Warnings To the Churches – All Kinds of Strange Teachings - John Charles Ryle

“Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.
It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace,
not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those
who eat them” (Hebrews 13:9)

The text which heads this paper is an apostolic caution against false
doctrine. It forms part of a warning which Paul addressed to Hebrew
Christians. It is a caution just as much needed now as it was eighteen
hundred years ago. Never, I think, was it so important for Christian
ministers to cry aloud continually, “Do not be carried away.”

That old enemy of mankind, the devil, has no more subtle instrument for
ruining souls than that of spreading false doctrine. “A murderer and a
liar from the beginning. . . .your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Outside the Church he is
ever persuading men to maintain outrageous customs and destructive
superstitions. Human sacrifice to idols, gross revolting, cruel,
disgusting worship of abominable false deities, persecution, slavery,
cannibalism, child murder, devastating religious wars–all these are a
part of Satan’s handiwork, and the fruit of his suggestions. Like a
pirate, his object is to “sink, burn, and destroy.” Inside the Church he
is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to foster
departures from the faith. If he cannot prevent the waters flowing from
the Fountain of Life, he tries hard to poison them. If he cannot destroy
the remedy of the Gospel, he strives to adulterate and corrupt it. No
wonder that he is called “Apollyon, the destroyer.”

The Divine Comforter of the Church, the Holy Spirit, has always employed
one great agent to oppose Satan’s plans. That agent is the Word of God.
The Word expounded and unfolded, the Word explained and opened up, the
Word made clear to the head and applied to the heart. The Word is the
chosen weapon by which the devil must be confronted and confounded. The
Word was the sword which the Lord Jesus wielded in the temptation. To
every assault of the Tempter, He replied, “It is written.” The Word is
the sword which His ministers must use in the present day, if they would
successfully resist the devil. The Bible, faithfully and freely
expounded, is the safeguard of Christ’s Church.

I desire to remember this lesson, and to invite attention to the text
which stands at the head of this paper. We live in an age when men
profess to dislike dogmas and creeds, and are filled with a morbid
dislike to controversial theology. He who dares to say of one doctrine
that “it is true,” and of another that “it is false,” must expect to be
called narrow-minded and uncharitable, and to lose the praise of men.
Nevertheless, the Scripture was not written in vain. Let us examine the
mighty lessons contained in Paul’s words to the Hebrews. They are
lessons for us as well as for them.

I. First, we have here a broad warning: “Do not be carried away by all
kinds of strange teachings.”

II. Secondly, we have here a valuable prescription: “It is good for our
hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods.”

III. Lastly, we have here an instructive fact: “Ceremonial foods are of
no value to those who eat them.”

On each of these points I have something to say. If we patiently plow up
this field of truth, we shall find that there is precious treasure hidden
in it.

1. First comes the broad warning. “Do not be not carried away by all
kinds of strange teachings.”

The meaning of these words is not a hard thing to understand. “Be not
tossed back and forth,” the Apostle seems to say, “by every blast of
false teaching, like ships without compass or rudder. False doctrines
will arise as long as the world lasts, in many numbers, with varying
minor details, in one point alone always the same–strange, new, foreign,
and departing from the Gospel of Christ. They do exist now. They will
always be found within the visible Church. Remember this, and do not be
carried away.” Such is Paul’s warning.

The Apostle’s warning does not stand alone. Even in the midst of the
Sermon on the Mount there fell from the loving lips of our Savior a
solemn caution: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15).
Even in Paul’s last address to the Ephesian elders, he finds time to warn
his friends against false doctrine: “Even from your own number men will
arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them”
(Acts 20:30).

Note what the Second Epistle to the Corinthians says: “I am afraid that
just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow
be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ”
(2 Corinthians 11:3). Note what the Epistle to the Galatians says: “I am
astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by
the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” “Who has
bewitched you?” “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to
attain your goal by human effort?” “How is it that you are turning back
to those weak and miserable principles?” “You are observing special days
and months and seasons and years!” “I fear for you.” “Stand firm, then,
and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
(Galatians 1:6; 3:1, 3; 4:9, 10, 11; 5:1).

