THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
Open your Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 20, in the one hand; turn
to Matthew chapter 22 in the other hand. In the third hand,
1Corinthians 8; and with the fourth hand, 2Timothy 3.
Exodus 20, Matthew 22, 1Corinthians 8, and 2Timothy 3.
We'll begin in Exodus 20, and go to Matthew 22, then 1Corinthians 8,
and then 2Timothy chapter 3.
I'm redoing now, during the next couple of weeks or months, a series I
did about three years ago on the Ten Commandments. This morning, we're
going to talk about the First Commandment. Exodus chapter 20, verse 1:
"And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
That's the First Commandment. The First Commandment is put God first.
Now come to Matthew 22 and notice how Jesus Christ interprets that
commandment in the New Testament. Matthew 22. Matthew 22:34. This is a
broader interpretation; it'll give you the kernel of it. Matthew
22:34: "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees
to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which
is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." So,
that's what that commandment means--to have no other gods before God,
is to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your
mind.
All right, 1Corinthians chapter 8, verse 3. First Corinthians chapter
8, verse 3: "But if any man love God, the same is known of him." If a
man keeps that first commandment, you can tell it.
All right, 2Timothy chapter 3, verse 4. Paul is speaking of the last
days. Second Timothy 3, verse 4. In the last days, among other things,
men will be "Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God."
Our Father, we pray the Holy Spirit will make these matters clear
today. We pray especially for any unsaved that came this way, that the
Holy Spirit might edify and enlighten and open the blindness of their
heart and let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine into
them. And may the god of this world's blindness be taken off their
eyes this morning. May they be turned from Satan to God, from darkness
to light, for the grace of God. Help us to realize the implications of
this commandment, and what is involved in it in our own lives, as we
preach it to others. Lord, give us the grace we need to obey this
commandment you've given us. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right now, in particular, I'd like to call your attention to this
commandment to love God, and then the fact that He says, "If any man
love God, it is known of him." When you stop and think about it, it
would be kind of egotistical, if you're from the standpoint of an
unsaved person, to think about God standing up and saying, "The first
thing you've got to do is love me more than anybody else." Now, of
course, I'm saved, and I know that's not egotism. Yet, I've had
unsaved people tell that to me. I've had several unsaved people call
that to my attention, and say, "Well, God must be stuck on himself.
Why does He command that everybody love Him?"
Well, it isn't that simple. There are THREE reasons why God gave that
command to love Him. First of all, God gave that commandment to
strengthen your conscience. You don't realize what a sinner you are
until you realize how little you love God. And God gave that thing to
give you a stronger conscience, so when you do something wrong, you'll
know it's because you don't love God. People don't like to have their
consciences strengthened.
John Wesley's mother said to him, when he went off to school and
college, she said, "Beware of some, of any teaching that will weaken
your conscience." And, if that were applied today, all you kids would
have to quit school before you got to the sixth grade.
Number two, God gave that commandment to make you aware of His nature.
Those commandments back there in Exodus 20, "Thou shalt not," and
"Thou shalt not," and "Thou shalt not"--that was given to you to make
you aware of the fact that God is holy. You cannot find the holiness
of God in nature. You can look at the power of God in nature, and the
majesty of God in nature, and you can look at His creation and marvel
at it. But you can't find God's holiness until God says, "Thou shalt
not." When God says that, you realize there's a difference between you
and God.
You said, "Well, you shall not under some circumstances." Or, "I know
a circumstance where..." That may be true, but God wouldn't violate
one of His commandments under any circumstance. God is holy.
Why, do you realize God wouldn't lie or cheat to save your soul? If
God had the right motive, love, He wouldn't do anything wrong, even if
He loved you. If God had to do wrong to get you out of hell, He'd just
let you go to hell--you hear what I'm saying? God is holy. If God had
to sin to keep you out of hell, you'd be in hell with the door shut.
God gave those Ten Commandments to reveal an absolute standard.
I don't know what kind of God you worship. It's a free country; you
can pick your own God. Men go to the churches shopping for gods. If
they don't find one God they like, they go to a church and find one
they do like. But, I'm here to tell you if your God doesn't have
absolute standards, He's not the God of the Ten Commandments. If
whatever God you worship does not have absolute standards of purity
and holiness, you have an INFERIOR God to the One I've got. The One
I've got is absolutely holy and absolutely pure and absolutely
sinless, and the God I have is the God of the Ten Commandments. He's
the God of the Commandments.
There are some things the Lord is not. The Lord is not an Epicurean.
