|
|
THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
Spiritual Practical
By
Herbert McClellan Riggle, D.D. Author of
Beyond the Tomb; The Cream of My Life’s Work; Christ’s Second Coming and What Will Follow; The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day; Christ’s Kingdom and Reign
GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY Anderson, Indiana
PREFACE
I AM writing this on my sixty-fifth birthday anniversary, having spent forty-four years in the active work of the ministry. I am presenting to the reading public my eighteenth book. The subject treated is today agitating the whole religious world. Among genuine Christian men and women everywhere there is a growing dissatisfaction with present conditions, and a decided trend toward a closer spiritual fellowship and Bible oneness. Leading men of God are discarding contro versial and technical theological questions that have separated the people of God for centuries and retarded the great task of the church in its mission to evangelize the world. Many are rising above the narrow denominational walls that have held them apart, and the Spirit of God is effecting a warmer Christian love and a closer bond of union.
Observation and contact have fully convinced me that the spirit of reformation is working among genuine Christians everywhere. The outstanding question is:
What is the true basis of oneness for ALL God’s people? What is the Bible standard of this unity? How can it be attained? In this book I have endeavored to answer clearly these questions. With a deep sense of gratitude to God I humbly acknowledge his presence and direction, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the preparation of this volume.
This book sets forth the Bible doctrines in a definite, uncompromising manner. But instead of presenting a theoretical, idealistic, picture-book, and blue-print church in outline, I have endeavored to present the truth in a reasonable, practical way, and to deal with the question down here on earth where we live and function. In this respect you will find the contents just a little different from any work that has been published on the subject.
At the time of D. S. Warner’s death, in 1895, he had been engaged in writing a book entitled, The Cleansing of the Sanctuary. His sudden departure left the work far from complete. Feeling the hand of the Lord upon me to complete the same, I added 340 pages to the 200 he had written. That work had a large sale and accomplished much good.
Later I wrote The Christian Church—Its Rise and Progress. This book was published in 1912 and has been on the market exactly twenty-five years. Copies will be found in every nation around the world. The entire edition being sold, I felt clearly led of the Lord to write the present work and bring it strictly up-to-date. This is not a mere revision of some former book, but as a whole, its matter is practically new. It is exactly what the title expresses. I am confident that it clearly and reasonably presents the New Testament church, spiritual and practical.
I humbly ask you to peruse its contents with unprejudiced mind, and may the gracious Lord lead us all into the clear light of his blessed and eternal truth.
Your servant and brother in Christ, HERBERT MCCLELLAN RIGGLE
|
Preface
|
The New Testament Church
CHAPTER 1
THE CHURCH IN PROPHECY
THE New Testament church is the visible product of redemption, the crowning work of Christ, the world’s Savior. In 1st Peter 1 :10-11, we read, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” The Old Testament prophecies are replete with predictions of the great redemptive work of Christ, and portray in graphic language the beautiful church that he would establish. Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day” (John 8:56).
In the great covenant God made with Abraham, there were two distinct sets of promises. First, a great nation, as numerous as the stars of the sky in multitude; and to them was promised for an inheritance, the literal land of Canaan. This was fulfilled under the Law in the literal seed through Isaac, Israel after the flesh, one nation. To them was given for a possession the literal land of Canaan.
But there was another set of promises that pointed definitely to the coming of the Messiah at the end of the Jewish age. In him “all nations,” “all the families of the earth,” were to be blessed. The apostle tells us in his Galatian letter that the blessing of Abraham should come on the Gentiles through Christ.. The inheritance to this numerous seed, gathered out from all nations, both Jew and Gentile, is spiritual, namely, full salvation from all sin. See Acts 3 :25-26; Luke 1 :72-75. The seed of the first set of promises was literal, and as before stated, constituted Israel after the flesh. The seed in the second set of promises is spiritual and is fulfilled under the gospel. These are a much more numerous seed than the first, namely, all the redeemed in Christ gathered out of every nation and kindred and tongue and people. This is the New Testament church.
The Old Testament prophets, in foretelling the beauties and glories of the New Testament church, used a number of striking metaphors or symbols, such as a city— Jerusalem and Zion, and as a mountain—the mountain of his holiness. Under this last figure is presented the church’s stability, grandeur, and endurance. Turning to Isaiah 2:2-3, we find the following prediction: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” This prophecy is fulfilled in the Christian dispensation. The time of fulfillment is termed “the last days”; and in Hebrews 1 :2 we are informed that the “gospel age,” ushered in by Christ, is the last days.
The church here is presented under the figure of a mountain and also the Lord’s house. This mountain “shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills.” This refers to the exalted position of Christianity. All other religions are far beneath it. It is the only religion that saves man from sin. Christianity mounts up above all else, and the Church of God above every other institution.
Another beauty of this church is seen in the fact that “all nations shall flow unto it.” This fact differentiates between the old and new covenant churches. Under the legal dispensation the privileges and blessings of God were largely confined to one nation, but the new covenant church was to open her doors to every nation and the saved of all the peoples of earth were to flow into it. Thank God, we have the fulfillment of this today; for the gospel is now going forth to all the nations of the earth, and such as are being saved are brought from the dark valleys of sin to the mount of holiness, truth, and salvation, and are flowing into the one church of the living God.
In Daniel 2:34-35 Christianity is presented under the figure of a great mountain which “filled the whole earth.” Christianity is the only universal religion, and the New Testament Church of God the only catholic or universal church. Paul, in writing to the Hebrew breth ren, says, “Ye are come unto mount Zion” (Hebrews 12:22). Mark the fact that in this we clearly see that in this dispensation of salvation and divine grace we are not living in mere anticipation and expectation of enjoying what the prophets foretold, expecting the same to be realized in some future age, but we are now living in what is preeminently the dispensation of fulfillment. This mount is the “mountain of God’s own holiness.” The following clear prediction is now realized in the New Testament era: “I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain.” This is the beautiful Church of God.
King David, who also was a prophet, looked forward and beheld the glory of the beautiful Church of God. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion.. . . the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge” (Psalms 48:1-3). This text may refer primarily to the literal city, but since that was but a type or shadow of spiritual Zion, the New Testament church, there is a beautiful application of this Scripture to the people of God in this dispensation. As the saints gather on the summit of Zion their shouts of praise and thanksgiving to God are heard, and thus the gates of praise fly open, and God is glorified in the midst of them, for here is the place where his blessings fall.
“And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined” (Isaiah 25 :6).
When those who have been famishing and starving on the barren mountains of sin and down in the cold regions of dead, formal churchianity get a clear vision of the one exclusive, divine Church of God, and their privileges in the experience of perfected holiness, and fully accept the same, they come to this mountain of holiness and truth and find a feast of rich dainties, the very best that heaven can afford. They experience the fact that the Lord “sat isfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
Throughout all Christendom, particularly among spiritually minded people, it is generally acknowledged that this happy state has not always existed, and does not now generally exist among the mass of professing Christians. In the morning glory of the church, following Pentecost, God’s people abode in and enjoyed the blessings of Mount Zion; and we are happy to say that in these last days the true people of God are returning “to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads” (Isaiah 35:10). We are again privileged to enjoy the same purity, one ness, and power enjoyed by the primitive church. This prepares the church as a bride for the coming of the Lord, the Bridegroom. The following prediction has a present glorious fulfillment. “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (Joel 2 :1). God’s true ministers are now blowing the trumpet of eternal truth to all the nations of the earth, and this trumpet assembles together all who are willing to meet the requirements and conditions of the gospel. Thus the bride of Christ is being made ready for the second advent.
We will now introduce another metaphor used by the seers of old in describing the church of the new dispensation, that of a city. “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; we have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks” (Isaiah 26:1). The day here referred to is the gospel day. The strong city is the New Testament church. Her walls and bul warks are salvation. In ancient days, a city’s protection was her walls, and in times of war the people would gather inside these walls and feel secure. For example, the ancient city of Babylon had a wall sixty miles in circumference, three hundred and fifty feet in height, and eighty-seven feet thick. Ancient implements of war differed widely from those of the present time, so these great walls were the protection of nations and cities. The prophets drew their descriptions from the times in which they lived.
In Isaiah 62:12 the church was prophesied of as follows: “And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” Again in Isaiah 60:18 we read, “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” Such a city the world had never seen. This could not be strictly true of any literal city, and such language can only apply to a spiritual city, a city constituted of saved men and women, each individual a house in this city, for Paul says, “Ye are the temple of the living God.” The gates of praise simply signify the songs of triumph and the shouts of victory that emanate from the redeemed people of God. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Such language cannot apply, and never did apply to a temporal city, but has a spiritual application; and it is now fulfilled in the beautiful Church of God. She is here seen clothed in “beautiful garments” which means righteousness and holiness, and she is declared to be a “holy city.” Under this figure, then, the purity of the church is presented. Christ is her door, salvation the mode of entrance, and only such are members in the true sense who have been born of God. Read Psalms 87:5.
Another striking prophecy is found in Isaiah 52 :8: “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” In Isaiah 1:26-27 we are told that “Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.” As a result of this it is said, “Afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Thank God, we have reached that time in the onward march of years, and are living in the glorious fulfillment. In these last days God is restoring judgment to his ministry and bringing Zion again to her pristine unity and oneness, enjoying the experience of perfected holiness. She is again occupy ing the same plane on which she stood in the beginning. This fulfills Isaiah 4:3-4, “It shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.” Shallow plowing makes shallow Christians, while deep plowing will produce genuine, well-grounded, and well-rooted Christians. The straight preaching of the pure gospel is the only thing that will produce a clean, pure, and separate church, distinct from sin and sinners.
Oh, thank God for the beautiful New Testament church as portrayed by the pen of inspiration through the prophets of old. I am sure they did not overdraw the picture. Those who have obtained an experience of full salvation in a sound conversion and definite baptism of the Holy Spirit in entire sanctification, and who have had a clear revelation and vision of the beautiful, heavenly. divine Church of God realize in actual experience all that the prophets foretold. Yes, not only do God’s true saints enjoy these blessings, but “out of Zion shall flow rivers of living waters,” and “out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.’ The living waters, these crystal streams of deliverance and salvation, flow out of the church to darkened hearts around us.
The church is the medium of reflection. “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” (Obadiah 17). Thank God, this city is filled with holiness, and this is what adorns the church. “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.” This is the river of salvation. Its streams are love joy, peace, light, glory, and eternal life. Oh, the sweet ness, the glory, and the grandeur of the city of God, and what blessedness to dwell therein! The current age is preeminently the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the most propitious age of grace and salvation that the world has ever seen or ever will see. It is the last. There is nothing in the entire economy of grace and redemption as pertains to the human soul but what is now attainable through Jesus Christ our Lord, and all this is now reflected to this dark world through the medium of the New Testament Church of God.
|
CHAPTER 2
THE CHURCH IN TYPE AND SHADOW
BACK at the foundation of the world when man first fell into sin, the infinite wisdom of God schemed the whole plan of human redemption, and his infinite love provided it. The inception of the New Testament church stands coeval in the divine mind with that of salvation. Being the immediate result of redemption, it necessarily was inseparable from it. Since, therefore, in the counsel and good purpose of God, Christ was a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), the church, redeemed through his blood, must have stood before the divine mind parallel with the gift of his Son. All this is spoken of in the New Testament as a “hidden mystery.” However, in the dispensation of the law it cast a love-betokened shadow upon the earth. The good things foreshadowed in that dispensation of types and figures included the New Testament church. There must be a substance to produce the shadow. Listed among the types that pointed forward to the Church of God in the Christian era was Israel as a nation.
ISRAEL AS A NATION
As observed in the previous chapter, God made promise to Abraham that a literal seed or nation should come out of his loins, as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand upon the seashore, and this nation should possess the literal land of Canaan for an inheritance. Through Isaac this promise was fulfilled. When Moses brought the children of Israel to the borders of Canaan, he addressed them thus, “The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude” (Deuteronomy 1:10). In turning to Nehemiah 9 :23-25, we read, “Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it. So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings. and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vine yards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.”
From these Scriptures we clearly see that the promise God made to Abraham regarding the literal seed were actually fullfilled in Israel after the flesh. Now to this nation God said, “If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:1). And again, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). In a number of places we are told that it was God’s design and purpose that this nation, Israel, was to be a clean, holy people, separate and distinct from all the other nations of the earth. In many respects this nation was a type of the New Testament church.
1. It was a chosen generation, a separate and holy nation unto the Lord. This is exactly what the New Testament church is. In 1st Peter 2 :9-10 it is thus described, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
2. They were called out and separated from all other nations as a distinct, exclusive people unto the Lord. This is true of the New Testament Church of God. The injunction from the Almighty to the church is, “Be ye separate.” She is a called-out, distinct, exclusive church, separate from sin and sinners and from all human and false religions of the earth. She is the divine ecclesia.
3. Natural birth constituted a person a member of Israel. That is, a child born into an Israelite family was a citizen of the Israelite nation. In the present dis pensation the only way to become a member of the New Testament church is to be born into her. “And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there” (Psalms 87 :5-6). Just as truly as natural birth constituted the people members of the Jewish church under the law, spiritual birth, or regeneration, constitutes us members of the New Testament church of God.
4. Literal Israel was called Moses’ house. In Hebrews 3 :2 it is said, “Moses was faithful in all his house.” In Acts 7 :38 Stephen refers to the Israelite nation under the leadership of Moses as “the church in the wilderness.” Strictly speaking, this church was organized by Moses. But to Moses God said, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you,” and, “Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you” (Acts 3 :22). This clearly refers to Christ, the founder and builder of the New Testament church. “Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we” (Hebrews 3:6). This clearly shows the typical and antitypical relation of Israel under the law and the spiritual Israel under the gospel, the Old Testament and New Testament churches. Another type clearly pointing to the church of the new covenant is Zion, or Jerusalem.
ZION, OR JERUSALEM
While strictly speaking Zion was one of the mountains upon which the city of Jerusalem was built, yet the terms Zion and Jerusalem came into general usage as referring to the capital of the Jewish nation, and are, therefore, used interchangeably in both the Old and New Testaments. Under the old covenant this city was set apart as the city of God, the holy city. In it the Lord placed his name and dwelt there. Here he met with and blessed his people. Here they offered sacrifices to him, and upon them he poured out his glory. When an Israelite in a far-distant country prayed to Jehovah, he always turned his face toward Jerusalem. This is why Daniel, when a captive in Babylon, raised his win dow and prayed toward Jerusalem.
All this clearly pointed forward to the Church of God in the Christian dispensation. She is now the city of the great King, the holy city of this dispensation. In her be dwells. The church is now, through the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place of God as he says: “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” So it is actually true as expressed in Hebrews 12:22-23, that we are now “come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” In the Galatian letter (4:26), Paul denominates the Christian church: “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” The church is the heavenly Jerusalem come to earth, the dwelling place of God where he pours out his bless ings upon his people and where they offer “spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1st Peter 2:5).
THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS
When God chose Israel for his peculiar people and separated them unto himself, he desired to be with them. Thus it came to pass that God ordered Moses to build him a sanctuary and sanctify it for his dwelling place. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying . . . And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pat tern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Exodus 25:8-9). “The first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary” (Hebrews 9:1). This tabernacle was the place of God’s residence as king of Israel, and he filled it with his glory. “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tab ernacle” (Exodus 40:34-35). Here is where the Jews offered their sacrifices and worshiped God. This build ing was constructed with extraordinary magnificence and at a prodigious expense, so that it might be in some measure suitable to the dignity of the great King of heaven, for whose palace it was designed.
The value of the gold and silver alone used for this work was immense, about $888,467.17. See Exodus 38:24-25. The building or tent was about 55 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet high. As to its construction, see Exodus 26:18-29; 36:23-24. This sacred tent was divided into two apartments or rooms, by means of four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold. These pillars stood in sockets of silver (Exodus 36 :36), and on the pillars was hung a veil (Exodus 26:31-36). There was also an outer veil—the first veil, or door (Exodus 36:37-38). There were no windows in this tent; hence, a lamp was kept burning continually. There was also a court which surrounded the tent.
We read in Exodus 40:17 that this tabernacle was reared up on the first day of the first month of the second year after the Israelites left Egypt. When erected, it was anointed, together with its furniture, with holy oil (Exodus 40:9-11) and sanctified with blood (Hebrews 9 :21). When the King of heaven entered it, he dedicated it with his glory.
We inquire, what is the antitype of this ancient tabernacle? What has now taken the place of that sanctuary pitched by Moses in the wilderness? The answer is found in Hebrews 9 :1: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.” Continuing down to include verse 8 we have a brief outline of that tabernacle and its furniture and services. Now in verse 9 we read, “Which was a figure for the time then present.” A figure of what? In verse 11 is the answer: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.” Continuing through verses 12-14 the writer shows the superior blood and services in the new and more perfect tabernacle carried on by our everlasting high priest, Jesus Christ himself. A description continues through the entire chapter and on through chapter 10 as well.
The literal tabernacle of the wilderness in which the priests and high priests ministered was the house of God for that time. But the writer in these chapters treats on the superior priesthood, covenant, and tabernacle of this dispensation. The greater tabernacle of the New Testament, in which Christ now officiates as high priest, is declared in Hebrews 10:21 to be “the house of God.” We have then but to ascertain what the house of God in this dispensation is, and the whole question is settled. The answer is found in 1st Timothy 3:14-15 : “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Thus the church of the living God is the sanctuary of this dispensation.
As the tabernacle and temple shadow forth worlds of precious truth respecting Christ, his great salvation, and glorious church, let us enter these sacred places and gather the gold, rubies, and pearls that were treasured up there for us. Let us go in and feast our souls upon the rich things that were hidden from the eyes of the high priest, who sprinkled the typical blood upon its holy altars and mercy seat, and burned incense there unto the Almighty. They “could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.” They but dimly saw the great antitype of all their sacrifices. A holy secret was hidden within the beautiful curtains of the tabernacle, which has only been made known to us who stand today in the presence of God, within the holiest of his more perfect house. And now, since the veil of mystery is drawn aside and we have “come to the innumerable company of angels” that once spread their wings in symbolic cherubims on the veil of the temple and over the priest’s head, let us go back and carefully view that ancient depository of the entire gospel system. Yea, and such we will indeed find it.
