And three, I know we're late, but I'm feeding you tonight, right? So. No, they have a short lesson tonight. I don't want to get too far. We're only going in the I trust you're reading. River, can you go grab my book? It's on my desk in the little brown cubby. I trust you're reading the Matthew Henry book. It's more accessible than Thomas Goodman was. I know that. So I trust you're taking advantage of that accessibility and you're not going to let this book pass you by. It's six sermons. Sermons are always good to read, especially from such good men. And I trust you're reading it. It's going to be not only accessible, but also extremely profitable. So we're just getting into the first sermon on our third lesson tonight. And we're only going to go to the bottom. I think it's on bottom of page 34. So we're not going very far in the chapter. Don't have a tremendous amount to cover tonight. What we want to talk about is the difference between hypocrisy and true piety. Now, everyone knows what hypocrisy is because we all know hypocrites, don't we? Right? We can all spot hypocrites out there somewhere, can't we? We know what a hypocrite is because we see it in our neighbor. We see it in the person sitting next to us. We don't think of hypocrisy as being something with which we struggle. But if we look in the mirror, we'll learn most about hypocrisy. What Henry wants to do is he wants to help us understand, because you know, as Ferguson said, and Joel Beeke has used this illustration more times than I can count, it's about taking a diamond and it's about turning it slightly and just looking at one more part of it, and one more part of it, and one more part of it. There's all sorts of sides and all sorts of cuts that as the more you turn something, the more you see. We're so used to just picking up something as if it's one dimensional and saying, oh, I can just see it. and you don't get any deeper than the surface. But the Puritans are not like that at all, and that's certainly not what Henry's doing. Henry realizes that this runs deep. And so he's taking a lot of time really getting into his topic about true piety, true religion, and the pleasantness that is the fruit of true religion, the truly religious life. And so he wants to begin by backing up a little bit and saying, wait a minute, let me be sure you understand. I'm not talking about the hypocrite. I'm not talking about the kind of religion that the hypocrite has. I'm not talking about the kind of pleasure that the hypocrite has. I'm talking about something entirely different. I'm talking about true piety, which alone gives true pleasure. So we're going to take just a few moments on this. He says at the beginning of this chapter, The doctrine, that is, that true piety gives way to true pleasure. The doctrine is a plain principle and it should not need explanation. He says, in fact, it would be wonderful if we would all just agree to it at the first mention of it. If we would just say, oh, of course, that makes complete sense. True religion must give way to true pleasure. And if that's the case, then I need to be truly religious. It would be all great if we understood that and we would all bow to that and subscribe to it as he says. He says, but those who know no other pleasures than those of sense and desire cannot understand what we're saying. When all we know is the pleasures of sense, sensual pleasure, then we can't understand what he's really saying. Because there's no sensual pleasure of that sort in true religion. True religion gives true pleasure. But if all we know is sensual pleasure, we're lost and we don't know what he's talking about. And as J.I. Packer said, such a title would turn us off. So we can't understand what he's saying. Further, we cannot understand how there can be true pleasure in piety to us of such mind when all we know is sensual pleasure. Piety, as we said last week, is constraining and restrictive, like we're being squeezed. There's no joy in it. It's a killjoy in our minds, if that's all we know. And therefore, we are ready to ask for the meaning of the doctrine. And so it's with that in mind that he begins to explain things. And he says, so I submit the following. We all know what pleasure of the senses is. We all know what sensual pleasure is. But do we know what the pleasure of the soul is? So he's not talking about sensual pleasure. He's talking about soul delights. And do we know what true piety is? And he gives the short definition, having a due regard to God and the eyes of the soul ever directed to him. Do we understand what true piety is? I use the word piety a lot because I think the word has been lost. And as a reader of the Puritans, I'm used to that word. I love it. I'm trying to recover it. So I use that word. It's not this negative word. It's a very positive word. And he's using it here and he's saying, do you understand what true piety is? If we're all All we're taken up with is sensual pleasures, then we don't know what true piety is. But if we do, then we do know what it means when he says that there is an abundance of real pleasure and satisfaction in the ways of religion and godliness. If we know what pleasure, true soul delights are, if we know what true piety is, then we know the meaning of this doctrine and we should be absolutely ready to subscribe to it. But let's be clear, he says, let me just make sure everyone's on the same page. Puritans often answered many, many questions or objections in their sermons. And this is what he's doing. We speak of true piety to which hypocrites are strangers. So let's talk about what the hypocrite knows. He says hypocrites are strangers to the delights and pleasures of religion, since they only meddle in counterfeit piety, which can