And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.--Luke i:6.

HE commendation was written of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. Its value lies chiefly in the fact that it is divine. The approving words of good men, however, precious, may hardly be compared with the approbation of God. Every reverent spirit desires to know what the Lord commands, and to do it. In this ease he commends their righteousness, as shown in their walking in all his commandments and ordinances blameless.

      There are some features in this text which I think it important for us to fix in our minds in the very beginning. One is that the ordinances which Zacharias and Elizabeth observed were ordinances of the Lord. Had they been the ordinances of men, having nothing more than human authority, I am sure this commendation would not have been written of them. The Lord condemns, with clear and solemn condemnation, the religious observance of all such [113] ordinances. They may be beautiful and elaborate, and impressive, yet he does not approve their observance as a part of religious duty. "In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." Note this, too, that these aged servants of God did not make a division of the ordinances of the Lord, and observe some while they neglected others, but they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. They had not adopted the theory of essentials and non-essentials. They observed all. Then, too, the manner and spirit in which this was done is worthy of notice. It is expressed by the word blameless.

      There are those in our day who would scarcely have praised them for these things. They have such a distaste for ordinances that they would not think of making the observance of even divine ordinances any ground of praise. Although many of them are very good people, yet even to listen with respectful attention to a sermon on these subjects is a heavy tax on their toleration. And this distaste--or prejudice, I would better call it--arises from several causes. Let me mention a few.

      The bitter controversies which have been waged over ordinances is one cause. For, it must be confessed, that some of the most bitter and disgraceful controversies which have convulsed the Church have been about these matters. Another cause is found, I think, in the extreme and unwarranted value which some have attached to ordinances. One extreme [114] begets another. Some overvalue ordinances, practically making all religion consist in their observance, and, quite naturally, others go to the opposite extreme and practically ignore them. And still another cause is found in the supposed antagonism between the observance of these ordinances and a spiritual religion: They seek to be spiritual; they desire a heart-felt religion; they look upon ordinances as carnal and ceremonial and cold, and so, for this reason, ignore them. And still another cause is found in the misapplication of certain Scriptures which speak of ordinances as having been abolished. (Eph. ii:15; Col. ii:14-20.) These are some of the causes which have produced a very positive distaste for ordinances and especially a dislike for even Christian discussion of them.

      We should avoid extremes. While we may have a very wholesome distaste for controversy, yet it is unwise to seek the peace we covet by casting aside what God has enjoined. Nor should we allow any extreme position taken by others to force us to the opposite extreme. The best way to correct any extreme is to stand firmly on the golden mean where truth is found. Nor should cold formalism lead us to conclude that every observance of forms in religion must of necessity be empty formality. The proper observance of ordinances cannot exist without spirituality. We should obey from the heart. And when Paul, or other inspired men, write of the abrogation of the ceremonial law of the Jews, let us not be so [115] unwise as to apply what is said of these Jewish ordinances, to the ordinances of the Lord enjoined in the gospel. Let us seek to know the truth in reference to all matters connected with our holy religion, and to enjoy peace and avoid all extremes.

      My purpose this morning is to present briefly something of the functions of ordinances, and to estimate as near as we can their real value. I speak only of ordinances of the Lord.

