Church of Christ Studies

God's Immutable Laws Continued...

I am sure that all of us who are privileged to view this entire audience are appreciative of the fact that it is a splendid gathering for Saturday night's meeting. It was considered questionable as to whether or not we should undertake to have a Saturday service; but this one, together with last Saturday's demonstrates to me more and more your anxiety about the things presented at this place of worship. I am especially impressed with the thought that there is nothing here to attract you except the plain preaching of the old gospel story; that there is nothing practiced in these services but that every religious man might endorse and have neither right nor reason to be offended because of the injection into the service of anything not mentioned in the word of God.

 

I want to talk to you tonight about God's immutable laws. In doing so, it comes as a challenge to our faith and also to our intelligence respecting Jehovah and his doings with man.

 

I am quite conscious that in the presentation of this thought I will of necessity have to review some of the things mentioned yesterday; but perhaps it will only serve to kindle further study and make us more appreciative of the book of God. I said to you then, and want to get before you to-night, that man is a combination of two natures, one of them belonging to the material world, of which it can be well said that God was its Creator; the other, that which was breathed into man by his Creator; and that these two things our bodies and our spirit~constitute what we call "man." As long as they stay together on the earth, we call that "life;" and when these two elements separate, we style it "death ;" and the Bible declares that each one goes back to the place from whence it came.

 

Now, in the government of humanity there are two laws, one of them pertaining to that part of man that belongs to this world, the material part; the other law, quite separate and distinct, belonging to an entirely different field and has to do with that part of man that belongs to the eternal world. Paul said in Rom. S: 7 that "the carnal mind"— that is, the fleshly man—"is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And the reverse of that is equally true. My spiritual nature is not subject to the physical law, neither indeed can it be.

 

Now, we will agree and run smoothly just in proportion to our acceptance of these principles. First, do you believe that God has a natural law governing the material world? And do you believe that the same God of nature is the God of revelation? If so, I am ready to proceed to further investigation. Of course, if some one believes that God is a God of one and not a God of the other, I should have to proceed with that man upon an entirely different line; but I am assuming and presuming that a large per cent, if not all, of the audience grants the existence of Jehovah and believes confidently that the same God who made the heavens and the earth, who gave those fundamental laws governing material things, likewise is the God of the Bible, the author of the book of inspiration.

 

Now, holding that in mind, we can move along parallel lines with profit and benefit to every person who will study these laws. Of these two matters, in which do you think God is most interested? Which one is the most nearly perfect ? Does God have greater consideration and greater exactness regarding those laws pertaining to the welfare of our material being or those with reference to our eternal destiny? In other words, what part of man does God look upon with the greatest interest—that part created of the dust of the earth or that which is akin to him? Is he more interested in the body which he framed than in the spirit he has given us?

 

Now, as I have said, these two laws with which we have to do are quite distinct the one from the other. In the natural world I do not need God. I derive direct no especial help therefrom. I have learned to adjust myself unto nature's laws and to be governed and guided thereby. All the material progress, the advanced civilization of which we boast, has been but the discovery of those natural laws and the applying of them to the various concerns of our material relationships.

 

Now, I must say, on the other hand, that God's spiritual law has not a thing to do with the material things of earth— not that Jehovah could not have so related them; it was that he did not see fit to do it. God could have answered numbers of questions about which man is concerned.

 

It would have been quite easy for the Lord Jesus Christ to have told us whether or not Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune were inhabited. He could have told us about the conditions of the interior of the earth. There are a thousand and one problems in the material world he might have solved. But the book of revelations is addressed to that part of man known as his spiritual being. Now, I said to you further in regard to natural law: The man that disregards and disrespects it always meets with defeat, and no man that ever lived has proved an exception thereto. You can use some of the most common illustrations of life; and if you or I profit thereby, we will observe the law governing the same.

 

This is just as true with reference to spiritual matters. Disregard of God's spiritual law has likewise universally brought defeat, though, perhaps, unintended on the part of him who violates it. You can commence with the first pair in paradise, and descend the stream of human generations for sixty centuries, and not one single exception can be found.

