True religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of man, but of God. I dare not turn away from this part of my subject, however painful it may be. Anxious as I am to commend heart-religion to everyone who reads this, I will not try to conceal what heart-religion entails. I will not gain a recruit for my Master’s army under false pretences. I will not promise anything which the Scripture does not warrant. The words of Paul are clear and unmistakable. Heart-religion is a religion “whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
God’s truth and scriptural Christianity are never really popular. They never have been. They never will be as long as the world stands. No one can calmly consider what human nature is, as described in the Bible, and reasonably expect anything else. As long as man is what man is, the majority of mankind will always like a religion of form far better than a religion of heart.
Formal religion exactly suits an unenlightened conscience. Some religion a man will have. Atheism and downright infidelity, as a general rule, are never very popular. But a man must have a religion which does not require much, trouble his heart much, interfere with his sins much. Formal Christianity satisfies him. It seems the very thing that he wants.
Formal religion gratifies the secret self-righteousness of man. We are all of us more or less Pharisees. We all naturally cling to the idea that the way to be saved is to do so many things, go through so many religious observances, and at last we shall get to heaven. Formalism meets us here. It seems to show us a way by which we can make our own peace with God.
Formal religion pleases the natural indolence of man. It attaches an excessive importance to that which is the easiest part of Christianity—the shell and the form. Man likes this. He hates trouble in religion. He wants something which will not meddle with his conscience and inner life. Only leave conscience alone and, like Herod, he will do “many things” (Mar 6:20). Formalism seems to open a wider gate and a more easy way to heaven. Facts speak louder than assertions.
Facts are stubborn things. Look over the history of religion in every age of the world and observe what has always been popular. Look at the history of Israel from the beginning of Exodus to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, and see what has always found favor. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague which had overspread the Jews when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Look at the history of the Church of Christ after the days of the apostles. How soon formalism ate out the life and vitality of the primitive Christians! Look at the Middle Ages, as they are called. Formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the gospel lay as one dead. Look, lastly, at the history of Protestant churches in the last three centuries. How few are the places where religion is a living thing! How many are the countries where Protestantism is nothing more than a form! We cannot avoid taking notice of these things. They speak with a voice of thunder. They all show that formal religion is a popular thing. It has the praise of man.
But why should we look at facts in history? Why should we not look at facts under our own eyes and by our own doors? Can anyone deny that a mere outward religion, a religion of downright formality, is the religion which is popular at the present day? It is not for nothing that John says of certain false teachers, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1Jo 4:5). Only say your prayers, go to church with tolerable regularity, and receive the sacrament occasionally, and the vast majority will set you down as an excellent Christian. “What more would you have?” they say: “If this is not Christianity, what is?” To require more of anyone is thought bigotry, illiberality, fanaticism, and enthusiasm! To insinuate a doubt whether such a man as this will go to heaven is called the height of uncharitableness! When these things are so, it is vain to deny that formal religion is popular. It is popular. It always was popular. It always will be popular till Christ comes again. It always has had and always will have “the praise of men.”
Turn now to the religion of the heart and you will hear a very different report. As a general rule it has never had the good word of mankind. It has entailed on its professors laughter, mockery, ridicule, scorn, contempt, enmity, hatred, slander, persecution, imprisonment, and even death. Its lovers have been faithful and ardent—but they have always been few. It has never had, comparatively, “the praise of man.”
Heart-religion is too humbling to be popular. It leaves natural man no room to boast. It tells him that he is a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that he is dead, and must be made alive again and be born of the Spirit. The pride of man rebels against such tidings as these. He hates to be told that his case is so bad.
Heart-religion is too holy to be popular. It will not leave natural man alone. It interferes with his worldliness and his sins. It requires of him things that he loathes and abominates: conversion, faith, repentance, spiritual-mindedness, Bible reading, prayer. It bids him give up many things that he loves and clings to, and cannot make up his mind to lay aside. It would be strange indeed if he liked it. It crosses his path as a killjoy and a marplot, and it is absurd to expect that he will be pleased.