I've got a copy of a student newspaper from the University of
California at Berkeley. That paper came out there, and they had a
little devotional there by the chaplain, I guess, of that school--and
he pictured a God of somebody who believed that you ought to do what
you want to do when you want to do it. Kind of a Hugh Hefner type of
God. That isn't the God of the Ten Commandments. The God of the Ten
Commandments is not an Epicurean.
The God of the Ten Commandments is not a pantheist, degenerating with
the universe. Modern scientists picture God as the eternal, energetic
force field of the universe--they've got God in the stars and in the
woods and in the trees. He's pantheistic. If your God is a pantheistic
God, He's degenerating with His creation, because His creation is
falling apart and wearing out. The God I serve is not wearing out with
His creation. The God I serve is separate from His creation. A fellow
said, "Well, show me God." If I showed you God, He'd wear out. Why, if
Jesus Christ were right here and I showed Him to you, He'd die on a
cross. What you can't see is what lasts! Everything you look at falls
apart.
Somebody looks at the sun. Good! It'll turn to darkness. Look at the
moon; it'll turn to blood. Look at the stars; they'll fall down like
an untimely fig tree casts off her figs. Look at God; you can't see
God. God is eternal.
I'll tell you something else about this God of these commandments.
He's not an incrutible God. He's not a God you can't get to know. I
don't profess to know Him like I should; I don't profess to understand
Him like I should. The thought of having fellowship with a Being so
vast and incomprehensible that He fills the universe and can keep
track of what's going on in everybody's mind while they're driving
their cars on the highways and flying in the airplanes, just leaves me
blank. I can't understand it.
But I understand enough about God to know that He loves me. I
understand enough about God to know that He has done something for me,
and He's going to do something for me. One of these philosophers said,
"God is the absolute essence of the thing-hood of the what-ness of the
unmoved mover." Do you know what that guy said? He said God
is...nothing. What is the "what-ness of the thing-hood of the unmoved
mover..." blub, blub, blub, blub. He doesn't know what he's talking
about. He just doesn't know God.
You say, "Well, God is love." Well, if God is love, love gives and
asks for nothing in return. "Herein is love, not that we loved God,
but that he loved us, and gave His Son for us, a propitiation for our
sins." These folks who are always saying, "God is love, God is love"--
I wonder about some of them. Do they love God? "If any man love God,
it is known of him." These people say, "God is love, God is love." Do
you love God? You're always talking about God being love; how about
you? You know what "love" is in tennis, don't you? It's nothing. Where
there's real love, the object is everything, and you're nothing. Love
gives and asks nothing in return. And if you love God, you'll be
nothing. For example, a score in tennis is 30-love; do you know what
that means? That means, 30-to-zero. Love identifies itself with its
object.
When God Almighty loved us, He came down here and identified Himself
with us, and appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. Do you love
God? If you do, then you'll identify yourself with Him. If you love
God, there will be something like you that will be like the Lord. You
and He will be similar in some ways. Eventually, you always mold
yourself after your God.
Love doesn't coerce anybody. Love is never coerced. You say, "Well,
doesn't God command us to love Him? Doesn't God say, `Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God?'" Yes, but then God shows you why you should. Love
earns its respect; love wins its respect. You don't force on anybody.
God doesn't force His love on you.
God comes down and takes on a body like you have, and suffers like you
do, and bleeds like you do, and dies like you do, and hangs naked on a
cross and says, "HEY! Am I worthy of something?" He APPEALS to you!
There's no hammer over your head. You see this? You can't do any
better than this. It isn't like that. Can't you see this? All right,
do I deserve your love or don't I?
C'MON!!
You folks who don't love Him, since He's done that for you, doesn't He
deserve your love? Then why should you get ruffled about Him saying,
"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? This is the
first and great commandment." Love is not coerced; you can't coerce
anybody. The pressure isn't put on; if God tells you, "You shall,"
there's a reason why "you shall"! And if God tells you, "You shall
not," there's a reason why you should not!
All right, this is the first and greatest commandment. I heard a
preacher say one time, "The first commandment has to do with love;
therefore it ought to be easy to keep." I haven't found it easy to
keep that thing; have you found it easy to love God with all your
heart, soul, strength, and mind? I thought to myself, "What battle did
that guy come from? Man, he must have come off the parade ground, or
something." Did you ever try to love God with all your heart and soul
and strength and mind, 24 hours a day? There's a bunch of love-nutty
people in the world; they're love-sick. They think if the word has
"love" in it, there's nothing to it. Man, if it's got "love" to it,
there's more to it than anything else!
