Love's Law and Life
(No. 1932)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 5, 1886,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 30, 1886.
"If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15.
THIS is a chapter singularly full of certainties and remarkably studded
with "ifs." Concerning most of the great things in it there never can
be an, "if," and yet, "if," comes up, I think, no less than seven times
in the chapter and, "if," too, not about trifles, but about the most
solemn subjects. It is, perhaps, worthy of mention that with each of
these, "ifs," there is something connected, as following out of it, or
appearing to be involved in it, or connected with it.
Look at the second verse. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if
it were not so, I would have told you." If there had been no place for
us in the Glory Land, Jesus would have told us. If any Truth of God
which had not been revealed would have made our hope a folly, our Lord
Jesus would have warned us of it, for He has not come to lure us into a
fool's paradise and, at the last, deceive us. He will tell us all that
it is necessary for us to know in order to a wise faith and a sure
hope. The Lord has not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the
earth–He has not spoken in contradiction of His revealed Word. Nothing
in His secret decrees or hidden designs can shake our confidence, or
darken our expectation. "f it were not so, I would have told you." Had
there been a secret thing which would have injured your prospects, it
should have been dragged to light that you might not be deceived, for
the Lord Jesus has no desire to win disciples by the suppression of
distasteful Truths. If there were anything yet to be revealed which
would render your hope a delusion at the end, you would have been made
acquainted with it–Jesus, Himself, would break the sad news to you–He
would not leave you to be horrified by finding it out for yourselves!
He kindly declares, "I would have told you."
Notice the third verse. Again we meet with, "if," and its consequence.
"f I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
unto Myself." If the Lord Jesus should go away (and this is a
supposition no longer, for He has gone), then He would return, again,
in due time. Since He has gone, He will come again, for He has made the
one to depend on the other. We make no question that He went up into
Heaven, for He rose from out the circle of His followers and they saw
Him as He went up into Heaven. They had no sort of doubt as to the fact
that the cloud received Him out of their sight and, moreover, they
received assurance out of Heaven, by an angelic messenger, that, "He
shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven." "If
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
unto Myself." His going Home pledges Him to come and compels us to look
for Him!
The next, "if," comes at the beginning of the seventh verse–"f you had
known Me, you should have known My Father, also." If we really know the
Lord Christ, we know God. In fact, there is no knowing God aright
except through His Son Jesus! It is evidently true that men do not long
hold to theism pure and simple. If our scientific men get away from the
Christ, the Incarnate God, before long they drift away from God
altogether. They begin to slide down the mountain when they quit the
Incarnate Deity–and there is no more foothold to stop them. No man
comes to the Father but by the Son–and no man long keeps to the Father
who does not keep to his faith in the Son. Those who know Christ know
God, but those who are ignorant of the Savior are ignorant of God,
however much they may pride themselves upon their religion! They may
know another god, but the only living and true God is unknown except by
those who receive Jesus. The Divine Fatherhood, of which we hear so
much in certain quarters, is only to be seen through the window of
Incarnation and Sacrifice. We must see Jesus before we can gain even so
much as a glimpse at the Infinite, the Incomprehensible and the
Invisible! God comes not within finite perception till He enters human
flesh–and there we behold His Glory, full of Grace and truth.
The next variety of, "if," you will find a little farther down in the
chapter, namely, in the 14th verse–"f you shall ask anything in My
name, I will do it." The, "if," in this case involves an uncertainty
about our prayers, if an uncertainty at all. Taking it for granted that
we ask mercies in the name of Jesus, a glorious certainty is linked to
them. Jesus says, "I will do it." Here our Lord speaks after a
Sovereign style. We may not say, "I will," but the, "I wills," pertain
to Christ. He can answer and He has the right to answer–and,
therefore. He says without reservation, "I will." "If you shall ask
anything in My name, I will do it." Oh that we might put the first,
"if," out of court by continually petitioning the Lord and signing our
petitions with the name of Jesus! May we be importunate only in prayers
to which we are warranted to set that august name and then, boldly
using His name and authority, we need be under no apprehension of
failure! The great Father in Heaven never denies the power of His Son's
name, neither does the Son Himself draw back from the keeping of His
own pledges! True prayer operates with the same certainty as the laws
of Nature. "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He shall give you
the desires of your heart." Oh that we did delight more in the Divine
name and Charac-ter–and then our prayers would always speed to the
Throne!
