Religious Self-Deception.
By John H. Waggoner
The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah has special reference to these times, and is, in all respects, very interesting to us. It opens with a two-fold description of a certain class of worshipers. Viewing them only in the light of one of these descriptions we should be forced to admit they are a truly devoted and God fearing people, and accepted with the Lord. Notice what the Lord says of them:— 1. They worship God. “They seek me,” says the Lord. Such would scorn to worship idols. They pity the heathen; and their conscience would not permit them to renounce their profession of Christianity. 2. They are diligent worshipers. “They seek me daily,” says the Lord. This is a mark which every Christian should bear. 3. They are intelligent worshipers. They “delight to know my ways.” They are pleased to learn the doctrines of the Bible, and are diligent to attend the preaching of the word. Another good mark of Christian character. 4. They are cheerful worshipers. “They take delight in approaching to God.” They are not driven to their worship. It needs no arm of authority, no urgent appeals, to keep them in the way of their devotions. It is a pleasant path to them, in which they take delight. After reading such a description as this, and noting in them so many marks of true Christians, and marks in which so many professors are lacking, it is sad to be compelled to admit that the very people so described are self-deceived and hypocritical. There is another view of them which gives them quite a different appearance from the above. 1. A call is made to show them their transgressions and their sins. They are sinners, transgressors of God's law. They draw near to God with their lips while their hearts are in the world. They cry, Lord, Lord, but do not his will. They love an easy religion, which does not cross their selfishness; which leads to no self-denial. 2. They seek God only “as a nation that did righteousness.” Says an apostle, “He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” The religion in which they delight consists in profession, prayer, church going, and that which is no deeper than feelings or emotions. The weightier matters of the law they neglect. Though the Scriptures say, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination,” they will not listen to it, nor reflect on its meaning or application. They profess to delight in “gospel liberty”—freedom to choose their own path. They are afraid of “legal bondage,” as they call obedience to the commandments of God. Truly they are but “as a nation that did righteousness.” 3. They have forsaken the ordinance of their God. What the ordinance is which they have forsaken we learn by reading this chapter. Two prominent faults are marked against them; they do not do righteousness, and they have forsaken the ordinance of God. In verses 4-12 their shortcomings are particularly noticed, and exhortations to certain duties are given, whereby their light should spring up and their righteousness should abound. In verses 13, 14, the ordinance of God is pointed out which they have forsaken. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath;” they are trampling the Sabbath under their feet. A horrible abuse of that which Jehovah so highly honored; from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; they have profaned the holy day, and degraded that which is sacred to the Lord to make it minister to their own carnal pleasures; “and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable;” the holy day of God has been no delight to them. In the expressive language of the prophet, they “have snuffed at it.” Every feature has been expressive of scorn when the Sabbath is mentioned. It is not honorable in their esteem. Instead of calling it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, they have derided it and all who observe it, stigmatizing it as “the old Jewish Sabbath,” and “a yoke of bondage.” They have departed very far from “the right ways of the Lord,” while professing to be his servants. 4. They do not understand why their fasts have not been seen of the Lord, and why their prayers are not answered. The Lord shows them that the fault is in their own lives. If they will work righteousness as well as pray; if they will “honor him” in his own sacred institution which commemorates his work of creation, then will their “light rise in obscurity,” and they shall “delight themselves in the Lord,” not merely in their own form of worship. Here God shows that his honor is concerned in the observance of the Sabbath, and they who dishonor him he will lightly esteem. Here is a lesson of warning to all. It is a faithful description of the superficial religion of the age. And it shows how fearfully strong is self-deception. It will admit of our wearing the garb of Christianity, of making a great profession, and of working ourselves up to a feeling of delight in worship. With all this our profession may be that of the Pharisee, and all our worship vain. “The heart is deceitful;” we should not trust it, but constantly compare ourselves with the divine standard. “Who can understand his errors,” asked the psalmist; and the only means of a correct understanding of them is given in the same psalm: “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Examination of self, and meditation on the word of God, are much needed to keep us from thoughtlessly going astray. How greatly we need to keep ourselves in the love of God, and under the direction of his Spirit. “Lord, let not all my hopes be vain;
Create my soul entirely new.
Let thy sweet Spirit me sustain;
Oh! guide me all my journey through.”