I mean, the First Commandment--easy to keep! The very idea! Why, these
fellows change the commandments. They think, "Love your neighbor as
yourself" is the first and great commandment. Every Communist in this
world professes to love his neighbor as himself. Why, if you put the
second commandment ahead of the first commandment, do you know what
that makes you? That makes you a humanist. That makes you a socialist.
You're not keeping the first commandment.
Listen, the first commandment is not "love your neighbor." The first
commandment is not "love your mother." This first commandment--the
first--the first--NEVER MIND what your mind is doing right now trying
to get around what I'm saying--the First Commandment is, "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy
strength, all thy mind." You find that easy to put that first? I never
met anybody who did.
All modern Christians worship people. They worship people for the
purpose of income, or the purpose of attendance, or enrollment, or
image, or publicity. The modern Christian--I've known a lot of them--
there are very few of them who love the Lord their God with all their
heart, soul, strength, and mind. You say, "How do you know?" IT`S
KNOWN IF A MAN LOVES GOD!
"If any man love God, it is known..." You can tell it. It's the same
way with women. If a woman loves God, it's obvious. It's clear. It's
apparent. There is something about the conduct of a man or woman who
loves God that doesn't need any explanation. It's there. You may not
like it; you may disapprove of it. There may be things about their
personality you strongly object to; you may have a personality problem
with them. They've probably got one with you, too. That's how people
are. But, as far as loving God goes, it's manifest; it's known. It's
known when a man puts God ahead of everybody else. And that's what
you're told to do.
Some of you folks have it backwards; you've got the wheels on wrong. I
read about a preacher one time back in 1890 who went to preach in a
church, and it was on perfect level ground. He had never been across
it; he had to go up there by horse and buggy at night. Some
mischievous boys changed the wheels on his carriage. He had one of
these little old covered carriages, and they put the big wheel on the
front and the small wheel on the back. And the big wheel on that
carriage was about four feet in diameter. And the front one was about
three feet in diameter; they reversed those wheels. And the preacher
went up there, you know--up that hill. When he got up there, he was
telling the deacon during the service, "I never knew such a steep hill
coming up here."
And the deacon laughed at him and said, "Step outside. I want to show
you something." And he showed him the wheels of the carriage. And he
said, "Now there, preacher, that's a lesson for you. When you go
through life with things out of place, you go through on the back of
your neck. If you put the front wheel where the back wheel ought to
be, and the back wheel where the front wheel out to be, you go through
backwards."
When you put the First Commandment for the Second Commandment, and the
second with the first, you go through life on the back of your neck.
It's an uphill climb. God said, "Put the First one first." "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all
thy strength, with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment."
The Bible says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." There
must be a lot of folks who love money more than they love God. I read
of a case here, American Airline Flight #1, crashed on a takeoff at
New York. They found a fellow dead on there named W. Alton Jones, who
worked for the Cities Service gas station chain. He had $61,000 on
him--in ten-thousand and five-thousand-dollar bills. Sixty-one
thousand bucks on him! That guy had it in his pockets. I don't know
where you'd get that much money from! I never saw that much money in
my life. I never saw that much money in a bank. Five-thousand-dollar
bills--whose picture is on a $5000 bill? I don't even know; I never
even saw one. Got Judas on it? Or Demas, or something? Something on
it.
And you take you folks from up North--that's where you have a time of
it! You have a time with that money! Yeah, amen, amen! Makes you hard.
Makes you calculating. You know, sin up north is harder than it is
down south. That's right. It's hard and cold and calculating and
wicked and selfish. I'm not justifying Southern sins; I'm just telling
you, there's a difference.
Some of you Northerners are like this--"Oh, dear George, help me out!"
I know fellows who work up there 20, 30, 40 years, and come down here,
you know, to die--and live for about two or three weeks, before they
die, trying to get that money.
A fellow up there, 32 years old, when he retired, they said he had 35
years of service. They gave him an award for 35 years service, and the
guy was only 32 years old! They said, "How did you get 35 years
service?" He said, "I did a lot of overtime!"
Two or three jobs a day, trying to get that money. "The love of money
is the root of all evil." God before the money. God before the money.
"Love God with all your heart and with all your soul."
Your soul is what you feel. Your soul is your emotions. That means God
ahead of sex. God ahead of music. God ahead of beautiful things to
look at and to feel and to taste. God ahead of your food. God ahead of
your belly. Amen, amen, amen!