never bring true pleasure. They don't know what hypocrites have no idea what I'm talking about. Because they only meddle in what's counterfeit. They're not truly pursuing God. They're not truly pious, though on the outside they look sometimes more pious. Think of the Pharisees and the scribes. Sometimes they look more religious than true Christians. Certainly, think of the comparison that Jesus gives between the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. Who looked more holy on the outside? Certainly the Pharisee. Did there appear to be any pleasure for the publican? Crying out to God for mercy? Beating his breast? Standing afar off? Not even lifting his head? Where's the pleasure in that? So on the outside of things, it looks as though hypocrites know this pleasure, but they can't know the pleasure because they don't know the piety. And he gives this explanation here. An actor, Acts out the happiness of the person he portrays. An actor on the stage, which he would have in mind, or an actor on the screen acting out the pleasure and the joy of the role that they're playing. The person. And because they're acting it out, it looks like they're having the best time of their life. But they're not really that person that they're pretending to be. What's going on on screen isn't really happening in their lives. They didn't really just inherit a million dollars from Uncle So-and-so. So at the end of the day, they really don't know the pleasure that they're portraying. They're really strangers to it. They don't know. They never really experience what they're showing that they do because they're pretending. He says, just so, a hypocrite because he assumes a counterfeit religious persona, an image, a mask that presents him as righteous and religious before men. Because he assumes that counterfeit persona, he never really experiences the pleasure of true religion. The persona is one of pleasure and delight because it's one of religion. But because it's fake, so is the experience and the pleasure. None can know the peace of God but those who enjoy the grace of God. And that's why the benediction is grace and peace. By the grace of God, you know the peace of God. If you don't have the grace of God, you'll never know the peace of God. You can't. The same here. None that deny the power of godliness, 2 Timothy 3.5. None who deny the power of godliness can expect to share in the pleasures of godliness. We talked about last week. You want true pleasure? You want the true pleasures of Christ? The pleasures of God? Then you need to follow God. You need to truly give yourself to Christ. Wisdom must enter into the heart, take possession of it, and become a living and active principle in it before one can know the pleasures which accompany it. Remember Proverbs 3.17 is kind of the theme text for him in these sermons. Her ways, the ways of wisdom, which we learned last week, are the ways of godliness. Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace. Wisdom must enter into the heart and take possession of the heart. Godliness must take hold of us. Godliness, by grace, must take hold of us before we'll ever know the pleasures that accompany it. Look at letter C, a note. Those who aim at no more than to be accounted religious before men, justly fall short of the comforts of religion in their own souls. I just put that there as a note from Henry, of course. Just think about that. If all you're aiming at is to be accounted religious before men, then you get your comeuppance when you fall short of the comforts of true religion. If all you're after is the applause of men, then you've got no reason to expect the comforts of God. And so, as we learned this morning, our aim needs to be not to please men, but God. Our aim needs to be God's approval. Our aim needs to be the grace of God and the peace of God. By that grace, who cares what men think? At the end of the day, who cares what people think? We are serving the Lord and we are looking for His smile even if all the world frowns. Moreover, since hypocrites delight in the things of the world and the gratifications of sense, this sours their mouth to spiritual pleasures. Likewise, since they have their affection set on things of the earth, they quickly grow weary of the appointed feast of the Lord because they have no real delight in the Lord Himself, which is what we learned this morning. So you see what Henry is saying? If you feed on the things of this world, what happens to your palate? Honestly, if you feed yourself so much on the things of this world, what happens to your desire for God? God tastes bland. Because God's not going to titillate the senses. God's going to come into the soul and take possession and give you real delights and real comforts. Eternal, durable, lasting, substantive, The world wants to come to our senses and distract us from real substance, distract us from reality, distract us from the eternal, the invisible, and the enduring. So, if we feed ourselves and gratify ourselves upon the world, then it's no wonder church is boring. Do you ever think about that? So many times people go home complaining about the sermon, complaining about the Sunday school, complaining about this, that, and the other, and it's boring. How many times is there nothing wrong with the sermon? I'm not saying every sermon is perfect. But how many times is there really nothing wrong with the sermon? How many times is it us? How many times is it really the case that we've either come full, full of the world, or just simply don't have a palate for the things of God? How does that happen? How does it happen that we lose a palate, a taste, an appetite for the things of God? It's very clear how it happens. We learned a little bit this