 

Grandfather Adam perhaps thought that in violating God's law no penalty would follow; but he was wonderfully mistaken, and, as a result, the death sentence was passed upon him and his posterity.

 

When Cain undertook to worship God other than by faith, undertook to substitute for the thing which God commanded, defeat, disgrace, and punishment were the result.

 

When Abraham and Sarah reached that period in life where it ceased to be with her after the manner of women, God promised a son through whom the nations of the earth were to be blessed. She was so anxious to have God's promise fulfilled that she and Abraham formed a committee on "ways and means" by which the promise could be fulfilled and the end accomplished. The plan adopted was for her to sacrifice her own natural affections and allow her husband to go in unto another woman. Now, I have no censure to offer. I think their motives were pure, their intentions were good; but it seemed to them that God had made a mistake—that his plan would not work. So they undertook to supplement and legislate in order that the Lord's promise might come true. But what was the result? After Ishmael was born, God said to Abraham: "Not in Ishmael. He is not the one; and notwithstanding you violated the law with the purest of motives, yet you have met with defeat, for in a child of whom Sarah is to be the mother that promise must come to pass."

 

Well, that is true all down the line never an exception to it anywhere. But both in the natural world and in the spiritual realm God is no respecter of persons. Sometimes we wonder why it is, in the material world, that some of the best people of the earth are taken and borne aloft to their heavenly home; we sometimes wonder why it is that God took one and left the other. I think we ought not to raise this question. I think it is a lack of faith on our part if we do and a failure to understand God's immutable law. I do not think Jehovah wants me to die to-night; and were I, by some happening or other, thus to have my life snapped out, I do not believe he willed it. But if I violate any law and upset the machinery of my being, unless I can have it adjusted and put back in harmony, the chances are that, according to the immutability of God's law, death will come upon me.

 

Let anybody—an innocent babe go out and take hold of a live electric wire. What is the result? Do you think God will kill it as an act of vengeance? O. no. But, according to his unchangeable law, that helpless, pure, innocent babe will die as a result just as quickly as the most hardened criminal in your State penitentiary. Why? Because that is God's law about it; and when you violate it, the penalty is yours, and God is no respecter of persons.

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Just so in the spiritual realm. Peter said when he went to the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:34, 35): "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." There is no respect of persons with Jehovah. The best man on earth from a moral point of view that fails to conform to God's law will die and be damned just as quickly as the open violator of all laws of the land. Why? Because salvation, physical as well as eternal, is based on conformity to God's law. I cannot live in this world a physical life in disobedience to the laws of nature, and I cannot live in the spiritual realm in violation of God's spiritual law, and I ought to learn that.

 

Now, I submit to you another proposition: God Almighty (mark it), in either nature or in grace, has never inflicted a single penalty upon any soul that has ever lived except when that soul was in disobedience, direct or indirect, to God's law. Now, you may turn to the Bible and commence with the first chapter of Genesis and read through the entire sixty-six books thereof. I repeat: No man was ever condemned by God except in violation and in disregard of God's law. Now, I can reverse that and with equal correctness say this: No man has ever been blessed of Jehovah except as a result of his obedience unto God's law. They are just as dependable, as reliable, as absolute in the spiritual realm as they are in the material and physical world.

 

Did you ever stop to think of the dependability of God's laws? But for that fact I would be afraid to gather in a building like this to-night for fear of collapse or some great tragedy occurring. But for the reliability of God's laws I would be afraid to walk along the streets, lest the electric current might leave the line and dash off, causing death and destruction in its path. But for the law's being dependable I would be afraid to get in a car and start on a trip across the country. But I know one thing: that if, for instance, the automobile is properly adjusted according to God's law, and the machinery thereof kept intact, and if a supply of gasoline is furnished, I know that it will run and you can rely upon it just as long as it in harmony with the laws governing machinery. If Mr. Henry Ford did not believe absolutely and without any reservation in the dependability of the laws of 'God in the material world, he would not think about wanting Muscle Shoals or spending one dime for the same. His confidence in the certainty of God's law is absolute.

