spotless, immaculate record. No doubt we would be pleased with this (for no one except Christ has ever done so). We might think that God would be pleased with this. But not only does He want us to have a perfect record for twenty years, in order to merit sal vation by our own goodness or merit, we must keep the law, absolutely, from the cradle to the grave. When our blessed Lord came to earth, it was not His holy purpose to rescind the law. By His own words we read, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5: 17, 18). The word “destroy” means that He did not come to loosen the stringency of the law, or to find a “loophole” in it, but rather to fulfill it in the absolute sense. This is one clear evidence why man does not keep the law, for he is always endeavoring to get around it; he plays “hide and seek” with it. There is a certain religious organi zation which doesn’t believe in eating certain meat, but yet they have found an artificial product which tastes just exactly like the meat they ought not to eat. They have it, yet they do not have it. This is deception of purpose. We do not quarrel with those who are trying to keep the law. But there is one thing you must do, and that is to keep it impeccably from the cradle to the grave. Yet you doubtless must say, “But I have broken it already!” Then, my friend, you, like all of the rest of the human race, are under the curse of the law. What you do in the present or what you may achieve in the fu ture will not take away your sin. This is why you need, and we invite you to come to, the Lord Jesus Christ. For, you see, He kept the law perfectly for you. He kept it to the point of paying the penalty for the broken law. This is how He fulfilled it. Free from the law, O happy condition. Jesus hath bled and there is remission; Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Graoe hath redeemed us once for all. 4
The Truth of God (continued) I cling.” It is the difference which goes back to Cain and Abel. There is a very positive law, with most exacting demands, concerning sal vation and the promise of heaven. The Bible tells us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all!” (James 2:10). We all readily recognize that there are many good people in the world, in fact some are “downright” excellent; morally good. Many of these people have virtues and traits which outshine mine. These are people with whom one likes to associate. Since these people are good enough for themselves, and for us, they may have reason to boast of their goodness. But, we are not going to each other’s heaven, for there is only one heaven, one God, and one standard for entering heaven. So, though we may be good enough for one another, yet man, in his own standing, falls far short of God’s per fect and holy standard. When the Bi ble tells us that perfectness is based on keeping the whole law, it does not mean ninety per cent, nor even ninety- nine and forty-four one-hundredths per cent. If Ivory Soap were a person it still would not have a chance for it is evidentally fifty-six one-hundredths per cent impure. Read the Scripture again, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all.” Let us look at another “homey” il lustration. Perchance you have lived 90 years and to this day, have only slipped once. It is that little point that would keep you out of heaven. This is even as one little germ in one of the millions of cells of your body may spell your death. It is the demand of the law that one must keep it per fectly. Let us read another verse, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Ga latians 3:10). Suppose that a person could keep all of the law for 20 years, with a
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