morning, and here Henry brings it up before us. It's because we're feeding on the world. I guess what I'm getting at, this is what Henry is getting at too. Be careful. Be careful what you imbibe. Be careful what you take in. Remember the two gates that Bunyan pointed out? Eye gate and ear gate. Be very, very, very cautious. Overly cautious. Terribly cautious at what you bring in eye gate and ear gate. Because that goes straight to the heart, which we learned this morning is so critical. And that's how the world, those are Satan's gates. He comes in through eye gate and ear gate. And he brings in all sorts of things that are immediate, quick pleasures. Satisfying on the surface. You're going to work. You're going to work. This is hard. But what you get is lasting and enduring and profitable and soul delights. Satan doesn't want you to bother with those things. He's going to give you a quick microwave fix. Eye gate and ear gate. So be very careful because while you think what's going in eye gate and ear gate are harmless, you're going to dull your senses. You're going to numb your palate. And then God proves to be not so exciting. And just back up for a minute. Isn't this the reason why we have churches going the direction they're going in terms of all the worldliness that comes into the churches? What's the argument for worldliness in the churches? Church is boring. If anything, hopefully we learned this morning that God is not boring. God's not boring. We need to have our palates sensitive to the things of God. And that comes from our affections being set above. When our affections are set upon the earth, we grow weary of the Lord. You can see how things are coming together from what we're learning in the Psalms and this. It's all about the same thing. But listen to what happens when we have our affections set upon the earth and not upon God. Look at Amos 8, verse 5. This is the complaint of Israel. This is God's people. This is the church. Listen to their complaint. When will the new moon be over? They were supposed to celebrate the new moon with a festival. When will the new moon be over that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, when will it be over that we may offer wheat for sale? That we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances? In other words, I can't cheat my sales on the Sabbath. When will the Sabbath be over so I can start cheating my sales? When will the Sabbath be over? When will the new moon be over so I can sell grain and get back to real, notice, real profit? Profit, that I can make money, that I can serve myself. That's a terrible thing to come from the mouth of the church, but that's what's happening. How does that happen? We don't delight in God. We grow weary of the feasts of the Lord. We grow weary of the Lord's day because we have no delight in the Lord Himself. And so Job 27.10, speaking of the wicked, will he take delight in the Almighty? The answer, of course, is no. Will he call upon God at all times? The answer is no. Call upon God when he's in trouble, but not at all times as we heard this morning. So hypocrites delight in the things of the world. Their mouths are soured to true spiritual pleasures. So we're not talking about the pleasures after which hypocrites run. You see, he's going to exclude all hypocrites and he's going to focus on truly religious people, true piety. So we're not talking about those types of pleasures after which the hypocrites run because they don't know true pleasures because they are soured. Their true palate for the things of God is soured. It's completely numb. They have no delight in God. Number three, it is true that a hypocrite may have some delight in religion, but his delight is carnal. And here's a host of verses, just read quickly here. Isaiah 58 verse 2, Isaiah 58, God rebukes his people for not honoring the Lord's day. And we read in verse 2, however, yet they seek me daily, they delight to know my ways. Now, if all we're reading in verse 2, it sounds like all as well. But read the rest of chapter 58. All is not well. So, this is a verse then that proves that there is some delight. They may, for a time, delight in the Lord. Because it says here, they seek Me daily, they delight to know My ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. So it would seem that the hypocrite of Isaiah 58 really does delight in the Lord. Read the rest of the chapter. Luke 8, 13, and the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away. So even those who are planted in the rocks receive the word with joy. They love the sermon as much as you did. There's no doubt. Something is still wrong. They appeared to delight in the Lord, but something is still wrong. Look at Herod, Mark 6, verse 20. Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, John the Baptist, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. Herod loved John the Baptist. He loved to hear him. He liked what he said, but he never gave up his brother's wife. Something is still amiss. It's a hypocrite. Ezekiel 33, 32, you remember this. And behold, God says to Ezekiel, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. Israel loved Ezekiel. They loved his voice. They loved to hear him speak. They loved his sermons, let's say. But they wouldn't obey him. They didn't really delight. And so the point Henry's making is a hypocrite may have some delight in religion. He may love sermons. He may love going to church. He may love the things of God in some measure, but his delight is carnal. He does not delight in the holiness of religion, but he delights in something else. And Henry presents these suggestions and these certainly have the place where they are true. But there are other reasons more than this. Letter A there under 