Now comes the, "if," of our text, of which I will say nothing for the
moment. "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Something, you see, is
to come out of this, "if," as out of all the others. If something, then
something–"f you love me," then carry it out to the legitimate
result–"keep My commandments."
You have the next, "if," in verse 23–"Jesus answered and said to him,
If a man loves Me, he will keep My words." Respect to His wisdom and
obedience to His authority will grow out of love. "The love of Christ
constrains us." We hear that passage often misquoted, "The love of
Christ ought to constrain us," but that is a corruption of the text.
The Apostle tells us that it does constrain us and, if it really enters
the heart, it will do so. It is an active, moving power, influencing
the inner life and then the external conduct–
"'Tis love that makes our willing feet In swift obedience move."
"If a man loves Me, he will keep my words." He will believe in the
verbal inspiration of His Lord. He will regard His teaching as
Infallible. He will attend to it and remember it. More than this, he
will, by his conduct, carry out the words of his Lord and so keep them
in the best possible manner by enshrining them in his daily life.
The chapter almost closes at the 28th verse by saying, "If you loved
Me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto My Father, for My
Father is greater than I." Where there is an intelligent love to
Christ, we rejoice in His gains even though we, ourselves, appear to be
losers thereby. The corporeal absence of our Lord from our midst might
seem to be a great loss to us, but we rejoice in it because it is for
His own greater Glory. If He is enthroned in Glory, we dare not lament
His absence. Our love agrees to His departure, yes, rejoices in it, for
anything which conduces to His exaltation is sweet to us. Let us at
this moment, because we love Him, rejoice that He has gone to the
Father!
So you see the chapter, if you read it, though enriched with heavenly
certainties, is yet besprinkled with, "ifs." Like little pools of
sparkling water among the ever abiding rocks, these, "ifs," gleam in
the light of Heaven and refresh us even to look upon them.
Let us now think of our own text and may the Holy Spirit lead us into
the secret chambers of it! "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
The present, "if" is a serious one. Let that stand as our first head.
Secondly, the test which is added concerning it is a very judicious
one–"If you love Me, keep My commandments." In the third place, I will
give you the reading of the Revised Version, and say, that test will be
endured by love, for the words may be interpreted–"If you love Me, you
will keep my commandments." Obedience will follow upon love as a matter
of certainty.
I. To begin, then, THE "IF" IN OUR TEXT IS A VERY SERIOUS ONE. It goes
to the very root of the matter. Love belongs to the heart and every
surgeon will tell you that a disease of the heart may not be trifled
with. A clever doctor said to me, "I feel at my ease with any matter if
it does not touch the head or the heart." Solomon bids us keep the
heart with all diligence, "for out of it are the issues of life." If
the mainspring fails, all the works of a watch refuse to act. We
cannot, therefore, think little of a question which concerns our love,
for it deals with a vital part. O Friends, I hope there is no question
about our love for Jesus!
Observe how our Savior puts this, "if," concerning love in such a way
as to teach us that love must be prior to obedience. The text is not,
"Keep My commandments and then love Me." No, we do not expect pure
streams till the fountain is
cleansed. Nor does He say–"Keep My commandments and love Me at the
same time," as two separate things, although that might, in a measure,
correspond with truth. But love is put first because it is first in
importance and first in experience. "If you love Me"–we must begin
with love–then, "keep My commandments." Obedience must have love for
its mother, nurse and food. The essence of obedience lies in the hearty
love which prompts the deed rather than in the deed itself. I can
conceive it possible that a man might, in his outward life, keep
Christ's commandments and yet might never keep them at all so as to be
accepted before God. If he became obedient by compulsion, but would
have disobeyed if he dared, then his heart was not right before God and
his actions were of little worth. The commandments are to be kept out
of love to Him who gave them. In obedience, to love is to live–if we
love Christ we live Christ. Love to the Person of our Lord is the very
salt of our sacrifices. To put it most practically–I often say to
myself, "Today I have performed all the duties of my office, but have I
been careful to abide in my Lord's love? I have not failed as to doing
all that was possi-ble–I have gone from early morning till late at
night, packing as much work as possible into every hour and trying to
do it with all my heart. But have I, after all, done this as unto the
Lord and for His sake?"
