The End of the Commandment — Bill McLeod

The End of the Commandment: Love, Purity, Conscience, and Faith

I'd like to read one verse from 1 Timothy 1 and 5, and we're going to sing in a minute so don't get too far away from the instrument. It says, Now the end of the commandment is love. The English word charity is actually a Latin word, caritas, and it means love.

The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart. And you know, wherever in the King James Version you find words, letters in slanted characters that means it's really not in the original, it was put in by the translators to make the meaning perhaps clearer.

So I'm going to read it as if, you know, like the words of, I don't think it really makes the meaning clear. Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith on faith.

So here we are told that the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and a genuine faith. I'd like to begin by asking this question. You'll have to answer it for yourself.

Why God Gave Us the Bible

Why do you read the Bible? What is your reason for studying scripture? We could ask another question, why did God give us the Bible? That question might be a little easier to answer. There are many reasons, actually.

God wanted us to know things, of course, about himself and things about ourself, how we were made, how men fell, what sin is, what salvation is, and of course God wanted us to know things about his spirit, things about the future, things about the nation of Israel.

It's very important because unto that nation were committed the oracles of God. Those are a few reasons as to why God gave us the scripture. Why do men read the Bible? Some people read the Bible to prove that eternal security is true, and other people read it to prove it's not true.

Some people read the Bible to prove that speaking in tongues is a sign of being baptized with the Spirit, and other people read the Bible to prove it's not. Some people read the Bible to prove that their particular denominational group is right because their name is found in the Bible.

You can find the word Baptist. A fellow said to me one time, don't forget John was called John the Baptist. And then the Nazarenes can say, well, it talks about the sect of the Nazarenes in the book of Acts.

And the Church of Christ people can say, well, it talks about the Church of Christ in the Bible. And the Church of God people can say the same thing, it talks about the Church of God in the Bible. So there's quite a few groups that can claim biblical authority for the particular church name that they have, and some people are great in this area.

What is your reason for reading the Bible? To impress somebody else, to give yourself a better feeling that you've done your duty as a Christian? Well, our text tells us why God gave us the Bible. At least this is the larger reason.

This is behind anything else we have mentioned or anything else we might think about. There are three reasons why God gave us the Bible. The phrase, the end of the commandment, has been translated, the goal of our instruction.

That's a good translation, the goal of our instruction, or the reason for which God gave us the scripture. The end of the commandment. I was raised in a Presbyterian church, and as a boy with my three brothers, we learned the short of Catechism.

And the first article of the Catechism, you know, questions and answers. The question was, what is the chief end of man? That means, what is the chief reason, you know, as to why God put man on the earth?

And the answer was, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Now my brother Bob, who is now with the Lord, was killed tragically a year or so ago. He was a school teacher in Penticton, B .C., and he told me he was in his twenties before he discovered that he'd learned the response wrongly.

He'd learned it this way. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to endure him forever. But there are many Christians who are enduring their God, not enjoying him, and they really wonder how they're going to put up with God for all eternity, and sit in a cloud playing a harp.

It's going to be so dead. Well, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The Bible says in God's presence is fullness of joy, and in God's right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

And there's another verse that tells me that we're going to be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's house. So whatever it is, we're going to be abundantly satisfied. That's what it says. It says in the book of Romans, chapter 10, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

That means that the law of God, the Old Testament law of God is in mind here, that the law of God, as you study it, it will lead you, it will bring you eventually to Jesus Christ. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.

The end of a commandment. A commandment is just a phrase, sometimes meaning the word of God. The same Greek word is used by Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 when he said, you know what commandments we gave you by our Lord Jesus Christ?

So it's the word of God. And the word of God is moving us along to one particular point. Actually three things are mentioned here, but they belong, they just belong together. So the end of a commandment is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and a genuine faith.

Now is that why you read the Bible? What about that lady that burnt out five Bibles in 20 years? She didn't know why she was reading the Bible. She was reading it day and night, and I presume she was marking her Bible a great deal too.

Yet somehow it wasn't doing anything for her. She had a lot of Bible knowledge, and many Christians have a lot of Bible knowledge, but they really don't understand their text. They haven't been reading the Bible with this in mind.

And if I have been reading the Bible with anything less in mind than our text, I haven't been reading it rightly. And it may explain why I'm the kind of person I am, why my life doesn't seem to be satisfying or full as the Bible says it ought to be.