All this stuff. Folks say, "What do you think about this Siecus sex
education thing?" I think it's a bunch of sex-obsessed neurotics. This
bunch of people always worrying about the kids not knowing enough
about sex--any fool in America knows more about sex ten years ahead of
time than they ought to know it's good for them to do anything with!
Who can't find out about sex? Man, you've got so much of it, you're
crazy with it!
A fellow said in America, "It's SEX o'clock." They said, "That novel
by Leon Uris called `The Exodus,' should have been called `The
SEXodus.'" All this stuff--sex, sex, sex! Why, you've got a bunch of
neurotics--they're obsessive neurotics! "Tell it like it is, tell it
like it is." Why, Presley dies a worn-out, senile old man before he's
40 years old. What does he know about sex? NOTHING! All this
business--a bunch of sex-crazy people. They sex every time they turn
around--SEXology, SEXuality!
You know, I had to go down here and fight the school board about this
stuff--you know all that stuff, don't you? About twelve years back,
the preachers got together and decided to fight that Siecus stuff.
What's this fellow's name? Chuck Baldwin had bad textbooks he was
fighting. We had to fight the Siecus bunch when they came through
here. There was a doctor's wife downtown--I think her name was Reuben.
She got down there, and she was trying to shovel all that stuff
through. I had to go down there and powwow those people on the tables.
You know the impression I got? I got the impression those people were
sex-obsessed neurotics. They were hung up on the stuff! About toward
the end of that thing, I got to talk with them, and I said, "What's
this thing going to do about the VD rate? Is it going to fix it up?"
They all practically choked around the table, all shocked. I said,
"What about the pregnancies? How about these girls having babies
before they're married? Is it going to fix that?"
And one of those half-baked, whitewashed, demon-possessed hypocrites
said, "Oh, no, we don't discuss those things."
WHAT???!!! Sex education doesn't discuss any of THAT???!!! That isn't
a very good education, stupid!
Why, these poor kids out in these schools, all of the problems they've
got--"we need to educate them." What's the problem they've got, honey?
The problems they've got are a bunch of pregnancies and a bunch of
VD--that's the problem they've got! If you're not going to fix that,
then SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
All this stuff! Occupation with the body! Music.
Why, I've read accounts of those Beatles. I'll never forget; one time
I was up in Chatauqua, and I came up off the platform. And a bunch of
little girls were there. One of them, about 15 or 16, was standing
around, just got saved. She was crying like her heart was coming out
of her mouth. And I said, "What is it?"
She came to me, and she said, "Brother Ruckman, I'm saved now, and I
want to apologize for getting so mad at you."
I said, "What did you get mad at me about?"
She said, "I was just mad enough to kill you!"
I said, "Over what?"
She said, "You criticized the Monkees!"
You know, I wasn't too up to date then, and I couldn't figure out what
it was she was talking about. I was standing there thinking, was there
some zoo I had been in? I criticized the monkeys in some zoo?
She was talking about a singing group, you know.
I didn't know that. I was trying to figure out what zoo I had been in,
throwing peanuts to the monkeys or something. Imagine a 16-year-old
girl going all to pieces over a "Monkee." Imagine that!
Why, these kids come home from these rock concerts, and you know what
the reporters say? They say the most terrible thing about that rock
concert at Woodstock, and that San Francisco Haight-Asbury mess, was
that the parents didn't care. They said the worst thing about it was
that the parents looked at it as an innocent form of amusement, where
everything was just fine. Why, the girls were hysterical! Some of them
were having heart attacks at 17, 18, 19 years old! Some of them were
fainting; they were cutting themselves. They were clawing their
throats. They were tearing out their hair. Innocent amusement?
Why, that's a bunch of demon-possessed fanatics at a religious worship
service. You know what they're doing? They're worshipping their gods!
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me; Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Why, those
people act like religious fanatics. A reporter watched that thing and
recorded the number of people the firemen had to resuscitate in the
back room, and the number of people who had to go to a doctor, and the
number of people who had to go to a hospital--people raging,
screaming, foaming at the mouth. Why, they're religious--they're in a
worship service. You look at them, and they're kind of like this. And
they're like this. And they're like this. They're RELIGIOUS FANATICS.
Amen, amen!
Why you take all that stuff, and you see they act just like the
worshippers of Orpheus and Bacchus did, back 500 to 1,000 years before
Jesus Christ. Kids come home and say, "Well, there's nothing wrong
with that music--the `Yellow Submarine,' and `Tinkerbell,' and `Puff,
the Magic Dragon.'" Why, the songs are about dope, you dopehead! Can't
you figure that out, dopey?