Note what the Epistle to the Ephesians says: “No longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every
wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). Note what the Epistle to the
Colossians says: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow
and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic
principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Note
what the First Epistle to Timothy says: “The Spirit clearly says that in
later times some will abandon the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1). Note what the
Second Epistle of Peter says: “There will be false teachers among you.
They will secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). Note
what the First Epistle of John says: “Do not believe every spirit. Many
false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Note what the
Epistle of Jude says: “Contend for the faith that was once for all
entrusted to the saints. For certain men have secretly slipped in among
you” (Jude 1:3, 4). These things were written for our learning.

What shall we say about these texts? How they may strike others I cannot
say. I only know how they strike me. To tell us, as some do, in the
face of these texts, that the early Churches were a model of perfection
and purity, is absurd even in Apostolic days, its appears, there were
abundant errors both in doctrine and practice. To tell us, as others do,
that pastors ought never to handle controversial subjects, and never to
warn their people against erroneous views, is senseless and unreasonable.
If we did this then we would have to ignore most of the New Testament.
Surely the dumb dog and the sleeping shepherd are the best allies of the
wolf, the thief, and the robber. It is not for nothing that Paul says,
“If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good
minister of Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 4:6).

A plain warning against false doctrine is especially needed in the
present day. The school of the Pharisees, and the school of the
Sadducees, those ancient mothers of all mischief, were never more active
than they are now.

–Between men adding to the truth on one side, and men taking away from
it on the other.

–Between those who bury truth under additions, and those who mutilate it
by subtractions.

–Between superstition and infidelity.

–Between Roman Catholicism and neology [New Theology].

–Between Ritualism and Rationalism.

Between these upper and lower millstones the Gospel is near being crushed
to death! Strange views are continually propounded by pastors about
subjects of the deepest importance. About the atonement, the divinity of
Christ, the inspiration of the Bible, the reality of miracles, the
eternity of future punishment, about the Church, the ministerial office,
the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, the confessional, the honor due to the
Virgin, prayers for the dead. About all these things there is nothing
too outrageous to be taught by some ministers in these latter days. By
the pen and by the tongue, by the press and by the pulpit, the country is
incessantly deluged with a flood of erroneous opinions. To ignore the
fact is mere blindness. Others see it, even if we pretend to be ignorant
of it. The danger is real, great, and unmistakable. Never was it so
needful to say, “Do not be carried away.”

Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine
peculiarly dangerous. There is an undeniable zeal in some of the
teachers of error: their “earnestness” makes many think they must be
right. There is a great appearance of learning and theological
knowledge: many fancy that such clever and intellectual men must surely
be safe guides. There is a general tendency to free thought and free
inquiry in these latter days: many like to prove their independence of
judgment, by believing novelties. There is a wide-spread desire to
appear charitable and liberal-minded: many seem half ashamed of saying
that anybody can be in the wrong. There is a quantity of half-truth
taught by the modern false teachers: they are incessantly using
Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense. There is a morbid
craving in the public mind for a more sensuous, ceremonial, sensational,
showy worship: men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work. There
is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks
cleverly, lovingly, and earnestly, and a determination to forget that
Satan often masquerades himself “as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians
11:14). There is a wide-spread “gullibility” among professing
Christians: every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be
believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a
narrow-minded man. All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times.
I defy any observing person to deny them. They tend to make the assaults
of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more
than ever needful to cry aloud, “Do not be carried away!”

If any one should ask me, What is the best safeguard against false
doctrine?–I answer in one word, “The Bible: the Bible regularly read,
regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” We must go back to the old
prescription of our Master: “Diligently study the Scriptures” (John
5:39). If we want a weapon to wield against the plans of Satan, there is
nothing like “the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.” But to wield it
successfully, we must read it habitually, diligently, intelligently, and
prayerfully. This is a point on which, I fear, many fail. In an age of
hurry and activity, few read their Bibles as much as they should. More
books perhaps are read than ever, but less of the one Book which makes
man wise to salvation. The Roman Catholic Church and new theology could
never have made such havoc in the Church in the last fifty years, if
there had not been a most superficial knowledge of the Scriptures
throughout the land. A Bible-reading congregation is the strength of a
Church.