A Pure Heart and Biblical Holiness

So the end of a commandment is love out of a pure heart. Let's start with a pure heart, because you obviously can't have this love unless you have a pure heart. That's what it's saying. Now there's an old saying, I think it was some cynic that coined it.

He said, holiness is like strong perfume. A little goes a long way. And there are some cold Christians that, you know, they quote that verse found in Ecclesiastes that says, be not righteous over much, for why should you destroy yourself?

Take it cool, take it easy. The prevailing philosophy among evangelicals today is threefold. Don't rock the boat, don't stick out your neck, and don't get involved. Play it cool. You might get into trouble.

And that's why we have so little power and so little joy. Is it possible to have a pure heart? People say, oh brother, in the kind of world we live in, you're going to talk about a pure heart? That's not possible.

Oh, I'll agree, it's not possible. If you sit with your nose, you know, in front of the boob tube for hours on end, the way many Christians do, it is not possible to have a pure heart. Because you're exposing yourself to the wrong things.

You remember Paul said, whatever things are pure and honest and just and true and right, he said, think on these things. But if I watch all this name and violence and lust and all the rest of it on these TV programs, they don't have an effect on your heart.

There's no way. You can't tell me it won't. A fellow came and challenged me one time after I'd said something in the meeting years ago, and he said, I don't agree, Pastor. He said, I watch all these programs on TV, they don't have any effect on me at all.

I said, then my friend, one of two things is so. Either you're a liar, or else you're not a man. He kind of looked at me. I said, let me ask you something. I said, isn't it true that there have been times when you've been on your knees praying and you're really having fellowship with God, and suddenly, while you're in the middle of this beautiful time of fellowship with God, your mind was flooded with some obscene that you saw on a TV set?

And he hung his head and said, yes, yeah, it's happened. I said, I know it's happened to you because it's happened to me. And I said, haven't there been times when you were reading the Bible and you were just enjoying it, and all of a sudden your mind was taken over by something you saw, something evil, something violent on TV, and it took over?

Yeah, he said, it's happened. I said, I know it's happened because it's happened to me. All right. A pure heart? Oh, yes. You know, Jesus said in Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

So as far as Jesus Christ was concerned, some people have pure hearts. Now, Paul talks about this in Titus 1 .15. He says, unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure.

But even their mind and conscience is defiled. Some people could look at anything and not think evil. Other people see, you know, a dog running across a field or a rusty tin can or an old cardboard box in a field, and they start thinking evil.

Unto the pure all things are pure. Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving there's nothing pure. Because their whole mind and conscience has been defiled, you see. Now, remember how in Hebrews 12 it says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord?

That's a great text. A lot said in the Bible about holiness connected with love, by the way. All right. It is possible to have a pure heart. Do you know that pure, that word, is not used of God. It's used of men.

Because pure basically means purified. And God never had any sin. Holy, yes, God is holy. And he's perfect. And he's without sin. But he never had to be purified. And we have to be. Isaiah 118. Come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord.

Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as woe. A young Jewish Christian, about 28 years old, came to us after meeting one time.

And here he'd gone through college and seminary after his conversion. But he said, frankly, I haven't gone into the ministry because I just never felt that my life was clean. And so we knelt together.

My song leader and this Jewish Christian and myself, we knelt together and counseled with him about renewal. He poured out his whole life before God, was totally honest and humble. And God touched him.

Do you know what he said when he got to his seat? He just stared at us and he said, I have never felt so clean in all my life. Do you know where he is now? He's pastoring a church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in an area where there's a lot of Jewish people living.

Well, he said what? I have never felt so clean in all my life. He'd been a Christian for years. All right, God says, come now, let's reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Jesus said all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. And that's not to encourage Christian people to sin. That's to encourage those who have sinned, for them to realize that God will wash it away.

Revelation 1 .5, which you might take as a text for the whole Bible. It says, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Another translation says, and freed us from our sins in his own blood.

How wonderful. Or 1 John 1 .9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if I am willing to deal with this sin in my life, God is willing to forgive it and cleanse it and wash it all away.

You remember how the prophet Zechariah declared that God was going to open a fountain for sin and for uncleanness? And so we sing there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood.

Lose all their guilty stains. Canada's largest Protestant denomination has deleted all references to the blood of Christ from their song book, their hymn book. There is not one line in their entire book now that says anything about the blood of Jesus Christ.

I wonder why. I wonder who was behind that. Well, if you read Revelation 12, 11, you find out who was behind that. They overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb. That's who was behind it. The blood will never lose its power.

Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, whoever you are. O say, the Lord wants us to be pure. The blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart, that has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, that's emptiness, nor sworn deceitfully, hypocritically. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Drawing Near to God and Cleansing the Conscience

So James says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. I said to a fellow one time, I said, if you are double-minded the way that you are telling me, then your problem is impurity.

Oh, say, he got upset about that. No, no, no, he said, it's not. I said, then why does the Bible say, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded? Why did God say that?

There's an old saying, it's not in the Bible, his strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure. And when your heart is pure before God, you are strong. And when there's sin there, you are weak.

Until it's taken care of by the grace of God. So the end of the commandment, the goal of our instruction, the reason why we have the Bible, is love rising out of a pure heart. Let's advance to that. 1 Peter 1 .22, the Bible says, Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto, that word in the Greek means motion toward, unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again. If I am born again, then the reason why I am God's child, the reason why I am saved, is that I might love. Now then, you've heard this before, it's not new.

That love is not the absence of hatred. Just because you don't hate somebody doesn't mean you love them. And you know, it's not enough to tolerate people. Many of us manage to tolerate other people. That's not love either.

Love is a force. You know, human love is very, very selfish. And we have some tragic examples of this in the Bible. You remember how that King Saul, when David came and stood in front of him as a young man, it says that Saul loved him greatly.

And he became his armor bearer. That's in chapter 16 of 1 Samuel. In chapter 18, he hurled a javelin and tried to pin him to the wall. Now tell me, what kind of love was that? He only loved David for what he could get out of him.

Because when the evil spirit was on Saul, the Hebrew language there says he was terrified. He had occult problems. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft to God. And he had occult problems, and evil spirit terrified him.

And the reason he loved David was because when David played on the harp and sang, Saul felt better. That's a good example of human love. Another example we find is the case of Amnon, who was one of David's sons.

And the Bible says he fell in love with a girl called Tamar. And he fell so deeply in love with her that the Bible says he fell sick. But let me tell you something. When people fall sick because they're in love, it's not love, it's lust.

A genuine love will inspire you, but it won't make you sick. But that's what happened to Amnon. And he had a friend called Jonathan, the son of Shimeah, who was not a very good friend. He was a very supple man, it says.

And he suggested a little plan of action for him. And he followed this plan. His father David was totally deceived and allowed Tamar to come down to make a meal for him. And then he forced a girl and he raped her.

And then the Bible says after it was all over, he hated her so much that the hatred he felt for her was worse, was far stronger than the love he'd felt before. I can agree with that. I could understand that.

And he called his servant and said,. Now the English says, and he said,. But really all he said was,. He couldn't stand the sight of her. It wasn't love at all. Now Jesus talked about human love in Matthew 5 and Luke 6.

And you know what he said? He said,. And he used this as an example. He said, Do you remember reading that in Luke chapter 6? I don't either. What did he really say? He said, Can you find a Christian in a hundred that would loan money for nothing?

Oh, then people say, just a minute, that's not very practical. You know, this is 1975. All right. Would you throw me a purse and we'll just clip out Luke chapter 6? It says, Jesus tries to see in the context, said, look, sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again.

I mean, the sinners get 10 of their money too. So there's no difference between the sinner and the Christian then, in some of these areas. And Jesus said, Because they're loving those that love them.

They do that much. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, you aren't doing any more than the publicans are doing. They're all doing that much. And you know, really, basically, when you look at it from a biblical viewpoint, in the light of facts as they are, the average Christian's life is no different than the life of the people out there.

Because we're not really filled with the love of God. Lend hoping for nothing? Well, why not? And it shall be given unto you, Jesus Christ, said, in the same context there. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom.

The trouble is, we've got so much glue on our fingers, the Lord can't get five dollars through us. Sometimes. And then, you know, we think, well, if I'm giving a tenth of my money, I'm really doing something for God.

I said something about this the other day, that we do God's people a disservice if we teach them they're a hot Christian because they're giving one-tenth of their income. Well, the Pharisees did that.

The Pharisees said, I give tithes of all that I possess. He was doing that much. Jesus Christ said, you pay tithe, but you have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God.

Those are weightier to God than giving a tenth of our income. All right? So Jesus then used this illustration over in Matthew 5. He said, you're to be like your Heavenly Father, who makes his sun to shine on the field of the unjust as well as on the field of the just.

And who sends rain on the field of the unconverted as well as on the field of the converted. Why, listen. If God, you know, was to operate the way we do, there wouldn't be a sinner left alive in the world.