Was heart-religion popular in Old Testament times? We find David complaining: “They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards” (Psa 69:12). We find the prophets persecuted and ill-treated because they preached against sin, and required men to give their hearts to God. Elijah, Micaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, are all cases in point. To formalism and ceremonialism the Jews never seem to have made objection. What they did dislike was serving God with their hearts.
Was heart-religion popular in New Testament times? The whole history of our Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry and the lives of His apostles are a sufficient answer. The scribes and Pharisees would have willingly received a Messiah who encouraged formalism, and a gospel which exalted ceremonialism. But they could not tolerate a religion of which the first principles were humiliation and sanctification of heart.
Has heart-religion ever been popular in the professing church of Christ during the last eighteen centuries? Never hardly, except in the early centuries when the primitive church had not left her first love. Soon, very soon, the men who protested against formalism and sacramentalism were fiercely denounced as “troublers of Israel.” Long before the Reformation, things came to this pass—that anyone who cried up heart-holiness and cried down formality was treated as a common enemy. He was either silenced, excommunicated, imprisoned, or put to death like John Huss (1369-1415). In the time of the Reformation itself, the work of Luther (1483-1546) and his companions was carried on under an incessant storm of calumny and slander. And what was the cause? It was because they protested against formalism, ceremonialism, monkery, and priestcraft, and taught the necessity of heart-religion.
Has heart-religion ever been popular in our own land in days gone by? Never, excepting for a little season. It was not popular in the days of Queen Mary, when Latimer (c.1487-1555) and his brother martyrs were burned. It was not popular in the days of the Stuarts, when to be a Puritan was worse for a man than to get drunk or swear. It was not popular in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Wesley (1703-1791) and Whitefield (1714-1770) were shut out of the established church. The cause of our martyred Reformers, of the early Puritans and of the Methodists, was essentially one and the same. They were all hated because they preached the uselessness of formalism, and the impossibility of salvation without repentance, faith, regeneration, spiritual-mindedness, and holiness of heart.
Is heart-religion popular at this very day? I answer sorrowfully that I do not believe it is. Look at the followers of it among the laity. They are always comparatively few in number. They stand alone in their respective congregations and parishes. They have to put up with many hard things, hard words, hard imputations, hard treatment, laughter, ridicule, slander, and petty persecution. This is not popularity! Look at the teachers of heart-religion in the pulpit. They are loved and liked, no doubt, by the few hearers who agree with them. They are sometimes admired for their talents and eloquence by the many who do not agree with them. They are even called “popular preachers” because of the crowds who listen to their preaching. But none know so well as the faithful teachers of heart-religion that few really like them. Few really help them. Few sympathize with them. Few stand by them in any time of need. They find, like their divine Master, that they must work almost alone. I write these things with sorrow, but I believe they are true. Real heart-religion today, no less than in days gone by, has not “the praise of men” (Joh 12:43).
But after all, it signifies little what man thinks and what man praises. He that judgeth us is the Lord. Man will not judge us at the last day. Man will not sit on the great white throne, examine our religion, and pronounce our eternal sentence. Those only whom God commends will be commended at the bar of Christ. Here lies the value and glory of heart-religion. It may not have the praise of man, but it has “the praise of God” (Joh 12:43).
God approves and honors heart-religion in the life that now is. He looks down from heaven, and reads the hearts of all the children of men. Wherever He sees heart-repentance for sin, heart-faith in Christ, heart-holiness of life, heart-love to His Son, His Law, His will, and His Word—wherever God sees these things He is well pleased. He writes a book of remembrance for that man, however poor and unlearned he may be. He gives His angels special charge over him. He maintains in him the work of grace and gives him daily supplies of peace, hope, and strength. He regards him as a member of His own dear Son, as one who is witnessing for the truth as His Son did. Weak as the man’s heart may seem to himself, it is the living sacrifice which God loves, and the heart which He has solemnly declared He will not despise. Such praise is worth more than the praise of man!
