A Much Neglected Command
The subject which I am to discuss this evening is, "A Much Neglected Command." I think I may say without fear of contradiction, that no one ever heard a member of the church of
Christ say that any command which God ever gave is non-essential. We do not believe that God wasted his time in giving nonessential commands. We believe that every command coming from him is essential, and that knowingly and willingly to neglect any one, when it can be reasonably performed, is to sin against God and our own souls. You often hear our preachers quote such scriptures as these: "Blessed are they that do his commandments." "This is the love of God that we keep his commandments." "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," and, "If a man love me he will keep my words." "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." "Why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say?" "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock." "Not everyone that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven" and "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven."
Now, some of God's commands pertain to external forms and rites and ceremonies, and we can see people when they obey them. Speaking of the Lord's Supper, Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." 'You can see one when he eats the bread, or when he drinks the fruit of the vine. Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them." You can see one when he is baptized, but not all of God's commands are like this. Some pertain to internal states and conditions of the heart. God can see when such commands are obeyed, but no other human being than the person doing the command can know when he is fulfilling them. For example, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt not covet." These commands have to do with states and conditions of the heart and are not expressed in formal rites and ceremonies. Some people have been ready to charge us with paying more attention to those commands that have to do with outward forms and ceremonies than we do to those which relate to the internal states and conditions of the heart. In other words; they charge us with formalism, saying that we are like those people of whom Jesus spoke when he said to them, "You make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of uncleanness." They say we are like those people whom Paul
mentioned who had a form of godliness, without the power. I am not inclined to admit that my brethren are any more guilty along this line than other religious people. I believe that with one voice we would all say that soundness in the faith requires just as strict
obedience to the commands that have to do with the internal states and conditions of the heart as to those which pertain to the outward forms and ceremonies. "For if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of His." And certainly the spirit of Christ would not lead any man to neglect any of God's commands.
But while this is true, I believe there is one command which is very much neglected by many good people, even among our own brethren. Hence, I have chosen to speak on the subject stated above—"A Much Neglected Command." And the text upon which this lecture is based may be found in Phil. 4:6, and in the King James' version, it reads, "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." The American revised version reads it as
follows: "In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Put in the plain simple language of everyday life as men would speak it on the street, it says, "Worry about nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” Do you know any people who worry? who fret? who are anxious? who are care worn? who go about with nervous tension, fearful of what may
happen, almost expecting something terrible every hour? No, don't think of your wife, or your husband, or your neighbor. Begin with yourself. How is it with you? Do you worry? Are you anxious? Are you careful? No plainer command can be found upon the
page of God's word than that which says, "Be careful for nothing. In nothing be anxious." Watch the faces that you meet on the street. See that wrinkled brow, that set mouth, that determined expression in the eye, and you will need no further evidence that there are people who neglect this plain command, and yet, Phil. 4:6 is not the only place where Christians are taught not to be anxious, not to be careful for anything, not to worry.
1 Peter 5:7, Peter says, "Casting all your care upon him." This also, like Phil. 4:6, sweeps the field and leaves nothing about which to be careful. David spoke thus: "Cast thy burden on the Lord," which means what Paul and Peter meant, and Jesus in Luke 12:22 says, "Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat and drink." Do you know any people who worry over what they are expecting to eat or drink, especially when they are looking for company for dinner? Have you ever known even good Christian women to be so worried and fretted and anxious over the food they were going to have when guests were to be present that they could not enjoy the meal even when it came. Yet Jesus said, "The life is more than the food," and there are certainly much more important things to consider than simply what we eat, for Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
In Matt. 6:25 Jesus said, "Be not anxious for your body, what you shall put on, for the life is more than the raiment" Did you ever know anyone to worry about the kind of suit or dress, or hat that he or she was to wear? Did you ever know anyone to be all upset and distressed because the tailor did not send the suit, or the milliner did not send the hat at the exact time promised? Did you ever know people to stay away even from the Lord's table and the house of worship, just because they did not have clothing exactly to suit their fastidious taste? Jesus does not want his followers to be anxious, care-worn, distressed. Remember how he said to his disciples just before he left this world, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me." Jesus does not want his followers to go about with anxious hearts, with careworn brains, with distressed minds. Remember that he said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you." Do not make a mistake. This lecture is not against work, but worry. Work does not hurt people. It is worry that kills. Like many other preachers I have preached numerous funerals. Sometimes I have heard it said on a funeral occasion, "Poor man, poor woman, they worked themselves to death." I do not believe it. I have thought sometimes that I would like to preach just one funeral sermon where the person worked himself to death, but do
not believe that I have ever done so.
