And discern between the righteous and the wicked.
The characters of the righteous and the wicked contrasted
The time alluded to by the prophet appears to be the awful day of judgment. Then shall ye return, says he, or be converted to a full sense of your neglected duty and your past transgressions. The delusions of folly and self-love shall be removed; conscience shall then no longer be blinded by the corruption of reason, or overpowered by the violence of the passions; but vice shall appear in all its depravity; guilt shall be attended with all its terrors and remorse; and you “shall discern the striking contrast between the state of him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not.” Without presuming to enter upon any imaginary description of the difference between the righteous and the wicked, in that future and invisible world to which we are all hastening, permit me to state some of the principal distinctions between “him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not,” here, in this present life. Consider the superiority of the pious, in their intellectual powers, as well as in the good qualities and virtuous endowments of the mind. By the “pious” understand only those who admit, with grateful adoration, the glorious truths of revealed religion, and who endeavour to fulfil the duties of the Gospel of Christ from a steadfast belief in its holy sanctions.
1. The man who serves God may be said to possess a steady, elevated, and comprehensive mind. His belief is a strong and lively faith, implanted in early youth, founded on the first elements of reason, cherished from inclination, and deriving, force from the influence of sentiment and the energy of the passions. He receives also that Divine revelation which graciously instructs him in the ways of His providence; enjoins his duty under various forms, and prescribes the reward of his due obedience.
2. The pious man, by frequent meditations on the Almighty Father, shows a natural relish for grandeur and sublimity. The mere worldling finds his little passions, his low thoughts and grovelling desires completely occupied with the pleasures and enjoyments which thins present world affords. If he claim any pretensions to what is called a taste for the sublime and beautiful, it is confined chiefly to the productions of art. At most, he admires only parts, not a whole; and looks with wonder at the mere creature, without raising his thoughts to the great Creator. The truly religious man is the very reverse of this. He can retire, as it were, within his own bosom, as into a sanctuary, and converse with God. Every species of excellence is admired in proportion as it approaches His wisdom, His goodness, or His power.
3. By “lifting up our hearts unto the Lord” in the fervour of prayer and thanksgiving it is impossible not to enjoy the highest sensibility of which the human soul is capable;--a sensibility very unlike the sickly offspring of a “worldly sorrow.” The sensibility cherished by an habitual intercourse with God, purifies and ennobles the mind.
4. Akin to this intellectual enjoyment, is lively and impressive gratitude. It concerns both Divine and human obligations.
5. A constant sense of the benefits which he receives from God, prompts the pious man to imitate the Divine love, within the small circle of his power and abilities. Equally active is this Divine principle in promoting peace, in teaching forbearance, and in the forgiveness of injuries.
6. None but the pious man can have a proper sense of the dignity of his nature. Whatever the condition allotted to us here, however humble and dependent, we know that not all the world can estrange us from our Maker, or banish us from the presence of God. And nothing but sin can render the sense of this Divine presence afflicting, or leave us, in our sufferings, comfortless or degraded.
7. He who serves God with truth and fidelity will be endowed with a larger portion of fortitude than he who serveth Him not. It was proper that a life of discipline should abound with difficulties and dangers, temptations and calamities. They are the appointed measures of our virtue and obedience, and they form our spiritual warfare with the world. The pious man ever regards them as the means of improvement in righteousness and true holiness; as such, he submits to them with patience and resignation. Full of trust and confidence in the Divine wisdom and goodness, he learns “to suffer as a good soldier of Christ.” If we take, therefore, from human life this grand principle of action--a principle that equally influences our hopes and fears--that gives steadiness of conduct, and fortitude of resolution in every situation, and that combines itself with all our nobler passions; is it not easy to perceive that we destroy the strongest support of moral duty, that we diminish the worth of every virtue, and poison the purest source of happiness in the human heart! Contrast, in conclusion, these two characters in the text, on the bed of sickness, and in the hour of death. (J. Hewlett, B. A.)
Two classes
I. There are two great classes into which the whole human race may be divided.
1. They are distinguished by their state.
2. They are distinguished by their character.
II. These two classes are now so intermixed as to obscure the distinction between them.
1. They are intermingled in the family circle.
2. They are intermingled in the arrangements of civil society.
3. They are intermingled in the house of God.
4. They are intermingled in the membership of the Church.
III. There is a period when the distinction between these two classes shall be rendered visible.
1. The season of temporal calamity.
2. The day of judgment.
3. Eternity. (G. Brooks.)
The obliteration of moral distinctions
It is a sad state of society when the faculty of moral discrimination is blunted. The minor prophets were appointed to rebuke just such religious degeneracy.
1. One sign of the practical obliteration of these vital distinctions may be seen in the prevailing depreciation of sound doctrine. Men try to mix truth with error, as though they were not inherently different. To depreciate the importance of discovering and embracing the truth undermines, also, the true basis of morals. Sincere convictions may thus be urged to justify crime, as the Spartans upheld secret theft, and David Hume secret adultery.
2. Another sign is found in the practical association of those that serve God and those that serve Him not. God decrees separation as the means of expressing and impressing these vital distinctions.
(1) Many believers are only secret disciples. Their very success in practising Christian virtues is disastrous, fostering self-righteous hopes in worldly hearts, and leading men to confuse worldly morality with genuine piety.
(2) Another thing which contributes to the confusion of godly and ungodly, is the fact, that many worldly men are professed disciples. Secret believers make the world seem more godly; unregenerate professors make the Church seem more worldly, and so there is double confusion.