He'd burn them all up. He wouldn't let the rain fall in their field. He wouldn't put any fish in their nets. He'd starve them to death. But the Bible, Jesus taught us, you see, that we're to be like our Heavenly Father in this matter of loving.

Love Produced by the Holy Spirit

Love out of the pure heart. If I've got the pure heart, the next step is love. But you see, it's not my love made strong or made over. Romans chapter 5 says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given unto us.

And some of us are afraid to put the blinds up so fear the light will come in. When you give yourself without reserve to God, the first thing that happens is you begin to sense the love of God in your soul.

You look at people differently. You look at things differently. The whole world looks different. And it ought to. Because now we're walking in love. As Christ also has loved us. And has given himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

I've seen you purify your souls and repaying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. A Christian friend of mine had a bad fire.

He had a store, a feed mill, a lumber yard, and practically no insurance at all. He employed 35 people. And when the fire was over, he never had a nickel. And there he sat in a community that has been described as the most Christian community in Canada.

You know something? Not one single solitary Christian came near him and offered to help him. And a Jew drove up from Winnipeg and said, Mr. Reimer, I heard you had a bad fire. I want to give you $50 ,000 to get started.

And Mr. Reimer told me the story himself. He said, I said to my Jewish friend, but you know, I don't have any security, any collateral. You might lose your $50 ,000. And the Jew said, ah, so what? It's between two good friends.

What happened to the Christians? All right, this is what the Bible is teaching us. So my love has to be pure, rising from a pure heart, and as generous as the love of God. The next time you look at the sun, or the next time you see the rain falling, will you think of what God is doing?

Blessing everybody. Why, the Bible says the Lord is good to all. It says the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. He has prepared of His goodness for the poor. But boy, if the Lord operated the way the average Christian does, I'll tell you, the sinners would starve to death in a week.

God isn't like that. And He doesn't want us to be like that either. We're to follow God. When Jesus Christ said, be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, He was talking in the context about love.

That's the context. Well, this is the goal of our instruction. This is why we read the Bible. Is it producing that in your heart? Do you have this kind of love for people? Do you really love people from your heart?

Well, that's what the Bible is saying. And it's what God Almighty wants. When I was a missionary at the logging camp, we had some rough times, and the devil used to come and beat me around. I remember one time I was lying on a, well, there was a truck, a three-ton gravel truck, with a load of gravel in the box and chains on the wheels, and the roads were iced roads, they called them rutted roads, and he was dragging three or four sleigh loads of green lumber, and I was laying on top of one of these sleigh loads of green lumber, and we had miles to go, and they were only going about 15 miles an hour, and it was about 40 degrees below zero, and there was something of a wind blowing, and there I was lying up fully exposed on top of this load of lumber.

I had nothing to hang on to. I had a pack sack, and there was a chain that went across and a tightener. Now, if I put my hand under the chain and the load happened to shift, I would lose my hand, and I knew that.

So you have to hold on to the chain from the top very gingerly, ready to just let go if it ever snapped. And the devil came along and said, You're an absolute ass. You're just a fool. These guys don't want to listen to the gospel anyway.

And the devil really gave me a rough time that day. But the Lord gave me the victory. And I recall another time when we'd gone through a whole sling of these camps, another fellow and I, and we were all set to get home Saturday night to be with our families when somebody told us about a camp way back in the bush.

They said there was only 14 men in the camp, and so we talked it over, should we go? The devil said, No, there's only 14 men there. But love said yes. So love won out, and we went. And dear people, it was one of the most glorious meetings I was ever in in all my life.

Oh, if I hadn't have gone to see love prevail. And love prevails or ought to prevail in a Christian's life from day to day, in human relationships, in your own home, in your church, at the job or wherever you are.

Love Must Overcome Hypocrisy

Like this gal came for counseling, I forget where it was now, in one of our crusades. And she said, You know, there's an unconverted woman, we work in the same office. And she said, I don't know what it is, but boy, when she walks in, she said, I just go berserk, I can't stand the sight of her, I can't stand to be near her.

And she went on like this, and I said, But listen, she's not even a Christian. And you're a believer. So we talked about love being the goal of our instruction. And finally she saw it. And we prayed together, and God renewed her.

And I said, Now when you get to the job tomorrow, here's what you ought to do. You go to that girl, and you say to her, Look, I am a Christian believer, and I've had this horrible feeling against you.

I want you to forgive me, and put your arms around her and give her a hug. Will you do that? She said, Sure. And she did. You know, she could hardly wait to talk to me, tell me what happened. She said, We've got this beautiful relationship going.