“Diligently study the Scriptures.” Mark how the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Apostles continually refer to the Old Testament, as a document just
as authoritative as the New. Mark how they quote texts from the Old
Testament, as the voice of God, as if every word was given by
inspiration. Mark how the greatest miracles in the Old Testament are all
referred to in the New, as unquestioned and unquestionable facts. Mark
how all the leading events in the Pentateuch are incessantly named as
historical events, whose reality admits of no dispute. Mark how the
atonement, and substitution, and sacrifice, run through the whole Bible
from first to last, as essential doctrines of revelation. Mark how the
resurrection of Christ, the greatest of all miracles, is proved by such
an overwhelming mass of evidence, that he who disbelieves it may as well
say he will believe no evidence at all. Mark all these things, and you
will find it very hard to be a Rationalist! Great are the difficulties
of unbelief: it requires more faith to be an unbeliever than a Christian.
But greater still are the difficulties of Rationalism. Free handling of
Scripture–results of modern criticism–broad and liberal theology–all
these are fine, swelling, high-sounding phrases, which please some minds,
and look very grand at a distance. But the man who looks below the
surface of things will soon find that there is no sure standing-ground
between ultra-Rationalism and Atheism.

“Diligently study the Scriptures.” Mark what a conspicuous absence there
is in the New Testament of what may be called the Sacramental system, and
the whole circle of Ritualistic theology. Mark how extremely little
there is said about the effects of Baptism. Mark how very seldom the
Lord’s Supper is mentioned in the Epistles. Find, if you can, a single
text in which New Testament ministers are called sacrificing priests, or
the Lord’s Supper is called a sacrifice, or private confession to
ministers is recommended and practiced. Turn, if you can, to one single
verse in which sacrificial vestments are named as desirable, or in which
lighted candles, and pots of flowers on the Lord’s Table, or processions,
and incense, and flags, and banners, and turning to the east, and bowing
down to the bread and wine, or prayer to the Virgin Mary and the angels,
are sanctioned. Mark these things well, and you will find it very hard
to be a Ritualist! You may find your authority for Ritualism in garbled
quotations from the Fathers, in long extracts from monkish, mystical, or
from Popes; but you certainly will not find it in the Bible. Between the
plain Bible, honestly and fairly interpreted, and extreme Ritualism there
is gulf which cannot be passed.

“If we would not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings,” we
must remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Diligently study the
Scriptures.” Ignorance of the Bible is the root of all error. Knowledge
of the Bible is the best antidote against modern heresies.

II. I now proceed to examine Paul’s valuable prescription: “It is good
for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods.”

There are two words in this prescription which require a little
explanation. A right understanding of them is absolutely essential to a
proper use of the Apostle’s advice. One of these words is “foods,” and
the other is “grace.”

To see the full force of the word “foods” we must remember the immense
importance attached by many Jewish Christians to the distinctions of the
ceremonial law about food. The flesh of some animals and birds,
according to Leviticus, might be eaten, and that of others might not be
eaten. Some foods were, consequently, called “clean,” and others were
called “unclean.” To eat certain kinds of flesh made a Jew ceremonially
unholy before God, and no strict Jew would touch and eat such food on any
account. Now were these distinctions still to be kept up after Christ
ascended into heaven, or were they done away by the Gospel? Were heathen
converts under any obligation to attend to the ceremonial of the
Levitical law about food? Were Jewish Christians obliged to be as strict
about the foods they ate as they were before Christ died, and the veil of
the temple was torn in two? Was the ceremonial law about foods entirely
done away, or was it not? Was the conscience of a believer in the Lord
Jesus to be troubled with fear lest his food should defile him?

