A word of advice to my own heart and yours.—You are a religious person, and partake of all the ordinances. You do well: they are glorious privileges; but if you have not the blood of Christ at the root of your religion, it will wither, and prove but a painted pageantry to go to hell in. Thomas Wilcox
The author starts off with a point that wrests the attention from worldly things and even religious things. He gives a word of advice to the heart, not just the mind, and his advice goes beyond anything that the world has to offer and that includes worldly religion. While it is not easy to hear, most of the religion of people today has to do with ordinances and morality. It may be the case that the name of Christ is used, but that is a far different thing than having the blood of Christ at the root of the religion. It may also be the case that the cross of Christ is brought up and perhaps a cross (crucifix) is used and maybe the cross is preached (in some manner) in some cases, but once again that is a far different thing than having the blood of Christ as being the very root of the person’s religion.
Apart from having the real Christ and the truth of the cross and blood of Christ as the foundation of all a person’s religion, all the religious actions of the person will wither along with their worldly actions and loves and will indeed have nothing of substance to it and will prove to be a painted pageantry to go to hell in. This is incredibly sobering and should awaken people to examine their own hearts. When a person enters eternity and stands before the judge who sees all and knows all, if a person does not really and truly have Christ and His bloody cross as the foundation of all they are, then all of their religious actions will be nothing but that which helps send them to hell. Those very religious lives and religious actions will contribute to their eternal damnation instead of giving them salvation from eternal damnation.
It seems that so many today focus on their baptism and then the Lord’s Supper as what they must do and continue doing in order to be saved, but those are things that a person can do in his or her own natural power. Anyone can receive a baptism and anyone can eat the bread and drink the juice or wine. But it takes a sovereign grace to deliver a person from trusting in his or her religion and give them Christ and the cross instead of self to rely on and trust on. It appears that the vast majority of people today either trust in their baptism or in their own decision for something rather than Christ alone, which is simply another form of trusting in self for salvation.
Another way that people deceive themselves is to walk an aisle or pray a prayer as an act (they say) to trust Christ and that makes them think that they are trusting in the blood of Christ, but it is not. It is trusting in themselves to do something rather than trust in Christ alone to do something. Then these people set out to live moral lives and go to some church as a way of expressing their religion. They may get involved in worship teams and perhaps great movements of evangelism. But all of those things can be done (and most of the time are) from a heart that is spiritually dead and as such has no foundation in Christ at all.
The blood of Christ is the foundation of all true salvation and sanctification. The blood of Christ is the foundation of all human activities that can even begin to please God because God is only pleased with Christ Himself. It does not matter (in this sense) how moral a person can be without the blood of Christ because all that outward morality is done out of love for self and enmity toward God. There is nothing that is good apart from a true love for God. All that people can do apart from being covered by the blood of Christ and purchased by Christ is nothing but sin. The most religious actions a person can do are nothing more than an attempt to assert self (which is idolatry) in the presence of God rather than Christ Himself.
But despite the plain teaching of Scripture that it is not the will of man but God’s, men continue to teach self as the root of religion. Men can make their choices and can be as outwardly moral as a man can be while confessing an orthodox catechism and yet be as lost as a person can be and as deceived as a person can be. Jesus was far more severe with the religious people of His day than with anyone else, yet what pageantry we see going on in religious conferences and churches in our day. In the name of Christ (in one sense) we see the words and Person of Christ being denied by religious trappings and teachings. Instead of men being told to deny self and follow Christ, men are being told to fulfill self. Instead of God being loved, men love themselves. But God cannot be mocked and all of those covered by pageantry rather than Christ will be turned into hell. We must examine our hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
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