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We have now considered the Ten Commandments, and the question for each one of us is-are we keeping them? If God should weigh us by them, would we be found wanting or not wanting? Do we keep the law, the whole law? Are we obeying God with all our heart? Do we render Him a full and willing obedience?
One Law, not Ten
These Ten Commandments are not ten different laws; they are one law. If I am being held up in the air by a chain with ten links and I break one of them, down I come, just as surely as if I break the whole ten. If I am forbidden to go out of an enclosure, it makes no difference at what point I break through the fence.
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).
The golden chain of obedience is broken if one link is missing.
We sometimes hear people pray to be preserved from certain sin, as if they were in no danger of committing others. I firmly believe that if a man begins by willfully breaking one of these commandments it is much easier for him to break the others. I know of a gentleman who had a confidential clerk and insisted on his going down Sunday morning to work on his books. The young man had a good deal of principle, and at first refused; but he was anxious to keep in the good graces of his employer and finally yielded. He had not done that a great while before he speculated in stocks, and became a defaulter for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The employer had him arrested and put in the penitentiary for ten years, but I believe he was just as guilty in the sight of God as that young man, for he led him to take the first step on the downward road. You remember the story of a soldier who was smuggled into a fortress in a load of hay, and opened the gates to his comrades. Every sin we commit opens the door for other sins.
All Have Come Short
For fifteen hundred years man was under the law, and no one was equal to it. Christ came and showed that the commandments went beyond the mere letter; and can anyone since say that he has been able to keep them in his own strength? As the plummet is held up, we see how much we are out of the perpendicular. As we measure ourselves by that holy standard, we find how much we are lacking. As a child said, when reproved by her mother and told that she ought to do right: "How can I do right when there is no right in me?"
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). I do not say that all are equally guilty of gross violations of the commandments. It needs a certain amount of reckless courage openly to break a law, human or divine; but it is easy to crack them, as the child said. It has been remarked that the life of many professors of religion is full of fractures that result from little sins, little acts of temper and selfishness. It is possible to crack a costly vase so finely that it cannot be noticed by the observer; but let this be done again and again in different directions, and some day the vase will go to pieces at a touch. When we hear of someone who has had a lifelong reputation for good character and consistent living, suddenly falling into some shameful sin, we are shocked and puzzled. If we knew all, we would find that only the fall has been sudden, that he has been sliding toward it for years. Away back in his life we should find numerous cracked commandments. His exposure is only the falling of the vase to pieces.
False Weights
Men have all sorts of weights that they think are going to satisfy, but they will find that they are altogether vanity, and lighter than vanity.
The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him.
"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5).
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3).
I have often heard good people say that our meetings were doing good, they were reaching the drunkards, and gamblers, and harlots; but they never realized that they needed the grace of God for themselves.
Nicodemus was probably one of the most moral men of his day. He was a teacher of the law. Yet Christ said to him: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3). It is much easier to reach thieves and drunkards and vagabonds than selfrighteous Pharisees. You do not have to preach to those men for weeks and months to convince them that they are sinners. When a man learns that he has need of God and that he is a sinner, it is very easy to reach him. But the self-righteous Pharisee needs salvation as much as any drunkard that walks the streets.
I read of a minister traveling in the South who obtained permission to preach in the local jail. A son of his host went with him. On the way back the young man who was not a Christian, said to the minister: "I hope some of the convicts were impressed. Such a sermon as that ought to do them good."
"Did it do you good? the minister asked.
"Oh, you were preaching to the convicts" the young man answered.
The minister shook his head, and said: "I preached Christ, and you need Him as much as they."
If you do not repent of your sins and ask Him for mercy, there is no hope for you. Let me ask you to take this question home to yourself. If a summons would come at midnight for you to be "weighed in the balances," what would become of your soul?
Many are only making a profession. Are you ready to be weighed-ready to step into the scales? A great many would be found like those five foolish virgins. When the hour came, they would be found with no oil in their lamps. If you have only an empty lamp, or are living on mere formalism, I beg of you to give it up. Give up that dead, cold, miserable lukewarmness. God will have none of it. Are you lusting to your good works? Do you think your Bible, your crucifix, your prayers, your church-going will help you?
Or do you set your hope upon your education, your wealth, your earthly distinctions? What will your university education amount to, and all your wealth and honors, if you go down through lust and passion and covetousness, and lose your soul at last? We are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ. If you have not Christ when God weighs you, "Tekel" will be your sentence.
Do not Despair
I can imagine that you are saying to yourself, "If we are to be judged by these laws, how are we going to be saved? Nearly every one of them has been broken by us-in spirit, if not in letter."
I almost hear you say: "I wonder if Mr. Moody is ready to be weighed. Would he like to put those tests to himself?"
With all humility I reply that if God commanded me to step into the scales now, I am ready.
"What!" you say, "haven't you broken the law?"
Yes, I have. I was a sinner before God, the same as you; but forty years ago I pled guilty at His bar. I cried for mercy, and He forgave me. If I step into the scales, the Son of God has promised to be with me. I would not dare to step in without Him. If I did, how quickly the scales would fly up!
Christ Is All
Christ kept the law. If He had ever broken it, He would have to die for Himself; but because He was a Lamb without spot or blemish, His atoning death is efficacious for you and me. He had no sin of His own to atone for, and so God accepted His sacrifice. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We are righteous in God's sight, because the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that believe.
If we had to live forever with our sins in the handwriting of God on the wall, it would be hell on earth. But thank God for the Gospel we preach! If we repent, our sins will all be blotted out.
"You, being dead in your sins... hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross" (Colossians 2:13-14).
Love, the Fulfilling of the Law
If the love of God is shed abroad in your heart, you will be able to fulfill the law. Paul reduced the commandments to one: "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10). Someone has written the following: Love to God will admit no other god.
Love resents everything that debases its object by representing it by an image.
Love to God will never dishonor His name.
Love to God will reverence His day.
Love to parents makes one honor them.
Hate, not love, is a murderer.
Lust, not love, commits adultery.
Love will give, but never steal.
Love will not slander or lie.
Love's eye is not covetous.
Are You Ready?
It is the height of madness to turn away and run the risk of being called by God to judgment and have no hope in Christ. Now is the day and hour to accept salvation, and then He will be with you. Do you step aside and say: "I'm not ready yet. I want a little more time to prepare, to turn the matter over in my mind"? Well, you have time, but bear in mind it is only the present; you do not know that you will have tomorrow. Wasn't Belshazzar cut off suddenly?
Would he have believed that that was going to be his last night, that he would never see the light of another sun? That banquet of sin didn't close as he expected. As long as you delay you are in danger. If you don't enter into the kingdom of heaven by God's way, you cannot enter at all. You must accept Christ as your Saviour, or you will never be fit to be weighed.
My friend, do you have Him? Will you remain as you are and be found wanting, or will you accept Christ and be ready for the summons?
"This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:11, 12).