3, if the hypocrite delights in prayer, it's because he likes to be heard. He delights to show off his gifts. Not because he delights in communion with God. You see the difference? The righteous, only the true believer, the truly pious, can delight in communion with God. They love prayer because it's communion with God. The hypocrite doesn't want communion with God. He just likes for everybody to come up after the prayer meeting and say, oh, that was a great prayer. If the hypocrite delights in hearing, hearing the sermon or hearing Sunday school teaching or hearing the Bible read, it's because he likes the eloquence of the speaker, not the content of the message. They liked Ezekiel. They didn't like what he said, not one word of it. He likes the sermon, Henry says, like a child likes a flower for its smell, not like an infant likes its mother's milk for nourishment. See, God's people come to the sermon for nourishment. A hypocrite will come to the sermon because it smells good. He likes the outside of it. Thus, let us see the hypocrite may enjoy the light of spiritual duties and yet never see the light of grace in his soul. A hypocrite made the light in the moralism of Christianity. He likes the light. He likes to read his Bible. He loves it. He's read it. I don't know how many times he loves to read the Bible. He likes the light of it. But that's as far as it goes. He never knows the light of grace in his soul. So that's how we deal with the fact that hypocrites may have some delight in religion for a time. Number four, those whose hearts are not right with God through faith in Christ cannot have the pleasure of communion with God because it's only the soul or heart that communes with God. It's not the body. This is a very important point. The hypocrite's body may be brought to a spiritual duty as well as any other's body. But if it's only with duty that the hypocrite has to deal, then it's unavoidable that the duty will become a wearisome burden. In other words, the hypocrite can come to sermon just as well as the Christian. But if it's just the duty that he delights in, after a while, the duty gets old. If all he has to deal with is the duty itself, It's going to get old, because he has to get up early, and he went to bed late, and he likes to stay up late on Saturday nights, and it's just too early to get up. I can't do this anymore. And he quits, as we'll come to in a moment. The Christian, when we come to the things of God, when we give ourselves to spiritual duties, it's not the duty with which we have to do, it's God. The reason we come to our spiritual duties and the reason we delight in them is because in our duties, we meet God. In our Bible reading, we meet God. In the sermon, we meet God. In communion, we meet God. In all that we do, we meet God. We're communing with the Lord. That's what makes it so wonderful. And that's why our duties can be at the same time seen as our privileges. Because they bring us into a relationship with God. But not so the hypocrite. All he has is the duty. And it may be exciting for a time, but it's going to get boring. It's going to get old. It's going to get tiring. Something else is going to be more sensual. And he'll be pulled away from it. And so, Malachi 1.13, God says to the people, but you say, what a weariness this is. And you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, bringing God's offerings. And this you bring as your offering? Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord? They were complaining that they kept having to bring the offerings. They got tired of bringing the offerings. So they would give God the lame lamb, the sick lamb. God says, shall I accept this? It's not that the animal is sick. That's a problem. But where's the bigger problem we learned this morning? It's wearisome to them. Their hearts aren't right. And if their hearts aren't right, it doesn't matter about the lamb. God looks at the heart. And as I said this morning, if your spiritual duties are wearisome to you, they're wearisome to God. It's a burden. And what he says, it's a burden to me. God doesn't delight in it at all. Malachi 314, you have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in morning before the Lord of hosts? It's vain. I can get more done doing something else and I can get more excited in some other venue and I can get more pleasure in some other in some other engagement. That's how the hypocrite thinks. After a time he realizes this really isn't worth it. I'm not getting the return that I had hoped to get. Whereas for Christians. Our return is in the Lord and we delight in Him. And so it's unavoidable that this duty will become a wearisome burden, Henry says, because two reasons. Number one, his heart does not delight in the duty. And number two, he meets with nothing more in the duty than the duty itself. As I said, the service of God is burdened to unrenewed and unsanctified hearts. It's a burden. There's no delight in it. Nor, letter B, top of page two, nor Can the hypocrite take any pleasure in communing with his own conscience? It's not that the hypocrite just has a problem communing with God. He doesn't take any pleasure communing with God. But nor does he take any pleasure communing with himself. Why? Because what is his conscience always telling him? Number one, his conscience convicts him of sin because our conscience is God's sheriff. Convicts us of sin that we have broken God's law, we are covenant breakers, But furthermore, for the hypocrite who lives a life of hypocrisy, what does his conscience remind him of every night when he lays down in his bed? You're not who you say you are. You're a fake. You're not real. And his conscience nags at him so he takes no pleasure in communing with