The First Great Commandment- Do You Keep It?

The First Great Commandment. - No. 1.

A. T. Jones

(Tuesday Evening, March 2, 1897.)

YOU know that the Lord has said of this time and of the people who live at this time, that "here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." You and I rightly profess to be that people, and we stand where we profess that it can be said of us by the Lord, to the universe, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." And it will be a fact, not merely because he says it, but he will say it because it is a fact. 

That text applies fully to you and me who are here in this house; and the Lord wants it to become a fact now and remain a fact straight along, so that he can proclaim it to all the world and to all the universe continually: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." 

That is what we are to study. We are to study in these lessons, to know whether we keep the commandments of God or not; so that the Lord can say of us, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." 

In keeping the commandments of God, assuredly the first one comes in, and that assuredly we are to keep. And here is his word: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." 

Now, can the Lord say of you and me in respect to that commandment, Here are they that keep it? 

Has the Lord all your heart, so that you have no heart for anything but him and that which is his? 

Has the Lord all your soul, in a devoted love, so that there is no sentiment of your being that is not his? 

Has the Lord all of your mind, so there is no thought of your mind, no working of your mind, no part of your mind but that is his,-devoted to his service? For with the mind we serve the Lord our God. Not with some of it, not with a part of it, but with all of it. So that you have no mind to devote to, or put upon, anything that is not of God. 

Is all your strength his, so that you have no strength to put anywhere but upon that which is God's, and to his service? 

If all this is true of you, then it is truly said of you, "Here are they that keep the commandments." 

"The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." When the love of God is in our hearts, as in the first commandment, it will be easy enough to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

As was brought out in Brother Kellogg's talk the other day, of that little boy in Chicago who went to a man, a perfect stranger, and said to him, "Do you know that you are the greatest sinner in the world?" And when the man in surprise asked how that could be, saying that he had never murdered anybody, had never committed any great crime, the little boy said to him, "The greatest commandment is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Do you do that?" He answered, "No, I do not. I can't say that I do at all." "Well," said the little fellow, "that is the greatest of the commandments. You are breaking the greatest commandment; then you are the greatest sinner." The man admitted it, and was led to God and full salvation. That is straight enough: as this is the greatest commandment, he who breaks it is the greatest sinner. Is it you? 

You and I are professing to keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Are we breaking the first of all the commandments of God? If we are not keeping the greatest, the first, of all the commandments, we are breaking it. If we are breaking this one, we are not keeping the commandments; that is settled. You and I must decide now, and we must decide forever, whether we will serve the Lord with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength. 

It is written, "The kingdom of God is within you." The realm that is within us, is the realm of God; it was so when man was made, but the enemy usurped the place of God; and the Lord set man free again to choose whether God shall have his own place in his own kingdom, or whether the usurper shall have the place of God in God's kingdom. The kingdom that is in you is the Lord's. It is for you to say whether the Lord shall rule there, or whether the enemy shall rule there. And if you do not choose that the Lord shall rule there, you do choose that the enemy shall rule there. It is altogether upon man's choice as to who shall rule. 

Somebody must rule. Man was not made to rule himself, independent of God. He was made to be himself with God, and cannot be himself without God.

The man was made to stand with God. God's kingdom was within him. God ruled within him. But he started out to have his own way by following Satan. But a man can have his own way only by following God.

The kingdom of God is within you. We must choose that God shall take his own place in us, in his own kingdom in our hearts. He will take his place there, and he will rule there when he can have his own place in his own kingdom. 

You know with reference to God's kingdom on earth that it shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. The kingdom of God, this kingdom that is to come when the Lord comes, you know is to cover every inch, every particle, of ground that there is in this world. Now the kingdom of God is within you. Does that kingdom inside of you where God rules-does his rule cover every bit of space, every particle of ground in your heart? Does it? That is the question, and these questions are for us in more ways than one. 

I am simply reading the commandment, and calling your attention to what the commandment says. And this in order that you and I may have our minds and hearts open always to the question, Is it true of us, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength? 

What your mind is resting upon, what it is studying upon, what it is working at is God in that thing? Is it for the glory of God? The research that you are making, the studies that you are following, the whole thought of your mind-is it that the image of God may be impressed there? Is it to find God more largely in the mind? Is it to glorify him more? Is he the first and the all in all, in your intellectual efforts. Do you love him, serve him with all the mind? 

And with all thy strength. The field that you are plowing, are you plowing it for God? The plane that you are shoving, to make smooth a board, are you doing that for God, so that whatever you receive is God's and not your own at all? Is your strength so entirely devoted to God that you are working in the cause of God wherever you put your hand? 