I had a meeting one time downtown in one of these high schools down
here. A bunch of young people were talking. One little 15-year-old
girl said, "Well, I don't believe those titles are anything bad. They
have nothing to do with dope." Well, she just wasn't hooked yet. Don't
give me that stuff, see? I mean, I get around. I may be an old man,
but I still move! I move faster in a month than some of you do in ten
years. I know what's going on with that stuff. All that stuff about
the "yellow cloud," and the "pink cloud"--that's music about dope!
They're a bunch of dope heads! They're in a worship service!
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
SPORTS...."lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." Are you
fellows as happy over brother Theos leading five souls to Christ in
Greece as you are winning the league championship? Man, you sure are
quiet, some of you here this morning! I've got news for you; Brother
Trotsville led some souls to Christ in Germany. That's some good
stuff.
You know what some of you are like? You're like the guy who told his
wife, "Well, I may not love you better than baseball, but I still love
you better than basketball." I saw a cartoon one time in the New
Yorker--I never will forget it. It showed a guy out in the sixth
green, about to make a putt. And here comes his wife and bridal party,
tearing across the fairway in her bridal gown, screaming, with the
preacher with her. And he's looking up from his putt and saying, "I
told you, only if it rained!"
Now, some of you don't appreciate it. I didn't used to either. I was
39 years old when I played my first game of golf. That was the first
time I picked up a club. I was just like you are; I said, "Well,
there's nothing to that game; just hit the ball and walk after it."
But, hitting that ball is a problem! That's why that thing has more
cussin' than any other game--because so much of it is your fault.
Listen, God Almighty help you if you ever see the time when catching a
limit of fish means more to you than somebody coming down the altar to
get saved. You're in trouble. You say, "What's my trouble?" Your
trouble is you love pleasure more than you love God.
Concerning loving your belly. Do you take as good a care of the Bible
as you do of your own stomach? "You take one more bite of cake, and
you're going to explode!" "Please pass the cake and get out of the
way."
I have a note here by Art Linkletter, who had a party out in
Hollywood. He had 39 members of this club, and 12 guests. I guess that
was about the time that pot caught up with his daughter. The meal cost
$16,000, and they paid money to hire French chefs to fly from Paris
over to Hollywood to cook that stuff for them, and then flew them
back. And each one of the people who sat down at that table paid
$300.00 for that plate. Three hundred dollars! When you have to pay
$300.00 for a meal, your god is your belly--did you know that? Nobody
has to pay $300 to get a good meal; I don't care how big a belly
you've got. I don't care what kind of appetite you've got; nobody has
to pay $300 to get a good meal. Nobody has to pay $200. Nobody has to
pay $100. You can get a good one at Church's for about three-and-a-
half bucks. That's right, man!
I was down in St. Petersburg one time. One of the rich fellows down
there in that church picked me up in a plane and took me flying, and
he flew me off in his twin-engine Cessna across about 100 miles and
landed on a private strip, where he had his own private airport, and
got out and ate at his private restaurant--all that stuff, you know.
High on the hog, low on the chicken. And we got out there and went to
eat at that place, and each one of those plates--the cheapest was 12
bucks, and the expensive ones were 15 dollars. And, with all due
respect for that fellow's charity and Christian love, I must confess
that I don't remember any meal that was much worse than that one! I
mean, the peas on that plate were canned peas! If you have to pay
twelve dollars for canned peas, you've got problems, man! A little ol'
helping of French fries, a little old helping of this, a little ol'
fillet mignon about that big around, man--fifteen bucks! That's a sin!
That's a sin, man! I just sat up there and thought about Church's
Fried Chicken all the time I was eating. I bowed my head and said,
"Lord, I ask you to bless this mess. I want to have you know, Lord,
I'm doing it for you. I sure wouldn't do it for myself!"
All right, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength--and with all your mind. Have you ever tried to put that
into practice--love God with all your mind? If you love somebody,
you're going to think about him. The Bible says about the wicked, God
is not in all his thoughts. Do you think about God? Do you worship
your mind instead of God? That's what these fellows say who are
atheists. They're not atheists; they have a god; their god is their
own brain. That's their problem. Making a god out of education. That's
what Americans do. They make a god out of education. And then, because
they make it a god, they try to tear it down, like they tear down a
false god. Now, I wouldn't try to get you kids to drop out of school;
and I wouldn't tell you it is wrong to go to school; and I think you
ought to go to school to learn how to read and to learn how to write,
and to learn how to do something to make a living. I believe in all
that kind of thing. But you better not make a god out of that thing!