I will give but a brief outline of that ancient structure and what it foreshadowed. First, it contained two rooms, the holy and the most holy place. Sometimes the inner or second room is termed “the holiest of all.” This is also known as the most holy place. There were two successive veils. The first separated between the court and the holy place, and the second hung between the holy and holiest of all. Before the first veil stood a brazen altar called the altar of burnt offerings. Between this and the veil stood the laver. After offering their sacrifice for sin, the priest and high priest, before entering through the first veil, washed their hands and feet at the laver, and then passed into the holy place of that ancient house of God. In this room was found a table of shewbread (2nd Chronicles 2:4). Also the golden candle stick (Hebrews 9 :2). Then just before the second veil stood a golden altar. It was the altar of incense. The high priest, when he offered his sacrifice on the brazen altar, took some of the blood in a basin, and before entering the holy of holies poured a portion upon the horns of the golden altar, and with this blood entered through the second veil into the holy of holies. Here is where God dwelt, and the high priest was conscious of being in the immediate presence of Jehovah. The furniture of this second room consisted of the ark of the covenant, inside of which was deposited the tables of the covenant. In the side of the ark was deposited the golden pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. On the top of this ark was the mercy seat, and over it the cherubims of glory.
These two rooms clearly typified two definite, distinct works of divine grace wrought in the human heart and life in this dispensation of full salvation and redemption. The holy place pointed forward to the state of justification by faith, the glorious experience of conversion, or regeneration. The holy of holies foreshadowed the experience of entire sanctification in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the state of Christian perfection. Here we reach the climax of full salvation as pertains to the redemption of the human soul. This is the experience in which “he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us” (Hebrews 10 :14-15).
The court that surrounded that ancient structure into which the children of Israel were admitted was a clear type of the convicted state of the sinner. Here is the place of definite decision, and it is here that a line of clear distinction is drawn between the penitent seeker and the world of sin from which he turns away forever. The brazen altar typified Christ our Savior, his cross, and the world’s only hope for salvation. Just as the penitent Jew brought his sin offering that was here sacrificed, so now the guilty sinner falls at the foot of the cross plead ing the merits of Jesus Christ, our everlasting high priest, for mercy and forgiveness. Here is where every sin must be confessed and forsaken forever. Here is the place to make restitution to those whom we have wronged; the place to forgive those who have wronged us, for Jesus said, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Nothing but a deep, thorough repentance will ever satisfy God and admit us into his house. After such repentance with a broken and contrite spirit, the seeker passes through the laver of regeneration, at which time and place he hath “washed us from our sins in his own blood.” By faith we pass through the veil, namely, Christ, into the holy place of the Church of God. Jesus said in John 10:9: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” This is the only mode or manner of induction into the true New Testament church. All such who thus enter are saved. They are translated from darkness into light, and are now called “the children of light.” This is what was prefigured by the golden candlestick. Christ, their Savior and Deliverer, is also found to be the living bread of life, which, if a man eat, he shall live forever. The shewbread pointed forward to this heavenly feast of rich and good things in the kingdom of grace.
But as we examine the furniture of this first room in the Jewish tabernacle, we discover that there is no chair or seat of any kind, no couch or place to stop and recline. The thought would be: Move on; this is not your abiding place. Walk in the light. The command is: “Go on unto perfection.” To these newborn babes who are now “in Christ,” the Scriptures speak: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” Having been soundly con verted, these brethren constitute the holy place of the New Testament church. To them Paul would say, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).
In the eighth chapter of Acts we are informed that Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto the people. Philip was an evangelist. The result of that meeting was that “the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake” (vs. 6). Unclean spirits and devils came out of people, and the sick were healed (vs. 7). “They believed” and “were baptized, both men and women” (vs. 12). The result of all this is thus expressed, “And there was great joy in that city” (vs. 8). The fact is Philip had an old-fashioned revival of genuine religion in Samaria, and a goodly number of people were soundly converted and received Christian baptism, and thus a congregation was raised up for God. These were members of the New Testament church. They constituted the holy place or first room of this spiritual structure. After Philip closed his meeting he went south unto Gaza (vs. 26).
After a time the church at Jerusalem “heard that Samaria had received the Word of God,” and “they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (vs. 14-17). Now observe that under Peter and John they received the Holy Ghost, “being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:16). This is the order without a single exception throughout the New Testament since Pentecost, and is a striking parallel to the two rooms, two veils, two altars of the Jewish tabernacle.
Now turn to Hebrews 10:19-20, “Having therefore, breth ren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath conse crated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” Thank God! Under the Old Testament none but the high priest could enter the holiest of all in that literal sanetuary, but now under the gospel, in the antitypical, beautiful New Testament Church of God, “brethren” (mark you, not unregenerate sinners) but BRETHREN, those already converted, can enter “THE HOLIEST” by the blood of Jesus. A sinner is in darkness. When regenerated he is translated into the light of God. Christ becomes his light. Now “if we walk in the light, [that is we who are saved] as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1st John 1:7). Thus we enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, namely, our hearts are made pure.
We have now reached the place of security and protection typified by the ark. Here the law of the Lord is indelibly written upon the fleshly tables of our hearts, and as a result, like Aaron’s rod that budded, we bear the much more abundant fruit of the Spirit of God. We feast our souls, as a result of his superabundant grace and overcoming infinite power, upon the heavenly manna typified by the golden pot of manna. Upon the golden altar beneath the cherubim of glory, our happy re deemed souls have found an eternal Sabbath of rest. Since God in the typical sanctuary dwelt underneath the cherubim of glory, we now “enter into HIS rest,” and abide in the place described by David in the following language: “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.” Who enjoys this glory, this rich experience of complete redemption in Christ? Answer, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High” and abides under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Just as truly as that ancient tabernacle of the wilderness had two rooms, the New Testament church, its anti-type, must have two definite apartments in Christian experience and life. The altar at the door of the tabernacle, as we have seen, pointed forward to the sinner presenting himself for mercy and salvation. The golden altar before the second veil clearly pointed to the believer’s offering and complete consecration to God for entire sanctification. Thus the New Testament church is composed of two classes of believers, the justified and the sanctified.
THE TEMPLE OF GOD AT JERUSALEM
When the children of Israel were fully planted in the promised land and God had fullfiled the covenant made to their fathers and chosen Jerusalem for his habitation, David expressed a desire to build a house to be the Lord’s sanctuary. While David himself was not permitted to build this house, God promised him that his son should carry out the project (2nd Samuel 7 :12-13). This was full filled in Solomon, who built the first temple at Jerusalem. Much of the material for this structure was taken out and prepared before David’s death, and the pattern was given him from God (1st Chronicles 28 :19). The outline of the inner, real house of God was similar to that of the original tabernacle pitched by Moses. The utensils for the sacred service were also the same as those used in the tabernacle, only several of them were larger, in proportion to the more spacious edifice to which they belonged. I would here suggest that the reader lay down this book and carefully read 2nd Chronicles 3—5. There you will find the entire account of the building of this temple by King Solomon. Then, in chapter 6 of the same book we have an account of the dedication of this temple. At the close of the ceremony, when “Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord” (2nd Chronicles 7:1-4).
When Moses, assisted by the priests and high priests, dedicated the original tabernacle with blood, the glory of the Lord filled the structure so that the priests could not minister, and God sanctified it with his presence. You will note that the same thing ,occurred at the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem. What a beautiful parallel we have in the New Testament church. As recorded in Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” On the great Day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, we have one hundred twenty assembled in an upper room, having spent ten days in consecration, prayer, and praise to God, all waiting for the promise of the Father. This was dedication day. Suddenly the Holy Ghost was poured out in all his fullness, and the glory of the Lord filled each heart, and from that moment until now the church is “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit,” and “groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2 :20-22). In praying for the sanctification of his disciples, Jesus, in addressing the Father, said, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17 :22). The same glory that once filled the typical sanctuary now fills the church.
The Temple at Jerusalem was the house of God in that dispensation. Now whatever takes the place of that ancient house and temple, and is God’s house and temple in this dispensation, is the true antitype of that ancient structure. This the word of truth points out to us in Un mistakable language. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1st Corinthians 3 :16). “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1st Corinthians 3:17). “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1st Corinthians 6:19). “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2nd Corinthians 6:16). ‘Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). Here we have five positive declarations that the temple of God is his church right here in this world. Nothing can be plainer than this fact. The house of God in the Old Testament dispensation was a literal building composed of literal temporal material; but the New Testament house of God is composed of saved men and women. “Ye are God’s building” (1st Corinthians 3:9). “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1st Peter 2:5). “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we” (Hebrews 3:6). This is “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2). The shadow agrees with the substance in every detail. The first was holy, so was the second. God was the designer of the first, so is he of the second. The first was his dwelling place on earth, and likewise the church now is the “habitation of God through the Spirit.” The first was a place to offer daily sacrifices, and now the church, as a spiritual house made up of a holy priesthood of saved people, offers up continual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God. God sent down the fire from heaven upon the altars of the first sanctuary; he now baptizes his church with the Holy Ghost and fire. Yes, God does dwell in his church here on earth. And so we might wend our way back through all the beautiful objects we have been looking upon, and then complete them as shadow and substance in the ancient and present sanctuary of the Almighty.
|
CHAPTER 3
THE ADVENT OF THE CHURCH
IN THE year 606 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched his armies to Jerusalem, destroyed the city and house of God, took the vessels of the Temple and the remaining Jews and carried them away captive into Babylon. Among these captives was Daniel, who especially was endued with wisdom from on high. It was during this time that the king had a remarkable dream. In his dream he saw a great image. Being an idolater, an image was an object that would at once command his attention and respect. It troubled him, but the image went from him; therefore he called all the magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, but none could reveal or interpret the dream. Finally God revealed the matter to Daniel, who made known to the king his dream as follows:
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and be came like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:31-35).
These five short verses open one of the most sublime chapters of human history. It is so comprehensive that the period which it covers, beginning more than twenty-five centuries ago, reaches from that far-distant point, past the rise and fall of kingdoms, past epochs and ages, over into the eternal state.
In Daniel’s interpretation of this dream as recorded in chapter 2 (vs. 36-40), it will be seen that the image represented four universal kingdoms that reigned one after another in ancient times. The head of gold represented the Babylonian kingdom; the breast and arms of silver, the Medo-Persian kingdom; the belly and thighs of brass, the Grecian kingdom; and the legs of iron with the feet and toes part of iron and part of clay represented the Roman kingdom, both in its united and divided state. The two legs represent the Eastern and Western divisions of the Roman empire, and the ten toes the ten divided kingdoms which grew out of it. Here then we have four universal pagan monarchies that reigned one after another in ancient times.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream a stone appeared “cut out without hands” which smote this image upon its feet, broke it to pieces and became a great mountain which “filled the whole earth.” This is interpreted by Daniel (vs. 44) as follows: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” This language is so clear it would seem impossible to mis understand it. “In the days of these kings” —kingdoms. Only four kingdoms are seen in the image. Only four are spoken of in the interpretation. Now, in their days, or before they should pass off the field of action, the God of heaven would set up his everlasting kingdom. In other words, while they yet held dominion the stone would be cut out and would smash them to pieces.
How wonderful the fulfillment! It was when Rome, the fourth of the above kingdoms, had reached the summit of its glory and power; when its domain was so large that it was denominated “all the world” (Luke 2:1); when Augustus Caesar was an absolute sovereign, ruling over three hundred millions of people—it was then that there was born in the village of Bethlehem, Judea, a babe, who, though he was cradled in a manger and his infant cries were no doubt mingled with the lowing of oxen and the bleating of lambs, was destined to establish this everlasting kingdom. Without fagot or sword, without war and bloodshed, with no weapons but the gospel of Christ, the blood of the Lamb, and burn ing testimony, this kingdom marched onward with conquering power, until the heathen kingdoms of darkness were broken in pieces. The lion-hearted rulers of nations handed over their scepters to the “Lion of the tribe of Judah,” whose throne is forever and ever; and “a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom” (Hebrews 1 :8). In fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fullfilled and the king dom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14-15). The dispensation of the glorious gospel of infinite mercy and manifestation of eternal truth by Jesus Christ was now to be fully opened to all mankind. This is called a kingdom because it has laws, all the moral precepts of the gospel; subjects, all who believe in Christ Jesus; and a king, the Sovereign of heaven and earth.
From the above Scripture we learn four things: First, that everything that is done is according to a plan laid by divine wisdom, and not performed till the time appointed. Second, that the kingdom and the reign of sin were to be destroyed, and the kingdom of grace and heaven be established in their place. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are . . . . under grace.” Third, that the kingdom of God and his reign begins with repentance of past sins. Fourth, that this reign of grace is at hand, and it began with Christ’s ministry when the time was announced “fullfiled.” And now nothing but an obstinate perseverance in sin and impenitence can keep a soul out of it. Now is the time to enter in.
Christ came to establish his church of which he is the everlasting head and governor. He set up a government and kingdom which is eternal. Revolutions may destroy the kingdoms of earth, but the gates of hell and death shall never be able to destroy the kingdom, or church, of Christ. His is the only dominion that shall never have an end. In the language of Adam Clark, “The kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory form the endless government of Christ.” This was the stone that smote the image upon its feet and broke them in pieces. And, as portrayed in this prophecy, pagan Rome finally was broken in pieces under the iron rod of the gospel of Christ, and fell A.D. 476. That iron kingdom, which once ruled the earth, crumbled to pieces under the fire of gospel truth and holiness, and the Church of God triumphed. Christianity became the fifth universal kingdom. Rome was the last of the earthly kingdoms that ever swayed universal authority, or ever will. But Christ ‘s kingdom is universal. The uttermost parts of the earth are his possession. In every nation are to be found disciples of Christ. Kings and magistrates bow before him and do him homage.
In Mark 1 :1 it is clearly stated that John’s ministry was “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The first announcement of John was “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Christ began his ministry by announcing that “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.” So the very time prophesied by the seers of old and contained in Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream had now come. Not in a future so-called millennial age, but in the very ushering in of the Christian dispensation, the gospel age of salvation, both John and Christ definitely announced “the time IS FULFILLED,” “the kingdom of God is AT HAND.” At the time of Jesus’ birth the wise men from the East inquired, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:1-2). Yes, Jesus was born a king. In Luke 16:16 we are informed that “the law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” The Christian era is preeminently the great day of salvation (2nd Corinthians 6 :2). That which the Old Testament saints enjoyed in type and shadow and prophesied of now reached its substance in Christ, who ushered in the most propitious age of grace and glory the world would ever see.
Since the beginning of time, one long age has succeeded another until at last with “the voice of one cry ing in the wilderness,” the morning light of a better day begins to break. Paul denominates the gospel age “the dispensation of the fullness of times” (Ephesians 1:10); that is, the dispensation when time is full. Time is a measured portion of duration, and John informs us definitely that “it is the last time . . . . we know that it [the present age] is the last time” (1st John 2:18). The coming of Christ in this last and best dispensation was a beautiful sunrise, and the prophets foresaw that at this time the Gentiles would come to the brightness of his rising. In fulfillment of all the Old Testament pre dictions, Christ came the Son of righteousness and ushered in this last and best dispensation of light and salvation and established his church. True holiness adorned her fair brow. Purity and unity were her chief characteristics.
Before Pentecost, during the time of Christ’s personal ministry, the new order of things was being established, the new dispensation was being introduced, and the kingdom phase of the church was the outstanding thing. Christ’s kingdom was present and his reign began. A multitude of Scriptures prove this point. The material for the complete organization and building of the church as a distinct New Testament institution was taken out and prepared during the incarnation period. But the new religion was confined largely to the Jews and was generally looked upon as simply another Jewish institution, especially since Christ claimed to be the Messiah and was regarded as the king of the Jews. As before stated, during this time the kingdom phase of the church was emphasized.
|
CHAPTER 4
THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED AS A DISTINCT NEW TESTAMENT INSTITUTION
IN EPHESIANS 3:14-15 Paul speaks of “the whole family in heaven and in earth.” This of course is the great universal church that includes all the redeemed of ages, the saints from Adam down to the end of time. The heavenly Jerusalem and the church in the new heaven and new earth will include Israel, as well as the apostles of the Lamb (Revelation 21 :12-14). In Hebrews 12:23 the apostle speaks of “the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven,” including the “spirits of just men made perfect.” Of course all the saved in heaven and earth are here comprehended.
As recorded in Matthew 16:18, when Jesus told his disciples that “upon this rock I will build my church,” he referred to a new institution, a distinct Christian organization entirely separate from the Jewish church that Moses organized in the wilderness. At the very time that Jesus made this declaration and announcement he had many followers, but the real building of his New Testament church on earth was a future event. This ecclesia, as revealed in the Acts and the Epistles, from the Day of Pentecost on, is a visible, organic body, institutional in its nature.
From Pentecost on the church specifically and definitely meant something more than merely God’s family in all the earth. God has always had a family, both under the old and new covenants, and if this is all that is meant by the church, then under the new covenant it only means an extension or enlargement of the same family to include the Gentile nations. Some religious bodies so define the New Testament church. But mark well the fact that near the close of Christ’s earthly ministry he made this ringing declaration, “Upon this rock I WiLL BUILD my church.” Here Jesus announced something new, something future of the time in which he was speaking, a church he was going to build. Of course we understand that Pentecost was the date when the announcement of Jesus began to be fullfiled, and from that time on the church of the New Testament was an organized, visible, and distinct Christian community. While in Jerusalem its membership was largely composed of Jews, yet the new institution then and there established was no longer strictly Jewish, and no longer were Moses and the law emphasized, but from this time on the disciples of Christ continued in “THE APOSTLES’ doctrine and fellowship.” This introduced the church as an organized, visible body, distinct from Judaism and all other religions, a purely Christian church—so much so that at a very early date the members of the church of God came to be known everywhere under the term “Christians,” which meant disciples of Christ.
Here we have introduced to us a distinct phase of the church. It is now and from henceforth a real organized body in visible form, an institution destined to carry the message of saving truth to all the world. From the Day of Pentecost certain boundary lines were drawn in the teaching and practice of the apostles that clearly distinguished the Christians as a visible community apart from the Jewish sects, and Gentile religions as well. They were known in the earth as a well-defined body of people. Let us get a definite truth clearly defined. Before his death Jesus declared he would build his church. This event was future. But on the Day of Pentecost we have one hundred and twenty baptized with the Holy Ghost, and as a result of Peter’s sermon delivered on that occasion, “they that gladly received his words were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). And from that day on “the Lord added TO THE CHURCH daily such as should be saved.” (vs. 47) There is only one reasonable conclusion, and that is that the fulfillment of Christ’s positive announcement began on the Day of Pentecost. it is true that the church is a growing institution, for we read in Ephesians 2 that this New Testament church “groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (vs. 20-22). So the building of the church continues throughout the entire Christian dispensation, and will not be fully completed until the last convert of the cross, before Christ’s second return, is builded therein.
|
CHAPTER 5
THE UNIVERSAL OR CATHOLIC PHASE OF THE CHURCH
THE ecclesia which Christ founded is the only universal church. As before seen in Daniel 2, it is spoken of as an everlasting kingdom which eventually is destined to fill the whole earth. The Church of God contains all true believers, all genuine Christians. As salvation con stitutes us members of it, it follows that all the saved are its members. No one can be a Christian outside of the divine church. In many texts it is clearly stated that the church is the body of Christ. This being true, it must include all the members of that body. It is also spoken of as the household of faith. Therefore, it follows that every member of this household is in the church. Then in its universal phase the Church of God must include the family of God, and it is said to be one family in heaven and on earth, including all Christians. It is not a sect, but is the whole. Being the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, it comprehends all who are purchased with his blood.
