Psalm cxxx., 4.
There is forgiveness with Thee
II. Samuel, xxiv., 24.
Neither will I offer . . . unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing
Philippians, iii., 13, 14.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
I. Corinthians, ii., 14.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned
SERMON I.
TAKING THOUGHT FOR TEMPORAL THINGS.
St. Matthew, vi., 24, 25.
. . . “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” . . .
Every one who has thoughtfully read that description of the Samaritans in the second book of Kings—“they feared the Lord and served their own gods”—must have been struck with the mockery, the blasphemy, the absurdity of such a fear. Fear Him, who claims to be the only God, and yet regard many others as equally and independently gods! Worship Him, all whose service is pure, and innocent, and self-emptying, and righteous and yet worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of licentious pleasure—Moloch, the god of cruelty—Chemosh, and his abominations—Belial, and his worldliness! This, my brethren, we all see is not simply a forbidden but an impossible service. The commands, the sanctions, the promises, the service of Jehovah, and of any one of these others, are so thoroughly opposite, so condemnatory of each other, that the man who attempts to observe them both, is far more impious and more foolish than the benighted heathen who carves an idol out of a block of wood or piece of stone and bows down to it alone in homage, and looks up only to it for blessings. If, then, mammon means a false god—either a deified human being, or a personified vice or virtue, or an actual dumb, senseless idol,—we feel that Christ has rightly said, not ye “shall not,” but ye “cannot” serve it and God. There is no room for the question whether God will wink at a divided homage; whether, provided He is one of the objects of worship, He will not be over-severe with you for having other objects. The attempt to serve both is an attempt at what is impossible; not at what may not be, on account of certain commands and restrictions, but at what cannot be from the very nature of things. God altogether—or mammon altogether, if you will; but “ye cannot serve God and mammon.” You see this, you approve Christ’s teaching, you are ready to condemn, you do now condemn—the impiety, the folly of attempting to serve God and mammon.
But, my brethren, consider. Do you know what and whom you condemn? Are you quite sure that you do not yourselves attempt to serve mammon as well as God? Oh, yes! you are quite sure! Mammon, a false god—a name without a being like Jove and Mars, like fairies and genii—or a substance without life—like Bel of the Chaldeans, or Juggernaut of the Hindoos—you are not so senseless as to serve this!
Or, again, if mammon be, as some commentators tell us, only a personification of riches, and his service therefore be the immoderate pursuit of wealth and worldly aggrandisement, still you are free. You may sometimes make great efforts to be rich, you may often desire and covet wealth; but you are not sordid misers; you are not engrossed in the pursuit of wealth; you do not treat it as a god, and give to it the thought and homage due to Jehovah.
Dear brethren, it is not so certain that you could quite clear yourselves of the sin and folly of serving mammon, even if this were all that is meant. But it is not. Look to the text, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” What then? Why give up mammon! And what is mammon? The next verse tells you, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” So, then, taking thought for these things is serving mammon.