Mentoring Men for the Master

THE THIRD GREAT RUNG IN THE “INTERNALIZATION OF THE WORD OF GOD”

Internalization of the Word of God consists of four steps.  We have already examined the first two steps:

  1. Knowing it in the head by diligent study, and
  2. Stowing it in the heart by memorization and meditation.

Now we move to the third step:

“We SHOW it in our lives by obeying its teachings or commands.”  Charles Stanley  repeatedly says to his audience, “Obey the Lord and leave all the consequences with Him.”  The tragedy of most modern Christians is that they “hear” the Word and may know it in their heads, but do not obey it.  Thus they experience no real change in their lives, in fact, they are deceived in thinking that the mere hearing of the Word is sufficient (James 1:22).

Is obedience optional?  Not at all.  In fact it is the chief evidence that one really knows Christ and has eternal life.  Obedience is also absolutely necessary if we would receive the blessings God promises.   The Epistle of First John sets forth the evidences of salvation, and the first evidence is that of obedience to His commands. “Hereby we do know Him if we keep His commandments.  He who says I know Him and keepeth not His commandments is liar and the truth is not in Him” (1 John 2:3-4).

Let us, therefore, consider briefly what it means to obey the Ten Commandments:

“Thou shalt have no other God before Me.” 2 Kings 17:33 declares, “Israel feared the Lord and served their own gods.  This describes America  We pretend to honor God but nullify our claim by substituting surrogate gods.  We laugh at the heathen bowing before a grotesque idol, but are totally unaware of the sophisticated substitute we have put in God’s  place:

  • Modern American Gods:
    • Sex – Old Names, Venus and Baal
    • Science – Education
    • Silver and gold (Old Names – Mammon
    • Sports (Old Name, Eros)
    • Spirits (Liquor) Old Name, Bacchus
    • The State – Old Names, Mars and Mercury
    • Self (Old Name, Narcissus) Expressed in Humanism, New Ageism, Ophra’s teachings.
  • Obedience to First Commandment: The great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Jesus Christ our Lord)  with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength which means to love Him emotionally (heart), intellectually(mind), and physically (body).  “This is proof that we love Him if we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).  Why not burdensome?  Because our obedience is compelled by our love for Jesus, the very opposite of legalism. “Love (Agape) is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10b).

“Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image.”  The first commandment tells us WHO we should worship; the second tells us HOW we should worship Him.  The best way to keep this commandment is to close our eyes and minds to everything that can be seen with the natural eye and open the eyes of our spirit toward our heavenly Father.  “God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).  The worse kind of idols are “the idols of the mind” (Ezekiel 14:3ff).  Jesus Christ alone is the true image of God (Col. 1:15) and He alone is worthy of our worship.

 “Christian Idols” – one’s family, one’s business, one’s hobby, one’s name and heritage, one’s denomination, a church building, one’s pastor, one’s intellect, one’s political party. Solution:  Surrender to Jesus as Lord.

 “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.”  In a certain restroom, there are these words, “God’s last name is not dammit.”  Few professing Christians would utter these words, but would use other expressions offensive to a holy God:

    • Profanity – The most common maniac today is the “swearomanic.”
    • Slanguage – (slang)  Heck, slang for Hell.  Darn, slang for Damn.
    • Frivolity – “The Man Upstairs,” “A Living Doll,” “Big Daddy,” “Junior,” and “Spooks.”
    • False Vows – Eccles. 5:4
    • Hypocrisy – “Perpetually making use of the name of the Lord, while the life does not square with the profession that is made” (J. Campbell Morgan). Noted Jewish Rabbi, “We Jews have denied Jesus with our mouths, you Christians have denied Him by your lives.”  Luke 6:46, “Why call me Lord, Lord and do not the things I say?”  Why sing, “All to Jesus I Surrender” when I would not surrender one hour of sleep to pray, or why should I sing, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold,” when I withhold His tithe?

Solution:  If the speech is to be purified, the heart must be washed in Christ’s blood.  Therefore, turn your lives over to Jesus.  “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all evil” (1 John 1:7).

 “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy.” To understand the fourth commandment we must note 5 facets of truth:

  1. The Sabbath was instituted by God the Father in the original creation. The Sabbath was given as an act of mercy.  “Our bodies are 7-day clocks  and need to be wound up.  It they are not wound up, they run down into the grave.  No man can continually break the Sabbath and keep his physical and mental health.”  (Talmadge)
  2. The Sabbath Day was discarded following the resurrection for the first day to accord with the new creation. Saturday was the day on which God finished the original creation (Genesis 2:2).  However, Christ inaugurated the new creation on Sunday when He arose from the dead.  Early Christians for a time worshiped on Saturday and Sunday but soon began to take the day of Christ’s resurrection as the day of worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Revelation 1:10).
  3. The “Sabbath Day” principle should be honored even though the 7th day Sabbath has ceased. “The Sabbath Day” principle is that every human needs one day of rest and worship after six days of labor.  The Day of Atonement in the Old Testament was called a Sabbath, though it fell on the 10th day of the 7th  Christians of the New Testament discarded the Saturday Sabbath but obeyed the “Sabbath Day” or principle by keeping the first day of the week and called it the “Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10).
  4. Regrettably the “Lord’s Day” has become man’s day to have a holiday, rather than a holy day. Luke 14:5 says if the ox falls in the ditch during the week, it is all right to pull it out on Sunday.  Sadly, we have turned it into a lot of bull.  Too many put the ox in the ditch during the week so they can pull him out on Sunday.  Multitudes are sacrificing Sunday upon the altars of the TWIN GODS OF PROFIT AND PLEASURE.
  5. Solution: Make Jesus Christ the Lord of Life.  “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:29).  So He is and when He is your Lord and Savior you will love to remember His day.  Cessation from work rests the body; while worship rests the spirit.  Thus to quote the old evangelical creed: The only works we should do on Sunday are “works of mercy and necessity.”

The Sabbath is God’s gracious gift to recreate body and soul.  Let us not profane this gift.  Let us go into His house on His day to worship Him.  When we do, we won’t ask “Can I do this on the Lord’s day without breaking the law?” but “If I do this, will I miss a blessing.”

Facts about the Sabbath:

  1. The fourth commandment is the only commandment not repeated in the New Testament.
  2. There is no record of Jesus or any apostle telling anyone to keep the Sabbath.
  3. The first Church Council did not require Gentile believers to keep the Sabbath (Acts 15:19-31).

 

“Honor your Father and Mother.” How do we honor our parents:

  • We honor our parents by obeying them as children.
  • We honor them by reverencing and loving them always.
  • We honor them by caring for them in their time of need. Sometimes the old folks become irritable and grouchy.  “If we must carry them in our arms, we remember that they fed us with a spoon.  If we must clothe them, we must remember that they clothed us.  If  we must provide for them, we must remember that they provided for us.  Jesus on the cross provided for His mother and again set an example for us.”[1]

The fifth commandment is the only commandment with a promise, “Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 5:2).  Originally this was a promise to the nation of Israel.  Today the principle applies to individual believers.  My mother greatly honored her parents and lived to be 99.  How about you?

[1] W. Hershel Ford, Simple Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956, p. 67.