This one distinguishing feature of the Church of God differentiates clearly between the genuine and false, between the divine New Testament ecelesia and all man made institutions. It follows that any organization and institution called a church that does not include in its membership all the saved of earth is not the true Bible church. This one truth, the catholicity of the Church of God, locates every sect. All the religious denominations taken together come far short of including all Christians. In fact, before any of these institutions arose there were millions of Christians on the earth, all members of the New Testament Church of God. And right now, today, there are many thousands who are saved from sin and have never joined any of these human institutions. In holding membership in the one universal Church of God and in no other, and recognizing and extending the hand of warm Christian fellowship to all Christians everywhere, we stand clear of the sin of division. The church of this dispensation is not only catholic in its membership, but the religion of the Church of God will apply to all men of all nations. Christianity is the only universal religion. This being true, the church of God gathers into her folds the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, the high and the low, in short, all classes of all men, irrespective of their customs and manners among all the nations of the earth. Many of the religions of the world are local in their nature and apply only to certain classes. They have adopted peculiar customs, manners, etc., that are only local in their applications. But the religion of the New Testament church will apply to all classes of men. It imposes no peculiar customs or manners. There is but one Savior of all men. There is “none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Those who are saved by Christ are inducted by one Spirit into the one body, the church. This being true it follows that all who are outside of this one body are excluded from the grace of God. The faith that Jesus Christ gave to his church is a universal and exclusive faith. No other saves the soul. It is all-sufficient and complete. Everything contrary to it is false. Anything less is too little, and anything more is too much. All human ecclesiastical creeds are but subtractions from, or additions to the faith that Christ “once for all delivered to the saints.” There is one household of faith, one universal bride, and she has no sisters. God is one, and only one religion can emanate from him. As God is not the author of confusion, his church is not to be identified with a confused lot of rival and lifeless institutions. For emphasis here, I repeat the fact that there is but one church that emanates from God, the one purchased with the precious blood of Christ—the universal body of Christ, which includes all true Christians. This is the New Testament church. When we are members of Christ, we are members of his church.
Abide in Christ only and we are one, as Jesus expressed it in his prayer, “that they may be one IN US.” That is the secret. That presents to us the inevitable conclusion that the only thing today that holds people away from this sweet fellowship and visible unity is the denominational walls that they have built up. Obliterate these and a great forward step has been taken toward universal oneness in Christ. And brethren, this must be our attitude. If we put up any unscriptural walls and barriers of our own between ourselves and other true Christians, we become sectarian; but by abiding only in Christ and holding all true Christians everywhere as our brethren in the Lord, and by declaring with all boldness the visible unity of God’s people, we will, I believe, bring about the gathering together to the Bible standard of oneness all those who are in Christ Jesus. Thank God, the foundation on which the church rests, on which it was built, is deep enough and broad enough to include every Christian.
|
CHAPTER 6
THE LOCAL VISIBLE PHASE OF THE CHURCH
IN THE previous chapter we considered the catholic or universal phase of the New Testament church, and now we will consider the church as a visible, organic institution, in its local, congregational aspect. Let it be clearly understood that there is but one New Testament church, denominated the Church of God. But this one church is presented in the Bible under two distinct aspects—universal and local. The local is but the visible congregational phase of the general. The first distinct Christian church in its organic form was established at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. This first Christian church at Jerusalem was not made up of separate units unknown and unrecognized, individual saints scattered in different places throughout that city and community, but was a visible congregation which began with one hundred and twenty, and there were added three thousand members “UNTO THEM” as a body the first day of its organization (Acts 2:41), and from that day on “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). In that upper room meeting it is said “the number of NAMES TOGETHER were about an hundred and twenty” (Acts 1 :15). You see as people were being saved and added by the Lord to the church, this added these believers “UNTO THEM” as a visible assembly. Accordingly we read that “the number of the disciples was multiplied.” The inspired record tells us so. In a few days this church grew until “the number of men was about five thousand” (Acts 4:4).
Of this Christian assembly we read that they continued “daily with one accord in the temple,” and “all that believed WERE TOGETHER.” When Peter and John were let go by the Jewish authorities, they went “to their OWN COMPANY.” They didn’t hunt around all over the city for individual children of God, whether Jew or Gentile, but came direct to the assembly or congregation, which was the church at Jerusalem, and this is defined scripturally “their own company” (Acts 4:23-33). Now this company, or congregation, Luke tells us, was a great “multitude of them that believed” “assembled together.” This was the visible, organic church at Jerusalem. Absolutely so. Now in Acts 5 we read: “And great fear came upon all the church,” and “they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch, And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.” To this visible assembly, “believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.”
Now anyone can see at a glance from these and many other Scriptures that the church at Jerusalem was a visible, organized body of believers, a body in which the gifts of the Spirit were functioning. The apostles and elders ministered the Word in great power, and the deacons or stewards looked after the temporal affairs of that church. Ere long James was chosen as their pastor, or general overseer. Paul after his conversion at Damascus, came to Jerusalem, and it is said that “He assayed to join himself to the disciples.” But they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and the congregation, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and about his conversion to Christianity; and after being thus introduced and commended to their confidence, we read that “he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.” And him self began to speak “boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.” See Acts 9 :26-29. This clearly proves that when Paul, who was already a member of the Church of God through salvation, sought the Christian church at Jerusalem, he went to the visible, organic assembly but was not recognized as a member of that congregation until certain contacts and recommendation had been made.
The church in this particular aspect is presented to us as a distinct, organized, visible institution with government; a body divinely arranged through the Holy Spirit with properly ordained officers. Such was the first Christian church that fulfilled the language of Jesus, “I will build my “church.” In this visible, organized aspect of the church, not all the people of God on earth were included or recognized in its visible membership. There is no question but that there were true people of God at this very time among the Jews who were members of God’s universal family and belonged to the house hold of God in its universal phase, but had no visible connection with the Christian church in this particular aspect. This was also true of the Gentiles. Peter was forced to admit this when he found the household of Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts 10). He said, “I perceive that. . . . in every nation he that worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.” These Gentiles were members of the family of God; but until Peter found Cornelius, he and his household had no knowledge of the Christian Church of God, and had no visible connection with it. It was con tact with that church, enlightenment through the message, and acceptance of its principles that identified these scattered sheep among Jews and Gentiles with this visible Christian church.
There was a time when strictly the only Christian church on earth that fulfilled the language of Christ in Matthew 16 :18 was that visible body of believers in Jerusalem. I humbly ask, where else would one have been found? Not in Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, or Rome. Only in Jerusalem. If a stranger from Athens, Greece had come to Jerusalem to seek and find the new Christian community, where would he have looked and sought? Do you suppose he would have hunted all over the city for individual people of God? No! He would have come to that visible body, that congregation of Christian believers called “the church” to whom new members were daily being added. Unquestionably this is what the people in and around Jerusalem recognized as the Church of God.
From page 1 of What Is the Church and What It Is Not, by D. S. Warner, I quote: “The words ‘church’ and ‘churches’ occur in the New Testament 109 times, always translated from ecclesia, which would have been more correctly rendered ‘congregation,’ which, with the Bible qualification, would have read, ‘The congregation of God,’’ the congregation of the firstborn,’ denoting its divine founder and owner; and ‘the congregation that is at Antioch,’ ‘the congregation of God which is at Corinth,’ ‘the congregations of Asia,’ ‘the congregations of Galatia,’ denoting the different geographical locations of the congregations of God scattered throughout the then known world.” D. S. Warner was absolutely correct, for ecclesia, from which church is rendered, means con gregation.
When we read in the New Testament of the church at Antioch, the church of God in Corinth, the seven churches of Asia, etc., what do these expressions mean? Do they refer to people who were scattered in these communities as individual Christians? Not strictly so. These expressions refer directly to the visible organized body, or bodies, of people in the community referred to. The visible institution, organized congregation at Corinth with its pastor, officers, and the gifts of the Spirit functioning therein, in other words the assembly of God’s people is what Paul denominated “the Church of God at Corinth.” On referring to this visible body of people he said, “Ye are the body of Christ,” and this is the church. The New Testament church, then, in its congregation of God’s people who assemble together and worship God. These visible assemblies, from the Day of Pentecost on, are exactly what the New Testament calls the church—the Church of God.
The entire group of these visible congregations in primitive times was the Church of God in that age of the world’s history, and the same is true today when such congregations are planted and established in accordance with New Testament truth. Such visible assemblies present to us the organic, institutional phase of the church. In his excellent book, A New Approach to Christian Unity, p. 129, Charles Ewing Brown says, “A church is not a mere conglomerate assemblage of individuals. A church is a homogeneous group, a social organism.” Fine and correct. Then to take the stand that a group of such congregations, holding only the one divine head—Christ, and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, holding membership in no humanly organized institution, but only in the one divine, spiritual, universal Church of God, have no right to the title “Church of God” would, on the same grounds, condemn the primitive church, and virtually would deny that there ever was a visible Church of God on earth, and that it is ever possible for the church in these last days to be restored to its primitive condition.
I desire at this point to make the fact clear that we, as a body of people, stand clear, when it comes to membership, of every human institution and organization called a church. These are absolutely not necessary or essential to the visibility of the New Testament church. Before any of them ever came into existence or were heard of, the New Testament church was an organic, visible body of people under one divine government, with Christ its living head, and were known as a distinct religious body of people in the earth, and the same is true today. Thank God, on this solid, scriptural foundation we stand. Holding membership through salvation in the one heavenly divine church built by Jesus Christ, and in no other, assembling together in harmony with the New Testament teaching and example, taking the New Testament in its entirety as our infallible creed and discipline, we boldly present to the Christian world today what we believe to be the only true basis of Christian unity for all God’s people.
Unquestionably, all the congregations scattered throughout the then known world taken together were the visible Christian church in primitive times. The pagans and Jews did not consider or look at anything else in those days as the Christian church, but this visible community. This was not merely accidental. It fulfilled to the letter the language of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 16 :18: “UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH; AND THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT.” The visible church at Jerusalem was the first Christian church on earth, and the mother church for all time. Here, then, we have the clear and distinct phase of the Church of God as a visible community.
In our consideration of this particular aspect of the New Testament church, I think it is well to view it from different angles. There are many good people who can see only one side of things. They are somewhat lopsided and out of balance. There are those who are idealists, and because of this preach and hold up a standard that no one can measure to. They themselves do not do it, and no one else can. Not only is this true as it applies to the individual members in their life and experience, but also to the local, visible congregation in its collective sense.
As individual members, without a single exception, among both the ministry and laity there are dark seasons and bright seasons. It is true that the fully saved have pure hearts and upon them rests the power of the Holy Spirit, and to them God says, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Such are saved and cleansed from every sinful, carnal proclivity to wrong—as anger, envy, jealousy, pride, stubbornness, and related carnal ele ments. In fact the blood of Jesus cleanses “from all sin.” But with all this we are still human, and holiness does not deliver us from our natural dispositions, temperaments, likes and dislikes, weaknesses, and many other things that we have to contend with and combat and seek to overcome through long years of hard struggle. A careful study of the lives of the outstanding characters of both the Old and New Testament clearly reveals a great variety of temperaments, weaknesses, human faults, and natural shortcomings that are outstanding, as well as their strong points of character. The same is true of every one of us today. To stress clear out of proportion just the bright side of life will put honest souls under accusation unnecessarily and weaken Christian confidence, and this method will ere long destroy any church.
True, the Bible teaches that we can have “joy un speakable and full of glory,” “peace that passeth all understanding,” “everlasting joy,” and the love of God “shed abroad in our hearts”; but along with this, “if need be for a season,” we may be “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” and like Paul, have “fightings without and fears within.” Yes, we may pass through very discouraging seasons in our Christian lives.
I have heard some good people assert: “I never get discouraged.” But one need be with them only a very short time until he sees opposite manifestations. Paul himself had seasons of real discouragement. When the brethren from Rome came down to Three Taverns and Appii forum to meet him and extend welcome, “he thanked God, and took courage” (Acts 28:15). The language implies that he had been passing through a discouraging time.
Now let us look at our church relations and work as visible assemblies of God’s people. A local church is composed of a group of people from every walk of life. Some of these are educated and highly refined, others are just the opposite. Some members may be financially well-to-do, others poor. Some of the men are courteous and polite in their manners, others naturally coarse and uncouth. Some of the women are very tidy housekeepers, others not so particular. Some are calm and reserved and conventional in their manners, others quick, impulsive, nervous, and sentimental. In a congregation of any size, like Paul and Peter in contrast, some will be found broad-minded and liberal in their views, and others narrow and extremely intolerant. What a variety of temperaments, dispositions, likes and dislikes! Yes, and what a difference of ideas and opinions they have about many things that pertain to their church work and yet are not strictly essential. All this and much more may be found in one local assembly. And yet these people must learn to get along with each other somehow. This means that although many if not all of the membership are both saved and sanctified, you just cannot strictly enjoy everybody’s manners and dispositions That is why Paul exhorts the members of a local assembly of the necessity of “for bearing one another in love,” and “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
In view of all this, there is no congregation that is strictly ideal. Each congregation will have troubles and difficulties to contend with, and because of this will need much grace and brotherly love. In Jesus’ first company of only twelve preachers there were troubles and abnormal conditions that arose, with Jesus right with them in person. Yes, in this small company of converted men with their unsanctified natures, there were some who wanted the highest seats, and the others got angry about it. There was a contention among them about who would be the greatest. Some wanted to command fire to come down from heaven upon those who opposed them. As you read the account you will note how often Jesus had to reprove these apostles and correct their mistakes. And what trouble he had with the leader of the whole group—Simon Peter! Time and again his impulsiveness got him into difficulty. Paul and Barnabas did not agree about taking John Mark with them on a second missionary tour, and you know the result. Peter, when an old minister, acted unwisely and entirely out of place at Antioch, so that Paul was forced to rebuke him sharply before all, and Barnabas defended Peter’s position which was, in this case, the wrong side. Read Galatians 2 :11-18. Right here I want to call attention to the fact that these men of God did not allow such matters as these to break their implicit confidence in each other, nor to destroy the unity of the church. After the episode over John Mark, Paul wrote Timothy as follows: “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2nd Timothy 4:11). What a beautiful spirit this demonstrated! Did the incident between Paul and Peter at Antioch destroy their confidence and unity? God bless you, NO. Paul, in the same epistle where he relates the above incident, refers to Peter as a pillar of the church (Galatians 2 :9); and Peter, in his epistle refers to Paul as “our beloved brother Paul.” These Christian min isters were too big and magnanimous in spirit to allow differences of this kind, that were not necessarily funda mental, to break the unity of their church work. Great God, give us more of their spirit today!
It is possible to stress with great force the first assembly and model church for all time, that congregation at Jerusalem, and in doing so present only the bright side and give an entirely wrong impression of things. True, it is said of this church that “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” “Great grace was upon them all.” “They were all of one accord.” “With great power gave the apostles witness.” “Of the rest durst no man join himself to them.” “And they were healed every one.” Now this was a wonderful picture, and it was all true, but it presents but one side of this church and its work. Let us turn the picture and take a square look at the other side of this church. Presenting that bright side alone would naturally lead people to believe that there is no assembly of God’s people on earth today anywhere that measures up to that first church at Jerusalem. But listen, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministrations” (Acts 6:1). The original word for murmuring here means to mutter and grumble. What, you ask, among those Jerusalem saints who were all filled with the Holy Ghost? Yes, trouble arose right in the midst of them.
At a very early date James became the pastor, or general overseer of this church at Jerusalem, and we are told that certain ones went out from this very assembly to Antioch and troubled the church there, subverting their souls (see Acts 15:1-24), and Paul and Barnabas had “no small dissension and disputation with them.” This situation finally resulted in the great conference at Jerusalem (Acts 15), at which there was “much disputing” (vs. 7) before the question was fully settled. More than twenty years after the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Jerusalem church, Paul went up to Jerusalem and declared to James and all the elders of that assembly “what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry” (Acts 21:17-19). While those assembled there rejoiced to learn this, they said to Paul, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law” (Acts 21:20). They advised Paul to shave his head, take a vow, and purify himself in the Temple according to Moses’ law, which he did. Of course this got him into trouble, and he was arrested as a result. But this presents the other side of this Jerusalem church. They had their difficulties just the same as local churches have today. And they did not get rid of nor cast off many of their old traditions for many years after they were filled with the Holy Ghost. And some people are as slow to learn today as they were back there. We need to be patient with them.
Let us consider the church at Corinth. Paul planted it and remained with the congregation a year and six months (Acts 18:1-11). Apollos watered this assembly, and God gave the increase (1st Corinthians 3:6). Although under direct apostolic supervision, everything in this assembly was not strictly ideal. Paul, in his wisdom in writing to this church, presents both the bright and dark side of things. He addressed them as “the Church of God which is at Corinth,” “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1st Corinthians 1:1-2). From this we learn that a goodly number of this assembly were baptized in the Holy Spirit and sanctified. He says further, “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus; that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge... so that ye come behind in no gift” (1st Corinthians 1:4-7). Of them he testified, “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s build ing” (3 :9). “Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified . . by the Spirit of our God” (6:11). “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? . . . for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” By reading 1st Corinthians 12 it will be seen that the nine gifts of the Spirit were being exercised in their midst. There are many more quotations from Paul’s two epistles to this congregation that show the bright side of things as demonstrated in them.
But now let us look at the other side. Some of this assembly were still “babes in Christ” and were “yet carnal” (1st Corinthians 3:1-3). They were not necessarily back slidden and become carnal, but they were still in the babyhood stage, not wholly sanctified. In other words, some members of this congregation had not gone on to Christian perfection, were “BABES IN Christ” and “YET CARNAL.” Among this unsanctified part of the congregation there was “envying and strife and divisions” (1st Corinthians 3 :3). They even allowed a rank fornicator to profess among them (1st Corinthians 5:1-2). They went to law with each other before the courts of the land (1st Corinthians6:1-8). They terribly abused the observance of the sacred Lord’s supper (1st Corinthians 11:17-22); and the sanctified brethren of this church abused the gift of tongues with a lot of inconsistencies, so that Paul devoted an entire chapter of his first epistle to correct their wrong exercise of the gift (chapter 14). Some among them denied the resurrection of the dead, and the apostle devoted a whole chapter to settle them in this doctrine (1st Corinthians 15). Here then we see that this congregation, planted and established by Paul and under strict apostolic super vision, was by no means ideal, and abnormalities crept in.