You better hadn't get a college education just to get a college
education.
You go downtown for a job, and you say, "I've got a college
education." You know what they'll say? They'll say, "What are you
doing down here then?"
We've had them go down there--real smart boys go down there, and the
fellow says, "No, we don't want you."
And they say, "Why not?"
And he says, "Well, there are some fellows here who wouldn't want you
coming on. If you have a college degree, you might get their job
later." You never know what's coming around these days; you better
hadn't worship that mind and that brain.
I have somewhere back in my files a detailed account of Herman
Kennedy. I can't quote everything that fellow belonged to, but Herman
Kennedy at 69 years old went down to a railroad track and parked his
car, and went out their and lay down on the track, and let that thing
run over him and kill him. Herman Kennedy was a colored man. And
Herman Kennedy had every degree and every honor I've ever heard of a
man having. He had a B.A. and an M.A. and a Ph.D. and honorary
doctorates and wrote magazine articles for scientific journals. He was
president of the American Psychological Association of Blankety-Blank
Blank Blank, and he was vice-president of the Association of Blankety-
Blank Blank, and a member of the Advancement of Science, and Who's Who
in America, and Who's Who's in College Educators, and Who's Who in
American Educators, and Phi Beta Kappa, and a position on this board,
and that board, and another board, and clinical research, and head
psychologist at such-and-such a university--all of that stuff! That
guy, at 69 years old, just got depressed and laid down on a track and
let a train kill him. He was a fool. His god couldn't deliver him; his
god couldn't keep him off the tracks. His god was education; "heady,
highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god." The bigger
the belfry, the more room for the bats. That's the business.
I think you ought to work. I don't believe you ought to flunk your
subjects; but don't you make a god out of education! It'll disappoint
you. I have a college education; you say, "You worry about it?" No, I
never worry about it. I might have two of them; if I do, O.K.; and if
I don't, O.K. It doesn't bother me a bit. I've had time to watch that
thing, and you'd better believe it, some of the biggest flops in this
world are college graduates. All this stuff. I'm not telling you to
quit studying. I mean, like the fellow said, "You students who spend
all your time watching TV, you're going to go down in history, and
down in geometry, and down in chemistry, and down in everything else."
You ought to work, but don't make a god of education. Don't make a god
out of your head.
My text says, "If any man loves God, it is known of him."
Well, how do you tell if a fellow loves God? Well, how do you tell if
anybody loves anybody? Well, number one, you think about them. If you
love somebody, you think about them. Do you ever think about God? Does
your mind dwell on Him? Do you ever get off alone some place and just
think awhile about how great He is, and how big He is, and how good
He's been to you, and how much He's done for you? Do you think about
God? Do you talk about God? Do you talk to God? Do you talk to people
you love? If you love somebody, don't you like to talk to them? Do you
talk to God? Do you spend time talking to Him? Do you set a time aside
to talk to Him? "If any man love God, it is known of him."
Do you avoid His enemies? If you love somebody, you stay away from
their enemies. You steer clear of them. I do. If there's somebody I
think highly of, and they've got enemies, or somebody's after them, or
trying to make a liar out of them or mess them up, I steer clear of
them. I don't fool with them. If you love God, you'll avoid His
enemies.
If you love somebody, you'll love their friends. Do you love God's
friends? Do you give gifts to God? Do you know why you give gifts to
your children? Because you love them. Do you know why you give gifts
to your wife? Because you love her. Do you love God? What did you give
Him? (It's getting quieter here every minute. I can hear the air
conditioner running!) "Better get to preaching on heaven if you want
some Amens, preacher!"
Do you feel free to talk things over with Him? If you love somebody,
you feel like they'll understand what you have to say. You'll level
with them. You can talk to God about anything, any time, any place,
anywhere--if you love Him. If you love Him and believe He loves you,
no holds are barred. No doubletalk. You can lay it on the line. Do you
rejoice in His success? When God gets a victory, does it make you
happy? If you love somebody, you like to see them succeed, don't you?
"If any man love God, it is known of him."
I can't tell you how you know; it's like how you know anything. It
isn't just always an act. Some of the biggest givers who have ever
given don't love love. Some of the people who talk the longest and the
loudest about love don't love God. I can't tell you how you can know
for sure, I just know when it's there, it's there.