Work does not hurt. Cross bearing does not kill. It is the worry that brings so many people up to death. Worry is like rust, both useless and harmful. Buy a spade and undertake to wear it out by work and you will find that it lasts a long time. The more you use it, the brighter it keeps, and the longer it lasts. Let it lie around in the rain and get rusty and the rust will soon eat it up. So it is with human beings. Work brightens, strengthens and makes more efficient. Worry kills.
When a boy on the old farm in Henry County, Tennessee, I learned a lesson along this line from a team of horses, which my father owned. One was a quiet bay that always kept her end of the double tree a little ahead, pulling more than her share of the load. The other was a fiery black that was constantly champing his bit, stamping up and down, springing forward and flying back, fretting constantly. I have seen this black horse covered in foam
from head to foot, sweating all over, while the quiet bay by his side was not even wet under the collar, and yet she Was doing more work than the black horse by her side. It is worry that kills, but not work.
There are people who perhaps could sympathize with the young husband who had been married a little more than a year, who said, "When I first married I thought my wife was so sweet that I felt like I could eat her up, but after I had been married about a year, I wished to the Lord I had eaten her up, for she fretted and worried and whined until neither she nor I nor anyone else about us could be happy." I believe it is as much a sin against God and one's self to worry and fret and be anxious as it is to steal or lie or take God's name in vain. Christian people should not be guilty of this sin. But I imagine someone is ready to say, But how can you help it when so many things go wrong and it seems sometimes as if
everything is wrong. How can you help worrying? They say it is easy enough for you to stand there and say, "Don't worry, that it is a sin to worry." You can say that in your lecture very easily, but it is easier to say it than it is to do it. How can you keep from worrying? That is a good question and the very one that I want to answer next. Worry, like all other things, has a cause, and the only way to prevent the effect is to remove the cause. I have many good friends among doctors. I like to cultivate the friendship of doctors. They are usually intelligent men. They make pleasant friends. They can talk to you about many things which you will find helpful. I care not what school of medicine a man may endorse, whether he be Allopath, Eclectic, Homeopath, Osteopath or Chiropractor, they all practice upon the same principle. Whatever may be the disease, remove the cause, and nature, with perhaps a little assistance from medicine or treatment, will soon cure the disease.
This same principle is true in regard to worry. To cure the disease we must remove the cause. What is the cause of worry? May I answer that question quite plainly, and then show by the word of. God that the answer which I have given is correct? The cause of worry is want of faith in God. No one who believes in God as he ought can worry. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding." "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God." If you believe that all things are working for your good, you cannot worry.
Imagine a case. Go down the street and meet that man who has a bad case of the blues, anxious, fretting, care-worn, stop him and ask the question, What is it friend? Why are you so blue, so anxious, so worried? Would he answer, "All things are working together for my good and I have the blues about it?" No, he does not believe it. You cannot worry if you believe everything is working for your good. Did Jesus mean it when he said, "Except you be converted and become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven?" Did he mean that unless we became trustful and care-free like little children, that we would not enjoy a place in that kingdom of peace which he came to establish? Go into the poorest home that you can find in this state, a little one-room cabin, almost destitute of furniture, none of the comforts and luxuries of life there, see that little child playing about the floor, watch its smiling face, care-free brow. Why? Maybe father and mother do not know where the next day's food will come from, but the little child's trust does not fail. Trusting its father and mother, it plays happily and sweetly all the day through, knowing that kind fatherly care and love will provide for its every need. I sometimes think that perhaps the saddest sight our loving heavenly Father has to look down on is some of his children with anxious hearts, care-worn brows, full of distress, simply because they do not trust him as he asks. Will not our heavenly Father provide for his children? Did he not say, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you?" "All things work together for good to those who love me." But someone says, "How can God make all things work together for good to all his children everywhere?" Look at the millions in our own country, the millions in South America, the hundreds of
millions in the continents across the sea, and how can God make all things work together for good to all these people everywhere?