Did you ever notice that almost all of Paul’s epistles to these primitive local churches were corrective? Of the seven churches of Asia, planted by this great apostle, only one or two were free from faults. The church at Ephesus with Timothy as its pastor, was found lacking in its first love and needed to repent. Many more examples could be given to show that in primitive times they had many of the same things to deal with, many of the same problems, and many of the same conditions we have today—and that under direct apostolic supervision and oversight. In some respects many of our local assemblies today are in a better condition than some of those primitive congregations. Paul’s writings are full of good advice to members of these local, visible assemblies. For example, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, for giving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). And again, in verse 31 of the same chapter, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5 :21). “Put on there fore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:12-13). Remember this advice was given to church members, and if obeyed and followed out in a practical way, despite all the differences and human abnormalities that may arise in a congregation, it is possible for brethren to dwell together in love and unity; and always, at all times, under all circumstances they should “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
|
CHAPTER 7
HOW A LOCAL CHURCH CAN SUCCEED
OF THE church at Ephesus it is said, “So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed” (Acts 19:20). Of the church at Antioch we read “And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord” (Acts 11:21). Also of the church at Jerusalem, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5 :14). From these texts we gather that irrespective of some abnormalities and difficulties that arose, these local assemblies were a glorious success for God. The same can be true today. There is absolutely no need of failure. There are certain conditions or essentials that enter into the success of any congregation. Some of these I wish to point out.
LEADERSHIP AND DIRECTION
An army must have a commander in chief. Upon his shoulders rests the responsibility of success or failure. An army where all the soldiers would try to direct and lead would be a miserable failure. The same is true in a nation. Take our own country, the United States of America. We elect a President whose duty and responsibility is to direct the ship of state. We also elect a Congress and Senate to cooperate with and assist in this great work.
Now this principle holds good in the work of the church. God has placed “governments” in the church (1st Corinthians 12 :28). In the success of any work it is essential that the pastor or overseer be an example in experience and life so that he or she can lead the flock. In the Orient a shepherd never drives his sheep. He always goes before the flock, leads them, and they follow him. How can a pastor succeed in getting people soundly con verted and subsequently sanctified unless he himself has this experience! How can he feed his flock food that he himself has never tasted? Much depends on the overseer. It is an old but true saying, “Like priest, like people.” God wants a clean ministry—men and women of deep piety and spirituality whose lives are above reproach.
Paul said, “Ye have us for an example.” That is the idea, “being examples to the flock” (1st Peter 5 :3). A preacher’s life must be such that he can say to his congregation as Paul did, “Those things, which ye have heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” The duty of the pastor is to “feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof” (1st Peter 5:2). Again, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). God foretold through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3 :15) that he would “give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
Unless a church is properly fed it cannot prosper. Too many sermons are dry, dogmatic, lifeless, and dead. They contain no vitamins—that is, no real food. Congregations starve, and the pastor is responsible. Then there are pastors who are idealists, and get the trough so high that only the big, strong sheep can reach it, and they must stretch their necks terribly to do so. The lambs get nothing. Congregations die under such methods.
As before stated, the responsibility of every phase of church work rests upon the pastor. This is true not only of the general congregational work, but also of the Sunday school, young people’s society, and missionary organization. A good pastor should be able to give direction and superintendency in all the departments of his church work. He should not domineer as a lord, but cooperate with the leaders of each department.
COOPERATION AND SUBMISSIVNESS
A congregation where all want to lead is always a failure. The philosophy of anarchy is this: “Who made you a ruler over me! Who authorized anyone to be my superior and to govern me! I am fully capable of self-government.” Now this philosophy is advocated by certain ones in every nation all around the world. And the spirit of this very thing will be found in some local churches. There are those who say, “I am under no man’s rule and will not recognize authority and government.” These are spiritual anarchists. They utterly ignore the solemn charges enjoined in Hebrews 13 :7 and 17. “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow.” “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” Paul solemnly charges every member of the church to submit “yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” People must learn and practice submission. We cannot all have our own way. Very frequently there are those who declare, “If it doesn’t go my way, I balk right here.”
I was born and raised on a farm, and I well remember that we once had a balky horse, and of all the contrary creatures to hinder work being done, it was that animal. But sometimes similar animals get into the church. Billy Sunday once said that “some church members wear out more holding-back straps than tugs.” Of course you understand that holding-back straps are to retard or stop progress forward. Tugs are intended for pulling and moving forward. A church, to succeed, must use the tugs a great deal more than the other straps. I have been in groups where it seemed that the whole congregation climbed up into a large carriage, with the church board sitting on the front seat holding fast the lines. When I looked at the shafts, behold, the poor pastor was harnessed up and hitched to the carriage and was expected to pull the entire load. What a sight! But this is some people’s idea of church work. Hitch up the pastor and let him do all the work. Sometimes we hear the expression from some leading member, “That’s what we pay him for.” Allow me to say right here that no church following this method will ever succeed. The church board must climb down from its seat of authority, and every member as well, and hitch up with the pastor and all together push and pull for success.
No pastor can succeed without the whole-hearted, united support of his congregation. Just as an army can not succeed unless it follows the commander, neither can a government succeed unless it stands by and follows the ruler. Just so with the church. “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.” Openly to claim support, and then secretly plan to ruin sets in motion a power and creates influences and sentiments that will destroy any work. Half-hearted support counts for little. To succeed, ALL must pull together, work together, stand together, and move forward.
THE CHURCH A PRAYING CHURCH
The secret of success at Jerusalem on the Day of Pente cost and thereafter is expressed as follows, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren” (Acts 1:14). Of those early preachers in that church we read, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6 :4). Probably the greatest lack in the church today and the greatest need of our times is more earnest, fervent, soul-wrestling, prevailing prayer. Jesus gave us a wonderful example of this. He had only three and one-half years to accomplish the great work assigned him during his public ministry. And yet when we study his prayer life, what a great outlay of time he devoted to this. On some occasions it is said that he did not find time “no not even to eat.” Yet he did take time to pray. Sometimes early in the morning, long before it was day, while others were sleeping he stole off to the mountain side and prayed. Again we find that sometimes he spent whole nights in prayer. His prayers were not formal, a mere saying of prayers, but we read that “in the days of his flesh. . . . he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7).
Men of power in all ages have been men of prayer. Just a few examples are John Knox, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles G. Finney, Jonathan Edwards, D. L. Moody, and D. S. Warner. The secret of the success of these men in the work of God was not their out standing ability and talent, not their superiority above their fellows along educational lines, but their devotion and prayer life. Prayer is the power house of the church’s accomplishment. It connects us with heaven’s dynamo, sends the spiritual electric current down the line, and sets the church on fire for God. Problems arise, but prayer solves them. Troubles come, but prayer dispels them. Discouraging times appear, but prayer lifts us above them all.
What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
THE CONGREGATION A CHURCH OF POWER
The world today is cursed with dead religions and formal churches. Then on the other side are a number of new wild-fire, weird demonstrational religious bodies who have gone to the other extreme. This generally pre sents modern Christianity as a sorry spectacle. The Church of God to accomplish her mission in the world must strike a middle ground, the highway of true holiness, and be a church of power. This must be true, and demonstrated in her individual membership, in her local assemblies, and in the general visible representative body of believers. When we lose the power, there is no progress; we may cling to the form of doctrine, but the vital principle—the kernel—is gone.
Nothing so awakens man’s ambition as power, whether commercial power, corporate power, money power, military power, political power, or governmental power. As we look about us we see there are different kinds of power: (1) The forces of nature, as wind, water, fire, electricity, gravitation, radium, etc. Man has been able to summon all these forces, harness them up, and use them for his service. No doubt if the world stands long enough, other forces will be discovered. (2) There is physical force. This is the power to build, plant, and set the wheels of machinery and industry going in every direction. (3) Mental force. The power of ideas. Power to plan, invent, discover, etc. We stand today astounded at what man has accomplished in this field. He ransacks the heavens and amidst the galaxies, infinities, and im mensities of the universe with which we are surrounded, unlocks mysteries that have been hidden for ages. He delves into the strata of the rocks and in the stone-book of nature reads to us the history of our earth. But there is a greater power than all these combined. It is a spiritual-moral force—the power to overcome evil, dethrone sin and idolatry in individuals and nations, to build character that will stand the tests of earth and time, overcome the attacks of Satan and hell, press through walls of opposition and mountains of difficulty, yes, an influence that spells success always, under all circum stances, in all places, in this time world, and secures an eternal reward hereafter.
This is not mere physical exertion, the power of logic, or the power of eloquence. Mere argument does not often win souls. Sheet lightning dazzles and flashes and is beautiful to behold, but seldom kills anything. It takes forked lightning to do this. Our mission is to save souls. There is tremendous force in words, but “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” will not save.
Then what is this power? It is the power of the Holy Spirit, “power from on high,” being “full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.” In short, it is the mighty, unlimited power of God through the Holy Spirit. It is not something we generate ourselves; it is no more worked up than a thunder shower. A church of power must have a ministry of power. We read “with great power gave the apostles witness.” Paul said of his preaching, “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” But this is not only for preachers, but of the early church we read, “They were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost,” and “great grace [power] was upon THEM ALL” The prophet Micah testifies: “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might” (Micah 3 :8). When a congregation has this experience, there is no room for divisions, surmisings, faultfindings, criticisms, envyings, and jealousies. It is when this divine Holy Ghost power is lacking that these other elements begin to work.
What fire and steam is to machinery, this power is to any church. With it, a congregation breathes the atmosphere of heaven, wields an influence for Christ, and is able to deal with the manifold evils of the times. It is not merely for enjoyment, but for use. In Acts 1 :8 we read that this endowment of power is that the church may witness for Christ. Plant a post and you have nothing but a post. Pull it up and plant a tree. The roots begin to spread, the earth responds and gives life, the branches shoot out and bud and leaf and bear fruit. The beasts gather under the shade, and the birds sing in the branches. How different! Reader, which of these represents your place and standing in the church! Are you a mere post that contributes nothing, or are you a fruit bearing tree of righteousness!
We, as members of the church, are to use this power to the glory of God, and then it uses us. It will make you eminently spiritual, fill you with enthusiasm, yes, unbounded enthusiasm. It will give you the experience expressed by one of the seers of old: “His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.” This experience will make preachers eloquent. In your study you can gather materials, but in the pulpit this power will set those materials on fire. With this, a stripling can meet a Goliath, and a stammerer can become an Apollos. Moody called it “the old gospel with a new power.” For both pastor and laity it constitutes the equipment for effective service.
A CHURCH OF PIETY AND SPIRITUALITY
In 1st Corinthians 2:10-15 the apostle places before us two classes, two distinct kinds of people, in sharp contrast— “the NATURAL man,” and “the SPIRITUAL man.” By “natural” the apostle does not mean the outward physical man, for all possess this nature; and by “spiritual” he does not mean those who have passed into the eternal, glorified state. We inquire then, what does Paul refer to? A careful reading of the above portion of Scripture makes this clear. By natural man he means the unconverted, unregenerated, the unsaved, all who have not the Spirit of Christ. Such may be good moral folk, but spiritually dead, dead to God, and dead to the realm of spiritual things. They may possess many good traits and works, but mere works without faith are “dead works.”
There are two sides to true religion: the spiritual and the practical. It takes both to constitute a person and a church member in good standing in any local assembly. People may be intelligent thinkers, and have philosophical minds, but yet not be spiritual. There are too many such who are active in local church work. A spiritual person is one who is awakened by the Spirit of God, alive to God, and in vital touch with heaven. Here is Paul’s description of a spiritual man: he will “LIVE in the Spirit,” “WALK in the Spirit,” be “LED by the Spirit,” is “AFTER the Spirit,” will “MIND THE THINGS of the Spirit,” “WORSHIP God in Spirit,” is “FERVENT in Spirit,” will “PRAY in the Spirit,” and “SING in the Spirit,” the “manifestation of the Spirit is given to them,” “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,” and he is daily “strengthened with might by his Spirit.” How does your experience and life tally with this de scription? In Galatians 3:3 Paul speaks of some who “having begun in the Spirit,” afterwards hoped to be “made perfect by the flesh.” Oh, how many there are today who belong to this class! Paul pronounced them “bewitched.”
There is no question but that spirituality must be the characteristic of God’s people, both individually and collectively, in order for them to fulfill the work and mission God has assigned to his church. This is true because this is preeminently the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and the Christian church is declared to be a “spiritual house” made up of spiritual people. Nothing but spiritual service and worship is acceptable to God. Dead formal worship is obnoxious to God. Deep piety and spirituality will rate the measure of our usefulness individually, and collectively as a congregation. I want to stress this fact. It is not natural talent, ability, or mere opportunities, but your degree of spirituality that counts. To attain the measure of God’s usefulness for you, enter the holiest of all, live in the inner circle of God’s will, near the heart of God, and drink deep “into the Spirit.”
A lot of things have been substituted for spirituality. It is not religious excitement and mere noise. All will admit that Jesus Christ was eminently spiritual, but I cannot conceive of his being very demonstrative or noisy. When he preached he sat down on the mountain side or in the boat and taught the people. Yet there was a power and heavenly anointing that accompanied his messages so that the people were compelled to say, “Never man spake like this man.” On the other hand, there are times when spirituality will produce noise and demon stration among religious people. This was clearly demon strated when Jesus rode on a colt down the western slope of the Mount of Olives, and entered the Temple grounds. The multitude of his disciples went before and after in loud demonstration of praise and thanksgiving, crying and saying, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” In their religious excitement and enthusiasm they even cast their garments in the way and broke off the branches from the trees and strewed them before him. Of the disciples it is said, “They were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” Both in the Old and New Testaments there are many examples of holy demonstration, but this in itself is not spirituality.
Spirituality is not mere zeal, earnestness, self-sacrifice, and self-denial. People may have all these and yet not be spiritual. There is danger sometimes in mistaking these elements for spirituality. But on the other hand, real pious, spiritual people are zealous, earnest, and self sacrificing in their lives. Again, spirituality is not mere orthodoxy in doctrine and practice. It is possible to be strictly orthodox in our teaching and belief and biblical in our outward practice, and yet lack vital spirituality.
In short, spirituality is the result of being “filled with the Spirit.” It is divine life in the soul, direct, sweet fellowship with God, an inward, burning passion of God’s love in the soul that enables the members of the church to “love one another with a pure heart fervently”; and fills them with a burning passion for lost men and women around them. Paul terms it in his own life the power that “worketh in me mightily” True spirituality will be visibly demonstrated in all who have the experience. It will be manifest in their conversation. Such people talk about spiritual things. It will be felt in our prayers, singing, testimonies, and preaching. It makes the service of God a delight and not a drag. Such delight themselves in the Lord, in his Word, work, and people. The performance of Christian service is not prompted by a sense of mere duty and compulsion, but “the love of Christ constraineth us.”
There are some definite signs when people are spiritual. One is life and activity. There are too many professors of religion whose pulse one must feel to ascertain whether they are alive. They have some activity but it is merely mechanical. To a spiritual person all Christian performance, such as attending church, praying, sing ing, witnessing, financial giving, etc., is a delight, a real pleasure, the natural outflow of an inward condition. Such people enjoy spiritual taste. “O taste and see.” Yes, they have a real appetite and thirst for spiritual things. They also have vision. They are able “to see that the Lord is good.” They are also sensitive to the checks of the Holy Spirit. They have spiritual hearing. “Hear, and your soul shall live.”
There are too many professing Christians who are dull of hearing when it comes to the Holy Spirit’s voice of warning against abstaining “from all appearance of evil.” Here are some safe rules. First, in your dress. “Do all to the glory of God.” What you cannot put on to his glory, leave off. Second, indulge in nothing that you would not want to be doing the very hour that death overtakes you. Third, go no place you would not want to be found when the last trump of God will sound and you are summoned into the august presence of the great judge of the universe.
There are some essentials to spirituality. It cannot be attained without a complete consecration and dedication of ourselves and all we have to God forevermore. This means a surrender to the entire will of God, without a single reserve. We must daily drink of the Spirit through much fervent prayer and holy meditation. It means a clean life, both secret, family, and public. People must be liberal with their means, for “the liberal soul shall be made fat.” When church members bring their tithes and offerings and deposit them in the house of the Lord, God will always verify his promise: “Prove me now herewith.. . . if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” We must walk in all the light and measure up on every point. Look out for number one, and get your eyes off the faults and failures of others.
A local assembly that is eminently spiritual will find itself far above the groveling things of this wicked world and sin. It will be living in “heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” It takes spiritual people to have spiritual meet ings, and such only can demonstrate to the world old-time, experimental religion, and make the same attractive. Such a church is a lighthouse, a soul-saving institution. Such congregations are a pleasure to God and an honor to his cause, and point the community to a higher and better life.
CHURCH SEPARATE FROM SIN AND SINNERS
A church that is clean and separate from sin and sinners is the ideal which every local assembly should strive to attain. God never did, in any dispensation of the world’s history, approve of mixture. He always designed to have a clean, separate, distinct people to represent him on the earth. When the descendants of Seth intermarried and mixed with the descendants of Cain, it brought God’s wrath upon the earth and finally resulted in the flood. See Genesis 6. Later, when the whole world was given over to idolatry, God selected Abraham, whose kinsmen were idol worshipers, and said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2). This, as we clearly showed in a previous chapter, was fulfilled in the Jewish nation. God solemnly charged that his people keep separate and distinct from all other peoples, for he chose them to be a “holy nation” unto himself. As long as they obeyed God in this respect, his blessing and favor rested upon them. But when they mixed up with the other nations with whom they were surrounded, judgment from the Almighty was poured out upon them.
When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan and captured Jericho, one of their number, Achan, trans gressed the command of God. The result was that when they went out to capture Ai they were slaughtered and defeated. When Joshua, their leader, inquired of the Lord the cause of this defeat, God said, “There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee.” Achan had stolen a “Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold,” and “the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel,” because of this. By the command of the Lord, Achan and his household were destroyed from among God’s people, and then they marched on victorious. This shows that God not only is pleased in having an exclusive, separate church and people in the earth, but he wants them to keep clean from sin among themselves.