I tremble lest I should serve God merely because I happen to be a
minister and am called to preach His Word, or because the natural
routine of the day carries me through it. I am concerned that I may be
impelled by no force but the love of Jesus! This fear often humbles me
in the dust and prevents all glorying in what I have done. Only as we
love our Lord can our obedience be true and acceptable. The main care
of our lives should be to do right and to do it because we love the
Lord. We must walk before the Lord as Abraham did and with the Lord as
Enoch did. Unless we are under the constant constraint of love to the
Lord Jesus Christ we shall fail terribly–
"Knowledge, alas! is all in vain,
And all in vain our fear,
In vain our labor and our pain
If love is absent there."
See, dear Friends, how inward true religion is–how far it exceeds all
external formalism? How deep is the seat of true Grace! You cannot hope
to do that which Christ can smile upon until your heart is renewed. A
heart at enmity with God cannot be made acceptable by mere acts of
piety. It is not what your hands are doing, nor even what your lips are
saying. The main thing is what your heart is meaning and intending.
Which way are your affections tending? The great flywheel which moves
the whole machinery of life is fixed in the heart–therefore this is
the most important of all suggestions– "If you love Me."
"If you love Me" is a searching sound. I start as I hear it! He that
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation produces, as the
first fruit of his faith, love to Christ–this must be in us and
abound, or nothing is right. Packed away within that box of sweets
called, "love," you shall find every holy thing, but if you have no
love, what have you? Though you wear your fingers to the bone with
service, weep your eyes out with repentance, make your knees hard with
kneeling and dry your throat with shouting, yet if the heart does not
beat with love, your religion falls to the ground like a withered leaf
in autumn! Love is the chief jewel in the bracelet of obedience! Hear
the text, and mark it well–"If you love Me, keep My commandments."
O Sirs, what a mass of religion is cast out as worthless by this text!
Men may keep on going to Church and going to Chapel and they may be
religious, yes, throughout a whole life and, apparently, they may be
blameless in their moral conduct–and yet there may be nothing in them
because there is no love to the ever-blessed Christ at the bottom of
the profession! When the heathen killed their sacrifices in order to
prophesy future events from the entrails, the worst sign they ever got
was when the priest, after searching into the victim, could not find a
heart–or if that heart was small and shriveled. The soothsayers always
declared that this omen was the sure sign of calamity. All the signs
were evil if the heart of the offering was absent or deficient. It is
so in very deed with religion and with each religious person. He that
searches us searches principally our hearts! He who tries mankind tries
chiefly the reins of the children of men. The Master is in our midst,
tonight, walking down these aisles with noiseless tread, girt about the
paps with a golden girdle and robed in snow-white garments down to His
feet. Look! He stops before each one of us and gently asks, "Do you
love Me?" Three times He repeats the question! He waits for an answer.
It is a vital question–do not refuse a reply. Oh that the Spirit of
the Lord may enable you to answer in sincerity and truth and say,
"Lord, You know all things; You know that I love
You!"
This matter of love to Jesus is put prior to every other because it is
the best reason for our obedience to Him. Notice– "If you love Me,
keep My commandments." Personal affection will produce personal
obedience. Do you not see the drift of the words? The blessed Jesus
says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" because, truly, operative
love is mainly love to a person and love to our Lord's Person begets
obedience to His precepts! There are some men for whom you would do
anything–you will to yield to their will. If such a person were to say
to you, "Do this," you would do it without question. Perhaps he stands
to you in the relation of master and you are his willing servant.
Perhaps he is a venerated friend and because you esteem and love him,
his word is law to you. The Savior may much more safely than any other
be installed in such a position! From the throne of your affections He
says, "If you love Me–if your heart really goes out to Me–then let My
word be a commandment. Let My commandment be kept in your memory and
then further kept by being observed in your life." So you see the
reason why the Master begins with the heart–because there is no hope
of obedience to Him in our actions unless He is enshrined in our
affections! This is the spring and source of all holy living– love to
the Holy One. Dear friends, have you been captured by the beauties of
Jesus and are you held in a Divine captivity to the adorable Person of
your redeeming Lord? Then you have within you the impulse which
constrains you to keep His commandments!
It was greatly necessary for our Lord thus to address His disciples.
