c
cc'And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and
tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?' Christ knew the motives of His questioner, and He threw
upon him the burden of the answer. 'What is written in the law?
how readest thou?' He asked. The lawyer answered, 'Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbor as thyself.' 'Thou hast answered right.' Christ said,
'this do, and thou shalt live.' Supreme love to God and love to
our neighbor are the great principles of the law. Upon these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Those who keep
the first will not transgress the second; for supreme love to God
includes all other requirements.
cccIt is essential to our eternal well-being to know
more of God; for love to God depends on a conception of His
goodness. His excellence, and a knowledge of His will. It
requires an appreciation of His character. His law is the
transcript of His character, and this law He calls upon us to
obey. God calls for an entire surrender of the entire being.
'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,' is the first great
command, and upon this command depends all the rest. This is the
substance of all obedience. Let those who profess to be
Christians remember that profession will not save them. The life
which Christ alone can give is given upon condition of obedience,
an obedience which takes in the whole man,--mind, heart, soul,
and strength. This is true sanctification. 'This do, and thou
shalt live,' is the only genuine definition of sanctification.
ccc''Hear
therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well
with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of
thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with
milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and will
all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt
teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest-up. And thou
shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the
posts of thy house, and on thy gates.'
cccChrist presented the requirements of God's law with
great force and clearness, but many of His hearers turned away,
careless and indifferent. And to-day God's ministers preach the
Word with power sent down from Heaven, but on the minds of many
no permanent impression is made. The messages given by God are
not received and practised. It is not thought necessary to bring
the controlling power of God into the daily and hourly
transactions of life. God is not known by an experimental
knowledge, and therefore He can not encircle them with the
realities of the unseen world. The eternal reward of the
righteous does not impress their minds. The great day of the
Lord, which is right upon us, awakens neither alarm nor rejoicing
in their hearts. They have a form of godliness, but not the power
of the truth. Wrapped in self, nothing can help them till they
realize their true condition.
cccThose who claim to be the children of God, and yet
do not obey His commands, who are hearers but not doers of the
Word, are regarded by the Lord as bankers regard fraudulent
bank-notes. They are not genuine. They claim the name of
Christian, but in reality they are heathen. To those who do not
practise it, the Word of God is a dead letter. Christ says of
such, 'I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My
mouth.' If they realized that they were sinners, He could plead
in their behalf, and the Lord would arouse them by His Holy
Spirit. But He can not present them to the Father; for they are
worse than dead in trespasses and sins. They hear the Word, but
make no application of it to themselves. Instead, they apply the
Word to their neighbors. God can be no power to lukewarm
Laodiceans.
cccWithout a working faith it is impossible to please
God. Truth may be made ever so clear, it may be urged home ever
so strongly; yet if not received by faith, it can not work in the
heart. The themes presented may be ever so glorious, yet if not
mixed with faith in them that hear, the work of presenting these
themes will be labor in vain. The message may be one of hope,
which if received would be a savor of life unto life, but if not
received and acted upon, it is a savor of death unto death. Until
the faith that works by love and purifies the soul opens the door
for the Heaven-sent blessing, the blessing remains outside. Faith
must be exercised if we would keep the great principles of God's
law.
cccIt is our duty to use all our powers in an effort to
know the Word of God. All our capabilities are to be used in the
work of becoming acquainted with Him. We love God with an
intensity proportionate to the knowledge we have of His
attributes and the value we place on the object of which we are
in pursuit. To love God with all the heart is to obey His law
with pleasure, to meditate upon the eternal excellence of His
character. Such love can never be hidden. Let us study His
character in the light of His Word, working as those who realize
that they are Judgment bound, that they will be called upon to
give an account for the words they speak and the attributes of
character they possess.
cccOur eternal welfare depends upon our obedience to
God, and therefore we should make it our one aim to seek Him most
earnestly, that we may gain a knowledge of Him. This is to be our
first consideration. All else is to be made secondary to this
object. The Word which is our guide declares, 'Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you.' Seeing then that all the powers of mind,
soul, and strength are to be given to God, in order that we may
use our capabilities to His glory, and in this way increase them,
let us search His Word earnestly and diligently to learn our duty
to our Creator. Thus we may understand that God makes no
requirement without making ample provision for the fulfilment of
that requirement. Through the redeeming grace of Christ, man may
accomplish everything that God requires of him. ST
August 2, 1899; or 4ST 49-50.
Pastor Michael O. Hodges
Copyright 2003-2004.
Permission is hereby given to reprint any
of these studies and articles provided that they are duplicated
in their entirety without any change or comment.