 

Now, why can we not have the same respect and the same faith and the same confidence in God's spiritual law? And let me say: That is the faith that it takes to save the soul. That is the faith that marches out under the bending blue and says: "Lord, speak, and I will hear; command, and I will obey."

 

The power of the State of Tennessee is reflected in the laws thereof. Our State is no stronger, no more powerful, than are the laws back of it; and to despise the law of Tennessee is to despise the State itself; for the only way that this State can function with respect to its citizenship and its sister States round about is by virtue of the law and the characteristic dignity thereof. Just in proportion to our regard for the law of our State is our respect for the State itself. Let our people pass out and become anarchists. Let us despise the laws that are made up at the Capitol. Let us repudiate them, and what is the result? The State receives a black mark upon it. Let your officials, be they whosoever they may, fail to enforce or respect the laws themselves, and shame and disgrace are upon our fair name. Just so with respect to God. God's power is manifest in his law, and the man that respects God's law respects the God that made the law, and the man that disrespects God's law is disrespectful to Jehovah himself. Hence, Solomon well said (hear it): "The man that turneth away his ear from hearing God's law, even that man's prayer shall be an abomination unto God."

 

I know there are people that make much ado regarding prayer. I want to say to you, not to be misunderstood, that there is not a man on earth that believes more in prayer than I do; and yet I know that any kind of a prayer offered by a soul that does not respect and bow in subjection to God's law is not a prayer acceptable unto High Heaven. Listen at the words again: "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination."

 

Now, just to be plain about it, you can bow down upon your knees and pray for a hundred years, and the world may think that is an exhibition of religion; but unless you submit to God's laws, your prayers are but a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.

 

James says that to stumble in one point even is to be guilty of rebelling in the whole. If I have a disposition to-night not to respect just one single point of the law of my State, I stand in rebellion unto the powers that be. Just so, if I stand to-night refusing, stubbornly failing, to render obedience unto every part and phase of God's law, the Bible says that I stand guilty of having violated the whole.

 

Let me try to illustrate that in plain terms. A father bids his son to erect a house on a certain part of his farm. He then says: "Put up a barn one hundred and fifty feet to the north and dig a well twenty-five feet east of the house." The boy erects the home and builds the barn as indicated, but either refuses to dig the well at all or locates it other than commanded. Now, I want to say that this boy has not obeyed his father in a single item. He built the home at the appointed place, not because his father so ordered, but because it suited him. So with the barn. Why not dig the well? Simply because it is not according to the boy's own fancy. He failed in one point and evidenced a spirit of disrespect and disregard. The obedient girl does what her mother says, regardless of her own opinion. I do not have in mind a concrete example.

 

But let me suggest another thought in passing along. I want to say to you that it is a fixed and immutable law, both in nature and in grace, that produces like—that everything shall bring forth after its kind. God repeated that law nine times over in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, and in all the world those who have labored hardest to set aside the word of God have never been able to​ show us a single specimen unlike that from which it came. We have never found any kind of an animal or creature in the process of transition from one species to the other, but God's law has evermore been vindicated. From an egg the proud American eagle will come forth and soar above the clouds; but, in turn, she will lay another egg, from which will be hatched another eagle of the same kind. Thus it ever is according to God's law.

 

Now, in the natural law, if you want turnips, you had better sow turnip seed. Everybody knows that. If you want watermelons, you had better plant watermelon seed. If you want a crop of alfalfa, you should not sow German millet. Why? Because of the immutability of God's law.

 

Apply this principle to other things. If you want to make Socialists, what kind of seeds do you think you ought to sow? If you desire a crop of Republicans, sow the seed of genuine, old-fashioned Republicanism; and if it makes anything, it will make after its kind. If you want to make Odd Fellows, don't sow the seeds of Pythianism. You can no more make an Odd Fellow by sowing Knights of Pythias seed that you can get squash by sowing cabbage seed. Do you want to make anarchists? Then what? Sow the seed of anarchism.

