WHOLEHEARTED RELIGION – Charles Spurgeon
WHOLEHEARTED RELIGION
“And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.” Jeremiah 32:39.
Those of you who were present last Lord’s-Day morning will remember my sermon upon “Mongrel Religion” [Sermon #1622], in which I dealt with those who feared the Lord and served other gods. Their heart was divided and, therefore, they were found faulty. They had, as the Hebrew puts it, a heart and a heart—a heart that went this way and a heart that went the other way. And so, as a matter of fact, they became, as the Prophet says, as “a silly dove that has no heart.” The discourse of this morning is intended to exhibit wholehearted religion, which is the opposite of the sad mixture we have so lately denounced. We wish to look upon persons of Caleb’s stamp, who followed the Lord fully—in whom, by the grace of God, the divided heart has become united—so that with their whole heart they serve the Lord their God.
Our text is an extract from Jeremiah’s copy of the Covenant of Grace. The Lord promIses to Israel, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” And in the 40th verse, He says, “And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.” This, then, is the Covenant of Grace which God has made with His people, and it is highly suggestive that the first blessing of it relates to the heart. For God, when He begins with men, does not begin with the outward way, but with the inward spirit. He puts it, “I will give them one heart and one way”—the way is second—the heart comes first. Understand, then, that in all true godliness we must begin with heart-work. It is no use hoping to polish the outside until, by degrees, you enlighten the interior. No, but the light must first be placed within and then, as it shines through, spots on the exterior will be discovered and will all the more readily be cleansed away. God works not to the center, but in the center, and then from the center into the outer life.
In reference to the heart, one of the earliest works of divine grace is to unite it in one. Strange to say, but I would be equally truthful if I said that one of the first works of grace is to break the heart—but so paradoxical is man that when his heart is unbroken, it is divided—and when his heart is broken, then, for the first time, it is united. For a broken heart, in every fragment of it, mourns over sin and cries out for mercy. Every shattered particle of a contrite spirit is united in one desire to be reconciled to God. There is no union of the heart with itself till it is broken for sin and from sin. Early in the morning of grace, the man comes to himself and is restored to the unity of his manhood.
The effect of this inner reunion is very salutary. We read of the prodigal that, “when he came to himself,” he said, “I will arise and go to my father.” The heart is united in itself when it is united to the Lord! Even as the Lord has said by the mouth of the Prophet, “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.”
It is of this unitedness of heart that I shall speak first. And then I shall go on to those other Covenant blessings which come after it, according to the text. These are placed after it to show its great value, since it is the first step to exceedingly precious blessings. First, then, we will consider unitedness of heart—“I will give them one heart.” Secondly, the blessing which immediately arises out of it, consistency of walk—“I will give them one way.” From these two come the third blessing, “steadfastness of principle—“that they may fear Me forever.” And consequent upon all this comes personal blessings, “for the good of them.” And attendant upon that favor, relative benediction—“and for the good of their children after them.” Our program is very extensive—may the Spirit of God help us to fill it up.
I. UNITEDNESS OF THE HEART
Our first statement under this head shall be that it is naturally divided. Sin is confusion, and at its entrance, it created a Babel, or a confusion, within the heart of man. Until man sinned, his nature was one and undivided, but the Fall broke him and destroyed his unity. Within him now there are many voices, many imaginations, and many devices. Within him there is strife and contention, wars and fights, which come of his lusts, which struggle with each other and with his understanding.
Observe the contest which is constantly visible between his conscience and his affections. His affections choose that which is evil, while his conscience approves that which is right. The desires go after that which appears to be pleasant, but the judgment warns the mind of its folly, and therefore a controversy between the two powers of the soul. The lusts crave for that which the intellect condemns; the passions demand that which the reason would deny; the will persists in that which the judgment would forego! The ship of our manhood will not obey the helm; there is a mutiny on board, and those powers which should be underlings strive for the mastery.
