Some people seem to think we have got beyond the commandments. What
did Christ say? "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the
prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." The commandments
of God given to Moses in the Mount at Horeb are as binding to-day as
ever they have been since the time when they were proclaimed in the
hearing of the people. The Jews said the law was not given in
Palestine, (which belonged to Israel), but in the wilderness, because
the law was for all nations.
Jesus never condemned the law and the prophets, but He did condemn
those who did not obey them. Because He gave new commandments it does
not follow that He abolished the old. Christ's explanation of them
made them all the more searching. In His Sermon on the Mount He
carried the principles of the commandments beyond the mere letter. He
unfolded them and showed that they embraced more, that they are
positive as well as prohibitive. The Old Testament closes with these
words: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded
unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
Does that look as if the law of Moses was becoming obsolete?
The conviction deepens in me with the years that the old truths of the
Bible must be stated and restated in the plainest possible language. I
do not remember ever to have heard a sermon preached on the
commandments. I have an index of two thousand five hundred sermons
preached by Spurgeon, and not one of them selects its text from the
first seventeen verses of Exodus xx. The people must be made to
understand that the Ten Commandments are still binding, and that there
is a penalty attached to their violation. We do not want a gospel of
mere sentiment. The Sermon on the Mount did not blot out the Ten
Commandments.
When Christ came He condensed the statement of the law into this form:
"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." Paul said: "Love is the fulfilling of the law." But does
this mean that the detailed precepts of the Decalogue are superseded,
and have become back numbers? Does a father cease to give children
rules to obey because they love him? Does a nation burn its statute
books because the people have become patriotic? Not at all. And yet
people speak as if the Commandments do not hold for Christians because
they have come to love God. Paul said: "Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law." It still holds
good. The commandments are necessary. So long as we obey, they do not
rest heavy upon us; but as soon as we try to break away, we find they
are like fences to keep us within bounds. Horses need bridles even
after they have been properly broken in.
"We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully; knowing this,
that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane,
for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for
menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any
other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine."
Now, my friend, are you ready to be weighed by this law of God? A
great many people say that if they keep the commandments, they do not
need to be forgiven and saved through Christ. But have you kept them?
I will admit that if you perfectly keep the commandments, you do not
need to be saved by Christ; but is there a man in the wide world who
can truly say that he has done this? Young lady, can you say: "I am
ready to be weighed by the law?" Can you, young man? Will you step
into the scales and be weighed one by one by the Ten Commandments?
Now face these Ten Commandments honestly and prayerfully. See if your
life is right, and if you are treating God fairly. God's statutes are
just, are they not? If they are right, let us see if we are right. Let
us pray that the Holy Ghost may search each one of us. Let us get
alone with God and read His law--read it carefully and prayerfully,
and ask Him to show us our sins and what He would have us to do.