Friend, you will never get the peace, nor the rest that the loving heavenly Father gives his children when they trust him, so long as you doubt God's ability to keep his promise. Did you ever try to sleep on a bed when you expected it to break down with you every minute? I never did but one night, and I do not care to repeat the experience. A young man friend and myself were on our way to New Orleans. We reached a railway crossing one night
about 10:00 o'clock where we had to change trains. Our train was late and we found that the train which we had expected to take had already gone and there was no other train going our way till 10:00 o'clock the next day. We inquired for a place where we could spend the night. The agent pointed to a little hotel across the track and said we could get a room there. We told the proprietor that he need not build a fire, we were going to bed at
once, and we had a race to see which one would blow out the lamp. We were both young, active and each weighed about 180 pounds. We struck the bed at the-- same minute. It would not stand the strain. It went down with a crash, all except one old slat that was screwed on. We could not sleep in a bed with one slat up and all the others down, so we got up and carefully as we could with the chairs in the room and a box or two that we found in the wardrobe we propped it up and then got in just as easy as we could, and I lay there all night expecting that bed to drop any minute. I got up so tired that I could hardly walk, and yet there are people claiming to be Christians who sometimes talk about
resting in the everlasting arms that would not be surprised if the Father would let them drop any minute. The fact is, they are expecting something awful to happen all the time. And then they wonder why they are not happy.
How different was the attitude toward life of that grand old hero Paul, who said, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he will keep that which I have committed unto him." But someone says, "I know God could take care of us, but in this old world every fellow has to paddle his own canoe. Every one must hoe his own row, and if things do not go right, it is our fault, and we simply have to grin and bear it, and you cannot
expect God to make everything go your way. If you want a thing done you have to do it yourself, for God is not willing to do everything for you. You have to learn to look out for number one." Friend, you will never get any rest as long as you disbelieve what Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing." "Come to me and I will give you rest." No, you cannot hoe your own row. You cannot paddle your own canoe. You cannot look out for number
one. You cannot grin and bear it very long without the help of Jesus. We should not doubt his willingness when he says, "Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
There are many foreigners in this country and the poor fellows, when they first reach America, sometimes have a hard row to hoe, sometimes find it difficult to get a start. Many of them learn to speak our language, to count our money, and transact business
in our ways, beginning as pack peddlers. One day in Ohio a young farmer with a splendid team and a new wagon was returning home after having delivered a load of wheat at the elevator in the town. It was harvest time. He drove into the end of a long lane, hot and dusty. Looking on ahead he saw a pack peddler making for the country, his body bowed beneath his heavy load, trudging slowly along. The young farmer was kind hearted, and as he saw that man, he said, "Poor fellow, he has a heavy load. I believe I will give him a lift." As he drove alongside he stopped his team and said, "Would you not like to have a ride, my friend?" The peddler said, "Yes sir, if you please," and the farmer said, "Climb in," and the peddler climbed over the hind gate and sat down on the wagon bed floor, and the farmer drove on for about a hundred yards and looked back and saw that the peddler still had his pack on his back. Thinking perhaps that he had not had time to unstrap it and lay it down, he drove on for another hundred yards. Looking back he saw the pack still on the peddler's back, and then with a smile, he said, "Why do you not lay that pack down and take a rest?" The poor fellow, looking up, said, "Please sir, I did not know whether you were willing to haul me and my pack both or not." You smile at this poor fellow's ignorance because he did not know that it would make the load no heavier for him to lay his pack down and take a rest, and yet some of you will, perhaps, go out of this house, and act in a manner just as silly. You think you have to bear your own burden; you have to paddle your own canoe; you have to hoe your own row, and when Jesus invites you to lay down your burdens, to cast all your care on him, you do not know whether he is willing to carry both you and your burdens.