Man is dragged to and fro by contending forces; conscience draws this way, and the affections drag in the opposite direction. Our propensities and faculties are, by nature, like the crowd in the Ephesian theater, of whom we read, “Some, therefore, cried one thing and some another; for the assembly was confused.” We sin not without some measure of compunction, and we do not quit our sin thoroughly, even when we yield to conscience, for the heart still hankers after that which the conscience disallows. To many a man, it is given to admire things that are excellent and still to delight in things which are abominable! His conscience bids him rise to a pure and noble life, but his baser passions hold him down to that which is earthly and sensual.
Frequently, too, there is a very great division between a man’s inward knowledge and his outward conduct. Men are often wise in the head and foolish in the hand—they know the right and do the wrong! The Law of God is read in their hearing and written upon their memories, and yet it is forgotten in their lives. They are men of great discernment in theory, and yet in their actions, they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter; darkness for light and light for darkness! They sin against the Light of God—“They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”
Often and often the man is as right as Justice, herself, in his opinions, and clear as the day in his information—and yet he gropes as the blind and stumbles at noonday as in the night! His knowledge goes one way, and his will another. He knows the consequences of sin and, therefore, fears! He perceives the pleasureableness or profit of sin and, therefore, presumes! He is sure that he will never be so base as to fall into a certain fault, but, by-and-by, he rushes into it and defends himself for so doing, till he changes his fickle mind—and then he denounces that which just now he allowed!
How can he be right with God when he is not even right with himself? All through the carnal man, if you look at him, there is confusion and mischief! We would call that creature a monster which had its head towards the earth and its feet towards Heaven—and yet the carnal man lives in that position! He ought to tread the world beneath his feet, but he places it above—while the Heaven to which he should aspire, he daily spurns! He lets his animal passions, which should be treated as the dogs of his flock, become his lords and masters. He reverses the order of Nature and bids the beast within him to have dominion over the spirit.
Appetites, which in their way are good if they are kept in with bit and bridle, are permitted to become evil because they have unlimited indulgence and are allowed to be the tyrants of the soul! The Ishmael of the flesh mocks the Isaac of the conscience and is unreproved! Solomon said, “I have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth.” And the same may be seen in the little world within, where appetites rule, and grander capacities are placed in servitude.
Man is a puzzle, and none can put him together but He that made him at the first. He is a self-contradiction, a house divided against itself, a mystery of iniquity, a maze of folly, a mass of perversity, obstinacy, and contention! Sin has made the heart to be so inwardly divided as to be like the troubled sea which cannot rest, or like a cage of unclean birds—every one fighting its fellow—or like a den of wild beasts which cease not to rend each other. When man cast off the yoke of the One God, he fell under bondage to many gods and many lords who struggle for supremacy and make the one kingdom into many rival principalities. Since sin became natural to man, it became natural that man’s heart should be divided.
But it must be united—that is the point and, therefore, the Covenant promise, “I will give them one heart.” For, dear friends, in the matters of godliness, if our heart is not whole and entire in following after God, we cannot meet with acceptance. God never did and never will receive the homage of a divided heart! Alexander, when Darius proposed that the two great monarchs should divide the world, replied that there was only room for one sun in the heavens. What his ambition affirmed, God declares from the necessity of the case. Since one God fills all things, there is no room for another!
It is not possible for a heart to be given up to falsehood and yet to be under the power of truth! It is idle to attempt to serve two such masters as holiness and iniquity. God cannot smile upon an unhallowed compromise and allow men to bow in the house of Rimmon and yet worship in His holy Temple. God will have all or nothing—He will have us only, wholly, altogether, and always His or else He will have nothing to do with us! False gods can bear a divided empire, but the true God cannot have it. You may assemble a parliament of idols, but Jehovah says, “I am God alone.”