self. And he can't think about his past duties because he's reminded by his conscience that none of them have been done right before God. So he can't take pleasure in thinking upon his past behavior at all. And no matter how much he announces peace to himself and assures himself, it's OK. It's OK. I'm all right. I'm all right. No matter how much he declares peace to himself, his conscience reminds him that he has no peace with God. He may say he has peace with God, but God has never said he has peace with him. In fact, what does the Lord say? Depart from me. I never knew you. After they said what? Oh, you toddled in our streets. We know who you are. No, I never knew you. You declared peace between us, but I never did. God has to establish peace, and that's what he does through Christ. And so, eventually, Henry says, this takes the fire out of all the hypocrite's pleasures, so that his religion pains him. God terrifies him. And the Gospel itself condemns him for his insincerity. Being in such straight when any trouble comes his way, any affliction, any difficulty, he automatically thinks God is out to get him. Remember when Joseph's brothers, right? When all that happened to them when they went before Joseph? Oh, this is because we were mean to our brother. Oh, God's after us finally after all those years. They figured God has finally come after them. That's how the hypocrite feels. He's never at peace because he knows he's a hypocrite. And so, Isaiah 33, verse 14, Notice, the sinners in Zion, not God's people, not the saints as it were, but the sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? God is after us. What can we do? You remember what they'll say in Revelation 6 when Christ comes back? They'll cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them. Because who can bear the wrath of the Lamb? The hypocrite is constantly in fear. Amos 6 verse 1, Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria. At ease in sin. And where? Zion. What's Zion in the Bible? It's the church. Woe to those who are sinfully at ease in the church. Because yes, when God comes in judgment, where does Peter say it begins? In the house of God. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, resting upon their self-announcement of peace. And for these reasons, letter D, the hypocrites will at last cast off their religion because their conscience will not leave them alone and they are weary of the pretense. They will at last cast off religion for a while. And haven't we seen this? What other explanation can we give to those who make some profession of faith and six months, a year down the line, turn right back into the world? Peter says, going back into the mire. What can we say? We know from Scripture that no one loses his or her salvation because it's a work of God and the calling and election of God is irrevocable, Paul says. So what is it? Well, it's someone who tried on religion for a while, got excited about it, felt good about it, felt good to be moral, felt good to be clean in one's own eyes. But when all you have is duty, when all you have is the outskirts of religion, there's just no payoff. There's no worth to it. There's no value in it. It's not worthwhile. After a while, we see there's really no profit to it. When our hearts are not right with God, it's a burden. And so we pass it off and the people turn away. And as Hebrews chapter six says, they go back to the world. Thus, we learn that nothing will carry us. This is a powerful statement. Pray you spend some time thinking about this. Nothing will carry us through the outward difficulties of religion except the inward delights of it. Nothing will carry you through the outward difficulties of religion. There are outward difficulties to religion. Jesus described them as taking up your cross. That was the gospel message. Ever heard anyone evangelize like that? That's how Jesus evangelized. If anyone will come after me and follow me, let him take up his cross, deny himself, and follow me. And by comparison, by the way, hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, and your own life. Told the rich man, sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow me. But nothing will carry you through the outward difficulties of religion except the inward delights of it. So it goes back to what we learned this morning in the importance of our affections being on God. If we love God, then there is no sacrifice too great. Because Christ gave all. So if we really love God, then no sacrifice is so great. We'll do anything for the Lord. Paul tells us, He who laid down His life for us, He died for us so that we might live for Him. Not to ourselves, but for Him who died that we might live. What a powerful statement, 2 Corinthians 5. Mark 8.34 I've already described, and then Mark 10.22. The rich man noticed he was disheartened by what Christ said. He went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Well, what else did he expect? He didn't get the pleasure he came for. He actually got sorrow. But what can you expect if you're looking for something different than religion offers? He was looking for sensual pleasure and using Henry's categories, of course. And you're not going to find that. The hypocrite, therefore, number five, the hypocrite will not always call upon God. He just made the point that after a while, hypocrites will turn away. Religion will get old and they'll cast it off. So they will not always call upon God because He does not delight in them. But don't let this be a stumbling block. It's a stumbling block for many. It has been a stumbling block for many that we see people coming to Christ outwardly and then falling away. Coming to Christ, fall away. It causes some to think, well, if they can't