Yes, it was necessary to speak, thus, even to the Apostles. He says to
the chosen 12, "If you love Me." We should never have doubted one of
them. We now know by the result that one of them was a traitor to his
Lord and sold Him for pieces of silver, but no one suspected him, for
he seemed as loyal as any one of them. Ah, if that question, "If you
love Me," needed to be raised in the sacred college of the 12, much
more must it be allowed to sift our Churches and to test ourselves!
Brothers and Sisters, this word is exceedingly necessary in the present
assembly! Hear its voice–"If you love Me." The mixed multitude here
gathered together may be compared to the heap on the threshing floor
and there is need of the winnowing fan. Perhaps you have almost taken
it for granted that you love Jesus–but it must not be taken for
granted! Some of you have been born in a religious atmosphere, you have
lived in the midst of godly people and you have never been out into the
wicked world to be tempted by its follies–therefore you come to an
immediate conclusion that you must assuredly love the Lord! This is
unwise and perilous! Never glory in armor which you have not tested,
nor rejoice in love to Christ which has not sustained trial!
What an awful thing if you should be deceived and mistaken! It is most
kind of the Savior to raise a question about your love and thus give
you an opportunity of examining yourself and seeing whether you are
right at heart. It will be far better for you to err upon the side of
too great anxiety than on that of carnal security. To be afraid that
you are wrong and so to make sure of being right, will bring you to a
far better end than being sure that you are right and, therefore,
refusing to look into the ground of your hope! I would have you fully
assured of your love for Jesus, but I would not have you deceived by a
belief that you love Him if you do not. Lord, search us and try us!
Remember, if any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ he will be
anathema maranatha–cursed at His coming! This applies to every man,
even though he is most eminent. An Apostle turned out to be a son of
perdition–may not you? Every man, even though he is a learned bishop,
or a popular pastor, or a renowned evangelist, or a venerable elder, or
an active deacon, or the most ancient member of the most orthodox
assembly, may yet turn out to be no lover of the Lord! Though he has
gathered to break bread in the sacred name with a select company, yet
if he does not truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, the curse rests upon
him, whoever he may me. So let us take from the Master's lips the
heart-searching words at this time, "If you love Me, keep My
commandments." Let us take them personally home, as if addressed to
each one of us personally and alone.
While considering the text, let each one view himself apart. What have
you to do in this matter with keeping the vineyards of others? See to
your own hearts. The text does not say, "If the Church loves Me," or,
"If such-and-such a minister loves Me," or, "If your brothers love Me."
No, but it is, "Ifyou love Me, keep My commandments." The most
important question for each one to answer is that which concerns his
personal attachment to his Redeemer and the personal obedience which
comes out of it. I press this enquiry upon each one. It may seem a
trite and commonplace question, but it needs to be put again and again
before all in our congregations. The preacher needs to be thus
questioned–he gets into the habit of reading his Bible for other
people. The Sunday school teacher needs this enquiry–he, also, is apt
to study the Scriptures for his class rather than for himself. We all
need the Truth of God to come home to us with personal and forcible
application, for we are always inclined to shift unpleasant enquiries
upon others. In the case of very deaf
people, when they hold up their horns, we speak right down into
them–and I wish to speak home pointedly to each one of you at this
time. Let the text sound into your individual ear and heart–"If you
love Me, keep My commandments."
The question is answerable, however. It was put to the Apostles and
they could answer it. Peter spoke as all the 11 would have done when he
said, "You know that I love You." It is not a question concerning
mysteries out of range and beyond judgement–it deals with a plain
matter of fact. A man may know whether he loves the Lord or not and he
ought to know. He who is jealous of himself and is, therefore, half
afraid to speak positively, may all the more truly be a lover of the
Lord. Holy caution may raise a question where the answer is far more
certain than in the breasts of those who never even make the enquiry
because they are carnally secure. Do not be content with merely longing
to love Jesus or with longing to know whether you love Him. Not to know
whether you love the Lord Jesus is a state of mind so dangerous that I
exhort you never to go to sleep until you have escaped from it! A man
has no right to smile–I had almost said, he has no right, either to
eat bread or drink water so long as that question hangs in the
balances! It ought to be decided. It can be decided! It can be decided
at once. Not love Jesus? It were better for me not to live than not to
love Him! Not love Christ? May the terrible fact never be hidden from
my weeping eyes! Perhaps the dread discovery may drive me to better
things. If I do love my Lord, I can never rest with the shadow of a
doubt darkening the life of my love. A question on such a matter is
unbearable–
"Do not I love You from my soul?