 

Now, then, in a more serious strain. God Almighty has decreed that if you want to make Christians there is only one kind of seed to sow. Let it be understood once for all, because it is the truth, that the seed of the kingdom, the seed of the gospel, will never make you anything else except a child of God. And if you produce any other kind of crop, there must be some other kind of seed sown in the heart; otherwise God might step down from his throne and announce that he has made a failure in his everlasting and unchanging laws.

 

My chief ambition and supreme purpose is this: I want to make of all men everywhere Christians, disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would like to make of all men Just simply members of the church of the Bible. May I say it? If I had my way, there would be but one church on this earth, and that would be the church that was bought by the blood of the Son of God, the church that is filled with his Spirit, the church that is guided by his counsel, the church that is ultimately and at last to be crowned with his matchless glory. If I had my way about it, there would be but one creed, but one discipline, but one confession of faith, but one church directory, but one church manual; and that would be God's book, the Bible, the word, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Then I could offer to every man everywhere a platform on which all of us could unitedly stand without the sacrifice of a single principle. I want to announce to you one more time that if I stand contending for one single thing unauthorized by the book of God, all you have to do is to let me know that, and I am ready to quit at the very first opportunity. If, on the other hand, there be anything demanded in God's word that I do not preach and practice, I want to introduce it before the rising of to-morrow's sun.

 

Now, let me call attention to this statement: I said to you that all life is circumscribed and bounded by law. It is illustrated, for instance, by the life of a fish. God made fish life in the very morning of creation. Now, query: Where did God locate the life that a fish is to enjoy? Not in the Sahara desert, not upon Church Street, not upon Capitol Hill. God located fish life down in Cumberland River, or in water; and if any fish expects to continue in the full enjoyment of that life, it must stay in water, because its life is located there. Now, what would you think of a great big yellow cat about two feet long, lifted out of Cumberland River, that began to soliloquize after this fashion? "Look here. I don't think a fish has to stay in the creek in order to enjoy life. I think there are just as good fish out of the creek as there are in the creek, and I believe that I will just stay upon dry land and flop about, and I will get along just about as well as those fish down in the creek." Why, you would turn and say to him: "You foolish fish, trying to violate God's law! You can't do that."

 

Land animals have a life that all of them appreciate and enjoy. Where is it? In the atmosphere, out of water; and if they enjoy that kind of life, they must live in the atmosphere that envelops the earth. What would you think about a sheep, for instance, that would say: "I think you can live just as well in a vacuum as you can out in the air?" Well, I think we would question its judgment, to say the least of it.

 

Now make the application which already you see. I ask you, my friends, in all candor, God Almighty being the author of spiritual and eternal life, where did God locate it? There are just two places. It is either in the devil's kingdom or it is in God's kingdom. Which one do you say? Why, that thing is settled. God located spiritual, eternal life in the family of God, in heaven's family, in the church of the First-born; and yet there are numbers of characters that talk about it in this manner: "O. I don't think you have to become a member of God's church in order to enjoy spiritual life. I think there are just as good folks on the outside as there are on the inside." Well, now, if that be true, you have rendered mutable that which God has declared unchangeable; and I am ready to say to you, without fear of successful contradiction from any source, that spiritual life, that eternal life, is found only in the family and in the kingdom of God, and not in the kingdom of the devil; and if you and I ever become beneficiaries thereof, we will do so by conforming to God's law, and that is by getting into that family and that kingdom wherein that life is located.

 

But I submit to you this final thought. Some one may say: "I thought we were saved by grace, and not by law." Well, that is a great statement. The first part of it is absolutely true. We are saved by grace, and at the same time we are saved by law. By what law? By the law of faith. Listen as I repeat that statement (Eph. 2: 8): "By grace are ye saved through faith." That is the law by which we are saved by grace, a law that acts through the system that we call "faith." Does anybody expect to be saved without faith? Certainly not, for Paul said (Heb. 11: 6) that without faith it is impossible to please God.