Questions like these appear to have formed one of the great subjects of
controversy in the Apostolic times. As is often the case, they assumed a
place entirely out of proportion to their real importance. The Apostle
Paul found it needful to handle the subject in no less than three of his
Epistles to the Churches. “Food,” he says, “does not bring us near to
God.” “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.” “Do
not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink.” (1 Corinthians 8:8;
Romans 14:17; Colossians 2:16). Nothing shows the fallen nature of man
so clearly as the readiness of morbid and scrupulous consciences to turn
trifles into serious things. At last the controversy seems to have
spread so far and obtained such dimensions, that “foods” became an
expression to denote anything ceremonial added to the Gospel as a thing
of primary importance, any Ritual trifle thrust out of its lawful place
and magnified into an essential of religion. In this sense, I believe,
the word must be taken in the text now before us. By “foods” Paul means
ceremonial observances, either wholly invented by man, or else built on
Mosaic precepts which have been abrogated and superseded by the Gospel.
It is an expression which was well understood in the Apostolic days.

The word “grace,” on the other hand, seems to be employed as a
comprehensive description of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. Of that
glorious Gospel, grace is the main feature, grace in the original scheme,
grace in the execution, grace in the application to man’s soul. Grace is
the fountain of life from which our salvation flows. Grace is the agency
through which our spiritual life is kept up.

Are we justified? It is by grace.
Are we called? It is by grace.
Have we forgiveness? It is through the riches of grace.
Have we good hope? It is through grace.
Do we believe? It is through grace.
Are we elect? It is by the election of grace.
Are we saved? It is by grace.

Why should I say more? The time would fail me to exhibit fully the part
that grace does in the whole work of redemption. No wonder that Paul
says to the Romans, “We are not under the law, but under grace;” and
tells Titus, “The grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men.” (Romans 3:24; Galatians 1:15; Ephesians 1:7;
2Thessalonians 2:16; Acts 18:27; Romans 1:15; Ephesians 2:5; Romans 6:15;
Titus 2:11).

Such are the two great principles which Paul puts in strong contrast
in the prescription we are now considering. He places opposite to one
another “foods” and “grace” –Ceremonialism and the Gospel–Ritualism and
the free love of God in Christ Jesus. And then he lays down the great
principle that it is by “grace,” and “not foods,” that the heart is
strengthened.

Now “strengthening of the heart” is one of the great wants of many
professing Christians. Especially is it longed after by those whose
knowledge is imperfect, and whose conscience is half enlightened. Such
persons often feel in themselves much indwelling sin, and at the same
time see very indistinctly God’s remedy and Christ’s fullness. Their
faith is feeble, their hope dim, and their consolations small. They want
to realize more tangible comfort. They fancy they ought to feel more and
see more. They are not at ease. They cannot attain to joy and peace in
believing. Where shall they turn? What shall set their consciences at
rest? Then comes the enemy of souls, and suggests some shortcut road to
establishment. He hints at the value of some addition to the simple plan
of the Gospel, some man-made gimmick, some exaggeration of a truth, some
flesh-satisfying invention, some improvement on the old path, and
whispers, “Only use this, and you shall be strengthened.” Plausible
offers flow in at the same time from every quarter, like quack medicines.
Each has its own patrons and advocates. On every side the poor unstable
soul hears invitations to move in some particular direction, and then
shall come perfect strength.

“Come to us,” says the Roman Catholic. “Join the Catholic Church, the
Church on the Rock, the one, true, holy Church; the Church that cannot
err. Come to her bosom, and rest your soul in her protection. Come to
us, and you will find strength.”

“Come to us,” says the extreme Ritualist. “You need higher and fuller
views of the priesthood and the Sacraments, of the Real Presence in the
Lord’s Supper, of the soothing influence of daily service, daily masses,
confession to priests, and priestly absolution. Come and take up sound
Church views, and you will find strength.”

“Come to us,” says the violent Liberationist. “Cast off the traditions
and rules of established Churches. Enjoy religious liberty. Throw away
forms and Prayer-books. Join our party. Cast in your lot with us, and
you will soon
be strengthened.”