Then let me nothing love. Dead be my heart to every joy,
When Jesus cannot mo ve.
Would not my heart pour forth its blood In honor of Your name And
challenge the cold hand of death
To dampen the immortal flame?
You know I love You, dearest Lord, But oh, I long to soar Far from the
sphere of mortal joys, And learn to love You more."
Brothers and Sisters, hear the question suggested by this little word,
"if!" Consider it well and rest not until you can say, "I love the Lord
because He has heard my voice and my supplication." So much, then,
concerning the serious nature of
this, "if."
II. In the second place, let me observe that THE TEST WHICH IS PROPOSED
IN THE TEXT IS A VERY JUDICIOUS ONE. "If you love Me, keep My
commandments." This is the best proof of love.
The test indicated does not suggest a lawless liberty. It is true we
are not under the Law, but under Grace, but yet we are under Law to
Christ and if we love Him we are to keep His commandments. Let us never
enter into the counsel of those who do not believe that there are any
commandments for Believers to keep. Those who do away with duty, do
away with sin and, consequently, with the Savior! It is not
written–"If you love Me, do whatever you please." Jesus does not
say–"So long as you love Me in your hearts, I care nothing about your
lives." There is no such doctrine as that between the covers of this
Holy Book! He that loves Christ is the freest man out of Heaven, but he
is also the most under bonds. He is free, for Christ has loosed his
bonds, but he is put under bonds to Christ by grateful love! The love
of Christ constrains him from this day on to live to the Lord who loved
him, lived for him, died for him and rose again. No, dear Friends, we
do not desire a lawless life. He that is not under the law as a power
for condemnation, yet can say that with his heart he delights in the
Law of God! He longs after perfect holiness and in his soul yields
hearty homage to the precepts of the Lord Jesus. Love is Law–the Law
of love is the strongest of all Laws! Christ has become our Master and
King and His commandments are not grievous!
The text also contains no fanatical challenge. We do not read, "If you
love Me, perform some extraordinary act." The test required is not an
outburst of extravagance, or an attempt to realize the ambitious
project of a fevered brain. Nothing of the kind! Hermits, nuns and
religious mad-caps find no example or precept here! Some persons think
that if they love Jesus they must enter a convent, retire to a cell,
dress themselves oddly, or shave their heads. It has been the thought
of some men, "If we love Christ we must strip ourselves of everything
we possess, put on sackcloth, tie ropes round our
waists and pine in the desert." Others have thought it wise to make
light of themselves by oddity of dress and behavior. The Savior does
not say anything of the kind–"If you love Me, keep My commandments."
Every now and then we find members of our Churches who must leave their
trades and their callings to show their love for Jesus–children may
starve and wives may pine but their mad whimsies must be carried out
for love of Jesus! Under this influence, they rush into all sorts of
foolery and soon ruin their characters because they will not take the
advice of sobriety and cannot be satisfied with the grand test of love
which our Lord, Himself, herein lays down! The text does not condemn
these lightheaded projects in detail, but it does so in the gross by
proposing a far more reasonable test–"If you love Me, keep My
commandments." Do not spin theories in your excited brains and vow that
you will do this desperate thing and the other. The probability is that
you are not seeking the Glory of the Lord, but you are wanting
notoriety for yourself! You are aiming at supreme devotion so that you
may become a distinguished person and that people may talk about your
superior saintship. You may even go so far as to court persecution from
selfish motives. The Savior, who was wise and knew what was in men and
knew, also, what would be the most sure test of true love to Himself,
says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." This is a much more
difficult thing than to follow out the dictates of a crazy brain.
Why does the Savior give us this as a test? I think that one reason is
because it is one which tests whether you are loving Christ in His true
position, or whether your love is to a Christ of your own making and
your own placing. It is easy to crave a half Christ and refuse a whole
Christ. It is easy, also, to follow a Christ of your own construction
who is merely an antichrist. The real Christ is so great and glorious
that He has a right to give commandments! Moses never used an
expression such as our Savior here employs. He might say, "Keep God's
commandments," but he would never have said, "Keep my commandments."