It has been a prevalent idea that a person needs to cease working at his trade, or whatever he is employed at in manual labor, before he can be a worker in the cause. Many say, "I want to get out of what I am at. I wish I could see out. I wish I could get out of this shop. I would like to be a worker in the cause." If you are not a worker in the cause where you are, you will not be a worker in the cause when you get where you want to be. If you are not a worker in the cause as you are plowing the field, you would not be a worker in the cause if you were trying to preach in the pulpit. If you are a blacksmith, and at the anvil day by day if you are not a worker in the cause as thoroughly, as heartily, as whole-heartedly, as I am in the pulpit, then you would not be a worker in the cause if you should be distributing tracts somewhere. 

There is an example set before us of what mankind may be; and of what every believer in Jesus is to be. The Son of God came to this world to show you and me just what it is to keep the commandments, and just how it is done. And he worked at a trade about six times as long as he preached. Beginning at the age of twelve, when he could begin to work with Joseph at the carpenter's trade, when he could do considerable,-as a twelve-year-old boy can do a great many things assisting a carpenter. Beginning therefore at the age of twelve, he was baptized and began preaching at about thirty years of age; that makes eighteen years. These years he was working at the carpenter's trade. From the age of thirty to thirty-three and a half, he spent in the public ministry, preaching. So you see it was nearly six times as long that he worked at the carpenter's trade as he did at preaching. 

Now was he just as much the Son of God those eighteen years that he worked at the carpenter's trade, as he was the three and a half years when he was engaged in preaching?-You know that he was. Was he my Saviour and your Saviour when he was there sawing a board, and making a bench and putting legs in it,-was he just as much my

Saviour and your Saviour then, as when he was upon the cross?-You know he was. "For we are saved by his life." 

Do not forget that it was at the close of these eighteen years, when he came to be baptized, and was baptized, at the beginning of his ministry, and at the close of his carpentry,-it was then that God said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Was he not, then, just as much a worker in the cause those eighteen years, as he was the latter three and a half years?-You know he was. Then if you are a carpenter, and a professed believer in Jesus Christ, can you not be a follower of him? Are you not to be his follower and a worker in the cause just there, as really as though you were in the pulpit? I do not say that you are obliged to remain always a carpenter. He did not. I do not say you will be obliged always to remain a blacksmith or a farmer; but I do say and insist that while you are a carpenter, while you are a blacksmith, while you are a farmer, you are to be a worker in the cause as truly as you shall ever be, wherever you may be. 

Thus Jesus has shown to every one of us, what it is to be a Christian, and what our life is to be, at whatever our minds, our hearts, or our hands may be employed. He loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength, when he was a carpenter. When he sawed boards, when he made tables, when he made doors and set them up, it was to the glory of God. God was all in all to him. When a man came to him as a carpenter, seeing him only as a carpenter; not seeing him the Saviour of the world as such,-when a man came to him only as a carpenter, and sat down with him and said, "I want a table made. Will you make it for me?" and he answered, "What kind of a table do you want?" and the man described it to him, and Jesus said, "Yes, I will make it for you;" when Jesus had made the table and carried it on his back to the man's house, and took it into the man's house, and set it down there for the man to use-in all that transaction Jesus was altogether God's. God was in all his actions. In every joint that he made in that table there were no cracks, none were covered up with dust, nothing was covered up, it was an honest table. It was throughout such a table as God could approve. 

And when he made the bargain to make the table, he made such a bargain as was honest, such a one as God could look upon and say, That is an honest bargain. He did not ask the man to pay more than was justly due for such a piece of work as that. The man asked him, "Will you make such and such a table?" "I will." "What will you charge for it?-what will it cost?" He would calculate upon it, and he would say to the man, "The lumber will cost so much, and it will take such a length of time to make it, and my work is worth so much. Do you not think so? Do you not think my work for the length of time it will take, will be worth so much?" And the man would say, "Yes, I do. I think it is worth all that. That is honest. That is a clear bargain." And when he took the table on his back and took it over there and set it down, the man paid him what the bargain called for, and God could look down on that whole transaction and say, "That is honest. That is all that any one can do." 

Is that the kind of a carpenter you are? You profess to be a Christian. Is that the kind of a workman you are, whatever you are doing? 

Do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength? Whatever you do, or are called to do; whatever business you transact with your neighbor, be he heathen or Christian; is it done in such a manner that God can look at it and say, "That is good enough for the kingdom of God;" because all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, is in it to the glory of God.

Are we keepers of the commandments, or not? That is the question. And it is time that we find this out so thoroughly that the Lord can certify in the message that he speaks, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God." 

To be continued…