“Come to us,” say the Plymouth Brethren. “Shake off all the bondage of
creeds and Churches and systems. We will soon show you higher, deeper,
more exalting, more enlightened views of truth. Join the brethren, and
you will soon be strengthened.”

“Come to us,” says the Rationalist. “Lay aside the old worn-out clothes
of unfruitful schemes of Christianity. Give your reason free scope and
play. Begin a freer mode of handling Scripture. Be no more a slave to
an ancient old world book. Break your chains and you shall be
strengthened.”

Every experienced Christian knows well that such appeals are constantly
made to unsettled minds in the present day? Who has not seen that, when
boldly and confidently made, they produce a painful effect on some
people? Who has not observed that they often beguile unstable souls, and
lead them into misery for years?

“What does the Scripture say?” This is the only sure guide. Hear what
Paul says. Heart strength is not to be obtained by joining this party or
that. It comes “by grace, and not by foods.” Other things have a “show
of wisdom” perhaps, and give a temporary satisfaction “to the flesh.”
(Colossians 2:23). But they have no healing power about them in reality,
and leave the unhappy man who trusts them nothing bettered, but rather
worse.

A clearer knowledge of the Divine scheme of grace, its eternal purposes,
its application to man by Christ’s redeeming work, a firmer grasp of the
doctrine of grace, of God’s free love in Christ, of Christ’s full and
complete satisfaction for sin, of justification by simple faith, a more
intimate acquaintance with Christ the Giver and Fountain of grace, His
offices, His sympathy, His power, a more thorough experience of the
inward work of grace in the heart, this, this, this is the grand secret
of heart strength. This is the old path of peace. This is the true
panacea for restless consciences. It may seem at first too simple, too
easy, too cheap, too commonplace, too plain. But all the wisdom of man
will never show the heavy-laden a better road to heart-rest. Secret
pride and self-righteousness, I fear, are too often the reason why this
good old road is not used.

I believe there never was a time when it was more needful to uphold the
old Apostolic prescription than it is in the present day. Never were
there so many weak and worried Christians wandering about, and tossed to
and fro, from want of knowledge. Never was it so important for faithful
ministers to set the trumpet to their mouths and proclaim everywhere,
“Grace, grace, grace, not foods, establishes the heart.”

From the days of the Apostles there have never been a lack of quack
spiritual doctors, who have professed to heal the wounds of conscience
with man-made remedies. In our own beloved Church there have always been
some who have in heart turned back to Egypt, and, not content with the
simplicity of our worship, have hankered after the ceremonial fleshpots
of the Catholic Church of Rome. To hear the Sacraments incessantly
exalted, and preaching played down, to see the Lord’s Supper turned into
an idol under the pretext of making it more honorable, to find plain
worship overlaid with so many newfangled ornaments and ceremonies that
its essentials are quite buried, how common is all this! These things
were once a pestilence that walked in darkness. They are now a
destruction that wastes in noonday. They are the joy of our enemies, the
sorrow of the Church’s best children, the damage of English Christianity,
the plague of our times. And to what may they all be traced? The
neglect and the forgetfulness of Paul’s simple prescription: “Grace, and
not foods, strengthens the heart.”

Let us take heed that in our own personal religion, grace is all. Let us
have clear systematic views of the Gospel of the grace of God. Nothing
else will do good in the hour of sickness, in the day of trial, on the
bed of death, and in the swellings of Jordan. Christ dwelling in our
hearts by faith, Christ’s free grace the only foundation under the soles
of our feet–this alone will give peace. Once let in self, and forms,
and man’s inventions, as a necessary part of our religion, and we are on
a quicksand. We may be amused, excited, or kept quiet for a time, like
children with toys, by a religion of “foods.” Such a religion has “a
show of wisdom.” But unless our religion be one in which “grace” is all,
we shall never feel strengthened.

III. In the last place, I proceed to examine the instructive fact which
Paul records. He says, “Ceremonial foods are of no value to those who
eat them.”