Another striking example is the case of Gideon as found in the sixth and seventh chapters of Judges. God selected Gideon to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites and the Amalekites. When Gideon called for volunteers to help him in this great work, an army of thirty-two thousand stepped out on the Lord’s side. God, who sees the hearts of all men, said to Gideon, “The people that are with thee are too many.” So he put them to the test: “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return.” On that day twenty-two thousand returned to their homes. That left but a small army of ten thousand. After God looked them over he said, “The people are yet too many.” So he gave them another test, and finally out of thirty-two thousand there were three hundred selected whom God could use. With this small company the Lord defeated the Arab hosts of Midian and delivered Israel. The truth we gather is that the Lord is not so much interested in a big work as he is in a clean work.
You see God is a holy, righteous God, an exclusive God. He recognizes no other god (Isaiah 44:8). The Philistines once tried to force Jehovah to recognize their deity, Dagon, and fellowship him. They placed the ark of the covenant, that they had stolen, in their idol temple beside Dagon. The next morning they found Dagon fallen down before the God of Israel. They set him up again, and the next time they found him not only fallen down but broken in pieces. This simply proves that God is a jealous God and will not recognize any other. Of his people he demands, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Being a righteous, holy, and exclusive God, our Lord wants a holy, righteous people to represent him here on the earth. We have seen in previous chapters that the church is now the dwelling place of God through the Spirit, his house, and this is true of its individual members as well as the collective body; we can see why God demands a clean, pure, holy people to represent him on earth. The place of his dwelling must be holy. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush in the wilderness he said, “Put off thy shoes . . . . for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” When God came down on Mount Sinai, the whole mountain was sanctified and hallowed with his glory. We have seen that the same was true in the tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple at Jerusalem. Being the dwelling place of Jehovah, they were termed “the holy house.”
Since the New Testament church, individually and collectively, local and general, is God’s house, his temple and sanctuary, it is still true as Paul says, “The temple of God is HOLY, which temple YE ARE.” So God gives us a solemn injunction: “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” This emphasizes the solemn charge “Come out from among them, and BE YE SEPARATE” (2nd Corinthians 6:14-18). This comprehends separation from dead formalists. In 2nd Timothy 3 :1-5 Paul tells us that one of the outstanding characteristics of pro fessed Christianity in the “last days” of this world’s career, and one that would make these last times “perilous,” would be that professors of religion “shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY.” This Scripture obeyed will bring out from all dead, formal religions bodies the true people of God. And God is accomplishing this very thing in the very time in which we are now living—the gathering of God’s people from all places where they have been scattered during the apostasy, back to the heights of Zion—the beautiful divine New Testament church—robed and adorned in the garments of righteousness and holiness, is now going on.
A CHURCH OF WORKERS
“So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6)). Nehemiah had a commission from God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He had a divine commission, and he was a strong leader, but he could not accomplish the work himself. It was too great for him. The people cooperated and helped. They felt the responsibility, shared it, and went to work.
Just so with church work. Every local congregation and every member of such a congregation, to be successful, must have a mind to work. Too many church members have no vision any larger than the walls of the building in which they worship. Some people’s vision has broadened enough to include the town or the community where they live, but farther than this they cannot see. Their idea of service is just to meet once or twice a week in their religious gathering, sing and pray and hear the sermons preached. They feel no burden or sense of responsibility for the lost world around them. Oh, for a mighty awakening in every local assembly of God’s people. The church is the Lord’s medium to dis seminate the light and truth of the gospel of salvation to the lost world. That is the church’s mission, the purpose for which it was established in the earth. Any congregation then, to be successful, must get down to earnest, hard work.
While we were missionaries in Syria, I picked up the Gospel Trumpet and my attention was attracted by the heading of a certain article written by A. T. Rowe. The title was: “Meet an Old Friend.” Naturally I wondered who this friend might be, but I did not read far until I had the solution. This friend was defined “Hard Work.” Any local assembly, to be successful, must go to work. I repeat, to us is committed the immense responsibility of carrying the message of saving truth to those about us—to our own kinsfolk, to our neighbors, the community where our church is located, and then to the world at large. We will enjoy our religion better if we share it with others, and our purpose should be to win. You cannot drive, force, or scare people into a full acceptance of the truth; you must win them. “He that WINNETH souls is wise.” Jesus said: “I will DRAW.” We must show an interest in folk, go after them, make them welcome, be friendly, kind, and courteous. Paul said God will give you “mouth and wisdom.”
There is something about personal touch, making con tacts and showing an interest in people that counts immensely in church work. Of course you must show an interest yourself in every department of the work in order to create an interest in others. Every local church should be 100 per cent Sunday-school attenders, and would it not be fine if every Sunday school was 100 per cent church attenders?
All wealth is the product of labor, both mental and physical. All great achievements, whether in the field of invention, industry, or governments, are the result of hard work. Work is beneficial. It is conducive to health and increases appreciation and economy. Our slogan should be: Keep on the job; keep pegging away; keep eternally at it. Your field of opportunity may not be so great as some others in the church; but if you get busy, you can accomplish something. Activity is the result of spiritual life and is conducive to it. Spiritual inactivity, carelessness, indifference, laziness, stupidity, lethargy, and a general lack of interest will render individual members impotent, and the local assembly as a whole absolutely dead and powerless. Great God, awaken thy church!
Such people mistake the true meaning of religion. They imagine they can step on a spiritual elevator and be carried automatically up into heaven without any effort on their part. They forget the responsibility of life. They fail to realize fully that they must render an account to God in the judgment for how they spend every day of life, how they avail themselves of all the opportunities of life, and how they use the talents and qualifications they possess. The devil chloroforms them when it comes to spiritual things. Oh, yes, they are alive to business, to money making, to politics, and a hundred other things of earth and time; but they are asleep and dead to God, dead to spiritual things, dead to real soul saving work. God pronounces “woe” upon such. Such a life of carelessness in the church is detrimental to one’s own soul and has a bad effect upon others. An inactive, sleeping church is not attractive to sinners, and will never have genuine revivals of true religion. In a real, live, active, awakened assembly, the spirit of salvation work will continue the whole year through. If people would really get busy, what they could accomplish! If every member of every assembly would at least win one soul for Christ in a year, how their church would grow, not only in numbers, but in spirituality and influence as well.
A CHURCH THAT PRACTICES WHAT IT PREACHES AND PROFESSES
“Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” (Romans 2:21). “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God?” (Romans 2:23). “Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doeth the same things” (Romans 2:1). “And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:3). From these texts, with many others that could be given, we see that the great imperative need of the time is for each saint of God, each preacher, each local assembly, and the church in general to practice what we profess and teach. Not to do this is to rob our message of its power and effectiveness, to make our selves a laughing stock to those around us, and worse than all this, fall under the judgments of Almighty God.
There are too many blue-print, picture-book preachers and sermons. What do we mean? Before a structure of any value is erected, the mechanic or draftsman draws a blue print, a detailed outline of the structure to be erected; some architects will even draw a picture which shows exactly what the building itself should look like. Now in the Bible, particularly the New Testament, we have the blue print in detail, showing just what the church should be. Not only so, but the picture of the beautiful, symmetrical New Testament Church of God is graphically portrayed. It is not enough continually to call attention to the blue print and picture as given in the Scriptures. People get tired of looking at a mere blue print, at a picture of something. They want to see the real thing itself, and they have a right to demand this. But the Word of God strictly enjoins us not merely to show the picture, but to “show THE HOUSE” itself.
On the Day of Pentecost Peter first presented the picture as portrayed by the prophet Joel. See Joel 2:28-32; compare with Acts 2:14-21. But he didn’t stop there. He boldly declared concerning that which had happened right there before the eyes of people that “THIS IS THAT.” The people witnessed the thing itself, and this is what convinced them of the truth and resulted in the con version that day of three thousand souls. And this is the present need of the hour. Sometimes we preachers have spent much valuable time on the blue print and picture of the church as given in the New Testament. We have presented a theoretical picture-book church in all its glory, and then wondered why more people do not see the church. When we can point to our local, visible congregations of believers who have accepted the message and been called out as a result, and when we can say truthfully, “this is that,” the people will see the church.
It is utterly inconsistent to hold up a beautiful picture and perfect outline of the church as given in the New Testament Scriptures, and then present to them in our own work an old, dilapidated, rotten, homely shack, and say, “This is it.” And it is still more inconsistent to remark sarcastically, “Why can’t they see the church? They are utterly perverted or they could see it.” They do not see it because our old dirty shack does not harmonize with the picture. We must practice what we profess and preach. May I say to every individual member of a local assembly and to the visible assembly as a whole, the general cause that you claim to represent is judged by what the people see IN YOU. In every locality or community, the visible assembly of God’s people is what people look at as the church.
Listen, it is when people see in the local, visible assembly a spirit-filled people, a Holy Ghost church, having fervent love and unity among themselves, walking in all the light, and demonstrating what they preach and profess, then and then only will a gainsaying and unenlightened community see the true Church of God. We must measure to the standard in our personal Christian experience, that is, we must be soundly converted and subsequently sanctified holy. Our lives must measure up to the blue print. This must be true in our secret walk, our home life, and in the community generally, in our business dealings and general transactions with the world. If you get up in the public assembly and testify to being saved and sanctified, and in that same congregation there sits the merchant, garage man, or other business men to whom you owe debts, but have broken your contract and neglected to pay, to such persons your testimony is a mockery. Is your record clean? Do your children and your companion who live in very close contact with you day by day, have implicit confidence in your profession? If sick or in trouble, would they call on you to pray for them? How about that man to whom you sold that old car and represented it to be so and so? Do you think he would call upon you for prayer and help in his dying hour? May I ask you preachers, would the business men, your creditors where you last lived and had charge of the work before you moved to your present location, send for you to pray for them in the solemn hour of their departure? Honestly, have you, like Paul, “a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.”? To preach and profess a high standard, and then be loose in our practice is making a mockery of religion and the church. To be successful, each member of each assembly must practice what he preaches.
A MISSIONARY SPIRIT AND PROGRAM
No local church can succeed as it should without a place for missions in its program. In fact the Holy Ghost was given to the church to equip it for missionary work. It is the business of the church to witness for Christ “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1 :8). The final solemn charge and commission, as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; and Luke 24:47, to carry the gospel message “among all nations” in “all the world” to “every creature” rests upon the shoulders of the ministry and church of this age. The responsibility is ours. Our field is not a mere community, state, or nation, but “the field is the world.” The foundation on which this solemn charge rests is (1) A universal need. “All have sinned”; the whole world is guilty before God; hence all are lost, and Christ is their only hope. Only those who believe in Him shall be saved. The apostle asks, “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?” This is the work of the church, to send missionaries into all the world. (2) God’s universal love. He did not simply love one community, one nation, or a particular class of people, but. “God so loved THE WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son.” (3) God’s universal provision. “Christ died for all.” He “tasted death for every man.” It is the solemn duty of the church to carry this message to “every creature” in all the world. (4) God’s uni versal invitation. Not one is excluded. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” The evangelistic prophet, Isaiah, expresses it thus: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” (5) God’s universal will. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”
In primitive times Paul felt the burden of this solemn obligation. Hear him, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise” (Romans 1 :14). It was missions that gave Christ to the world. The prophetic declarations are replete with this fact, and the birth announcement by the angels declared it. “Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The cause of missions is founded on Christ’s death, and inspired by his resurrection. This great cause and work is the purpose of Pentecost, and it is the work of the Holy Ghost in the church. The very root and life of true religion is personal devotion to Christ. Christ’s interests become ours. The very cause that brought him from heaven to earth, that led him to become poor, despised and rejected of men, that inspired him to carry our sins and humble him self even to the ignominious death of the cross is the enterprise that must imbue every member of the church. It means active service in his cause. You see we receive mercy from him, and we owe it to men. The world’s apathy does not release our obligation. Salvation is not a tank or cistern, but a fountain or spring that flows out. Every saved person becomes a trustee of the gospel, and is responsible to take this gospel to the whole family of mankind—and we are members of that family. Thus we are duty bound and morally obligated to see that the world gets the gospel, not because of something received from them, but because of something God has given us for them.
I here repeat, we cannot evade this great responsibility and burden that Christ laid upon his ministry and church. We cannot excuse ourselves and be guilt less. This responsibility will meet us at the judgment. It may be on our hands there, for our liabilities are increasing every day. These nations are no longer afar off; modern science and invention have laid earth’s myriads at our very door. It is estimated that nearly 800,000,000 people are yet in heathen night. Here are some appalling facts. Around 12,045,000 adult heathen die every year, 1,003,750 every month, 250,938 every week, more than 33,000 every day, 1,375 every hour, and about 29 every minute. Think of that. The plaintive cry, the beckoning hand from every side is “Come over and help us.” Preachers must feel this burden enough to go any where, everywhere, to endure, suffer, sacrifice, work, and give their whole time to the spreading of the gospel of salvation. Church members must all feel this obligation enough to sacrifice, deny themselves, tithe their gross income, and support not only their local work, but every phase of the work, including the great cause of foreign missions. Missions is not a poor beggar standing at the door of the church, pleading for a few consecrated workers and a paltry sum to carry on. No, indeed. When the work is normal and possesses the spirit of primitive Christianity, missions will be a very real and vital part of the church. I have heard pastors remark that if their local assembly would get back of and support the foreign missionary cause, the local work would suffer. I have been pastor of a number of congregations, both large and small, all of which liberally supported the missionary work, and I have proved that this excuse is not true. My observation and experience has proved that wherever a local church will liberally support missions, that church will prosper financially in its local work in proportion.
A SOUND BIBLICAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
As before observed, Christianity, or true religion, has both a spiritual and practical side. As expressed in Hebrews 13:15-16: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” This expresses the spiritual side of religion. But lest people should forget the practical side, the writer continues, “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” A well-balanced and rounded-out Christian experience and life are both spiritual and practical. A local church, to be successful, must also demonstrate these principles.
The principle of gospel giving is expressed in the following Scriptures: “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). “And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). All that we have, we received. Paul asks, “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” (1) Our own selves. “Ye are not your own.” God made us; we are his offspring. (2) Our lives. “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing.” (3) Our know ledge, wisdom, talents, opportunities, and gifts, whether natural or spiritual, come from God. (4) This is true of temporal and physical blessings as well, such as food, raiment, strength, and health. “Every good gift and every perfect gift. . . . cometh down from the Father of lights, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”
All that we enjoy in the spiritual realm is the free gift of God. Christ himself is the Father’s gift to the world. The Holy Ghost is a gift. Salvation is by grace, hence a gift, for “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” God gives freely: “Freely ye have received.” The word “freely” here has two meanings: (1) What we receive from God is unmerited, it is by grace. (2) He does not give sparingly but in abundance, bountifully. “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life FREELY.” “Shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). This means grace in abundance, “fullness of joy,” yes, “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” and “peace like a river.”
Now in view of all the foregoing facts, it places man under obligation to give to God as an evidence of love and deep appreciation. No individual member of the church, and no local assembly as a whole can prosper and succeed without fully supporting God’s cause in a financial way. This principle and practice is as old as the human family, and really dates from the first family of mankind. In Genesis 4:3-4 we read that the two sons of Adam gave a proportionate amount of their substance to the Lord. Cain was “a tiller of the ground,” that is, he was a farmer. His brother, Abel, was “a keeper of sheep.” Now when Cain harvested his crops, did he keep and store it all up for himself as some folk do today? No, indeed. “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” And what about Abel? When his flocks increased, did he selfishly keep them all for himself? Here is the answer, “He also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof as an offering to the Lord. Some scholars whom I have consulted claim that here is where tithing began. I am inclined to believe that this is correct. But one thing is certain, they gave a proportionate amount of their total income to the Lord. The inference is that their father, Adam, taught them to do this, and of course we infer that he practiced it before them. We inquire, where did Adam get his instruction and direction to do such a thing? One thing is certain, it was not handed down by tradition. Paul tells us that Adam was “the first man.” There is but one conclusion. The solemn obligation to give was handed to Adam direct from God his Creator, and that obligation remains the same in all ages.
In the patriarchal age, hundreds of years before the Mosaic law was given, Abraham, the father of many nations whose seed we are, gave “tithes of all” to Melchizedek who was king of Salem and priest of the most high God (Genesis 14:17-20). How does it come that he paid tithes? Why not some other sum or amount? What led him to do it? Why a tenth of all? There is no evasion of the fact that a divine principle is here set forth, namely, tithing began in Eden and was a general practice among the people of God from that time until Abraham’s day. And the righteous example of this father of the faithful left its impress upon his children and grandchildren. Hear his grandson Jacob making a solemn vow to God, “Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee” (Genesis 28:16-22). Again I ask, why the particular tenth? What put the tenth into Jacob’s mind? It seems to me that a little meditation and thought on this would prove that all this was providential.
There is a biblical financial system that in principle has never changed from Eden until now. If every local church would adopt it, all phases of God’s work would be well supported. Right principles never change. Dispensations may change, ceremonial laws may change, ordin ances may change, law may be supplanted by the gospel, but moral principles never change. Something that was a moral obligation from Eden during the Patriarchal and the Mosaical ages remains a moral duty under the gospel. There are some who contend that the tithing system originated in the law of Moses. This I boldly affirm is incorrect. A principle and practice that was in vogue for 2,500 years before the Sinaitic law was given was simply incorporated into that law system. But upon investigation we find that during the Mosaical age three distinct tithes were required of the Israelites. (1) A tenth for the support of the ministry—the Levites (Numbers 18 :20-21). (2) A tenth to the king (1st Samuel 8:10-17). (3) A tenth for ‘the yearly feast at Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:22, 27). Then beside all this, the people were required to give liberally to the poor (Leviticus 19 :9-10; 23 :22); their sin offerings demanded the very best of their lambs, goats, heifers, and bullocks; and above all this their vows and free-will offerings. Read Deuteronomy 12:17; Exodus 35:20-29; and 2nd Chronicles 24:8-12. The temple at Jerusalem, that cost approximately $37,000,000 in our money, was not erected with tithe money, but from the free-will offerings of the people.
In view of all this, the liberalities of the Israelite nation under the law would put the Christian church today to shame. A careful estimate will show that in the dispensation of the law, the people gave approximately one-half of their total income to the Lord. Selfishly inclined people today would naturally say, “I don’t see how they ever lived.” But God’s promise to them was that if they would obey him in all this, he would bless and prosper them financially (read Deuteronomy 28:1-6; 8-13; and Proverbs 3:9-10). I am happy to say that as long as Israel obeyed God and gave liberally of their means, he blessed and prospered them. Listen, “Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry. . . And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba” (1st Kings 4:20-25). “And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and olive yards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness” (Nehemiah 9 :25). It was when they let up in their liberalities and robbed God by not paying their tithes and giving their free-will offerings to support his work that famine, pestilence, and poverty came upon them. The same principle holds good today.