II. CONSISTENCY OF WALK
When the heart is united, the man lives for a single objective and that alone. Running in one direction, striving for one purpose, he keeps to the one way which leads to Heaven. As Christ is our one life, so is He our one way. Without this unity, there can be no truth in a man’s life. If he spins by day and unravels at night, he is acting out a falsehood. If he runs to the right while men look at him, but trudges back, again, to the old post, as soon as men’s eyes are taken from him, his life is double-talk—which is but a fine word for a lie! It is a dreadful thing for a man’s word to be a lie, but for a man’s whole life to be a lie is still more horrible. We may have much more of the liar about us than we dream.
Let us see to it and pray God, that, like Nathanael, we may have no guile in us. We may patch up our life with bits of religion and remnants of profession till it becomes like the beggar’s coat, of which no man knows the original—such a garment may be fit for a beggar—but shall we wear it? The seamless garment of the Truth of God, woven from the top throughout, adorns a Christian, but motley raiment proves a man a fool. Unless we follow the Lord with one heart and one way, we shall be found to be liars, after all, and if all liars have their portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the Second Death, what will be his lot whose life was false to itself and false to God?
Inconsistency of behavior shows that the Truth of God is little set by in the heart. We must, dear Friends, have one walk, or else our life will make no progress. He who travels in two opposite directions will find himself not moving forward. How is it that some professors are at much the same place as they occupied 20 years ago? Years have made them more gray, but not more gracious! At night they fastened up their boat in a little creek of the river, and when the tide ran out, they waited and waited until, close to the end of its running—and then they went down a little way with the tide but very soon the stream ceased to turn—and so they drifted back with the flood and hitched up near the same muddy shore as before! Like a pendulum, they travel far, but get no farther! Growth, progress, advancement—none of these can they know, for they are double-minded—and so run to and fro in the earth and wear themselves out with vanity.
Multitudes of people are doing this! They make such progress one Sunday that they resolve, from now on, to live unto God. They begin at a steam engine rate! They plow the sea of life in their eagerness—they are like a vessel which has had new boilers put into her! But by tomorrow where are they? They have burst their boilers, or they have allowed the fires to go out—and from now on they are without spiritual life or motion and lie like logs upon the stream. This will not do! We must have one way of uniform vitality.
I do not say that we can always make apparent progress at the same rate, for powerful undercurrents affect our life and a man may be doing much who is successfully over adverse influences. When a fierce wind is blowing, a captain at the will may be driven on shore if he does not steam right into the teeth of the hurricane.
If he does this, is he not making the surest real progress if he manages to stay where he is and avoid the fatal danger? I say, then, that if we do not seem to advance, we may, nevertheless, in the judgment of God, be making true progress if we resist the mighty impulses which would otherwise hurry us on to destruction. But if we have two ways and steer this way and that way and every way by turns—with the view of pleasing men and making things easy all round—we cannot speed towards the desired haven. We must choose and keep to one way or we cannot attain to usefulness.
III. STEADFASTNESS OF PRINCIPLE
Get the heart and the way right and then the spiritual force of the fear of God will abide in us in all days to come. Notice the basis of true religion—it is the fear of God—it is not said that they shall join a Church, make a profession, and speak holy words forever. No, it is that, “They may fear Me forever.” Oh Brothers and Sisters, our religion must have the Lord in the very heart of it! We must be in constant contact with God and possess in our souls the true fear of God, for as this is the beginning of wisdom, so is it the only security of perseverance! When God has given us a true spiritual fear of Him, it will abide all tests.
Outward religion depends upon the excitement which created it. But the fear of the Lord lives on when all around it is frostbitten. What happens to many converts? The revivalists have gone and they have gone, too. But if God has given us one heart to love and obey Him and His fear is in us, we do not depend upon the mental thermometer! Like salamanders, we can live in the fire—and like seals, we can live in Arctic ice. We are not dependent upon special services and warm-hearted exhortations, for we have a springing well within us! We live upon the Master and not upon the servants—the Spirit of God does not leave us because certain good men have gone elsewhere. No, God has given us to fear Him forever.