We have no means of knowing whether the Apostle, in using this language,
referred to any particular Churches or individuals. Of course it is
possible that he had in view the Judaizing Christians of Antioch and
Galatia, or the Ephesians of whom he speaks to Timothy in his pastoral
Epistle, or the Colossians who caused him so much inward conflict, or the
Hebrew believers in every Church, without exception. It seems to me far
more probable, however, that he had no particular Church or Churches in
view. I rather think that he makes a broad, general, sweeping statement
about all who in any place had exalted ceremonial at the expense of the
doctrines of “grace.” And he makes a wide declaration about them all.
They have got no good from their favorite notions. They have not been
more inwardly happy, more outwardly holy, or more generally useful.
Their religion has been most unprofitable to them. Man-made alterations
of God’s precious medicine for sinners, man-made additions to Christ’s
glorious Gospel, however superficially defended and plausibly supported,
do no real good to those that adopt them. They confer no increased
inward comfort; they bring no growth of real holiness: they give no
enlarged usefulness to the Church and the world. Calmly, quietly, and
mildly, but firmly, decidedly, and unflinchingly, the assertion is made,
“Ceremonial foods are of no value to those who eat them.”

The whole stream of Church history abundantly confirms the truth of the
Apostle’s position. Who has not heard of the hermits and ascetics of the
early centuries? Who has not heard of the monks and nuns and recluses of
the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages? Who has not heard of the
burning zeal, the devoted self-denial of Romanists like Xavier, and
Ignatius Loyola? The earnestness, the fervor, the self-sacrifice of all
these classes, are matters beyond dispute. But none who read carefully
and intelligently the records of their lives, yes, some of the best of
them, can fail to see that they had no solid peace or inward rest of
soul. Their very feverish restlessness is enough to show that their
conscience; were not at ease. None can fail to see that, with all their
furious zeal and self-denial, they never did much good to the world.
They gathered round themselves admiring partisans. They left a high
reputation for self-denial and sincerity. They made men wonder at them
while they lived, and sometimes canonize them when they died. But they
did nothing to convert souls. And what is the reason of this? They
attached an overweening importance to man-made ritual and ceremonial, and
made less than they ought to have done of the Gospel of the grace of God.
Their principle was to make much of “ceremony,” and little of “grace.”
Hence they verified the words of Paul, “Ceremonial foods are of no value
to those who eat them.”

The very history of our own times bears a striking testimony to the truth
of Paul’s assertion. In the last twenty-five years some scores of
clergymen have seceded from the Church of England, and joined the Church
of Rome. They wanted more of what they called Catholic doctrine and
Catholic ceremonial. They honestly acted up to their principles, and
went over to Rome. They were not all weak, and illiterate, and second-
rate, and inferior men; several of them were men of commanding talents,
whose gifts would have won for them a high position in any profession.
Yet what have they gained by the step they have taken? What profit have
they found in leaving “grace” for “ceremonies,” in exchanging
Protestantism for Catholicism? Have they attained a higher standard of
holiness? Have they procured for themselves a greater degree of
usefulness? Let one of themselves supply an answer. Mr. Ffoulkes, a
leading man in the party, within the last few years has openly declared
that the preaching of some of his fellow “Perverts” is not so powerful as
it was when they were English Churchmen, and that the highest degree of
holy living he has ever seen is not within the pale of Rome, but in the
quiet parsonages and unpretending family-life of godly English clergymen!
Intentionally or not intentionally, wittingly or unwittingly, meaning it
or not meaning it, nothing can be more striking than the testimony Mr.
Ffoulkes bears to the truth of the Apostle’s assertion: “Ceremonial foods
do not profit” even those who make much ado about them. The religious
system which exalts ceremonial and man-made ritual does no real good to
its adherents, compared to the simple old Gospel of the grace of God.

Let us turn now, for a few moments, to the other side of the picture, and
see what “grace” has done. Let us hear how profitable the doctrines of
the Gospel have proved to those who have clung firmly to them, and have
not tried to mend and improve and patch them up by adding, as essentials,
the “foods” of man-made ceremonies.