Poor soul, do you not know that if you are God's child, he already has you and all of your burdens in his arms, and it would not make his load any heavier for you to lay that burden down and take the rest that he is so willing to give. I verily believe that there are many good people today who need more than they need anything else, just to cast their care on Jesus and take a good old-fashioned rest. The everlasting arms of God are around about his children, and it does not increase his burdens any for us to cast all our cares on him. But someone says, "That it is easy enough for you to stand up there and urge people not to worry but suppose somebody has been slandering you, saying things about you which are not true, blackening your character, and taking from you your good name, do you not remember what Shakespeare said—'He who steals my purse steals trash, but he who filches from me my good name takes from me that which him enriches not but makes me poor, indeed,' and you stand there and say, 'Now just let him talk, let him say what he will, and do not worry about it at all." It is easy enough to say that, but how can you do it when your very name and reputation are being blackened?"
Let us hear what Jesus says. I have no rule of my own to give. I would simply call your attention to a case exactly like the one you have described, asking you to listen to what Jesus says do. Matt. 5:11, 12: "blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and say all manner of evil against you falsely." Revile is to talk ugly about you. Persecute is to act unkindly toward. To say all manner of evil against one falsely is to slander in the vilest way. What does Jesus say do? Pay him back in his own coin? Shoot him on sight? Give him as good as he sent? That sounds like Texas or Tennessee, but does not sound like Jesus, for he says, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven." And Jesus practiced what he preached. Do you remember how, when he had been condemned to be crucified, they stripped him of his own simple garments and dressed him in the mock robes of a king; that they plaited a crown of thorns and pressed it on his brow; that they placed a stick in his hand as a mock scepter; that they seated him on a rude stone as a throne and then mocked him. They spat in his face; they slapped him with the palms of their hands; they buffeted him, which means they struck him in the face with their fists. They took the rude scepter out of his hand and beat him over the head with it, and then mockingly bowed the knee before him and said, Hail, King of the Jews, and when they had vented their spite they clad him in his own simple garments, laid on him the cross beam and made him bear it out toward the place of crucifixion till he fell beneath its weight, and Simon of Cyrene had to help him carry it on, and when they had
nailed him to the cross and lifted his body up between the heavens and the earth they laughed at him and jeered him, even in his dying hour, and Jesus did not rail at them, or pronounce a curse upon them, but looking down upon them and then up into the loving face of the heavenly Father, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And yet you and I sometimes say that we cannot bear the taunts and jeers and
slander of human tongues, when Jesus said, "It is enough for the servant to be as his master, and the disciple as his teacher, or Lord." And you think that you ought to be treated better than Jesus, and that when men speak evil of you and revile you, that you should pay them back in their own coin, and that you could not stand to have your name traduced and your heart bruised in a manner similar to that which he endured! But, you say, well, I might stand for people to talk about me and say ugly things about me, but take a case like this. You have had business dealings with a. man and he has acted dishonestly, and virtually robbed me of all that I had and he and his are living in ease and luxury off of that which justly belongs to me and mine, and you say, Just go on, do not worry about it, do not be anxious, just keep sweet. What would you do in a case like that?
I have no rule of my own. I can find you upon the page of God's word a worse case than that and show you what God says do. There was a man, the richest in all the country where he lived. He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she asses, a
great household of servants and seven sons and three daughters, and once the sons of God came together to worship and Satan came along. He always does. And God called Satan's attention to this rich man and said, You see how he serves me; he fears God
and shuns evil, a perfect man and an upright; and Satan has no confidence in anyone. He believes that every man has his price: that all obedience is bought and, so, he said to God, Look how you have blessed that man. You have poured your wealth and riches all round about him. Just take away his property, his riches and he will curse you to your face. God knew this was not true and he wanted you and me to know it, so he said to Satan, "There he is, do what you please with his property, but do not touch him." Satan went out and got busy. It was not long until a great prairie fire swept over his pasture and burned up all of his sheep and the servants who cared for them, only one escaped and he went to tell his master, and while he was talking another servant came running in and said, "Robbers have driven off the camels and killed the servants who were with them and I only am left to tell the story." And while he was speaking another came in and said, "The oxen were plowing and the asses were feeding beside them and robbers came and drove them all away and killed the servants, and I only am escaped to tell this." And while he was
speaking another came and said, "A great wind came out of the wilderness and smote the house where your children were all dining with their oldest brother today, and the house was wrecked and all ten of your children were killed, and the servants, and I only am escaped to tell this."