Persecution comes, Christians are ridiculed in the workshop, they are pointed out in the street and an opprobrious name is hooted at them! Now we shall know who are God’s elect and who are not! Persecution acts as a winnowing fan and those who are light as chaff are driven away by its blast. But those who are true corn remain and are purified. Careless of man’s esteem, the truly God-fearing man with one heart holds on his one way and fears the Lord forever! Then, perhaps, comes a more serious test, the trial of prosperity. A man grows rich. He rises into another class of society. If he is not a real Christian, he will forsake the Lord. But if he is a true-born heir of the Kingdom of God, he will fear the Lord forever and consecrate his substance to Him. A heart wholly given to God will stand the wear and tear of life in all conditions, whether in honor or in contempt.
IV. PERSONAL BLESSEDNESS
“for the good of them.” Where God gives us one heart, one way, and steadfast principle, it must be for our good in the highest sense. Tell me who are the happiest Christians. They will be found to be wholehearted Christians! When heart and life are divided, happiness leaks through the crack. We must be steady in the pursuit of righteousness if we would abide in the enjoyment of peace. Brothers and Sisters, if you want to know the sweetness of religion, you must know the depth of it! The foam upon the top of the sacred cup is often bitter, but at the bottom lies the essence of sweetness.
I will not say, drink deep or drink not at all, but I will say this, that those who are content with superficial godliness have no idea of the delights which dwell in the deep places of communion with God. Plunge into the River of Life! Let body, soul, and spirit be immersed into its floods and you shall swim in unspeakable joy! Lose sight of the shores of worldliness and you shall see God’s wonders in the deeps! In intense devotion to the Lord you will find the rare jewel, satisfaction. “O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord!” Sweet content never dwells with half-heartedness.
V. RELATIVE BLESSING
“And for their children after them.” Wholehearted Christians are usually blessed with a posterity of a like kind. Consecrated men and women live to see their children following in their steps. When sons and daughters forsake the ways of godliness, do you wonder, when you spy out the home life of their parents? If religion is a sham, do you expect frank young men to respect it? If the father was hollow-hearted in his profession, will not the children despise it? The genuine, thoroughbred Christian is often hated, but he is never the object of contempt. Men may ridicule him and say that he is a fool, but they cannot help admitting that he is happy!
And the wiser sort among them wish that they were such fools, themselves! Be thorough and true, and your family will respect your faith. The almost inevitable consequence of respect in a child towards his parent is a desire to imitate him. It is not always so, but as a rule it is so. If the parents live unto God in a thorough-hearted way, their sons and daughters aspire to the same thing. They see the beauty of religion at home around the fireside and their conscience, being quickened, lead them to pray to God that they may have the same piety, so that when they, themselves, commence a household, they may enjoy the same happiness.
Certainly, if any of you are the children of eminently godly parents and are living in sin, your parents’ lives condemn you! Are they in Heaven? Dare you go to their grave and sit upon the grassy hillock and think of how you are living? It will force tears to your eyes to contrast yourself with them! You may well tremble to think that you neglect your mother’s Savior, that you forget your father’s God! It will go hard with those who leap into Hell-fire over a father’s prayers and a mother’s entreaties—yet some seem desperately resolved on such suicide! I hope these are comparatively few and that it is still true, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Temporal and spiritual blessings come upon households where the heads of the family are completely consecrated to God. Try it! Try it! I will be bound that you will find it profitable! If at the Last Great Day you shall find that consecration to Christ is an error, I will be willing to bear the blame myself! I am not afraid that anyone among you will ever censure me for having excited you into a too fervent zeal or a too devoted life! Brothers and Sisters, I am afraid of those of you who go ankle-deep into religion and never venture further—I am afraid lest you should, by-and-by, return to the shore! But as for you who plunge into the center of the stream and find waters to swim in, I have no fears! You shall be borne onward by a current ever increasing in strength till, in the ocean of eternal love, you lose yourselves in Heaven above!
I can wish you no greater blessing than that the Holy Spirit may make you wholehearted, consistent, persistent, ardent, established, and persevering in the things of God! On you and on your household my heart pronounces this benediction—the Lord give you one heart and one way that you may fear Him forever. Amen.