endure to the end, then how do I know that I will? Jesus says, only the one who endures to the end will be saved. If they didn't last, what confidence can I have that I will last? Henry says, look, don't let this be a stumbling block. Keep things in perspective. Hypocrites do prove to be apostates in religion. But it's because they never found it pleasant. And they never found it pleasant because they were never sincere in it. which was their own fault, not the fault of the religion. In other words, as Paul says about the law in Romans chapter 7, that it's good. There's nothing wrong with religion. Christianity, of course, you remember, is what he means by religion. There's nothing wrong with Christianity. There's nothing wrong with a life lived fully and completely to the glory of God. There's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, it's the only place where you're going to find true pleasure and true peace. The problem with those who come in to wet their feet and then leave tired of it is they were looking for something other than what is in God. Those who look for the Lord find it to be what it is. Full of pleasure and full of peace. Number six, let us therefore take heed and beware of hypocrisy. You see where he's come to? I'm talking about true piety and true pleasure. But there are such things as hypocrites who have no true piety. It's counterfeit piety. Therefore, they don't know the true pleasure of which I speak. So beware of hypocrisy. Beware that you be one of them. Beware of hypocrisy. If you ever hope to find pleasure in religion, if you ever hope to find what I'm talking about, Henry's saying, the pleasantness, before I even tell you what the pleasantness is, beware that you're not a hypocrite. Beware that you really, really, really are right with the Lord. You're not aiming at something outside of God. Counterfeit piety aims at other pleasures than those of which God speaks and those who seek them. Cue out cisterns. Remember Jeremiah 2? Cue out cisterns for themselves that can hold no water. Therefore, they should not expect to enjoy the pleasure of true believers who cleave to and draw from the fountain of life, Jesus Christ. If we're coming into religion, if we're coming into the church as so many do, making a profession of faith and everything, if we're coming into the church looking for something other than what God gives, number one, we're not going to last. We're going to leave. Number two, what a great, what a great shame that brings, not just upon you and your profession, but what shame that brings upon the gospel. There's nothing wrong with the gospel. What's wrong is in the heart of the person. But we are to be those who adorn the doctrine of God with godliness, as Paul says to Titus. If we come looking for other pleasures than those which God gives, We're hewing out cisterns that will hold no water. And therefore, we should not be surprised when we don't ever come by the pleasures that we hear from everyone else are in religion, a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we never come to find those, which we never will, we'll have ourselves to blame because we were looking for something else. We really didn't want God. We really didn't want His pleasures. We really didn't want True piety. We wanted something else. Now he comes to really a second point, having dealt with the hypocrisy. We speak of true piety to which hypocrites are strangers. Well, let's talk about hypocrites, which he's done. Now he comes back and deals with Christians. It is possible, he says, that true Christians may, through fault of their own, through their own fault and folly, not enjoy the pleasure of their religion for a time. And therefore, we speak of true piety as far as it has its due influence upon us and is rightly understood and lived up to. It's possible for a true Christian to not have pleasure in Christianity for a time. It's possible for a true Christian to come short of true pleasure. It's possible for one who is truly pious, and the fruit of which is true pleasure, it's possible for that person to come short of true enjoyment, true peace and true pleasure for a time. But if we ever do, the fault is our own. And so, he says, what I'm talking about, when I say there's true pleasure in true piety, I'm talking about true piety as far as it goes. And that means true piety with all of the assumptions of you understand what true piety is, and you're living up to true piety, you're giving yourself to true piety, you're living a life of sincere obedience before God. And what we learned this morning is Christian perfection. Sincere obedience. That you are striving by the grace of God, as John Edwards began his long list of resolutions, that you're striving by the grace of God to obey Him fully, completely, all the time from a cheerful heart. That's your striving. That's where you are. You're truly pursuing that, though filled with many imperfections and failures along the way, of course, because we're still sinners. Yet if that's what our piety is, we're truly pursuing that. And we'll understand what this means. But he says it's possible through our own fault and folly for us to come short for a time. He says, number one, wisdom's ways are indeed pleasant, but sometimes wisdom's children, Christians, are unpleasant and therefore come short of her comforts. Now I list three areas in which we fall short. of laying hold of the true pleasure that's in true religion. And again, as he says, the fault is our own. Listen to this. Number one, either they turn outside her ways, the ways of true wisdom, which is true piety. Either they turn outside her ways and lose the pleasure of her ways because they turned outside. Remember Christian and hopeful going