God will proclaim His approval of heart-religion before the assembled world at the last day. He will command His angels to gather together His saints, from every part of the globe, into one glorious company. He will raise the dead and change the living and place them at the right hand of His beloved Son’s throne. Then all that have served Christ with the heart shall hear Him say: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:34). “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Mat 25:23). Ye confessed Me before men, and I will confess you before my Father and His holy angels. “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luk 22: 28-29). These words will be addressed to none but those who have given Christ their hearts! They will not be addressed to the formalist, the hypocrite, the wicked, and the ungodly. They will, indeed, stand by and see the fruits of heart-religion, but they will not eat of them. We shall never know the full value of heart-religion until the last day. Then and only then we shall fully understand how much better it is to have the praise of God than the praise of man.
If you take up heart-religion, I cannot promise you the praise of man. Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can neither give nor take away—all this I can boldly promise to the man who comes to Christ and serves Him with his heart. But I cannot promise him that his religion will be popular with man. I would rather warn him to expect mockery and ridicule, slander and unkindness, opposition and persecution. There is a cross belonging to heart-religion and we must be content to carry it. “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Act 14:22). “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Ti 3:12). But if the world hates you, God will love you. If the world forsakes you, Christ has promised that He will never forsake and never fail. Whatever you may lose by heart-religion, be sure that the praise of God will make up for all. And now I close with three plain words of application. I want it to strike and stick to the conscience of everyone into whose hands it falls. May God make it a blessing to many a soul both in time and eternity!
True religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have the praise of man, but of God. I dare not turn away from this part of my subject, however painful it may be. Anxious as I am to commend heart-religion to everyone who reads this, I will not try to conceal what heart-religion entails. I will not gain a recruit for my Master’s army under false pretences. I will not promise anything which the Scripture does not warrant. The words of Paul are clear and unmistakable. Heart-religion is a religion “whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
God’s truth and scriptural Christianity are never really popular. They never have been. They never will be as long as the world stands. No one can calmly consider what human nature is, as described in the Bible, and reasonably expect anything else. As long as man is what man is, the majority of mankind will always like a religion of form far better than a religion of heart.
Formal religion exactly suits an unenlightened conscience. Some religion a man will have. Atheism and downright infidelity, as a general rule, are never very popular. But a man must have a religion which does not require much, trouble his heart much, interfere with his sins much. Formal Christianity satisfies him. It seems the very thing that he wants.
Formal religion gratifies the secret self-righteousness of man. We are all of us more or less Pharisees. We all naturally cling to the idea that the way to be saved is to do so many things, go through so many religious observances, and at last we shall get to heaven. Formalism meets us here. It seems to show us a way by which we can make our own peace with God.
Formal religion pleases the natural indolence of man. It attaches an excessive importance to that which is the easiest part of Christianity—the shell and the form. Man likes this. He hates trouble in religion. He wants something which will not meddle with his conscience and inner life. Only leave conscience alone and, like Herod, he will do “many things” (Mar 6:20). Formalism seems to open a wider gate and a more easy way to heaven. Facts speak louder than assertions.
Facts are stubborn things. Look over the history of religion in every age of the world and observe what has always been popular. Look at the history of Israel from the beginning of Exodus to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, and see what has always found favor. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague which had overspread the Jews when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Look at the history of the Church of Christ after the days of the apostles. How soon formalism ate out the life and vitality of the primitive Christians! Look at the Middle Ages, as they are called. Formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the gospel lay as one dead. Look, lastly, at the history of Protestant churches in the last three centuries. How few are the places where religion is a living thing! How many are the countries where Protestantism is nothing more than a form! We cannot avoid taking notice of these things. They speak with a voice of thunder. They all show that formal religion is a popular thing. It has the praise of man.
But why should we look at facts in history? Why should we not look at facts under our own eyes and by our own doors? Can anyone deny that a mere outward religion, a religion of downright formality, is the religion which is popular at the present day? It is not for nothing that John says of certain false teachers, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1Jo 4:5). Only say your prayers, go to church with tolerable regularity, and receive the sacrament occasionally, and the vast majority will set you down as an excellent Christian. “What more would you have?” they say: “If this is not Christianity, what is?” To require more of anyone is thought bigotry, illiberality, fanaticism, and enthusiasm! To insinuate a doubt whether such a man as this will go to heaven is called the height of uncharitableness! When these things are so, it is vain to deny that formal religion is popular. It is popular. It always was popular. It always will be popular till Christ comes again. It always has had and always will have “the praise of men.”