 

But let us examine just a moment. In Rom. 5: 21 we find this statement: that grace reigns, runs, or rules through righteousness. Where is grace to be found ? O. it is abundant! It is absolutely free, and it reigns through righteousness. Now, what is righteousness ? From David's statement in Ps. 119:172, "all thy [God's] commandments are righteousness." Therefore, grace reigns through the commandments of God Almighty. Let me illustrate: Water, so necessary to the human family, is absolutely free and positively abundant, but it runs in channels. I cannot go out here in some field and sit there pining and weeping away my time, begging for water, and expect God to bring it and give it to me in spite of myself; but I know this: that water has its channel in which to run, either in our streams or under the surface of the earth; and if I will dig down deep enough, I will find the channel and nature's beverage absolutely free. This is God's law, and I must conform to it if the blessings are mine.

 

God has ordained that grace, by which men are saved, shall run through the commandments of God. Therefore the man that is saved by grace must conform to God's commandments, for that is the law by which men are saved, if saved at all.

 

God commands all men to believe and repent. That is God's law. And when I thus do, I am but yielding to and obeying the law of God; and, as a result, I can say truly that I was saved by grace through faith. Hence, by submission to Heaven's will, unchangeable, immutable, the promise of the "sweet by and by" is mine.

 

But another thought. The first of everything in this wide, wide world, in a material sense, was wrought by a miracle. After that, God inaugurated the law to govern the reproduction thereof. The first bird that ever flew through the air was created a full-grown bird from the start. The first hen on this earth was never a pullet, but was a full-grown hen from the beginning. After that, all other chickens came by law—were hatched and developed and passed into maturity. Father Adam never had the privilege of being a boy. Eve was never a blushing maid with golden curls. Their creation was by a miracle; ours, by law.

 

Just so in God's spiritual law. When it came forth from Zion and the word of the law from Jerusalem, you need not be surprised that, attending its announcement, there was a miraculous demonstration. And, hence, on that memorable Pentecost, when the law was first inaugurated and given to the Jewish world, it was introduced by a miracle. But from that time until now, in the conversion of a Jew, no miracle has ever come to pass. How are they now converted? By obedience to God's law.

 

Likewise when the gospel first went to the Gentile world, you may well be prepared for miracles. Why? It is according to Heaven's order that the first—the beginning, the origin—is characterized by a miracle. After that, the miracle is withdrawn and law takes control. Hence, from the conversion of Cornelius on down the line there has never been a single miracle in the conversion of any Gentile. How is it done? Paul answers (Rom. 8: 2): "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus bath made me free from the law of sin and death." "Paul, how once were you?" "I once stood chief of sinners. I once stood with my hands stained in the blood of my fellows." "How stand you now?" "I am free from condemnation." "How came you, Paul, thus to be free?" "By the law of the Spirit." God's law—not by the American Government, not by Tennessee's law, but by the Holy Spirit's law. "Does his Spirit have a law ?" "Indeed so." "What is its purpose ?" "Its purpose is to free men from sin and the bondage thereof." Hence, the man to-night that bows in obedience to God's authority, that submits unto Heaven's will, is the one that, like Paul, stands free, justified, uncondemned by God and by the heavenly authorities.

 

I am trying to persuade you men and women who listen so kindly from time to time to believe God's law, to repent of all your sins, to obey from the heart that form of doctrine delivered, that you may be made free from sin and become servants of righteousness and of the Lord Jesus Christ. May I say, therefore, in the language of the song selected: "Why do you wait longer?" While the opportunity is once more yours, I beg that you rise in the strength of your powers, in the magnanimity of your soul, and say: "As for me, I will accept God's law this night. I will live in accordance therewith and stand upon the glad plains of eternal judgment, not in violation of Heaven's authority nor of Jehovah's law." I beg you to come.