into Bypass Meadow and coming to Doubting Castle, a giant despair. What a miserable journey that was. They barely escaped. How did they ever come to such a terrible, depressing place? Well, they went outside the way. So either, when we don't enjoy the pleasure of our religion, it's either because we turned outside the way and fall short of the pleasure, or they refuse to take the comfort which they might have in the ways of godliness and carry on in them with dragging feet when they have no reason to. In other words, there are comforts that are yours, and yet you drag your feet as if they didn't exist. That's why in our morning service, we have the confession of sin. That's an important part. But it's just as important, if not more important in some respects, to have the assurance of pardon. What is the assurance of pardon all about? It's just giving you a comfort. You confessed your sin. You were reminded through this confession that you're a sinner and that you need grace. But you might walk out of here wondering if you got the grace. So then the assurance of pardon comes from the Lord to say, yes, You've got the grace. You're pardoned. Take comfort in your pardon. And so the assurance of pardon is meant to send you away with comfort. And so if you leave here on a Sunday morning, still weighed down by the guilt of your sins, well, what did you do with the assurance of pardon? Didn't you hear it? So there's times when Godliness or wisdom when her ways are filled with comfort, but we're not drawing on them. And sometimes we hold the assurance of pardon as we do in the morning bulletin, if you will. Sometimes we hold it in our hands. But we don't take it to our hearts. We'll read the assurance of pardon and say, yeah, I'm sure that's a comfort to someone. But we don't comfort ourselves. We've got the salve, but we don't apply it. We're holding the medicine, but we don't drink it. That's what he's saying. So sometimes we come short of the pleasures of true religion when we're truly religious. Because we just stare at them as if they weren't for us. Or we stare at them as if we didn't know what to do with them. We stare at our wardrobe standing naked. We've got a full wardrobe. Get dressed. Apply the things of Christ to your soul. Don't just stand there. That's what Henry's after. And so we drag our feet when we have no reason to, carrying the assurance of pardon in our hand, if you will, Number two, they hamper themselves with needless entanglements. And that can happen many ways. They make the yoke heavy, which Christ has made light. We're told in Scripture that Christ's commandments are not burdensome. Why do we make them so burdensome? Jesus says, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Why do we make them so heavy? Why do we treat the things, the ways, and the commandments of God as if they were binding and restrictive and weighty? You remember as Christian walked around with his sin. Remember, Pliable wanted to just get up and run to the celestial city. I can't, Christian said, by reason of this burden on my back. Well, sometimes we make the yoke of Christ so heavy that we can barely walk. Sometimes we make things frightful which Christ designs to be encouraging. Think of your afflictions. Christ sends afflictions and disappointments to be encouraging as they drive us to Him. But we turn them into bugabears. We turn them into frights and fears. Wait a minute, this was to be encouraging. We turn it into something frightful. God takes things away from us and we're scared. Wait a minute, why did He take those things away from you? so that you might realize that all you needed was Him. And we give in to causeless fears and griefs. And that's a whole list of things, isn't it? No reason to be afraid. The disciples in the boat. Elijah in the mountains running from Jezebel. Why? Causeless. But thirdly, don't let true piety suffer in its reputation because of this either. for although such a state..." And this is an interesting point. I'm not going to go into great detail here. He said, "...for although such a state of not enjoying the pleasures of religion, but being, as he calls it, melancholy, such a state is called religious or spiritual depression by many, it isn't so. It's not rightly so called, in that it is contrary to the nature and design of religion." In other words, notice what he's saying. He's not saying that there aren't times when we're discouraged or depressed. He's admitting those times and he's saying there's various reasons for why we get in that place. But however we got there, don't call it religious depression. Not according to what he wants to talk about. Because his whole point is religion is pleasurable. It's contrary to religion to say that religion is depressing. So Henry's saying, I don't like that. I don't like that nomenclature. I don't like that name. Religion isn't depressing. The things of the spirit aren't depressing. They can't depress because they are truly pleasurable, truly peaceful. It is rather to be called, given the explanations or the examples that he just gave, it is rather to be called a superstitious depression in that it often arises from superstitious and unwarranted causes. In other words, we're afraid when we shouldn't be afraid. We doubt God's forgiveness when He's given it to us 10,000 times. These are superstitious and causeless or unwarranted causes. Exactly. That's one example, I think, of turning out of the way. Because we're supposed to stay near the throne of grace. If you pull back from your Bible reading, and you pull back from your devotions, no wonder you don't feel so good. Right? Don't eat. Don't eat for three or four or five days. Don't eat for as often as you don't read your Bible. See how you