Turn now to the religion of the heart and you will hear a very different report. As a general rule it has never had the good word of mankind. It has entailed on its professors laughter, mockery, ridicule, scorn, contempt, enmity, hatred, slander, persecution, imprisonment, and even death. Its lovers have been faithful and ardent—but they have always been few. It has never had, comparatively, “the praise of man.”
Heart-religion is too humbling to be popular. It leaves natural man no room to boast. It tells him that he is a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that he is dead, and must be made alive again and be born of the Spirit. The pride of man rebels against such tidings as these. He hates to be told that his case is so bad.
Heart-religion is too holy to be popular. It will not leave natural man alone. It interferes with his worldliness and his sins. It requires of him things that he loathes and abominates: conversion, faith, repentance, spiritual-mindedness, Bible reading, prayer. It bids him give up many things that he loves and clings to, and cannot make up his mind to lay aside. It would be strange indeed if he liked it. It crosses his path as a killjoy and a marplot, and it is absurd to expect that he will be pleased.
Was heart-religion popular in Old Testament times? We find David complaining: “They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards” (Psa 69:12). We find the prophets persecuted and ill-treated because they preached against sin, and required men to give their hearts to God. Elijah, Micaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, are all cases in point. To formalism and ceremonialism the Jews never seem to have made objection. What they did dislike was serving God with their hearts.
Was heart-religion popular in New Testament times? The whole history of our Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry and the lives of His apostles are a sufficient answer. The scribes and Pharisees would have willingly received a Messiah who encouraged formalism, and a gospel which exalted ceremonialism. But they could not tolerate a religion of which the first principles were humiliation and sanctification of heart.
Has heart-religion ever been popular in the professing church of Christ during the last eighteen centuries? Never hardly, except in the early centuries when the primitive church had not left her first love. Soon, very soon, the men who protested against formalism and sacramentalism were fiercely denounced as “troublers of Israel.” Long before the Reformation, things came to this pass—that anyone who cried up heart-holiness and cried down formality was treated as a common enemy. He was either silenced, excommunicated, imprisoned, or put to death like John Huss (1369-1415). In the time of the Reformation itself, the work of Luther (1483-1546) and his companions was carried on under an incessant storm of calumny and slander. And what was the cause? It was because they protested against formalism, ceremonialism, monkery, and priestcraft, and taught the necessity of heart-religion.
Has heart-religion ever been popular in our own land in days gone by? Never, excepting for a little season. It was not popular in the days of Queen Mary, when Latimer (c.1487-1555) and his brother martyrs were burned. It was not popular in the days of the Stuarts, when to be a Puritan was worse for a man than to get drunk or swear. It was not popular in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Wesley (1703-1791) and Whitefield (1714-1770) were shut out of the established church. The cause of our martyred Reformers, of the early Puritans and of the Methodists, was essentially one and the same. They were all hated because they preached the uselessness of formalism, and the impossibility of salvation without repentance, faith, regeneration, spiritual-mindedness, and holiness of heart.
Is heart-religion popular at this very day? I answer sorrowfully that I do not believe it is. Look at the followers of it among the laity. They are always comparatively few in number. They stand alone in their respective congregations and parishes. They have to put up with many hard things, hard words, hard imputations, hard treatment, laughter, ridicule, slander, and petty persecution. This is not popularity! Look at the teachers of heart-religion in the pulpit. They are loved and liked, no doubt, by the few hearers who agree with them. They are sometimes admired for their talents and eloquence by the many who do not agree with them. They are even called “popular preachers” because of the crowds who listen to their preaching. But none know so well as the faithful teachers of heart-religion that few really like them. Few really help them. Few sympathize with them. Few stand by them in any time of need. They find, like their divine Master, that they must work almost alone. I write these things with sorrow, but I believe they are true. Real heart-religion today, no less than in days gone by, has not “the praise of men” (Joh 12:43).
