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. . . Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
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
. . . "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." . . .
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.
Who is free from idolatry now?
"But," some are ready to exclaim, "taking thought for these things is a very law and necessity of my being. I came into this world needing food and clothing. Others had to take thought to feed and clothe me. They early impressed upon me as one of the clearest duties of my responsible life that I should take this thought for myself, and now I can only get these things for myself and my family by taking thought for them." Ay, and the very Word of GOD enjoins the duty: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise"--learn, that is, from her forethought and provision; look about thee, be industrious, store up for future wants. Our LORD Himself set the example of such forethought, when He committed the care of a bag to one of His disciples, that food, and money to buy food, might be carried about with them; and the Apostle Paul plainly taught--"If any will not work, neither shall he eat." "If any man provide not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."
And would you really come to want, if you were more religious? Would your family be left unprovided for? Would your health suffer? You do not seriously think it would. But what if it did? Welcome want, welcome sickness, welcome death--anything rather than worldly prosperity, if it can only be obtained by renunciation of GOD'S enjoined service and idolatrous devotion to mammon. The world will laugh at such preaching, brethren, and call it foolishness; but the world is nothing to us. It is doomed to pass away with all the things in it which lure us to take thought; but you and I must live on to eternity, and how we are to live shall be decided by the master we serve--GOD or mammon.
And what, then, are we to infer from all this? That besides GOD'S general providence which rules over all, ordering, as from a distant throne, the being and motions of the universe, He exercises a particular providence, drawing nigh to individuals, stepping in between cause and effect, saving, helping, prospering, hindering, confounding, destroying, just in those very cases which natural laws would treat otherwise. Not that this is always done in the case of all men. The wicked are often and chiefly let alone; they are, it may be, in great prosperity for a time; they come perhaps to no present misfortune; they do violence and escape justice; their time of reward is not yet. Again, the righteous are not exempt from trials, and troubles, and privations--their time of reward is not yet ; but they are never forsaken. The very hairs of their heads are all numbered. Nothing befalls them but by GOD'S permission--a permission which is only given when the event will work for their good. They may commit themselves unto Him as unto a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour; they may put their trust in Him, assured that it will not miscarry; no evil shall approach to hurt them lastingly--He will keep them as the apple of His eye; none shall be able to pluck them out of His hand. In short, while they desire the things which He promises, and love and do the things which He commands, He will forward all their wise undertakings, and bless them in all their circumstances; and when their own ignorance, or want of forethought, or external so-called chances, or the machinations of evil men or spirits expose them to danger, He will interfere and ward off the consequences, save only when, like the trials of Job or Joseph, they can be made productive of greater excellence and so of greater reward. If this be so, then surely expediency approves what right demands, that we should forego the taking thought which is so uncertainly successful, and that we should repose in a care which never fails--"Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you."
Oh! my brethren, try to believe heartily this great doctrine of a particular Providence! Look not back to the creation of the world, and to the working out of men's redemption in Judea, or forward to the Judgment Day, as though GOD were only working and manifesting Himself there and then. GOD is everywhere and is active everywhere; He is here now; He is marking how we conduct ourselves in this house; He is looking into the very depths of our hearts and minds, and noting whatsoever lurks there. This night He will be about our beds; to-morrow about our paths; always spying out all our ways. Of every thought, of every word, of every deed of ours, He will at once note the intent and the measure. Of all that is done in His fear and service, He will record that it is "righteous worship;" of all else that it is "idolatry," the setting up of some person or some thing as more worthy to be loved or feared than He is. Every undertaking, every endurance, all safety and all danger, all wisdom and all folly, will be watched and allowed or overruled according as we deserve or deserve not to be dealt with in love by a present GOD.
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