feel. We're not so stupid that we'll treat our bodies in that way. We're going to feed our bodies. We know we need the energy. We know we need the health. We know we'll die if we don't. Why are we so foolish? regarding our souls. Our body only has use and purpose with regard to our soul. The soul is the more important part. And yet we starve our souls. We could talk about that for a long time. Number two and three, the last two points here, they're direct quotes. I changed a couple of things, I guess. But for the most part, the direct quotes from Henry as he ended this section, I could have tried to summarize and I thought these were just so powerful. I just wanted to end with his two points here. So I'll just read these two. He's kind of wrapping all of this section up. Then we get to the point where it says, secondly, we'll come to that next week. Henry says, and he's kind of deep. You have to think through these. If the professors of religion look for that in the world which is to be had in God alone, namely, perfect happiness. Or if they look in themselves for that which is to be had in Christ alone, namely, a perfect righteousness. Or if they look for that on earth which is to be had in heaven alone, namely, perfect holiness, and then fret and grieve and go mourning from day to day because they are disappointed in their expectations, they may thank themselves. Luke 24, 5, where the angel spoke to those who came to the tomb, why do you look for the living among the dead? That was his reference there. If we look to the world for what's in God, if we look to ourselves for what's in Christ, and if we look to the earth for what's in heaven, we can thank ourselves that we've come up short of the three things we desperately are searching for. Perfect happiness, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness. Where are these things found? in true piety. So, if you come up short, look at yourself. You're probably on the wrong search or you're on the right search for the right thing, as it were. You're looking in the wrong place. Look to God. And the second quote, number three, just let true and pure religion command and prevail over your heart and mind and all your tears will soon be wiped away. Now, he doesn't mean we don't cry. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying Christians will never cry. Don't misunderstand him. He's speaking generally. But he's talking specifically about the effect that true religion has on a person and that it is truly pleasurable. So, hear him again. Just let true and pure religion command and prevail over your heart and mind and all your tears will soon be wiped away. Let God's servants take their work before them Allow each principle of their religion its due weight. That means take God at His Word. And each practice of true religion, its due place and proportion in your life. Truly give yourselves zealously to the Lord. And let them not dash one precept of the gospel against, or excuse me, any more than one table of the law against another. Don't bring the things of the gospel or the things of the law against one another. And let them look upon it to be as much their duty to rejoice in Christ as to mourn for sin. And then we shall not fear that the sorrows of hypocrites will in the least shape the truth of our doctrine. For as far as religion is carried, It will carry this character along with it. And further, it cannot be expected. If we just let true religion have its full command and weight on our lives, it's not that we won't cry, but we will come to the place where we realize a lot of our tears are ill-placed. That's what he's saying. Take God at His Word 100%. Put your religion, put Christianity into full throttle in your life. Put it into full practice in your life. No holds barred. And then watch what happens. You see, we're afraid to do that. Because we're afraid God might ask everything. We're afraid to do that because we're afraid that God might ask for something we love too much. Something we're unwilling to give up. Something we're hiding in a closet somewhere. And so because we're afraid of what we might lose, because we're afraid of what it might cost us and what we might have to give up, 99.9% of Christians are afraid to go full throttle with God. They're just afraid. And you know what I say? Shame on us. Shame on me. As we heard this morning and as we're hearing echoed here, we will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever regret a life lived to the Lord. Our regret will be that we didn't do more. Our regret will be that we did not delight in God more. No one in heaven regrets that he gave too much to the Lord on earth. Everyone in heaven where there is no regret. But speaking in this fashion, everyone in heaven wishes and regrets that he didn't do more, wishes he had have done more. You think about that? All the regrets in hell are understandable. But think of the regrets, if we can call them regrets. Again, they don't exist in this sense, but think of in heaven. When you get there and you see Christ, You're going to think, what was I thinking? What a fool. If I would have only known that he was so worthy, that he was so glorious and beautiful, I would have held nothing back. Nothing. But we're still holding on, aren't we? We're all still holding on. So, hopefully as we go through this study, we'll become more and more convinced And we'll become more and more zealous in our service to the Lord. And we'll see that revival, which we need in our hearts and lives, in our church. And we'll see God do great things. But great things, as we learned this morning, are done by those who greatly delight in the Lord. So that's where we have to begin. Alright, any questions before we close in prayer?