In the dispensation of the law their obligations were enjoined with “thou shalt.” Under the gospel Jesus says, “If ye love me ye will.” Under the Christian dis pensation the responsibility in these things is not lessened because the requirement is not enforced in such radical language, backed up with stones and death, but the incentive, the prompting influence and motive is now love, yes, love to God and for his cause. In his epistles to the local church at Corinth, it will be noted that Paul devoted several chapters (1st Corinthians 9; 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9) to the subject of finance and the liberalities of that congregation. A careful reading of these chapters will show that the apostle emphasized a sound financial system as being essential to their success as a congregation. Now it follows that if this was essential in the primitive churches, it is absolutely so in our day.
The apostle shows that in order to succeed in the “grace of giving” and to “not come behind in this grace,” a purposed amount is necessary. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2nd Corinthians 9 :7). Of course the amount purposed should never fall below the tithe and may reach far beyond this. A careful reading of Malachi, third chapter, will show that it is largely prophetical. Both the ministry of John the Baptist and Christ the Messiah are clearly foretold. In this chapter Judah and Jerusalem are used as metaphors of the New Testament church. Now right in the center of this chapter we read, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (vs. 8-10). Here we have New Testament truth in Old Testament prophecy.
There is not a hint in the entire New Testament that the moral obligation of giving a proportionate amount as practiced by God’s people in both the Patriarchal age, covering 2,500 years, and the Mosaical age, covering 1,500 years, was ever changed. When speaking to certain persons who paid tithes and yet “omitted the weightier matters of the law,” Jesus said, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23 :23). His language shows that he approved of their tithing but disapproved of their not performing certain weightier matters. In Hebrews 7:1-8 the subject of tithing is clearly presented. First, Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. The Christian church is composed of the seed of Abraham through Christ, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed.” So hundreds of years before the Mosaical age was ushered in, our father Abraham gave a tenth of all and set the example to all his children. The writer of this epistle has clearly shown that this Melchizedek was a clear type of Christ, our everlasting high priest. Then after stressing this point, it is shown that in the law dispensation the sons of Levi received tithes of the people. All this was typical. The grand climax is clearly expressed in verse 8. “And here [in those dispensations that preceded the Christian era] men that die receive tithes.” Melchizedek, the tribe of Levi, and all others back there are dead. But listen, “But there [in the new dispensation of the gospel] HE RECEIVETH THEM, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.” This refers directly to Jesus Christ, our everlasting high priest. He is to receive our tithes, for that is what he is talking about. In other words, we pay our tithes to Christ. Then whatever is given to the support of the gospel, is given to the Lord. Brother, does Christ receive your tithe? Will a man rob God? It seems to me it would be more honorable to rob a bank rather than to rob God. Under the law dispensation not only did the eleven tribes of Israel pay tithes to the ministers of that dispensation—the Levites, but the tribe of Levi also were required to tithe to the Aaronites, and so on. This is a clear type of the fact that God’s ministers are under obligation to tithe as well as are all other persons.
In the carrying on of local church work, the Lord has ordained that the ministry—pastors and evangelists— shall be supported by the people. When Jesus sent out the first apostles he instructed them not to provide gold, silver, clothes, shoes, and script for their journeys “for the workman is worthy of his meat” (Matthew 10:10). “The laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7). Referring back to these words of Christ, Paul, in 1st Corinthians 9 :14, tells us, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” In the same chapter the apostle tells this local church, “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” (vs. 11). Paul emphasizes this duty in Galatians 6:6, “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.” In 1st Corinthians 9 :7-11 the apostle emphatically declares that the ministry are not to support themselves, but their maintenance is to come from the church.
The purpose of this is that the ministry may be able to give their entire strength, energy, attention, and time to the sacred work to which God has called them. How ever, the attitude of the true preacher of the gospel is not that of a “hireling,” one who “makes merchandise of the gospel,” and simply enters the ministry and engages therein for “filthy lucre’s sake.” Many Scrip tures both in the Old and New Testament condemn this in the strongest terms. It is a regrettable fact that too many preachers engage in the work as a mere profession which they themselves choose for a livelihood. This is a sacred, divine calling, and a true minister fills the most responsible position in the world today. The ministry should be entered with reverence and in the fear of God, and the motive should be the glory of God, the salvation of souls, and the evangelization of the world. This attitude, however, of true ministers of Jesus Christ does not in the least lessen the responsibility and solemn duty of the church adequately to support them.
|
Part 2
|
CHAPTER 8
SOME OF THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
AS SET forth in the oracles of God, there are a number of prominent attributes of the New Testament church. We shall consider the following in order: divinity, unity, or oneness, holiness, government, unchangeableness, and indestructibility.
THE DIVINITY OF THE CHURCH
We have in the world today a number of religions, and they have millions of followers. Among these are Buddhism, Confucianism, and Mohammedanism. These religions originated with men, therefore, they are but human. Christianity differs from all these in that it is heavenly and divine. The founder of Christianity is Christ the Lord of glory. This differentiates between Christianity and all other religions. Every religion that originated in man cannot be but human and local in its nature.
The New Testament church did not originate with man. It was not left in the hands of finite, fallible men to found and organize. Thank God, it is divine. “Christ, as a son over his own house,” appeared on earth and built the beautiful church of the living God. As recorded in Matthew 16 :13-18, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” After they answered his question, he asked them the personal question, “But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Here a number of truths are clearly expressed: (1) Christ is the builder, founder, and organizer of the New Testament church. (2) The church he built he denominates “MY church.” (3) His church is to stand forever. We note that unlike all human institutions and religious bodies that had their origin in man, the New Testament Church of God emanated from Jesus Christ, and is a divine institution. In the Book of Daniel it is spoken of as “a stone cut out without hands” (Daniel 2:34), and “the God of heaven set up a kingdom” (vs. 44).
These Scriptures, with many more that could be brought forth, prove conclusively the divinity of the church in this dispensation. Her foundation is Jesus Christ the divine Savior. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is her animating life and light. Her creed is the pure Word of God—her discipline, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Being a divinely inspired discipline, it corrects every error and teaches every obligation of righteousness in all our relationships with God and man.
God’s church is said to be a “spiritual house,” and to her is given a spiritual law. Her government is divine, not only in the legislative department, but in its judicial and executive departments. In Isaiah 9:6 we read, “And the government shall be upon his shoulder.” Her walls are salvation (Isaiah 26:1; 60:18), therefore her walls are also divine. The church has a divine door which is Jesus Christ (John 10 :7-9). Having been purchased with his own blood, Christ claims in the church the exclusive right of proprietorship. The New Testament church is not “our church,” but “God’s building,” divinely owned, and his glory he will not give to another.
The members of this church are all Sons of God, and they his holy image. She is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” No human institution can justly lay claim to being the bride of Christ. Of her he says, “My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother.”
This church is even divinely named “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom [from whom] the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14-15). Let not men presume to characterize her by other names that they invent.
THE UNITY OR ONENESS OF THE CHURCH
The ultimate purpose and will of God is clearly expressed in Ephesians 1 :10: “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth: even in him.” Again in 2nd Thessalonians 2:1 this final and universal “gathering together unto him” is identified with “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this treatise, however, I desire to consider only one ness as it applies to the Lord’s people in this present life and world, to be demonstrated in the New Testament Church of God.
The Christian world today is blighted and cursed with numerous factions and schisms. Surely this dreadful evil is not an unavoidable one. The very fact that God renounces it in his Word in the very strongest terms, and has made provision through the blood of Christ for the unity and oneness of his people proves that there is a foundation broad and deep enough upon which we can stand clear of this evil.
We shall consider, first, What is not comprehended in unity or the oneness of the Lord’s people as defined in the New Testament Scriptures; and then, second, What it does comprehend.
1. It does not mean an absolute accord in matters of conscience. In 1st Corinthians 10:23-29 Paul recognizes the law of conscience. The conscience can be educated correctly or incorrectly. This very apostle at one time thought in his heart that he was doing God’s service in opposing Christianity, and it appears that his conscience approved of his action. Our teaching and conception of what is right largely regulates our conscience. For example, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. . . One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14 1 6) In these few verses a principle is laid down.
There are thousands of things in common life, and many that arise in the church, where no moral principle whatever is involved, and these belong to the class Paul mentioned—methods of living in general, various customs and manners, dress, holding office, voting, recreation, social life, life insurance, etc, etc. People in different nations have widely different standards in practically all of these things. We found this to be true in our travels in various countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In all such matters there can be a great variety, and yet scriptural unity. God never intended the weak conscience of some brother or sister to be the standard of the church. On this point Paul says, “Why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?” Church members differ in their gifts, offices, temperaments, likes and dislikes, manners, customs, dress, conscience scruples, etc. Some are inclined to be radical and others liberal. There are hundreds of things kindred to those already mentioned that are not essential and fundamental. Sad to say, and yet too often true, congregations have been rent asunder over trivial matters. If people have a full understanding of this, there can be perfect scriptural unity and yet variety.
2. It is not always the same mind and opinion in matters of detail in the Lord’s work, not following the same methods. This is demonstrated in Paul and Barnabas who differed widely in their opinion about taking John Mark with them on a certain occasion. James and his congregation in Jerusalem used entirely different methods of work than did Paul and his colaborers at Antioch. A careful reading will show that Peter, among the Jews, and Paul, among the Gentiles, used entirely different methods in their work. That is how it happened that on one occasion, according to Paul’s judgment, Peter “was to be blamed” and “walked not uprightly,” and Paul withstood him to his face. See Galatians 2 :11-14. Unquestionably there was a wide difference here in the manner of procedure and in the judgment of these apostles about what was proper. But they had enough divine love in their hearts for the general cause which they represented, and for each other, that they did not allow this disagreement to break their fellowship and confidence. They were too magnanimous for such a thing. This is the spirit that is needed today, the kind that will assure unity in the church.
3. It is not the molding of the thoughts of an entire group into harmony with some outstanding religious leader. This very effort to bring the thinking of an entire group into harmony with that of some outstanding religious leader has been largely responsible for the formation of a number of present-day denominational movements, and has narrowed some religious bodies into the most intolerant sectarianism. A God-given faculty in every man is the right to think, and Bible oneness does not destroy the quality of individuality and the power and privilege to think for ourselves. What the church and world need is people who are free to exercise this right, for it is the only means of arriving at conclusions that satisfy. In a work ordained by God and directed by the Holy Ghost, no one individual is chosen to think for and act for the entire body.
4. It is not an instantaneous, full and complete under standing of all truth the moment the Holy Spirit is received. Nor is it always the ability clearly to comprehend the facts when first presented. It is not infallibility, not freedom from mistakes. In every detail and techni cality, in every critical analysis, it does not mean perfect uniformity of understanding.
Christ himself daily taught his disciples the spiritual nature of his kingdom, and for more than three years he drilled them in this truth, yet they did not understand. Even after his resurrection they asked him about the literal restoration of the kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6).
This simply shows how slow they were to understand fully. The Master on several occasions clearly foretold his death and resurrection, but they did not understand him. After he was risen from the dead he upbraided them because they were slow to understand and believe. Just before his death he said to them, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16 :12). From this we learn that the revelation of truth to the human mind and heart is gradual. And people today are much the same as they were back there. Too often it has been concluded that if in a ten Days’ meet ing of doctrinal preaching people did not clearly comprehend the truth as presented, they could no longer be recognized as the people of God. This is a sad mistake. Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would guide them “into all truth” (John 16:13). However, this guidance was progressive. Jesus gave his apostles the final grand commission to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, among all nations.” I ask, did they fully comprehend the meaning? It would seem that the language of Jesus was so simple and clear that they could fully understand it, but they did not. At least eight years after the Day of Pentecost when Peter had received the Holy Ghost, he would not go and preach to Gentiles until the Lord had given him a vision from heaven (see Acts 10); and even then the rest of the brethren at Jerusalem severely criticized him and “contended with him” over it (Acts 11:1-17).
Probably thirty years after the Holy Spirit was given, James, together with the elders of the church at Jeru salem, told Paul to shave his head and purify himself according to the law, for they said, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law.” We are informed that Paul obeyed this advice in order to satisfy this Jewish church at Jerusalem that he himself walked orderly and kept the law. Read Acts 21 :17-27. This same apostle, Paul, for years before this had traveled extensively and planted large churches in different parts of the then known world, and everywhere taught against the observance of Moses’ law. Probably two years before this incident at Jerusalem, Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians, and in that he severely censured the Galatians for allow ing teachers of the Law to bewitch them to go back to the law observances.
Here is a fact. James the pastor and the elders, as a body, and the thousands who made up the church at Jerusalem were strict observers of Moses’ law at least thirty years after the Holy Ghost was given at Pentecost. Other Scriptures prove that during this very time the apostles, such as Peter and John, were members of this same congregation. The Holy Spirit had not as yet fully guided them into the liberties of the new covenant. And remember also that at the very time the church at Jerusalem were strict observers of the rites and cere monies of the law, the Gentile churches planted by Paul “observed none of these things.” While members of the Jerusalem church in general were zealous of the law and observed it, after the conference at Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15 :6-19, some of the leaders received light enough not to bind these things upon the Gentile church; while there were others who tried to do so (Acts 15:1-2, 24; Galatians 2:1-14). These last went too far. But Paul, who was broad enough to “become all things unto all men” that he might win some, went to the limit to place himself in a proper light with his radical brethren at Jerusalem.
Irrespective of these surface differences, fundamentally they were one, and there was a sweet unity of the Spirit, a vital relation between the Jewish church at Jerusalem and the Gentile churches with which they were surrounded. So while there was a difference in methods of work, manner of worship, observance of rites, and some further advanced in the revelation of truth than others, this did not affect nor destroy the unity of the primitive church. Here is a vital point. And if that was true back there among the apostles themselves and the congregations they planted, can it not be true today? Unity among the ministry and churches in apostolic days did not consist in strict uniformity along all lines. Cere monial observances at best, while important and intended to be observed, are but object lessons to teach deeper and richer truth. For example, in Romans 2:26-29 Paul clearly shows that if “the uncircumcision” [Gentiles] “keep the righteousness of the law,” “his uncircumcision shall be counted for circumcision.” A real Jew, and real circumcision, as God views them are not “outward in the flesh,” but “INWARDLY,” “OF THE HEART, IN THE SPIRIT.” The same idea is expressed in Galatians 6:15. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncir cumcision, but a NEW CREATURE.” That’s what counts. Without that, oneness is an empty dream.
I wish right here to state that while I am a strong teacher in defense of the rites of the church, and practice every one of them, I expect to meet such men as Luther, Wesley, Finney, and Moody in heaven, even though they may not have been immersed in water. I expect to greet thousands of pious holy men in glory, who possibly never practiced any of the ordinances of the church as I believe, teach, and practice. All this depends upon the revelation of light and truth by the Holy Spirit upon the mind and heart. There are some religious bodies in the world that exclude all from the kingdom of heaven except those who are scripturally immersed in water. That would exclude and forever debar such holy men of God as above mentioned, with millions of other saints who have been born of the Spirit of God. Baptism is a necessary ordinance, but stressing the observance of this ordinance clear beyond what Christ intended breaks unity and fellowship among Christian people.
Allow me to illustrate the difference between essential teaching of things that are fundamental, and mere technical, analytical stressing of points clear out of proportion. On the former, all true Christians can unite, while the latter usually divides. I will select just one point of doctrine: Christ’s Second Advent. Here are the essential facts (1) The truth of Christ’s personal, visible coming at the end of this age, (2) the general resurrection of the dead, both righteous and wicked, (3) the final and general judgment, (4) the reward of the righteous in heaven, and the punishment of the wicked in hell, (5) the absolute need of being ready for this great event, (6) a present salvation from sin and a holy life necessary to prepare us for eternity, (7) the present life and time the only day of probation.
These points are vital; they are absolutely essential and fundamental. And on these seven fundamental truths all Christians should be able to agree and unite. Now as to all the technical details of Christ’s coming and the exact analysis of everything that will follow, this is not so essential. There may be a difference of opinion on some of these points, and the Lord’s people may never fully agree. It is possible that none of us will ever know perfectly all the details until the event is really ushered in. There may be surprises for us all. But after all, is this so essential? Is it not a fact that the all-important thing is to be ready? Then whatever takes place as to detail, praise God, we will be prepared for it.
If people would spend more time stressing the great essential truths, the definite, positive, decisive things taught in the Bible, and spend less time on the specu lative, a great step would be taken toward Bible one ness, and there would be a warmer Christlike attitude among God-fearing men and women who differ some what in secondary things, but agree perfectly on the great fundamental truths. It is a historical fact, an undeniable fact, that controversial differences over technical hair-splitting points of teaching, that are not vitally essential or fundamental, have often divided and rent asunder the best Christian men the church ever produced. The primitive church steered clear of this. They sometimes compromised such matters (Acts 15), but they stood solidly together on the great fundamental truths. In the North American Conference of Foreign Missions convening at Atlantic City, New Jersey, January 13-16, 1931, Dr. Robert E. Speer in essence well said, “We have spent too much time in analytical, scientific, technical presentation of things. The spiritual note should be dominant in our teaching. Preach more Christ. Christ is indispensable to success.” Dr. Talmage once said, “A drown ing man cares nothing for a lecture on chemicals, or for an analysis of the water into which he has fallen. What he needs and wants is a helping hand.” I say amen! While Christians are arguing, contending, and dividing over secondary points of teaching and practice, the world is sinking into hell by the millions.
Now, what is comprehended in Bible unity and oneness.
1. A blessed sweet internal blending of spirit, spiritual fellowship, a oneness of heart and soul, termed “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).
This was visibly demonstrated in the members of the church “with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.” When God’s people everywhere really measure to this standard in experience and practice, the pristine glory and oneness of the church is restored. And this is absolutely vital and essential; without this glorious experience and practice there CANNOT BE scriptural unity. All other phases of unity are dependent upon this. To endeavor to reach and attain it on any other grounds, to approach it by any other route is simply wasted time and misdirected effort.
No local assembly, no general group or body of Christians, no matter how high a standard they preach and profess, have reached or attained Bible unity until the truth expressed in Ephesians 4:1-3, 31-32 is actually experienced and manifest among them. This is the demonstration of scriptural oneness. It is the only kind that will convince the world, and this is exactly what Jesus prayed for. An organic unity without this is like a shell without a kernel, like a railroad locomotive without fire and steam. I think the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches well represent to us a demonstration of this. Measured by the standard of a mere organic unity, they certainly occupy front ranks. Is there a religious people anywhere, be that group large or small, that eclipses them in this respect? But measured by the standard the apostle here sets forth, they are weighed in the balances and found greatly wanting. The spring, or fountain of true Bible oneness is Christ enthroned in the human heart; it results from an actual experience of the soul.
