I really enjoyed reading Thomas Chalmers’ sermon entitled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. Chalmers hammers and hammers the truth of the Gospel into you as you read this. The first sentence is a theme oft-repeated in this work: “There are two ways in which to a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart shall prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one.” In other words, we can either preach against all the ways and reasons that worldliness is so horribly wrong in the life of a believer, or we can preach the remedy of the Gospel as the agent of change. He further states, “…in the Gospel do we so behold God as that we may love God. It is there, and there only, where God stands revealed as an object of confidence to sinners–and where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy by the barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach that is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator.” Summarizing toward the end of this great work, Chalmers says, “We know of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our heart than to keep in our hearts the love of God–and no other way by which to keep our hearts in the love of God, than by building ourselves on our most holy faith.”
These were definitely some incredible words to read. Too often we labor hard in Christian circles to decry and speak against all the manners of worldliness that seem to run rampant both within and without the church. Chalmers would say, rather than do that, labor to instill in the lives of your people strong affections rooted in the Gospel and God Himself. If your affections are here, then worldliness will not cohabitate long. This was an excellent insight. I encourage you to take time to read this work. It would be well worth it.