      1. They are divinely appointed teachers. They are not idle, meaningless ceremonies. They are stereotyped lessons. They are pillars erected by the divine hand on which the finger of God has written inscriptions for the passing generations of men. Take the oldest of all, the Sabbath. It tells of the Creator, of his word, of his rest, and of a rest that remains for his people. Then, too, what records and lessons were written all over the Passover. It was full of meaning. It told of bondage and deliverance; of the slaying of the Egyptian first-born, and of the sparing of the first-born in the homes of Israel; of hasty flight, of the opened sea; of the engulfed army in pursuit; of all that was thrilling and precious in the events that clustered about the birth of the Jewish nation. The day of atonement furnishes another illustration. It stood as a marble shaft written over with many of the profoundest problems that belong to the redemption of fallen man. It told of sin and helplessness and forgiveness. It cast its rays of promise on the future, and these finally [116] painted the rainbow over the cross. Baptism also is significant. It speaks of the facts on which our religion rests. It is radiant with the divine promise of forgiveness. It tells of death, it is a burial, it points triumphantly to a resurrection. It is a parable in action. So, again, of the Lord's Supper. How sweet and how tender are the lessons of love which make even these emblems of death beautiful. With his own hand, so soon to be nailed to the cross, our Saviour inscribes in letters of heavenly light over this table, "Do this in remembrance of me." This ordinance tells of sin and danger, and divine solicitude, and atoning love, and stern justice, and pleading mercy, and divine wrath, and inflexible law, and forgiving grace, and an open heaven and rejoicing ranks of ransomed souls, and all that salvation means and salvation costs. Ordinances are not empty ceremonies. They are significant. They are divinely appointed as teachers and helpers of men.

      2. In the second place they area part of God's method of righteousness. I ask attention to a single passage of Scripture and then to an illustration of it. This is the passage: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Rom. x:1-3.) What is here meant by the [117] righteousness of God? Evidently, not the attribute of God which bears that name. For they were not ignorant of God's righteousness in that sense. The knew that he was righteous. Moreover, Paul cannot here be speaking of the attribute, for he says, they had not submitted themselves to it and it is not possible for men to submit themselves to an attribute. Nor can we suppose that when he places their righteousness in antithesis with what he here calls the righteousness of God he meant to say they were opposing their character to the character of God.

      What, then, is his meaning? I answer, that by righteousness he means the plan or method by which they are made righteous. The context points to this. The word which Paul uses cannot be fully represented by any one word in English. By the substitution of a phrase we have his meaning in our own tongue. They were ignorant of God's method c constituting men righteous; they go about to establish their own method of constituting men righteous and so they did not submit themselves to God's method of constituting men righteous.

      The illustration to which I refer is found in the incidents of Christ's baptism. You remember that when he asked to be baptized, John said, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus' reply was, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." That is, thus it becometh us to observe all God's methods of constituting me righteous. Baptism is a part of the divine method [118] or plan of constituting us righteous. Since, then, ordinances are a part of the divine method of constituting men righteous, and if Christ could say that for this reason it was becoming in him to submit to them, certainly it is not becoming in us to condemn or ignore them.

      3. Still further, our treatment of ordinances is esteemed as our treatment of their author. This is reasonable. An ordinance is an observance established by authority, and to despise it and trample it under foot is to despise and trample under foot that authority. And so Paul says, in the lesson which I read, in speaking of the Lord's Supper, "Whosoever shall eat of this bread and drink of this cup unworthily shall be guilty of the, body and blood of the Lord." That is, the way in which they treat this ordinance of the Lord is regarded as the way in which they treat the Lord himself. If we are indifferent when he has said, "Do this in remembrance of me," it is regarded as indifference not simply in reference to an institution of the Lord's house, but as indifference toward the Lord himself. If you profane this ordinance, if you turn it into a drunken revel, if you make of it only a feast to satisfy animal hunger, if you pervert it and prostitute it, the matter does not end there, but is reckoned as an indignity toward Christ. So of baptism. In speaking to the Jews, of John and his baptism, Jesus said: "And all the people that heard him, and the publicans justified God, being baptized with the baptism of [119] John; but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." (Luke vii:29, 30.) And, on another occasion when he asked them concerning the baptism of John, whether it was from heaven, we are told that they reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say from heaven, he will say, why then believed ye him not! And if we say, of men, the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet." (Luke xx:4-6.) They easily saw that if they admitted its divine origin they would condemn themselves as guilty of rejecting divine authority, and this was so plain and conclusive that they deliberately agreed to return a falsehood for an answer to Christ's question. In fact, all the force and authority of an ordinance is found in its origin. We should stand by every ecclesiastical ordinance with the question, "Is it from heaven or is it of men?" If of men we may reject it, but if from heaven we cannot, without setting at defiance the authority of heaven. And this leads me to say, in the fourth place that:

      4. Obedience to ordinances is a test of loyalty. All commands may be tests of loyalty. Christ says, "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." And again, it is written, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." The Scriptures are full of this test of love and loyalty. But some things commanded are more decisive tests of loyalty than others. Among things enjoined upon us by divine [120] authority are some so manifestly right and in such perfect accord with our inclination that we may observe and do them with no regard for the authority which enjoins them. Marital love, parental love, filial love, obedience to civil rulers, truthfulness, fidelity, honesty and many other things commanded of God may be obeyed with no thought of the command or its authority. Some things are commanded because they are right, while others are right only because they are commanded. When the candidate for baptism this morning humbles herself to submit to this ordinance, what reason can she have for this act save the all-sufficient one, the Lord has commanded it. It will be bowing down to take his yoke. It is an open and public acknowledgement of his authority. In this view of the case it seems to me there is a manifestation of wisdom in placing at the very threshold of the Christian life an ordinance that is inconvenient, distasteful and humbling. It makes it only a more efficient test. So when I hear it reviled and ridiculed it confirms my conviction that it must be of God. He tries us, He tests our loyalty. But if others revile there is a brighter side which presents itself when we remember that,

      5. God has seen fit to join special blessings to obedience to this ordinance. When Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism and paused on the bank of the Jordan to lift his heart to God in prayer, the heavens were opened and the voice of the Father was [121] heard confessing his Son. The Holy Spirit, like a dove in visible form, descended and abode upon him. This event stands at the opening of his ministry. After that ministry had been fulfilled--after his example had been placed before men, after his words of life had been committed to chosen ambassadors, after the agony of the garden, the bloody-sweat, had been endured, after his blood had been shed upon the cross and death had been conquered by his resurrection and he was ready to be received back to the Father, in his own name he commanded his apostles to "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," adding the promise, "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be damned." And when we come to the time, in the unfoldings of the divine plan, that these commissioned ones are to enter upon the work committed to them we hear them give answer to the agonizing cry, "Men and brethren, what must we do? They promptly reply in the words of Peter, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." God meets obedience with blessings. The promise of God joined to an ordinance gives to it a significance and value not its own. Let us here pause a moment while we glance back over what has been said. We have learned that the ordinances of the Lord are divinely appointed teachers; that they belong to God's method of constituting [122] men righteous; that the treatment of an ordinance is esteemed as if we so treated its author; that they are tests of loyalty, and that God has seen fit to join special promises to their proper observance. With these facts before you I leave it with each of you to form your own conclusions as to the way you will bear yourself toward the ordinances of our Lord. I will detain you to add only one other thought,, and that is, that,

      6. Obedience to ordinances should always be from the heart. There are no empty forms and idle ceremonies in the gospel. It is a. spiritual religion. It deals always with the heart. In writing to the church in Rome, Paul thanks God that, though they had been servants of sin, yet they had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which had been delivered unto them; being them, made free from sin they became the servants of righteousness. Their obedience was a voice of the heart. Had it not been, had they obeyed the form of doctrine as a mere form, this blessing would not have been theirs. As we go down into the waters to be buried with our dear Saviour, it should be with a heart contrite and penitent, for we have sinned; meek and humble, for we are unworthy; loving and trustful, for the Lord has spoken in mercy, and his promises are sure. It is the sealing of the soul's vows. It is the public declaration of its sacred covenant with God. It is the open, and formal, and solemn renunciation of the sinful past. It is the entrance upon a new life. Over [123] the baptismal grave is the rainbow of promise, placed there by the pierced hand of Christ. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." [124]

[NTC2 113-124]