But after all, it signifies little what man thinks and what man praises. He that judgeth us is the Lord. Man will not judge us at the last day. Man will not sit on the great white throne, examine our religion, and pronounce our eternal sentence. Those only whom God commends will be commended at the bar of Christ. Here lies the value and glory of heart-religion. It may not have the praise of man, but it has “the praise of God” (Joh 12:43).
God approves and honors heart-religion in the life that now is. He looks down from heaven, and reads the hearts of all the children of men. Wherever He sees heart-repentance for sin, heart-faith in Christ, heart-holiness of life, heart-love to His Son, His Law, His will, and His Word—wherever God sees these things He is well pleased. He writes a book of remembrance for that man, however poor and unlearned he may be. He gives His angels special charge over him. He maintains in him the work of grace and gives him daily supplies of peace, hope, and strength. He regards him as a member of His own dear Son, as one who is witnessing for the truth as His Son did. Weak as the man’s heart may seem to himself, it is the living sacrifice which God loves, and the heart which He has solemnly declared He will not despise. Such praise is worth more than the praise of man!
God will proclaim His approval of heart-religion before the assembled world at the last day. He will command His angels to gather together His saints, from every part of the globe, into one glorious company. He will raise the dead and change the living and place them at the right hand of His beloved Son’s throne. Then all that have served Christ with the heart shall hear Him say: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:34). “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Mat 25:23). Ye confessed Me before men, and I will confess you before my Father and His holy angels. “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luk 22: 28-29). These words will be addressed to none but those who have given Christ their hearts! They will not be addressed to the formalist, the hypocrite, the wicked, and the ungodly. They will, indeed, stand by and see the fruits of heart-religion, but they will not eat of them. We shall never know the full value of heart-religion until the last day. Then and only then we shall fully understand how much better it is to have the praise of God than the praise of man.
If you take up heart-religion, I cannot promise you the praise of man. Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can neither give nor take away—all this I can boldly promise to the man who comes to Christ and serves Him with his heart. But I cannot promise him that his religion will be popular with man. I would rather warn him to expect mockery and ridicule, slander and unkindness, opposition and persecution. There is a cross belonging to heart-religion and we must be content to carry it. “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Act 14:22). “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Ti 3:12). But if the world hates you, God will love you. If the world forsakes you, Christ has promised that He will never forsake and never fail. Whatever you may lose by heart-religion, be sure that the praise of God will make up for all. And now I close with three plain words of application. I want it to strike and stick to the conscience of everyone into whose hands it falls. May God make it a blessing to many a soul both in time and eternity!
Alright, this is a long one, so here is the summary, in tabular format. Yes, I figured out how to make a table here.
Subtopic
Key Points
Popular vs Unpopular Religion
- True religion is not popular
- Formality appeals to unenlightened consciences and self-righteousness
- Indolent people prefer formalities requiring minimal effort
Historical Perspective
- History shows preference for formal religion
- Majority considers simple attendance & rituals adequate proof of strong faith
- Critics brand heart-religion advocacy as bigotry and fanaticism
Negative Experience With Heart-Religion
- Often met with criticism, derision, and isolation
- Too demanding for most people
- Pride prevents individuals from accepting they are guilty sinners needing forgiveness
Biblical Examples Of Hostility Towards Heart-Religion
- Prophets criticized ritualistic practices in ancient Israel
- Scribes and Pharisees rejected Jesus' emphasis on internal transformation
Lack Of Support For Heart-Religion Through Time
- Throughout history, heart-religion has struggled
- Advocates risked ostracization and persecution
- Opponents labeled them as "troublesome" and dangerous
Modern Response To Heart-Religion
- Rarely receives acclamation or acceptance from masses
- Followers experience rejection, mockery, or even violence
- Teachers battle being misunderstood or overlooked
Divine Approval Over Human Praises
- Ultimately, God's judgment matters most
- Believers ought to seek God's commendation instead of humans'
- Sufferings for heart-religion lead to greater rewards
Benefits Of Heart-Religion Despite Hardships
- Access to blessings, such as mercy, peace, and guidance
- Constant supply of emotional sustenance like hope, comfort, and joy
- Unwavering presence and protection from Christ despite adversity
Call To Action
- Encouragement to embrace challenges involved with heart-religion
- Focus on gaining God's praise above humanity's
