Sermons on Biblical CharactersChappell, Clovis Gillham
Religion
Sermons on Biblical Characters
Chappell, Clovis Gillham
Bible -- Biography; Sermons, American -- 20th century
Then Pharaoh offered a second compromise. He said, "I will let you and
the children go, but you must leave your cattle and your sheep. You
must leave all your flocks and your herds." That is, you may go into
Canaan if you must, but leave your business in Egypt. And the devil
to-day is perfectly willing that you and I be just as pious and
prayerful as we want to be on Sunday, provided we forget all about such
things on Monday. He is willing for you to be devoutly religious if
you will only confine your religion to the church. But a religion that
does not permeate and purify and uplift and sanctify business and
business relations is not the religion of Jesus Christ.
And then Pharaoh offered a third compromise. He said, "I will let the
people go, but they must not go far." Why was that? For the very
human reason that he wanted the privilege of getting them back. He
said, for instance, "I will obey God, but I do not want to promise to
make my obedience permanent." You have seen plenty of instances of
that. Here is a man who has decided to be a Christian, but he won't
join the church. He wants to see how he gets along first. Such a man
is already making provision for going back. "Take up thy bed," said
the Master to the paralyzed man whom He had healed. He ever wants us
to make a complete break with the past.
But the plagues grow worse. Pharaoh is becoming more and more
frightened. While the scare is on he promises again and again that he
will obey the Lord unconditionally. There was a terrible storm, you
remember. The hail stones fell like shrapnel and the lightning dropped
from the clouds and fairly played along the earth, and terror gripped
the King's heart. And he sends for Moses. When Moses comes he tells
him, all atremble, "I have sinned this time. I will let the people
go." But when the storm ceases and the sun shines out he is quite
ashamed of his weakness. He is so ashamed that he forgets altogether
the promise that he made when the fear of death was upon him.
This is a side of human nature that is a bit disgusting, yet we dare
not shut our eyes to it. There are scores listening to me at this very
moment who have acted for all the world as Pharaoh acted. And you have
done so with all the light that he had and far more. I do not know of
a man that is in greater danger of being ultimately lost than that man
who never cares for religion except when he is scared. Because the
truth of the matter is that a man of that kind does not care for
goodness or for God at all. Not even in his moments of most abject
terror does he want to be truly saved. He simply wants to escape the
results of his sin. He does not want to pay the penalty for wrong
doing. He wants to defeat the ends of justice. He is not interested
in being good and pure and true. He is simply interested in keeping
out of hell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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