Now, what did this man do? His property was all taken away, most of it by robbers, and his children all died, ten of them, notafter long, protracted sickness, within which time he might have prepared himself for the blows which he saw must soon be struck, but suddenly, all at once, like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, they were all taken away. Property gone, children gone. What did this man do? Listen: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this "he sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." Again the sons of God came up before the Lord and Satan came among them, and God said, "Do you see my servant, that he still retains his integrity?" and Satan said, "Yes, but you have not touched him in his own person yet. You just make him suffer and
he will curse you to your face, and God knew this was not true, and he wanted you and me to know it. So, he said, "There he is, just do not kill him. Do anything you please to him, just so you spare his life," and again Satan went out and got busy and he made this man to break out in boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet, and with property gone, children gone, health gone, even his wife came and said, "Curse God and die." Your case was never so desperate as his, and do you know what Job said in answer to his wife's advice. Remember, Job was just a man, made out of flesh and blood like you and me, but he said, "You talk as a foolish woman. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." There are
not demons enough in hell with Satan to help them to separate a soul full of trust from its God. And we will never get the rest and the peace that God wants his children to have until "all on the altar of trust we lay." And as long as you doubt God's willingness and God's ability to take care of you and to make all things work together for your good, you will never have the soul rest to which you are entitled and which God and Christ want you to enjoy.
You ask, what if I should take him at his word and in nothing be anxious, be careful for nothing, worry about nothing, what would be the result? I have no answer of my own to give, but the next verse to the one contained in my text, answers the question you have asked. May we read the text again and then the verse which follows: "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your minds and hearts through Christ Jesus the Lord." Isaiah knew by the Spirit the same great truth, for he says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee, because he trusteth in thee." It was just what Jesus taught, "Come unto me all ye that labor and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." All the fruits of the Spirit grow in this atmosphere of trust, love, joy
and peace, that peace of God that passes all understanding, the peace which Jesus said he came to give unto his disciples, the peace that the world cannot give, nor can it take away, the peace of God that passes all understanding. Oh, how much many people today need this experience of peace! You who claim to be loyal Christians, sound in the faith,
calling none of God's commands nonessential, priding yourselves in being able to give chapter and verse for all that we teach, do you know what this peace of God that passes all understanding means? Are you anxious, care-worn, heartsick and distressed because you will not come to that Great Physician who is able to cure all the wounds inflicted by sin, to pour in the wine and oil of his love and give that soul rest that all must have if they are to rejoice in the Lord always, as God's book teaches that Christians should?
If we practiced and enjoyed this peace of God, would not our religious doctrine be much more highly commended to those round about us? Is not this soul peace that which the many burdened hearts round about us are seeking and longing for? Seeing us enjoying it, would it not be much easier to persuade them to walk in that way which leads to eternal peace. Everything must be taken to God and left there. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. There was once a good woman who thought that she had experienced the greatest sorrow that could come to anyone. She had lost a loving, pure, faithful husband. He had left her with a little baby girl just a few weeks old, and that was about all that he had left her, but the memory of his love. She dressed in black, went about with a sad heart, and a sad face. She sang day after day, "Go bury thy sorrow, go hide it with care, go tell it to Jesus, go breathe it in prayer." She sang that yesterday. She is singing it today. She sang it through the weary months and years as they came. Still she dressed in black; still her face and heart were sad, but babies grow. Several years passed and the little babe is old enough now to play with her dolly and one day this mother, sad of face and heart, received a rather disturbing lesson. She was singing, "Go bury thy sorrow," as she sewed, and she heard baby sitting in the corner talking to her dolly, saying, "Mother's dug it up again, Mother's dug it up again." And then that mother thought, My baby heard me sing yesterday, "Go bury thy sorrow." She hears me sing it today: "Go bury thy sorrow," and she knows that I couldn't bury it again today, unless I had dug it up, and the baby was right. It is all right to sing, "Go bury thy sorrow; Go hide it with care; Go tell it to Jesus; Go breathe it in prayer," but don't dig it up again. Casting all your care upon him, be careful fornothing, for earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.