How Long Will You Love Vanity?

Psalm 4:2  O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

The Lord is often represented in His word as reasoning with us.

He manifests the deepest interest, shows intense pity, and uses many means to draw us back from the vortex of ruin.

But man, thoughtless man, silly man rushes on his way, trifles with his soul, and plays on the brink of the most dreadful precipice!

He is in love with his sin...

And therefore in love with his own destruction! 

But God does not abandon him to despair-but touchingly, tenderly, lovingly, He reasons with him and asks, "How long will you love vanity?"

Man by nature sets his heart upon what is vain and worthless-that which is not suited to, or required by, his immortal nature. 

Vanity represents that which is light, Changeable, and of Brief duration.  

Man displays his love of vanity by preferring human friendship, to God's friendship...

By thinking much more of the creature, than the Creator..

By preferring earthly riches, to heavenly riches...

By preferring carnal pleasures, to spiritual delights!

Nor only so, but he manifests his foolishness by indulging in sin, the worst of vanities!

Look at the profane swearer, the drunkard, the glutton, the proud, the lover of pleasure. 

They are in love with vanity! 

They imagine that they shall have pleasure and enjoy happiness...

But they never ponder the questions...

What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 

God asks the lover of vanity, "How Long!" 

How long will you love vanity?

You have been doing so for years. 

Some for twenty, some for forty, and some for sixty years! 

You have manifested love to vanity...

Though warned...

Though convinced you were doing wrong...

Though you have often promised to reform. 

You are still loving vanity though mortality is at work within you, though death is very near to you, though eternity is within a step of you, though Hell is ready to receive you!

You persevere in loving vanity...

While a pardon is presented to you...

While peace with God may be enjoyed by you...

While holiness may be obtained by you...

And while Heaven is within your reach! 

How long will you love vanity?

Until some affliction unfits you to seek the world?

Until God's Spirit no longer strives with you?

Until Satan fills your heart?

Until God laughs at your calamity?

Until some sudden stroke takes you away to Hell?

How long?

Let your past foolishness suffice...

And now, while the door of mercy is open, enter!

Now, while the way of escape is clear, Flee for your life!

No one ever came too soon, thousands have Delayed too long!

No one ever regretted that he was saved too early...

Millions have Cursed their folly that they were not saved at all!

Myriads wish that they had never been born, because they persevered in such folly. 

Beware then, Beware-lest you Bitterly Regret your folly too late! 

Love Vanity No Longer!

~James Smith

Swallowed Up In A Worldly Church!

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.  

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  

As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. 

That is why the world hates you!

John 15:18  If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Such is the testimony of the Lord Jesus. 

Real Christians have Never been favorites of the world-and while it continues what it is, they Never can be. 

Nor can the pure and simple gospel be pleasant to the world, because it lays the sinner in the dust and exalts God as supreme and sovereign. 

Let us not be surprised then, if we hear worldlings speak against the gospel, and speak badly of or tell lies about  the Lord's people. 

For what the Romans told Paul, is in a good measure true in the present day, "For concerning this 'sect', we are aware that it is spoken against everywhere!" 

Act 28:22  But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.

This "sect' originated with Jesus, the hated Nazarene...

Who came into the world for its good, and to save His people from their sins. 

He gathered around Him many, but they were principally the poor and unlearned. 

There was nothing in them, or about them-to recommend them to the proud and sensual world. 

They were begotten of God, and made New creatures in Christ. 

They embraced the Truth that He taught. 

They observed the Precepts that He gave.

They copied the Example that He set.

Their creed consisted pretty much in these facts ...

That man is a lost sinner, that salvation by works is impossible, and therefore it must be all of grace, or not at all...

That the Lord Jesus came into the world to take the sinner's place, fulfill the law in the sinner's stead, and die as the sinner's substitute.

By such hopes, they were animated; by such rules, they walked; and at such objects, they aimed.

And yet, they were spoken against and despised, because they poured contempt on the luxuries, pride, and honors of this world. 

They were treated as the off-scouring of all things-unfit for society, unfit to live.

1Jn 3:13  Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

And yet, like Israel in Egypt, the more they were persecuted, the more they multiplied and grew...

Until at length they spread not only over the Roman empire, but nearly over the world. 

And, had they retained...

The simplicity of their lives, the spirituality of their minds, and the correctness of their creed, they would no doubt have encircled the globe!

But at length they were...

Courted by royalty, loaded with wealth, became intoxicated with worldly honors, and then their glory departed!

They drank into the spirit of the world, conformed to its maxims and customs, sought its approbation and applause...

And so fell from their exalted station, and lost their real dignity.

The 'sect' that had been spoken against everywhere, with the exception of a few-was swallowed up in a worldly church!

There are still some, who, like the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, are spoken against everywhere.  

They will not swim with the stream. 

They will not compromise their Master's honor, or give up their Master's Truth. 

According to the light they have, they walk; and they rejoice to exalt the Savior, humble the sinner, and proclaim salvation, all of grace. 

They rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer shame, for His dear name. 

Reader! Do you belong to this sect? 

Is there Anything in your religion that is distasteful to the world?

Anything that draws forth its opposition, or excites its contempt? 

The Carnal mind is Still Enmity against God; and if we are godlike, that enmity will manifest itself against us!

If we copy Christ's example, as set before us in the gospel...

If we testify against the world, that its works are evil, and call upon it to repent, as Christ did-we shall soon be hated by the world!

~James Smith