For a group of people to accept certain great out standing truths and boldly stress them is not sufficient in itself to produce Bible oneness, or restore to the church primitive conditions. The mere joining of one self to, or affiliating with a visible movement, be it ever so orthodox in teaching, will not bring us into the unity experienced by the church as recorded in Acts 4:31-33. This has been demonstrated time and again, and today there are abundant visible proofs of it. People holding the same doctrinal teaching may be rent asunder by internal strife, jealousies, lack of confidence, evil speak ing, suspicious, and schisms of various kinds. Nor will the uniting of many groups of Christians into a general body produce scriptural oneness. There is quite a movement among some today in this direction. It is properly termed “Interdenominationalism.” But if all the denominational bodies of Christendom were to unite in one great union, the result would be a conglomerated mass of confusion, and would not be the unity taught in the Scriptures.
2. At this point I desire to present the means to an end, the essentials to scriptural oneness, the true and only basis of unity among all Christians.
a) The blood of Jesus. What made the primitive Christians one? Here is the Bible answer: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the BLOOD OF CHRIST. For he is our peace, who hath made both one. . . so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by THE CROSS, having slain the enmity THEREBY” (Ephesians 2:13-16). “And having made peace through the BLOOD of his cross” (Colossians1:20). The great wall between Jew and Gentile, the enmity that existed, was completely broken down and eliminated by the blood of his cross. Hallelujah. This was the procuring cause of unity in apostolic times. Nothing but the blood of Christ will produce oneness to the Bible standard.
b) Vital, personal relationship with Christ. There is a true basis of unity. Here it is: “ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS” (Galatians 3 :28). “To HIM shall the gathering of the people be.” Jesus in his prayer expressed it thus: “That they also may be one IN US” (John 17:21). This is exactly the ground occupied by the early church. All Christians on earth can unite in Christ, and it is the only basis upon which they ever will be one to the Bible requirement.
c) Finally, the great condition, the all-potent means of perfect unity among God’s people is the glorious experience of sanctification through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. May I again emphasize the fact, the incontrovertible truth, that Bible unity comes and results from a definite experience in the soul. It is being of “One heart and of one soul,” and this results from being “filled with the Holy Ghost” and possessing the “great grace” of God (Acts 4 :31-33). There is absolutely no use in spending time theorizing and trying to reach this blessed state any other way, or by any other means than the God-ordained means expressed in these Scriptures. Here are a few choice facts from the pen of D. S. Warner. They strike right into the heart of this question:
“In the very midst of his four times repeated prayer that we should be ‘one as he and the Father are one,’ he thus implores the Father, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. . . . that they all may be one’ (John 17:17, 19, 21). Here is secured to us the essential and all-sufficient means of producing perfect unity in all the body of Christ . . .
“The beautiful fruit of perfected holiness is unity. ‘Sanctify them through thy truth that they all may be one.’ Christ made of twain, Jew and Gentile, one new man, the new church; and thank God he has provided for the perfect holiness and unity of the church of the new covenant. The perfection of the saints is obtained in entire sanctification, and unity is its inevitable fruit. Well, amen, praise God! Since entire sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Ghost produced such a perfect state of unity in the primitive church as recorded in Acts 4:31, 33, it will do the same today.”
These quotations from the pen of this departed saint of God show in unmistakable language that Brother Warner had a clear conception of the one absolute essential to Bible unity. There is one more quotation from Brother Warner’s pen I wish to give while stressing this point. “Here is an important condition and basis of oneness. We cannot hope to be one in mere earth-born associations, but we can and must be one in God and in Christ. If then we are to be one in Christ Jesus, those who are saved out of the world unto him and abide there, walking in all his truth and not allowing themselves to be enticed to join anything else, the same stand upon the divinely appointed foundation of unity and are free from the great sin of schism or division. In the light of present truth, what excuse is there for division? There is salvation in none other than Christ ‘and ye are complete in him,’ completely saved, completely kept, completely supplied, and completely unified. Thus ‘we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of the other’ (Romans 12:4-5). ‘Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular’ (1st Corinthians 12:27). ‘This is the church’ (Colossians 1:18-24).”
3. Bible unity also means standing united on the great cardinal principles of truth that are essential to a well-grounded Christian faith.
It is a fact that irrespective of the differences already enumerated between the Jewish church at Jerusalem and the Gentile churches scattered abroad, they were one, yes, in perfect accord on all the great essential truths, and they preached them boldly. In this they were “of one mind” all “spoke the same thing,” and strove “together for the faith of the gospel.” Unquestionably, on the great principles of essential gospel truth, before the great apostasy began to work, God’s people were one. On the same fundamental truths the church can unite today and present a platform broad and deep enough to contain all true Christians in all the world. This means primitive Christianity fully restored.
THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH
The imperative command of God to every member of the church is: “Be ye holy”; and the one great and all-sufficient reason for this injunction is because “I the Lord your God am holy.” The church is the “habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2 :22). Writing to the local congregation at Corinth Paul said, “Ye are God’s building” (1st Corinthians 3:9). “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1st Corinthians 3 :16-17). As observed in a previous chapter, the place of God’s dwelling must be holy. Since God’s people, individually and collectively, constitute his house, sanctuary, temple, and dwelling place, it is a self-evident fact that we must be holy. God being holy, the members of his church must be holy for otherwise there could be no affinity between God and the members of his church, no adaptation to each other’s society.
Since heaven will be the eternal abode of the church, and it is filled with holiness and the presence of God himself, it is the utmost folly and delusion even to cherish a hope of entering into its ineffable glories unless we are here made spotless in holiness before God. In view of this incontrovertible fact, the solemn charge is given to every member of his church: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). No person can enter into heaven except through salvation from all sin. No person can remain in the church, the spiritual house of God, after he ceases to be holy. “Every branch in Christ that bringeth not forth good fruit, the Father taketh away.” “For if the firstfruit [Christ] be holy.. . . so are the branches” (Romans 11:16).
God’s true, divine church is self-adjusting. “Whoso ever abideth in him sinneth not.” “He that committeth sin is of the devil” (1st John 3 :6,8). You see by committing sin a person transfers himself from the family of God to the family of Satan. In this true vine “as the root is holy, so are also the branches.” Therefore the unholy, those who commit willful, knowing sin against God are not branches of the true vine. The chief end of man’s existence is to worship the Lord. But how is this worship to be rendered? Here is the answer: “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalms 29:2; 96:9. This in substance is what Jesus meant when he said to the Samaritan woman, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Holiness is just as essential now to the enjoyment of the society of God as it was before the fall in Eden. To the unholy, “God is a consuming fire.” “Therefore the ‘ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psalms 1 :5). “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” (Revelation 3 :5). This is why the New Testament church is called “an holy priesthood,” “an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1st Peter 2:5, 9). Of the church, the Lord, her husband, says, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song of Solomon 4 :7).
There are some things, however, that are not comprehended in Bible holiness. It does not transform us into deities or angels. We are still men and women here on earth, dwelling in human flesh, and as before observed, this experience does not destroy our natural appetites, passions, and desires. It does not deliver us from our natural dispositions and temperaments. It will not save people from temptation and trials, nor will it make us entirely immune from falling into sin unless we constantly watch and pray. We still have our human weaknesses, faults, and many things to overcome. This is why every church member needs to come boldly to the throne of grace daily, to obtain grace and mercy and divine help in every time of need. Of ourselves we are utterly help less and must depend upon God for strength and help to live righteously in this present world.
It might be well in this connection to define what the Bible terms sin. Being finite, fallible creatures, we are subject to mistakes and blunders. We are limited in a lot of things; as Paul says, we only know in part. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1st John 3 :4). There are two ways that people can do this, (1) to do willfully and knowingly what God in his Word forbids, (2) willfully and knowingly to refuse and neglect to do what God and his Word positively and strictly enjoin upon us. On this point the Scripture says: “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” With this definition and analysis of sin, sin that brings con demnation upon the soul and cuts a man off from fellow ship and union with God, we maintain and ,teach that God saves us from volitional transgression, and his grace keeps us from sin. This is Bible holiness. The blood of Christ not only washes away our actual transgressions (Revelation 1:5), but also “cleanseth us from all sin” (1st John 1:7). That is, from the very inbeing and nature of sin. In this blessed experience of full and complete salvation our hearts are made pure (Atcs 15 :8-9), and members of the church are enabled to love one another.
Of course this is the ideal. The church as God’s build ing and place of his dwelling is said to be “fitly framed together” (Ephesians 2:21). In the planting of any work in any community there is man’s part as well as God’s part. Paul was mightily used of God in planting and establish ing congregations throughout the then known world. Speaking of this he says of himself, “I have planted... but God gave the increase.” And again, “We are laborers together with God.” Now hear him, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon” (1st Corinthians 3:6-10). The church is likened to a frame and also a stone structure. In working together with God, our tools are said to be a “measuring line,” “plummet,” “square,” “ax,” “forge,” ‘‘fire,” “fur nace,” “anvil,” and “hammer.” In order to fit into the New Testament church, people have to be hewn down with the ax of truth. And it takes all the tools before mentioned properly to square people up and line them so they fit into this divine structure. In Ezekiel 13 :10-15 we have a picture of structures made up of misfits.
Listen, for you to affiliate with and endeavor to worship with the people of God without being soundly converted and born of the Spirit is to be a misfit in the church and its work. In fact you cannot feel at home among spiritual people, neither can you enjoy spiritual work. Those who try to get through on half conditions and partial obedience are always misfits in the local church. Those who have been saved but fail to walk in all the light, fail to go on into the holiest of all, the experience of entire sanctification, will sooner or later find themselves misfits among God’s people. It always pays to square up on every line, pay the full price, dig deep and build on a solid foundation, and the result will be that you can be a pillar in the temple of God, a help and inspiration to others, a living monument of God’s power to save and keep in this world of sin.
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH
System and government are seen in all creation about us. Study the infinities of the universe, carefully survey our own earth with all it contains, animate and inanimate, and you will see clearly that God has ordained government in all his vast realm. He is a God of order and system. Now, that which is true in the natural world must be true in the spiritual. It is an infallible, incontrovertible law. God has ordained government in all the nations of the earth, and “rules in the kingdoms of men.” He has not left his church, the greatest and most important institution he ever established, without government.
The government of the Church of God is a theocracy. God himself works “all in all” the members. It will be remembered that this was his plan under the legal dis pensation. He said to Israel, “I am your king.” It was his design to be the supreme governor of his people in that dispensation. But the people back there rebelled and took the government out of his hands and set over themselves earthly kings and rulers, and they always had trouble after that.
It was prophesied that in this dispensation of divine grace the God of heaven would set up his everlasting kingdom; and in that kingdom he would reign supreme, King of kings and Lord of lords. As he is King and “head over all things to the church,” the government necessarily rests “upon his shoulders” (Isaiah 9:6-7). He is the chief Shepherd, the ruler and the head, “that in all things he might have the preeminence.” As governor and head of his church, he has given us a perfect law. He is the divine lawgiver. That law is the truth, the gospel. Since the church is a divine institution, the divine law which the Lord has given is sufficient for its government.
The Lord in the government of his church, of course, works by his Spirit through human instrumentality. Hence, he has set “governments in the church” (1st Corinthians 12:28). In the practical working out, in the administration, conduct, and direction of church work, this is largely vested in his divinely called ministry. Hence we read that “he that ruleth” must do so “with diligence” (Romans 12:8); and the elders that “rule well” shall be “counted worthy of double honor” (1st Timothy 5 :17). As revealed in the New Testament, the church is not an unorganized mass of anarchists and boishevists, but an orderly com munity of saved people under law and system, who are taught to “obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves” (Hebrews 13 :17), and learn how to “behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God” (1st Timothy 3:15).
The security of the home, the community, the nation, and the Church of God depends upon a proper recognition of rule and authority. The primitive church had government and system, and it was progressive. As a need or emergency in the work of the church arose, the apostles and early ministers were equal to the occasion and made the necessary provision in a practical way. There is positive proof of this. One example is found in Acts 6:1-7.
There is no question but that certain ones as Paul, Peter, John, and James, and others were pillars, “men of note among the brethren,” and filled places of great responsibility in the Lord’s work. But it was their gifts that created for them the places of responsibility that they held and filled in the church. Concerning himself, Paul says, “When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellow ship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision” (Galatians 2:9). Here is guidance, care, and oversight. What was it based on? It had come about not because Paul had been elected or appointed to a high and responsible position, but these men of God “perceived the grace,” or gift, that was committed to Paul through the Holy Spirit, and they gave proper recognition to the same. This truth is clearly expressed in Romans 12:6: “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy accord ing to the proportion of faith.” Here a principle is set forth. Gifts in the church differ. There is a great variety of gifts, and also a variety of administrations and operations. Read 1st Corinthians 12 :4-6. These are distributed by the Holy Spirit in the church and among the ministry “as he will” (1st Corinthians 12 :11). When the church is normal and properly developed these various gifts will function, and every person should find his place and exercise therein. This is divine rule through the Holy Ghost, and it works in a practical way. The Holy Spirit can use and work through sanctified men and women. The Holy Ghost said to the church at Antioch, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, THEY sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3). Here is cooperation and guidance, and it proves that God does work through human instrumentality, in other words, there is a practical exercise of church government that is really work able.
A careful examination of the New Testament, it seems to me, will discover the practical working of real orderly arrangements that gave proper recognition to every talent and gift in the church, and these actually functioned in the congregations and among the ministers of that time. Did not Paul, who filled one of the greatest and widest fields of responsibility throughout the Gentile church, feel the need of recognition and crave the support and approval of the apostles before him? For this very purpose he went up to Jerusalem and made a report of his work “privately to them which were of reputation.” Why did he do this? He tells us: “Lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.” See Galatians 2:1-2.
The primitive church did not seem to have any stereo typed method, arrangement, or plan in detail which they all followed. But the Holy Ghost is unlimited in resources, and leads and works in a great variety of ways to accomplish his purposes. As Paul expressed it, there are “differences of administration.” There is no question but that in the apostolic age of the church, when an emergency arose, when a need presented itself, those early preachers felt free to act, and did act, and this by the guidance and approval of the Holy Spirit. This was true both in their local and general work.
They “ordained them elders in every church” (Acts 14:23), “in every city” (Titus 1:5). These were the local overseers with congregational responsibility. These elders, we are told in 1st Timothy 5:17, “rule well,” and “labor in the Word and doctrine.” In Acts 20:28 we are told that the Holy Ghost made them overseers, that is, called and qualified them for this work; but they were ordained and set in the local churches by the apostles and ministers of that time. The exact method or manner is not given in detail. Probably this is not vital nor important since the inspired writers left it out. Who can point out the exact method, since it appears that the Holy Spirit provides no special method of procedure’! Since the Holy Ghost is unlimited in resources and does not always use the same method of procedure, who can prove that one method is better, more apostolic, more directly under the rule of the Spirit than another?
It is quite evident that in primitive times each congre gation had one pastor or overseer who had the general oversight of that particular work, and upon whose shoulder fell the responsibility of caring for and feeding the flock. He was a “shepherd.” For example, it is generally recognized that James had the general over sight of the work at Jerusalem. The following texts seem to indicate this (Acts 15:4, 13-19; 21:17-19; Galatians 1 :18-19; 2:9). Each message to the seven churches of Asia was delivered through the “angel,” pastor in charge, as “unto the angel of the church at Ephesus write” (Revelation 2). There is no question but that in some cities and communities where there were many thousands of believers, there was more than one congregation. This was evidently true at Ephesus, Antioch, and other places where there was a mighty host of saved believers. I am inclined to believe this is what Paul meant when he was at Miletus and sent to Ephesus and called “the elders of the church.” See Acts 20:17. Very likely they were pastors of a number of congregations that worshiped in that city. They could not all worship in the same place. Let no one get the idea that these were distinct, separate denominational bodies of Christians. They all represented the one universal divine Church of God, but for convenience and because of necessity had different places to gather and worship.
These local ministers were held responsible for the spiritual welfare of their flocks. It was their duty to feed them, care for them, warn them, protect them, and as a shepherd, lead them. This pastor must be an example to his flock of piety, purity, soundness of faith, and liberality. This is real local church government. It is a fact that these local pastors did not receive every person who traveled over the country and posed as a preacher. A “wandering star” could not so well and easily impose himself upon the unsuspecting congregation. They had some system. Time and again Paul wrote to local pastors saying, “I commend unto you” such and such a one. Speaking of himself he says to the church at Corinth, “Need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you?” (2nd Corinthians 3:1). Of course not. He was their spiritual father, had planted that work, and was well known to them all. But the language clearly implies that ministers not so well known would have to have letters of com mendation from well-known ministers or churches, else they would not be received by the brethren. If this custom were strictly followed today, much trouble and disaster would be avoided. When Apollos was disposed to go into Achaia “the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him” (Acts 18:27). “Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him)” (Colossians 4:10). This suggests the idea that everybody was not received with open arms unless commended. Even Paul after his conversion had to be recommended to the Jewish church at Jerusalem by Barnabas before they fully received him.
From certain Scriptures it would appear that some congregations, as Jerusalem (Acts 15 :2-4), had a number of elders, and that some of these did not labor in word and doctrine. Some commentators hold that the term elder, in the official sense as used in the New Testament, had two meanings, (1) a minister of the gospel who labored in word and doctrine, whether general or local, (2) men of experience, talented and gifted to do special work in the church, who were not necessarily preachers. These were persons of experience and faith, who assisted the pastor in many ways, as calling on and praying for the sick (James 5 :14). We have no details as to how these local pastors organized their work. Since Paul tells us that there is a great variety of administrations and operations in the government of the church, it is quite likely that in the matter of particulars and details that were not essential, their methods were not necessarily the same; and this, to my mind, accounts for the absence of any such details in the divine record. My observation and experience prove that scarcely two pastors follow the same exact manner in carrying on their local work. Since the church is universal, and nations differ so widely in their manners, customs, and ideas of things, there is no question but that a great variety of circumstances enter into this. God intends us to use our best sanctified judgment in choosing the best methods for our particular field. The Holy Ghost can direct in all this.