That dear and Divine Person whom we call Master and Lord here says,
"Keep My commandments." What a commanding person He must be! What
lordship He has over His people! How great He is among His saints! If
you keep His commandments, you are putting Him into the position which
He claims. By obedience you acknowledge His sovereignty and Godhead and
say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God."
I am afraid that a great many people know a Christ who is meek and
lowly, their servant and Savior, but they do not know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Alas, my Friends, such people set up a false Christ! We do not
love Jesus at all if He is not our Lord and God. It is all cant and
hypocrisy, this love to Christ which robs Him of His Deity! I abhor
that love to Christ which does not make Him King of kings and Lord of
lords. Love Him and belittle Him? It is absurd! Follow your own will in
preference to His will and then talk of love to Him? Ridiculous! This
is but the devil's counterfeit of love–it is a contradiction of all
true love. Love is loyal! Love crowns its Lord with obedience. If you
love Jesus aright, you view His every precept as a Divine Commandment.
You love the true Christ if you love a commanding Christ as well as a
saving Christ and look to Him for the guidance of your life as well as
for the pardon of your sin.
This test, again, is very judicious, because it proves the living
presence of the object of your love. Love always desires to have its
object near and it has a faculty of bringing its object near. If you
love anybody, that person may be far away and yet to your thoughts, he
is close at hand. Love brings the beloved one so near that the thought
of him acts upon its life. A gentleman has faithful servants. He goes
away and leaves his house in their charge–he has gone abroad and yet
he is at home to his servants, for every day their work is done as if
he were there to see! He is coming home soon–they hardly know when,
but they keep all things in readiness for his return, let it happen
when it may. They are not eye-servants and so they work none the less
because he is absent. If he does not see them, yet the eyes of their
love always see him and, therefore, they work as if he were at home.
Their affection keeps him always near.
A dear father is dead and he has left his property to a son who honors
his memory. What does the son do? He is generous, like his father, and
when he is asked why, he replies, "I do exactly what I believe my dear
father would have done if he had been here." "Why?" "Because I love
him." When a man is dead, he lives to those who love him! So the living
Christ, who is not dead, but has gone away, is made present to us by
our realizing love–and the proof of our love is that Jesus is so
present that He constrains our actions, influences our motives and is
the cause of our obedience! Jesus seems to say–"If you love Me, now
that I am gone, you will do as you would have done if I were still with
you and looking at you. You will continue to keep My commandments, as
in My Presence."
It is a most judicious test, again, because, by keeping our Lord's
commandments, we are doing that which is most pleasing to Him and will
most glorify Him! Some enthusiastic Methodist cries–
"Oh, what shall I do my Sa vior to praise?"
Listen, my Brother–if you love your Savior, keep His commandments!
This is all you have to do and a great all, too. Among the rest, you
may come and be baptized while you are thus earnest to praise your
Lord. "If you love Me, keep My commandments." There is the answer to
every rapturous enquiry! Jesus is more glorified by a consistent
obedience to His commands than by the most extravagant zeal that we can
possibly display in what is only will-worship because He has never
commanded it. If you wish to break the alabaster box and fill the house
with sweet perfume. If you wish to crown His head with rarest gems, the
method is before you–"Keep My commandments." You cannot do your Lord
so great a favor, or, in the long run, bring to Him so real an honor,
as by a complete, continual, hearty obedience to every one of His
commandments!
Moreover, the Savior knew, when He bade us try this test, "If you love
Me, keep My commandments," that it would prepare us for honoring and
glorifying Him in many other ways. Read the context–"If you love Me,
keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." You can greatly
glorify Christ if you are filled with the Holy Spirit. But you cannot
be filled with the Holy Spirit if you do not keep Christ's
commandments! The Spirit of God as a Comforter will come only to those
to whom He comes as a Sanc-tifier. By making us holy, He will qualify
us for being useful. The Savior says, "If you love Me, keep My
commandments," because we shall then obtain that Divine Gift by which
we can glorify His name! If there is any service which your love would
aspire to, obedience to your Lord is the way to it!