She said, It's just so wonderful, you know. It was possible all the time. But you know, some of us are so crusty and cold and critical and carnal in our hearts. We don't want to give way to the love of God, because we're afraid, dear people, of where it might take us.

And if you put up boundaries and fences to the love of God, He will know that, and He'll have to withhold a blessing until you let the fences go down and say, Okay, God, I am willing for anything, anything you want, in this particular area.

And it may mean a radical transformation in your life. This is certainly meant in mine. All right? The goal of our instruction, the end of the commandment, is love out of a pure heart. And then, He says this, and a good conscience.

A Good Conscience Before God and Others

The Lord gave me a sermon many years ago called, Don't Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide. See, a lot of people say, Well, someone told me this just the other day, I live by my conscience. Well, that's not good.

Do you know why? Because the Bible says our conscience may be weak or evil or seared or defiled or dead. Supposing your conscience is dead and you're going by your conscience. Supposing your conscience is weak or evil or seared or defiled.

What then? The only time I can safely follow my conscience is when my conscience has been renewed and I'm walking in the Spirit, in the light of the Word of God. And that's part of the goal of our instruction, that I might have a conscience, like Paul said in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.

When you have a conscience like that, many talks in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 about the testimony of my conscience. A conscience that is right. Not weak, but strong. Not evil, but good. Not seared, but clean.

All right? That's the goal of our instruction. You know, Paul said in Acts chapter 24, he said, herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. Sometimes we think we have the conscience toward God, that's all taken care of.

But maybe there are some things on the human level that are not really taken care of. Do you have a good conscience with all men everywhere tonight, in your own home and around the neighborhood and as far as you can think, where you know people?

Do you have a good conscience? Not only, I say, with God, but with men? Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience empty of offense. A conscience that does not, you know, accuse me. Many Christians are walking around with a fractured conscience and they've turned it off.

So now their conscience is weak because they've made it weak and it's defiled because they've defiled it and it's dead because they've killed it. Because they won't allow the Holy Spirit to have his way in their heart.

So they might have a conscience that bears them witness in the Holy Ghost. A lady once, you know, she sold a house and the house had a big crack in the basement wall. So she camouflaged the crack very skillfully, painted the wall, and you couldn't see it.

And a young couple came along, they were not Christians, and they bought the house. After they lived in it a week, they discovered the crack in the basement wall, so they contacted her. Tough being, she said, the deal's been made and you had an opportunity to examine the house and, I mean, the crack was always there.

I didn't, you know. Tough luck. Well, then some years went by, you see, and she was in some of the meetings and God renewed her and she sat down and wrote a letter and enclosed a generous check, a check that she said would be far more than sufficient to repair a crack in a basement wall.

She no longer lived in the same city, so she sent it in the mail to these people with a covering letter explaining her sin, her guilt and what she had done and asking their forgiveness and the check and all.

And she got this beautiful letter back, which she read to the crusade in the sharing time one night, and this couple said, we got your letter and we were so touched by it. You will never know how that letter blessed our hearts.

Now, they were not Christians, remember? They said, we just can't explain it. It's just profoundly revolutionized the two of us. And we don't want your money, we're sending it back. Do with it what you want.

They just seemed over for it. They kept saying, well, thank you for writing. It's meant so much to us. And then she had this sweet conscience, you see, as far as this matter was concerned. Well, she put the money in the crusade offering one night, and that was, I suppose, all right.

Obeying Scripture and Dealing With Sin

But the main thing was she got this thing out of the way that was between her and this other couple. If the Holy Spirit during these meetings talks to you about something from a way back or maybe from yesterday, deal with it.

Will you deal with it? And he'll lead you on from there. We normally get stopped where we stop. I heard of some Christians, a certain group of churches that fellowshiped together, and they said in this article that they had perennial revival in those churches.

And do you know why they did? Here was the program they followed. As they studied the Bible, if they came to a verse in the Bible and the fellow realized, well, now look, I'm not living up to that, he wouldn't read one verse further until he dealt with that problem, until he could say honestly, now I'm living up to that.

Then he would read on. Well, I'm sure you can see if we as Christian believers were to live this way, we would have perennial revival in our hearts. But you know, sometimes we hop, skip, and jump when we read the Bible.

You know, Psalm 23, that's beautiful. Brother, that's beautiful. Well, it is beautiful. Is that all you read? We need to read 1 Peter 4. Have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover the multitude of sins.