is very
similar to that of intoxicating liquors on the body.
Hence the confirmed novel reader becomes a kind
of literary inebriate, to whom the things of eternity
have no attractions, and whose thirst cannot be slaked,
even with the water of life.

Novel reading is a great waste of time. Few will pretend
that they read novels with any higher end in view than
mere amusement. If anything valuable is to be derived
from them, it may be obtained with far less expense of
time, and with safety to the morals, from other sources.
No Christian, who feels the obligation of "redeeming the
time because the days are evil," will fail to feel the force
of this remark. We have no more right to squander our
time and waste our energies in frivolous pursuits--than
we have to waste our money in extravagant expenditures!
We are as much the stewards of God in respect to the
one as the other. How dangerous thus to parley with
temptation!

If you wish to become weak-headed, unstable,
and good for nothing--read novels!

Mr. Hall comments--"If we would divide the novels of the
present day into a thousand parts; five hundred of these
parts must be at once condemned as so contemptibly
frivolous as to render the perusal of them a most
criminal waste of time!

Four hundred and ninety-nine of the remaining five
hundred parts are positively corrupting in their influence.
They are as full of representations which can have no other
tendency than to mislead, corrupt, and destroy--those who
habitually peruse them.

Perhaps highest merit than that can be attributed to novels,
by some, is that they are 'innocent and amusing compositions.'
This merit, small as it is, is greater than can be conceded. All
books are not innocent which may be exempt from the charge
of disseminating secularism and licentiousness. If they . . .
convey false impressions of life,
excite a distaste for its duties, and
divert the mind from real life to fantasies,
they are decidedly pernicious. This, to a greater or less
extent, is the effect of all novels. Every discerning reader
knows this to be the fact."

Hannah More comments--"Novels, however free from
evil in their more gross and palpable shapes, yet, from
their very nature and constitution, they diminish sober
mindedness. At best, they feed habits of improper
indulgence, while nourishing a vain and visionary
indolence, which lays the mind open to error, and
the heart to seduction!"

(Richard Baxter, "The Sinfulness of Flesh-Pleasing")

Remember your death. Go to the grave, and see there
the end of fleshly pleasure--and what is all that it
will do for you at the last. One would think this would
cure the mad desire of plenty and pleasure--to see
where all our wealth, and mirth, and sport, and pleasure
must be buried at last!

When the honey is all sucked!

(James, "The Christian Father's Present to His Children")

Love of worldly pleasure is a great impediment
to true piety. It has been most wickedly said,
"Youth is the time for pleasure,
manhood is the time for business,
old age is the time for religion."
It is painful to observe, that if the two latter parts
of human life are neglected, the first is not.

Young people too often answer the description given by
the apostle, "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."

In youth, there are many temptations to this wicked
propensity . . .
the senses are vigorous,
the spirits lively,
the imagination ardent,
the passions warm, and
the concerns of life but few and feeble.

Hence many give themselves up to the impulses of their
corrupt nature, and are held in alienation from a life of
piety--by a love of pleasure. Some are carried away by
a vain and frivolous love of dress and show; others by
a delight in mirth and parties; others by games, balls,
and theatrical performances; others by the sports of
the field; others by intemperance and debauchery.

It is admitted that all these gratifications are not equally
degrading in themselves--nor equally destructive of
reputation and health. But if indulged in as the chief
good, they may all prevent the mind from attending
to the concerns of true religion.

A predominant love of worldly pleasure, of any kind--is
destructive in every point of view. It often leads on from
gratifications which, in the opinion of the world, are decent
and moral--to those which are wicked and immoral. It is
incompatible with the duties and comforts of domestic life.
It hinders the improvement of the understanding, and keeps
the mind barren and empty. It prevents from becoming the
benefactors of society. But its greatest mischief is, that it
totally indisposes the mind for true religion, and thus extends
its mischief to eternity! In short, if a predominant love of
worldly pleasure is cherished and persisted in, it ruins
and damns the soul forever!

My children, beware of this most dangerous propensity for
worldly pleasure! Consider where it leads--resist it to the
uttermost--and ask grace from God to acquire a better taste.

Yes, if you live for worldly pleasure, and neglect true religion,
you are giving up an exceeding great and eternal weight of
glory--for light and frivolous gratifications, which are but for
a moment! You are, for the sake of a few years' empty mirth,
entailing everlasting ages of unmitigated torments!

Besides, though worldly pleasure may temporarily gratify
--it does not really satisfy! When the honey is all sucked
--it leaves a sting behind!

And what are the pleasures of the world, compared with
those of true piety?
But the shadow to the substance;
the stagnant pool to the fresh and running fountain;
the smoking candle to the midday sun!

Shall worldly pleasure cheat you of eternal salvation?

The world

(Henry Law, "Gleanings from the Book of Life")

The world forges chains to bind its captives.

The world is confessedly the enemy of God-
"The friendship of the world is enmity with God."

The exhortation is clear, "Do not love the world
or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15

The power of this tyrant is mainly in its
fascinating arts.

The world coaxes, it entices, it allures.

The world presents attractive baits.

The world shows its votaries decked in
enchanting guise.

The world presents goblets filled to the
brim with intoxicating draughts.

The world points to the merry laugh and
noisy revelries of its infatuated crowds.

The world uses ridicule and scorn to deter
those who venture to prefer another path.

Frightful are its triumphs!

How many have fallen slain at its feet!

How many throng the cells of hell, enticed
and ruined by its fascinations!

From this enemy Jesus makes the believer free.
He sends His Holy Spirit, and then the enslaving
chain is broken.

He tears the deceiving mask from the world's
features, and shows its native hideousness.

He exposes . . .
its hollow insipidity,
its utter emptiness,
its thorough insufficiency to give real peace.

The believer sees that all its ways lead
to disappointment and to shame.

He mourns the folly of ever yielding to its poor fallacies.

These modern playthings

(A. W. Tozer, 1897-1963)

"After He had sent the multitudes away, He went up
into the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening
had come, He was there alone." Matthew 14:23

Modern civilization is so complex as to make the
devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out
by multiplying distractions, and beats us down by
destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might
drink and renew our strength before going out to
face the world again.

Where is the solitude to which we can retire today?

Science, which has provided men with certain material
comforts, has robbed them of their souls by surrounding
them with a world hostile to their existence. "Commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still" is a wise
and healing counsel. But how can it be followed in this
day of the newspaper, the telephone, the radio and the
television? These modern playthings, like pet tiger-cubs,
have grown so large and dangerous that they threaten
to devour us all!

No spot is now safe from the world's intrusion!

"After He had sent the multitudes away, He went up
into the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening
had come, He was there alone." Matthew 14:23

Church entertainment?

Whatever means you use to get people into the church
is precisely what you must use to keep them.

If you get them with a 'religious circus', then you
must keep the circus going--keep up the entertainment.
If you get them with biblical preaching and teaching, then
that will keep them and you will not need the entertainment.

-Ernest Reisinger

Whilst I haven't read every post in this thread, the one by Ernest Reisinger says so much.

God never intended for the church to become a center for entertainment.

Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel, not, get people into a church building and entertain them.

How we must grieve and anger God when we ignore what He has said and do our own thing.

It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10v31.

So how is it that the church today seems to have no remote sense of what the fear of God means?

Where has the fear of God gone?

God bless.