(3) Whatever relaxes the demand for godliness of character, lowers the standard of piety, and so lessens the contrast between righteous and wicked. Besides secular influences, there are many ecclesiastic tendencies hostile to holy living. Ritualism furnishes one example. But the lack of holiness of heart is the main cause of the slight contrast between the servants of God and of mammon. Most earnestly, therefore, do we plead in God’s name, for practical separation between the godly and the ungodly. (Arthur T. Pierson, D. D.)
Balaam and Saul, or consistent wickedness and inconsistent profession:
It is wonderful to remark the numberless shades of character among wicked men: the various modes and ways which they have of acting against God. The character of Balaam was that of a very sinful man, in his mode of offending God. Strikingly different to him, yet equally offending God, is the character of Saul, King of Israel. The fact of a man’s being raised up to bring about a certain end, does not excuse him in acting wrongly, if, to gain that end, he does act wickedly. We do not know now what God intends about us; yet we do know we can act rightly if we like, with God’s grace. For instance, Pharaoh’s con duct was doubtless overruled for good--to show forth His power. Still, Pharaoh acted calmly and coolly; he might have acted rightly if he liked. He was hardened because he neglected opportunities. In finding fault with Saul persons might say he could not help it. He was appointed for a punishment.
1. The announcement of Saul’s being elevated to the throne of Israel came upon him suddenly; but seemingly without unsettling him.
2. Saul was not wanting in generosity and a feeling of gratitude. He was calm, high-minded, generous, and candid. A brave man he was without doubt. But take a deeper insight into Saul’s character, and we shall find those deficiencies which he certainly had. The first duty of every man is the fear of God, a reverence for His Word, a love towards Him, a desire to obey Him, and all this would be most peculiarly the duty of the King of Israel. Saul “lacked this one thing.” He was never under an abiding sense of religion, or what Scripture calls “the fear of God,” however much he was sometimes softened and touched. His unbelief and fearlessness of God seem to have been shown by a contempt alike for prophet and priest. The immediate cause of his rejection was his impatience at the arrival of Samuel, and his own offering up of the sacrifice. He rejected Samuel, and had recourse to others instead. There was no profaneness, nor intentional irreverence in Saul’s conduct. He finished his sad history by an open act of apostasy from God: in consulting the witch of Eudor. Unbelief and wilful ness are ever deaf to the plainest commands, and produce a heart hardened against the most gracious influences. Balaam offers a singular contrast with Saul. The leading difference was: the one was under a strong, abiding sense and influence of religion and the fear of God; the other not. The one trembled before a God he was forced to confess; the other appeared to respect a Deity whom in heart he despised. Balaam knew what religion was; felt it, valued it, was convinced of it. Saul knew, but calmly scoffed at and despised all he knew. The one was the religious man grossly inconsistent; the other, the man with no religion, yet wearing it as a garb. Learn from this contrast-
1. A character may be admirable, nay beautiful, without one spark of God’s grace, and therefore all its moral excellence be nothing worth; it may shine in every virtue, amiability, disinterestedness, kindness, generosity, and benevolence.
2. Inconsistency in a professing religious man is nearly equally bad with the conduct of the unprofessing and open believer. (E. Monro.)
Consecration to God
I. What consecration to God is.
1. It is not necessarily a seclusion from the fullest, largest life. Long before the Christian era, men saw obscurely the need of their turning life over from self, from itself, to the great Author of Life. This impulse wrought itself into the excesses of pagan monachism, which has left unmistakable traces in oldest historic records and in rock-hewn caves,--mute witnesses of vigil and macerations for centuries, and even millenniums before the coming of Christ. Separateness from the world, such as Christ taught, was not of the body, but of the spirit. He emphasised, with the utmost distinctness, the duty of closest contact. The purifying salt, the guiding light, and the useful talent could do their work for the world only at the shortest range. Sympathy and free mingling with men and women are a far closer copy of Jesus than is the solitariness of cloister, cave, or desert.
2. Consecration to God is full self-surrender to Him, not self-abandonment. Here is room for great mistakes. Never is a man more truly master of himself, more vigorously alive, more earnestly at work, than when he has given himself to God, and is, henceforth, in the Christian sense, not his own. There is no diminution of being, no stinting of faculties, no abridgment of opportunities.
II. Reasons for consecration to God.
1. Refusing, or failing in this, we rob God. Men’s faculties find their rest, and possibilities of profitable exercise, only when intentionally and gladly used for their Creator. Time, talents, all that there is in and of life, belong to God by virtue of creation and preservation.
2. Disobedience is followed by penalty. For this sin Malachi pronounced a curse upon Israel. Israel is not alone in this.
3. The rewards of obedience. A general enfranchisement and empowering of faculties come to the soul when consecrated to God. Among the rewards of obedience, a prominent place should be given to the peace of mind which comes from harmony with God. Christian fellowship has glad rewards for those consecrated to the same Master.
III. How is this consecration made?
1. Deliberately.
2. Personally.
3. Affectionately.
However full and irrevocable the surrender which the soul makes of itself, it is made gladly and lovingly. Meanwhile, till the day of reward comes, every burden is lightened, because borne for God; every sorrow is assuaged, because faith loves the hand that chastens; every dark cloud has a bright lining, every weariness sings of coming rest, disappointments point to the time, not far away, when every soul shall be satisfied, awaking in the Divine likeness. Consecration on earth transfigured and fulfilled in the glories of heaven. (Sermons Monday Club.)