chapterTHREE: reality

 [Ryle]
Let us mind that our religion is real.
He proposes 2 main things in this chapter:
1. The importance of reality in religion
2. Some tests by which we may prove our religion is real
And gives some applications of the topic to our lives

1. The importance of reality in religion
There are those who destroy the value of reality by regarding it as a thing which almost everyone has. 'They've got good hearts deep down.'
Scripture:
a) Jesus' parables all illustrate the contrast between the true believer and the mere nominal disciple. They show the uselessness and danger of any Christianity which is not real, thorough, and true.
b) Jesus' language concerning scribes and Pharisees: denounces them as "hypocrites" over 8 times in one chapter. "Ye serpents , ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33) = the exceeding abominableness of false profession and mere outward religion in God's sight.
c) There is not a feature in a true believer's character of which there is not a counterfeit described in the Word of God:

• unreal faith: Simon Magus = he "believed" but his heart was not right in the sight of God; the devils "believe and tremble" (Acts, 8:13; James 2:19) 
• unreal holiness: Joash (2 Chronicles 22:2), Judas Iscariot (John 12:6) 
• unreal love and charity: "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18); "Let love be without dissimulation." (Romans 12:9) 
• unreal humility: "pretended lowliness of demeanour, which often covers over a very proud heart"; "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind" (Colossians 2:18) 
• unreal praying: Pharissees (Mat 23:14) 
• unreal worship: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with [their] lips; but their heart is far from me." Mat 15:8 
• unreal talking: "for with their mouth they shew much love, [but] their heart goeth after their covetousness." Ezek 33:31; "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong ora clanging cymbal."1 Cor 13:1 

Realities:
Churchianity v. Christianity
Dissentianity v. Christianity

2. Some tests by which we may prove our religion is real
   a) the place which it occupies in your inner man
       It is not enough that it is in your head

       It is not enough that it is on your lips

       It is not enough that it is in your feelings.

       Your religion, if it is real, and given by the Holy Ghost, must be in your heart. It must lead the will

   b) the feelings towards sin which it produces

       Sin =

          the abominable thing which God hates

          the thing which makes man guilty and lost in his Maker's sight

          the thing which deserves God's wrath and condemnation

          the thing which will ruin us eternally, except we can find a ransom

                                  lead us captive, except we can get its chains broken

                                 destroy our happiness, both here and hereafter, except we fight against it, even unto death

       Are these your feelings about sin?

   c) the feelings towards Christ which it produces

       Real religion will make a man glory in Christ,

       as the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the Priest, the Friend, without whom he would have no hope at all...

       the mediator, the food, the light the life, the peace of the soul.

   d) the fruit it bears in your heart and in your life

       Repentance, faith, hope charity, humility, spirituality, kin temper, self-denial,

           unselfishness, forgivingness, temperance, truthfulness, brotherly-kindness, patience, forbearance.

   e) your feelings and habits about means of grace

       prove it by the Sunday (your attitudes toward the day itself)

       prove it by the public means of grace (your feelings about public prayer, praise, preaching, communion)

       prove it by the private means of grace (your feelings toward reading the Bible regularly, praying)

       If means of grace, whether public or private, are not as necessary to your soul as meat and drink are to your body,

           you may well doubt whether your religion is "real."

Application:

1) Inquiry:

sit down quietly this day, and examine yourself. With the Bible in your hand, and honesty in your heart, the [real character of your religion] may be known.

2) Warning:

to all those who know they're religion is not real, remember the greatness of their danger, and their exceeding guilt in the sigh of God.

3) Advice:

cease from all

trifling and playing with religion, and become honest, thorough-going, whole-hearted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ

4) Encouragement:

to all who have honestly taken up the cross: I exhort them to persevere, and not be moved by difficulties and opposition.

Ryle, J. C. "Reality." 2009. Practical Religion. Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 1998. 48-62. Print.