One time over there in Korea, a fellow was making some pictures of
tourists. He was photographing a field, and he noticed something
peculiar. He went down to the field and walked across it, and found an
old man out there with a plow. And the plow was hitched up to his son.
The fellow was about 50 years old, and his son was about 30, pulling
the plow. He photographed them.
A little while later, he was showing it different places around Korea,
and he happened to show it to a missionary over on the other side of
the mountain. And the missionary took one look at it and said, "Yeah,
I know that fellow. I know his son."
And the tourist said, "I thought it was a very unusual picture. I
thought I would take it back to the States, you know, to show how
backward these people are here, and how primitive they are in the way
they do things."
And the missionary said, "I know that fellow real well. That fellow
and his son didn't have any money to contribute to our church building
which we're building. He didn't have any grain that he could sell. So
they sold their oxen, and gave that money to the church. So now they
take turns plowing themselves. One pulls the plow, and the other one
pulls the plow."
If I met that fellow, I wouldn't have to ask him if he was Baptist,
Methodist, or Presbyterian. If I met that fellow, I wouldn't ask him
if he believed in pretribulation rapture, postribulation rapture, or
premillennial. If I met that fellow, I'd know one thing about him,
without asking ONE QUESTION. I'd know that fellow loved God. "If any
man love God, it is known of him."
It's difficult to believe evil about somebody you love. They say true
love is blind. Well, if you were to love somebody, it's hard to
believe evil about him. You get an evil report? You don't believe it.
People tell me there are contradictions in the Bible. I don't believe
it. They say the Bible is untrustworthy. Oh, go peddle your papers!
You say, "Why?" Because Somebody I love wrote the Book. I have no
confidence in them at all. They couldn't convince me that thing has
corruptions in it. I don't believe it! If you love God, it's difficult
to believe anything bad about Him.
If you love somebody, you overlook their faults. You say, "Well, I
thought you said God was pure and holy and sinless and perfect." Yeah,
but sometimes it seems like He's not. Oh, come on, you pious folks,
hasn't God made a few mistakes in your life? Come on now, level with
me! Hasn't God done a couple of things that you thought shouldn't have
been done? And hasn't God failed to do a couple of things that He
maybe should have done? Yeah, yeah, don't give me this pious stuff.
You know why some of you folks don't understand that language? Because
you're not in fellowship with God! When you're in fellowship with
somebody, you're close to them; you know their faults.
You say, "Do you find fault with God?" Well, from our standpoint it
looks that way sometimes. But if you love somebody, or if you love God
like you should, you know what you'd be inclined to say? You'd be
inclined to say, "Well, it looks to me like it's a mistake. But He's
got more sense than I've got, and He's got more wisdom than I've got,
so if I can't forget it, I'll just have to overlook it." Amen, amen.
A fellow said to Dr. Walter Wilson one time, "Dr. Walter Wilson, we'd
like to have you come to our New Year's Eve party and celebrate."
Wilson was a Christian; he said, "Well, that's fine. I'd love to come.
Can I bring a friend with me?"
And they said, "Sure. Who's that?"
He said, "Jesus Christ."
And the guy turned red in the face and said, "Well...uh...I don't
think He'd really enjoy this kind of a party."
And Wilson said, "Well, I don't think I would either, then."
That's it! "If any man love God, it's known of him."
I knew Thee not, Thou wounded Son of God,
Till I with Thee the path of suffering trod,
Till in the valley through the gloom of night,
I walked with Thee and turned to Thee for light.
I did not know the mystery of love,
The love that doth the fruitless branch remove,
The love that spares not even the fruitful tree,
But prunes that it may yet more fruitful be.
I did not know the meaning of the cross.
I counted it but bitterness and loss.
Till in thy gracious discipline of pain
I found the lost; I dreaded purest gain
Shall I cry in the darkest day,
"Lord of all mercy, take my cross away"?
Nay, in the cross I saw Thy open face,
And found therein the fullness of Thy grace.
Do you know what that is? That's a fellow who figured God probably
made a mistake, and then decided that He hadn't. Do you know why?
Because he loved Him. "And if any man love God, it is known of him."
