What avails it to attend constantly upon church and sacrament, to be liberal in our alms-deeds, and diligent in reading the Scriptures, if we are not created anew in Christ Jesus? St. Paul makes no difference between the vilest profligate and the fairest moralist, but ranks all without exception under the list of reprobates who have not Jesus Christ in them (II Cor 13:5). So also the same apostle assures us that if any man (be ever so strict, devout, and decent) have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Rom 8:9). The word of God makes it absolutely necessary that Christ be formed in us (Gal 4:9) and without this spiritual birth, eternal truth repeatedly assures us that we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-6). Sir Richard Hill
This quote gets to the real heart of the issue, both literally and figuratively. People could attend church every day and be devoted to what they think of as a church and still be as unregenerate as the vilest person on earth. Going to a place that one thinks of as a church may harden the heart toward God and His Son of glory rather than prove that one has new life in Christ. People can take the sacrament on a daily basis and that doing nothing but eating and drinking to their own damnation. Taking the sacrament will not give a person the life of Christ in the soul and taking it as a ritual and hoping in it is idolatry. People must really and truly have Christ.
It matters not, at least in the things that matter most, whether one is very generous in giving money to help others physically. Apart from Christ being in the soul and being the life of the soul, the very best of our deeds are as filthy rags (Isa 64). How many people give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and yet seem to miss what Jesus said to the Pharisees about that in John 5: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” One can search the Scriptures and have vast stores of information about Christ without knowing Christ and without having Christ as his or her life. Jesus Christ Himself said to one of the most religious people of His day (John 3:3ff) that he must be born from above in order to see and enter the kingdom. Without doubt Nicodemus knew the Scriptures very well in one sense and he was a very learned man in the Scriptures, but he did not study the Scriptures to learn and love Christ.
The most vital issue of Christianity is not the attending of a church or taking the sacrament, but it is whether and person has been born from above and has Christ dwelling in him or her. It is not whether a person gives money to help people and/or diligent in studying the Scriptures, but whether that person is born from above and has Christ dwelling in him or her. This is a vital issue and we should always have this in mind. Just before Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about his utter need to be born from above (at the end of John 2), the Scriptures tells us that many people believed in Him when they saw the miracles that He did. But the text goes on to say that Jesus did not believe/entrust Himself to them because He knew what was in man. People can believe in Jesus in many ways and yet not be born from above and as such not have true faith. This great and grand truth used to be preached and declared over and over again to people and today it is rarely (if ever for some) heard about.
The author (above) makes a statement that would be repudiated by most today. “St. Paul makes no difference between the vilest profligate and the fairest moralist, but ranks all without exception under the list of reprobates who have not Jesus Christ in them.” There it is, straight to the issue without a lot of nice words to make it more palatable. A person can be just like Adolph Hitler or even the man himself or be the most outwardly moral person on the planet, but both are on the same list and both will go to the same devil’s hell if they don’t have Jesus Christ in them. If Christ lives in a person that person will not be like Hitler or anything like that, but the person’s “morality” will not come from the love of self and the love of the applause of men, but instead it will come from love for Christ. This true morality will also come from the life of Christ in the soul and as such the strength will come from grace.
God Loves... Himself 
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