But, indeed, I need not stand here and argue. When a friend is dying
and he asks you to prove your love by such-and-such a deed, he may ask
what he wills–you give him carte blanche. It may be the simplest thing
or the hardest thing, but if he will prescribe it as a test of love,
you will not tell him no. If your wife should say to you, "You are
going to journey far from me and I shall not see you again for many
days. I beg you, therefore, to carry my portrait within your
watch-case," you would not fail to do so. It would be a simple thing,
but it would be sacred to you. Baptism and the Lord's Supper will never
be slighted by those whose hearts are fully possessed with love to
Jesus! They may seem trifles, but if the Lord Jesus commands them, they
cannot be neglected! To leave off your wedding ring might be no great
crime and yet no loving wife would do it. Even so, none who regard
outward ordinances as love tokens will think of neglecting them. Ours
is not to ask for reasons. Ours is not to dispute about whether the
deed is essential or non-essential. Ours is to obey right lovingly!
Bridegroom of our hearts, say what You will and we will obey You! If
only You will smile and strengthen us, nothing shall be impossible if
great, nothing trifling if small!
III. Time has well-near gone, or we would dwell upon the third head,
which we must now leave, only praying God to prove the truth of it. The
third head is this–TRUE LOVE WILL ENDURE THIS TEST. "If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments." This is the Revised Version and I hope
it will be written out in capitals upon our revised lives! We will
obey, we must obey since we love Him by whom the command is given!
Come then, Brothers and Sisters, as the time has gone, let me say this
much to you. If you love Christ, set to work to find out what His
commandments are. Study the Scriptures upon every point upon which you
have the slightest question. This sacred oracle must guide you.
Next, be always true to your convictions about what Christ's
commandments are. Carry them out at all hazards and carry them out at
once. It will be wicked to say, "Until now I have obeyed, but I shall
stop here." We are committed to implicit obedience to the whole of the
Master's will, involve what it may. Will you not agree to this at the
outset? If you love Him, you will not object.
Take note of every commandment as it concerns you. Let me mention one
or two, and beg you to obey them as you hear them. "Go you into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Is not this a call to
you, my Brother, to be a missionary? Do you hear it? Will you not say,
"Here am I, send me"? Another person has come into this house tonight
full of enmity–somebody has treated him very badly and he cannot
forget it, I pray him to hear the Lord's command–"Therefore if you
bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has
anything against you; leave there your gift before the altar and go
your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer
your gift." And again, "Little children, love one another." If any of
you are in debt, obey this commandment–"Owe no man anything, but to
love one another." If you neglect the poor and live in a stingy way,
hear this commandment–"Give to him that asks you and from him that
would borrow of you turn not away." At the back of all comes this
is–"If you love Me, keep My commandments." I might stay here all
night, and mention, one after another, the commandments which
would be specially applicable to each one of my hearers, but I pray the
Holy Spirit to bring all things to your remembrance.
If there is a commandment which you do not relish, it ought to be a
warning to you that there is something wrong in your heart that needs
setting right. If you ever quarrel with one of Christ's commands, end
that quarrel by especially attending to it beyond every other! Do as
the miserly man did when he conquered his avarice, once and for all. He
was a Christian and he promised he would give a pound to the Church,
but the devil whispered, "You need your money, do not pay." The man
stamped his foot and said, "I will give two!" Then the devil said,
"Surely you are going mad! Save your money." The man replied that he
would not be conquered, he would give four pounds. "Now," said Satan,
"you must be insane." Then said the man, "I will give eight and if you
don't stop your tempting, I will give 16 for I will not be the slave of
covetousness." The point is to throw your whole soul into that very
duty wherein you are most tempted to be slack. Jesus does not say, "If
you love Me, keep this commandment or that." Out of love obey every
command!
Many of you do not love my Lord Jesus Christ. I have not preached to
you, but that very fact should make you thoughtful. Go home and
consider that the preacher said nothing to you because you do not love
the Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, cannot keep His commandments.
Write down in black and white–"/ do not love the Lord Jesus Christ.''"
If it is really so, be honest enough to make a note of it and think it
over. If you love Jesus, you may joyfully write out, "I love the Lord
Jesus. Oh for Grace to love Him more!" But if you do not love Him, it
will be honest to put it upon record. Write it boldly–"/ do not love
the Lord Jesus Christ." Look at it and look again–and oh, may God the
Holy Spirit lead you to repent of not loving Jesus who is the
Altogether Lovely One and the great lover of men's souls! Oh that you
may begin to love Him at once! Amen and Amen.