Now, Lord, we pray this congregation might be filled with people who
love thee. We pray this church always might be packed out with people
who do love thee and put thee first. And, Lord, we pray that the pagan
idols, and the idols of this age, and of this generation, and of this
world system in which we live, would never gain the upper hand on us,
and get the ground on us in our own thinking. And God forbid we should
cry and whine, Lord, under your hand, Lord, when you deal us blows we
have coming, and blows we need. And God forgive us for being so soft
and sensitive, Lord, and touchy, in your dealings with us. Help us,
Lord, to appreciate thee more and more as the years go by. As the
years go by, help us to grow more in grace, and love me than in times
past. Help us be able to take your dealing with a better spirit than
we have in times past. And remember, Lord, your chastening hand upon
others. It has been much harder than it has been on us--how much they
have to put up with, and how much grace they need, and how much we
should love thee, Father, for being careful and merciful and tender to
us, knowing our weakness, Lord. Help us, God, we pray.
Let us meet in prayer awhile. I don't know whether we'll stand and
sing this morning or not. If you want to come to the altar for a
season of prayer, you feel free to come. If you don't, just do your
praying right there in your seat.
If you're unsaved here this morning, let me say a few words to you
before we go. While we're in prayer, just a few words to you, here
this morning if you're unsaved. I'm going to say something you're not
going to like. I'm going to make an accusation against you, and I'm
not going to worry about giving account to God for it. I'm going to
say it--and I'm going to mean it. If you are here this morning, and
you've never been saved or born again, you don't love God. Don't you
sit back there with your head bowed and your eyes closed and fool
yourself about your religious malarchy. If you love God, you would
accept His Son. And don't tell me you haven't accepted His Son, but
you love God. You don't love God! You may be a fine fellow to your
neighbors and your friends and your family. But don't tell me you love
God and you'll not trust His Son. He sent His Son on the cross to die
for you and shed His blood for you; the least you could do to show
your appreciation is trust Him as your Saviour. That's the least you
could do. You don't love Him. You talk about "God is love"; you don't
know what love is. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us, and gave His Son for the propitiation for our sins."
Before we close, if you're a Christian here this morning, you've
trusted Christ as your Saviour. I hope the prayer of your heart is,
More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee.
Hear now the prayer I make on bended knee.
This all my prayers shall be,
More love to thee.
You know why we don't have more power than we have? We're not close
enough. You know why we're not close enough? We're not whole enough.
You know why we're not whole enough? We've got too much in our lives
we need to get rid of. You know why we're not rid of it? Because God
knows that if He dealt us a blow like He should, it break our back. We
wouldn't take it in the right spirit. Some of us would get bitter;
we'd get mad with God. We'd lose the ground we've gained. Our problem
is love. Every problem in a local church is love. If you loved the
brethren like you're supposed to, you wouldn't roast them, and cut
them down all the time--make fun of them, joke about them. Once in a
while, yes. That's true once in a while--it's all right. But if you
keep at it year in and year out, it'll eat you like a cancer.
Do you know why Christians don't give like they should? They don't
love like they should. You know why Christians don't witness and pass
out tracts? They don't love God like they should; it's a love problem.
Every problem in the local church is a love problem. You're to love
God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and
all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.
More than your wife. More than your sons. More than your daughters.
More than your mother. More than your father. More than your job. More
than your school. More than your church. More than your own health.
More than your own soul. Oh, brethren, we've got a long way to go.
Before we close today, is there an unsaved person anywhere in the
building who will raise your hand and say, "Preacher, remember me in
the closing word of prayer. I'm not a Christian. I need prayer"--would
you raise your hand? Anywhere in the building?
Lord, we pray especially this morning for these who raised their
hands. We pray, Father, that you might speak to their hearts now about
salvation. May they trust your Son as their Saviour. You know they can
do it right there where they're sitting, with their eyes closed. All
they have to do is call upon your Name and ask for salvation, and
you'll give it. You'll grant it. I pray you might give them the grace
to put their faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
trust Him as their own Saviour, and love Him, because He's worthy of
love. He deserves our love. He has earned our love. He's worthy of
love--not just worthy of wisdom and power and honor and glory, but
worthy of love. An object of love. Someone to be desired, to be wanted
and be close to. To be cherished. To serve and obey. God help us.
Lord, bless these Christians who came this morning. Do something in
their lives that will enable them to go deeper in their life with
thee, to grow in grace and become more mature and love thee more. God
forgive us for failing to love thee like we should. We confess these
things and ask these blessings, and ask for the petitions of these
souls, in the Name of the One who loved us and died for us, the Lord
Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Lord bless you. That's all, folks. We're not going to have an
invitation this morning. We'll dismiss you and let you think these
things over.
Index of Preacher's Help and Notes
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