It was “grace, and not foods,” that made Martin Luther do the work that
he did in the world. The key to all his success was his constant
declaration of justification by faith, without the deeds of the law.
This was the truth which enabled him to break the chains of Rome, and let
light into Europe.

It was “grace, and not ceremonial foods,” that made our English martyrs,
Latimer and Hooper, exercise so mighty an influence in life, and shine so
brightly in death. They saw clearly, and taught plainly, the true
priesthood of Christ, and salvation only by grace. They honored God’s
grace, and God put honor on them.

It was “grace, and not ceremonial foods,” that made Romaine and Venn, and
their companions, turn the world upside down in England, one hundred
years ago. In themselves they were not men of extraordinary learning or
intellectual power. But they revived and brought out again the real pure
doctrines of grace.

It was “grace, and not ceremonial foods,” that made Simeon and Daniel
Wilson and Bickersteth such striking instruments of usefulness in the
first half of the present century. God’s free grace was the great truth
on which they relied, and continually brought forward. For so doing God
put honor on them. They made much of God’s grace, and the God of grace
made much of them.

The list of ministerial biographies tells a striking tale. Who are those
who have shaken the world, and left their mark on their generation, and
aroused consciences, and converted sinners, and edified saints? Not
those who have made asceticism, and ceremonials, and sacraments, and
services, and ordinances the main thing; but those who have made most of
God’s free grace! In a day of strife, and controversy, and doubt, and
perplexity, men forget this. Facts are stubborn things. Let us look
calmly at them, and be not moved by those who tell us that daily
services, processions, incense, bowings, crossings, confessions,
absolutions, and the like, are the secret of a prosperous Christianity.
Let us look at plain facts. Facts in old history, and facts in modern
days, facts in every part of England, support the assertion of Paul. The
religion of “ceremonial foods” does “not profit those that are occupied
therein.” It is the religion of grace that brings inward peace, outward
holiness, and general usefulness.

Let me wind up this paper with a few words of practical application. We
are living in an age of peculiar religious danger. I am quite sure that
the advice I am going to offer deserves serious attention.

(1) In the first place, let us not be surprised at the rise and progress
of false doctrine. It is a thing as old as the old Apostles. It began
before they died. They predicted that there would be plenty of it before
the end of the world. It is wisely ordered of God for the testing of our
grace, and to prove who has real faith. If there were no such thing as
false doctrine or heresy upon earth, I should begin to think the Bible
was not true.

(2) In the next place, let us make up our minds to resist false doctrine,
and not to be carried away by fashion and bad example. Let us not
flinch, because all around us, high and low, rich and poor, are swept
away, like geese in a flood, before a torrent of Catholicism. Let us be
firm and stand our ground.

Let us resist false doctrine, and contend earnestly for the faith once
delivered to the saints. Let us not be ashamed of showing our colors and
standing out for New Testament truth. Let us not be stopped by the
cuckoo cry of “controversy.” The thief likes dogs that do not bark, and
watchmen that give no alarm. The devil is a thief and a robber. If we
hold our peace, and do not resist false doctrine, we please him and
displease God.

(3) In the next place, let us try to preserve the old Protestant
principles of the Church, and to hand them down uninjured to our
children’s children. Let us not listen to those faint-hearted Churchmen
who would have us forsake the ship, and desert the Church in her time of
need.

(4) In the last place, let us make sure work of our own personal
salvation. Let us seek to know and feel that we ourselves are “saved.”
The day of controversy is always a day of spiritual peril. Men are apt
to confound orthodoxy with conversion, and to fancy that they must go to
heaven if they know how to answer Catholic Priests. Yet mere earnestness
without knowledge, and mere head-knowledge of Protestantism, alike save
none. Let us never forget this.

Let us not rest till we feel the blood of Christ sprinkled on our
consciences, and have the witness of the Spirit within us that we are
born again. This is reality. This is true religion. This will last.
This will never fail us. It is the possession of grace in the heart, and
not the intellectual knowledge of it, that profits and saves the soul.

John Charles Ryle