In Titus 1:5 Paul says, “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.” Crete is a good-sized island in the Mediterranean Sea. In March, 1921, while on our way from Italy to Alexandria, Egypt, our ship sailed close along the southern shore of this island, and I photo graphed much of it. I was surprised at its size. It is quite evident that here a number of local congregations had been raised up. It is possible that Paul, with Titus, had planted these very churches. To leave them without proper care and supervision would not be in harmony with Paul’s method of work. So when he left this par ticular field, he appointed Titus to remain and set things in order. No doubt the congregations were scattered in different parts of the island, and when the apostle departed, the work was incomplete. Elders needed to be developed and set over the various assemblies “in every city.” Paul tells us that he “appointed” Titus to this work. Nothing is said about the length of time this was to last, probably only long enough to organize the work effectually. I am sure this was not an ecclesiastical appointment, placing Titus as a district elder over a certain field. It was a recognition of the gift and grace of God that the Holy Spirit had bestowed upon him as a humble minister of the gospel, that qualified him to fill such an important place. Paul recognized and clearly perceived these qualifications in Titus, and had implicit confidence that he could carry out the responsible work assigned him. Anyone can readily see that the gift and measure of faith given to both Paul and Titus by the Spirit of God, being demonstrated in their ministry and life, created the place of responsibility that each filled.
Primitive churches were not separate units independent of each other. They were all related by a common bond of love and teaching, members of one universal body, and were more or less responsible to each other. Thus Paul could give direction to the churches of Galatia, and to other congregations scattered elsewhere.
When a congregation was planted by Philip in Samaria, the church at Jerusalem sent preachers over there to look after and establish the work (Acts 8). The same was true of the work at Antioch in northern Syria. This was three hundred miles from Jerusalem. As soon as tidings reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem that a work was planted in Antioch, they at once sent Barnabas to look after it. Barnabas, feeling the need of help, went over to Tarsus and brought Paul to Antioch. “And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people” (Acts 11:19-26).
In 2nd Corinthians 11 :28 Paul speaks of “that which cometh upon me daily, the care of aIl the churches.” His responsibility and burden for the work extended far beyond any certain section or district. It was general.
True, there is no hint in the Scriptures that he was officially elected to fill such a place, and that he held it by ecclesiastical appointment. No, indeed. It was his gifts and peculiar qualifications as an apostle that fitted him for the place he occupied. What a magnanimous preacher he was! What a fine spirit possessed him! He well knew his place of responsibility in the church. He expressed this in the following language, “I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.” But all the glory and honor he gave to God. “By the grace of God I am what I am.” “Not meet to be called an apostle”; and “Less than the least of all saints.” The men and women who fill the greatest places of responsibility in the general church and work of God are always the humblest, most unassuming ministers to be found in the church.
When trouble arose in the church at Antioch over circumcision, where did their eyes turn, in what direction were their minds set, to have the question properly adjusted? It was decided that Paul and Barnabas and certain others go up to Jerusalem “unto the apostles and elders about this question” (Acts 15:1-2). Then followed the great conference recorded in Acts 15 :4-21. The matter was settled and the decision put in writing, and the same was sent to Antioch by Judas and Silas, “chief men among the brethren,” who accompanied Paul and Barnabas, and delivered to that church the decision (Acts 15 :22-31).
There is absolutely no question, in view of all the fore going facts and many others that could be presented here, that in the early church there was a real practical work ing government, and this contributed much to its success. It is essential in this time that Christian people discover that primitive administration of government that God, through the Holy Spirit, placed in the church, and followed out the same in actual practice. And as the church is restored to her primitive normal condition, the same gifts that functioned in those early days will be manifest today, and are being manifest. The need of the hour is proper recognition of these gifts among God’s people and ministry. The Holy Spirit will work, but the church must respond and give recognition to make it practical, until the ecclesia of God will march forth to certain triumphant victory like a well-organized, disciplined “army with banners.” Amen.
THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF THE CHURCH
The real membership of God’s church as a whole may increase and decrease in numbers. During the dark Middle Ages the saints were trodden down and worn out by the persecuting powers of false religion, and but comparatively few remained on earth to keep alive the holy seed, and it is true that nearly all the clear, definite doctrines and principles of the primitive church of the living God were lost sight of and hidden beneath the traditions and inventions of men, yet every doctrinal element of that divine structure, built and founded by Jesus Christ, remains eternal and unchangeable. In the last few hundred years many earthly factious bodies have arisen, and these have been pointed to as the Christian church, but “the portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things” (Jeremiah 51 :19). The fold of Christ is the same on earth today that she was before denominationalism. The whole Christian system shall “stand forever” and “never pass away.” No boasted power of earth will ever be able to change the eternal laws of the kingdom of heaven, even though some of these apostate powers may “think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7 :25). No power short of the throne of God can ever change one thing in the divine church. The same purity, unity, glory, power, and perfect peace, that God put in his church back there in the beginning, are there yet, even though appropriated by a comparatively few on earth. The miraculous gifts that the Lord set in the body have never been taken out. These include gifts of wisdom, of knowledge, of healings, of miracles, discerning of spirits, etc. All these are yet in the church and are manifest, notwithstanding the modernistic teachings of our times. As the people of God come back to the heavenly Jerusalem, stand complete within her walls of salvation and bulwarks of eternal truth, drink of the life-giving waters that flow in the midst of the city of God, and bask in the glory of perfect holiness, we enjoy and possess the same benefits and bless ings that were possessed by the primitive Christians.
The New Testament Church of God in all its essential elements remains the same throughout all ages. In her divinity, organization, and government, unity, catholicity, holiness, exclusiveness, foundation, headship, manner of membership and discipline, she is the same today as in primitive times. This is true because, as founded by Christ, the church was his ideal, and it cannot be improved upon today. Of it Christ himself said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” All this being true, there is absolutely no excuse or scriptural authority for the multiplied, diversified denominational bodies called churches today. There is no question but that these have divided Christianity into factions and schisms, and rendered the people of God virtually powerless to accomplish the great task assigned to them. Before any of these modern religious bodies came into existence, yes, hundreds of years before they were even heard of, Christ built his church, and it functioned perfectly in the world. I firmly believe and boldly declare that the time has come for God’s people to return and come back to Zion, to the same unity, purity, power, and glory that adorned and graced the church in pristine times.
THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE CHURCH
The indestructibility of the church is predicated on the truth just considered. If the church is unchangeable throughout all ages, its perpetuity and indestructibility are recognized facts. Upon the erroneous supposition that the church which Christ built was entirely destroyed, Mormonism has built her house. This group maintains that the apostasy utterly destroyed the primitive church, hence it became necessary for some man to build another. So they teach that under divine inspiration Joseph Smith reestablished the true church on earth. We have but to attend to the evidences in the case as set forth in Holy Writ to prove these theories false, and the institutions built thereon as mere human deceptions. In Daniel 2:44 the New Testament church was prophesied of as a kingdom set up by the God of heaven, “which shall never be destroyed, but shall stand forever.” In Matthew 16 :18 Jesus boldly declared: “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” These solemn declarations of heaven’s truth are sufficient to establish the fact that the New Testament church of God which Christ built is indes tructible and exists today. Yes, that divine temple stands just as solid and firm as in days of yore. Though it has witnessed bloody scenes of martyrdom, and has for centuries been largely hidden from human view by the ecclesiastical rubbish of men, yet it has never been destroyed—NEVER.
Great and mighty changes have taken place and have been wrought in the earth; earthly kingdoms and governments, and institutions of men have passed away; but the Church of God remains unshaken, unmoved through all the centuries of the Christian era. The true church can be likened to a beautiful golden temple that was once the admiration of the whole world. But in the course of time men piled around this temple a lot of rubbish until they covered it entirely over, hid it from view, and then educated the people to believe that this pile of rubbish was the temple, and pointed to the same for long centuries as the beautiful temple of God. During this period the temple was not destroyed. It was simply hidden from view. But in these last days God is sending forth his holy messengers with the flaming torch of truth and setting fire to this great pile of debris. Now, I ask, when all this ecclesiastical rubbish is burned up, what will be left? There is but one answer. That golden temple will reappear in all of its glory and wondrous beauty, and will shine all the brighter because it has come through the fire. Glory to God, that golden temple is the New Testament church. She will stand while the cycles of eternity’s ages roll.
To destroy the church would be to destroy its foundation, which the apostle Paul declared “standeth sure”; its head—Christ—who is alive forevermore; its door of entrance, which no man can shut; its law, which “endureth forever”; its walls, salvation; and all the people of God who compose it. Since, however, there never has been a time when God did not have a people, and since all the above named elements are eternal, the Church of God is indestructible. Strictly, only one phase of the church went into apostasy, the people, and not all of them. It is a fact of history that more than 50,000,000 of God’s people, rather than to bow down and acknowl edge the false doctrines and practices and demands of ecclesiastical lords during the Dark Ages, sealed their testimony with their own blood.
Under the main heading of this chapter we have endeavored to cover every specification of the New Testament church, and we find it to be divine, united, holy, spiritual, governmental, unchangeable, and eternal. All this being true, it is utterly impossible for man to build an organization like it, for spiritual things cannot be manufactured.
|
Part 2
|
CHAPTER 9
THE MANNER OF MEMBERSHIP
IN 1st Corinthians 12:27 we read, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members “in particular.” In this twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul uses the human body as a striking illustration to represent the New Testament church. Our bodies are a congeries of elements delicately and exquisitely joined together so that their beauty, symmetry, utility, and form places us far above the other creatures about us. Physically we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” This body is composed of many members, each functioning and filling its particular place, and yet all “members one of the other.” “Many members in one body.” Just so with the church. It is the body of Christ, and this body is composed of saved men and women each of which constitute “members in particular.” This being true, becoming members of the spiritual body of Christ constitutes us members of his church.
The manner of membership in the New Testament church is one of vital importance. The nature of the church will help us to determine, the manner of its membership. As before observed, it is a heavenly and divine institution. Christ built it, and he is declared to be its head, foundation, and door of entrance. A moment’s reflection on this point should convince all reasonable minds that God alone can take members into his church. It is also declared to be a spiritual institution (1st Peter 2:5). This being true, it must have a spiritual door of admittance. It is beyond the power of any man to admit us into a spiritual structure. The Lord alone can do this. Men can add and admit to a literal, earthly organization, but not to one that is spiritual, heavenly, divine. In its universal phase, the Church of God and the family of God are identical. We are born into earthly families and the same is true of God’s spiritual family and church. In the work of salvation through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit, we are born into and become members of God’s family, and are thus made members of his church. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born. .. . of God” (John 1:12-13).
The new birth is the only means of entering into the kingdom of God (John 3:5); and the church is the visible form of Christ’s kingdom here on earth. In Colossians 1:13 it is positively declared that the Lord alone can deliver people from the power of darkness and translate them into the kingdom of his dear Son. This is identical with becoming members of his church. Speaking pro phetically, David said, “Of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there” (Psalms 87 :5-6).
Jesus positively declares: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10 :9). Several denominational bodies make water baptism the door into their particular institutions. Baptism is a very important and sacred Christian rite, but at best it is but a ceremonial ordinance that one person can perform upon another. It was instituted for church members, those who already have been born of the Spirit of God. As John Wesley clearly expressed it, “It is but an outward testimony to an inward work.” But Christ himself is the door of entrance into the New Testament church, and all who obtain access through him are saved. This is a door that no man can open and no man can shut (Revelation 3:7). The conditions of entering through this straight gate and narrow door are a deep, thorough repentance, and a living faith in Christ our Savior.
On this question of church membership the united testimony of the New Testament Scriptures is decisive and beyond all controversy. “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (1st Corinthians 12:18). This body is the church. That is what Paul is treating on in this chapter—the New Testament church. And how do we become members of this institution? Here is the answer: “But now HATH GOD set the members EVERY ONE OF THEM in the body”— the church. He didn’t leave a single one to be taken in by the preacher. This modern process of ministers’ taking members into the church is absolutely without scriptural authority. There is no example anywhere in the New Testament where any apostle or primitive minister attempted to take members into the church.
But how does God do this? The answer is found in 1st Corinthians 12:13. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). In the work, of regeneration, God through the Holy Spirit baptizes, or inducts, us into his divine church. It follows then that all who are converted, regenerated by the Spirit of the Lord, are members of the New Testament church. In the second chapter of Acts we read that following the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the original one hundred and twenty gathered in that upper room, “there were added unto them about three thousand souls,” and all who thus received the word “were baptized.” From this language some have inferred that the apostles, through the rite of baptism, added these people to the church. But this is wrong. In verse 47 of this same chapter it is positively stated how they were added: “And THE LORD ADDED to the church daily such as should be saved.” This last clause is rendered in the Revised Version, “those who were being saved.” This is so definite and clear that there is no appeal from it. It was not the apostles and ministers who added the members. The Lord did that the moment they were saved, the very instant that by faith they appropriated the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ. After they were thus added through a sound con version, they received, at the apostles’ hands, the rite of baptism.
These clear texts, facts, and truths, establish two definite points I wish to emphasize here. (1) Since people become members of the New Testament church through the work of conversion or regeneration, then any church that salvation does not constitute one a member of cannot be identical with the New Testament church. Almost forty years ago, while located at Cam bridge Springs, Pa., and having charge of a number of small congregations in that vicinity, a physician, who was a member of a prominent denominational church, asked me to preach by regular appointment in their church for six months or a year. He said, “We could not raise our pastor’s salary, therefore he resigned and left us.” It has always been my custom to go wherever there is an opening to preach the whole truth. I am not ashamed of our message.
When this physician approached me I accepted the invitation. One Sunday the former pastor returned and attended services, and it happened that on this particular day I preached a bold sermon on the New Testament Church of God. At. the close the minister approached me and requested that he take dinner at the same place with me, “For,” said he, “I am deeply interested, and your sermon has greatly aroused my curiosity. If you can show me that the organization and church that I represent is not the true Bible church, I am ready to walk in the light.” In the afternoon of that day a number of friends and neighbors gathered into this home, and when an opportune time arrived I arose and set out a chair in the center of the room and addressed the crowd as follows: “Suppose that one of our number here is unsaved, and he desires at this time to give up his life of sin and turn to the Lord with all his heart and serve him. We use this chair as an altar or a convenient place at which to kneel, and the penitent seeker bows here, seek ing God with all his heart. After a thorough, deep repentance and a forsaking of all sin, he by faith grasps the promise and appropriates the blood that washes away all his sins, at which time his name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” I turned to the minister and asked, “What church is this person a member of?” After a few moments’ reflection, the minister replied, “The Church of God.” I remarked, “You have answered correctly. I have but one question now to ask you. Did that constitute this person a member of the particular society that you are a minister of and represent?” The immediate answer was, “No.” Then I remarked, “Brother, that institution then is not, and cannot be the New Testament church of God.” In a few moments that preacher boldly declared, “I see the truth.”
Reader, I am inclined to think that you also can see this. Any institution on earth that salvation does not constitute you a member of is not, and cannot be the true Church of God. (2) Now it follows that since salvation constitutes us members of the church, all who are saved are its members. Being the body of Christ, it must include all the members of that body. Being the household of God, it must include all the members of the family. Being the bride of Christ, it must include every blood-washed one. This being true, any church that does not include in its membership all the saved people on earth, every true Christian, cannot be the true New Testament Church of God. This point was stressed in the chapter, “The Universal or Catholic Phase of the Church.”
One more point under this heading, “church member ship,” and that is the class book or church record. We have seen, as recorded in Psalms 87 :5-6, that when people are born into Zion, the Lord writes down their names and he himself keeps the record. When the seventy returned, rejoicing that the devils were subject unto them through Christ’s name, Jesus said, “Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17-20). The title of the book in which the names of all the members of the church are written is found in Philippians 4:3: “Whose names are in the book of life.” This is the church record, the class book. The Lord himself writes the names, keeps a list of the membership, because he “knoweth them that are his.” Only those who live a victorious life above sin can hold their membership and retain their names in this book (Revelation 3:5). There are many people who call themselves church members but have no record on high. They base their hopes of heaven on the fact that some fallible preacher with pen and ink wrote their names in a little book here on earth. In the last great conflagration when the earth and all that is in it will be burned up, all these earthly records kept by man will be consumed in judgment fires. Dear reader, these records will profit you nothing. But membership in the true Church of God, having your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, will give you an entrance into the golden city of the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:27). But what about those who may hold membership in earthly man-made institutions, who have their names written with pen and ink on earthly records, but failed to have them written by the Lord in the book of life? Here is the answer: “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Oh, the disappointed myriads in that great day
|
CHAPTER 10
THE CREED AND DISCIPLINE, OR RULE OF FAITH AND PRACTICE
A CREED is defined in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary as “an authoritative summary of the essential points comprising a certain belief, as of a church, political, or scientific body, or any organized society; particularly, the confession of faith of a religious body.”
It is a self-evident fact that the New Testament church cannot continue and succeed in her great work and mission on earth without a constitution or creed, that is an established form of government, a system of fundamental rules, principles, and ordinances upon which she rests, and from which she receives her rule of faith and practice. The Lord thought of this long before any of us were born, and in his infinite wisdom provided an infallible law, creed, divine document, which in his judgment was to be the rule of doctrine, teaching, and practice throughout all the centuries of the Christian era. This creed is none other than the New Testament itself. It is the only infallible confession of faith delivered to the people of God.
Anything more than the New Testament is too much, and anything less is too little If the Lord intended any additions to this divine document, he himself would have given us the same. In the name of Jesus Christ we boldly affirm that the creed inspiration gave to the church, contained in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, is sufficient for the government of the church in all ages. It was her only form of government in primitive times, in the days of her pristine glory. It is all that we need today. On this solid foundation we stand. This is one of the distinctive doctrines of the Church of God Reformation Movement in these last days. We have discarded all the creeds of men and stand committed to the whole truth as contained in the New Testament. We are fully confident that on this platform alone can all Christian people in all the world unite.
In the days of the apostles they had “the gospel,” “the truth,” “the faith,” “the form of sound words,” and all this is defined as “that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” Thus they all “walked by the same rule,” and did “mind the same things.” Those primitive Christians had one, and only “one faith.” At a very early date certain human documents were formed, such as the so-called “Apostles’ Creed,” the “Nicene Creed,” and the “Athanasian Creed,” etc. These documents were intro duced after the pure apostolic period of the church’s history. The first of these, all the world now admits was not the work of the name it bears. These are religious impositions practiced upon the credulity of less-favored ages than the present. It must be admitted, however, that the Apostles’ Creed, which was introduced a few centuries later than the apostles’ time, has fewer deviations from the Scriptures than most modern creeds. A creed is not a mere belief and a knowledge of Christian doctrine. Preaching is expounding the word of truth. God himself, through the Holy Spirit, calls and qualifies men and women to fill this important office, and their particular work is to explain and interpret the Scriptures. This may be done orally from the pulpit, or in writing. Thus religious periodicals are published and many books are written, the purpose of which is to unfold and elucidate the sacred Scriptures. Now some good people, in defense of human creeds, have argued that to expound the Scriptures through periodicals and books is simply making creeds, and they define creed as our mere belief, or what we understand the Scriptures to teach. But now in point of logic, this argument is refuted by the fact that not one such periodical or book has ever been used as a confession of faith, the constitution of a church, by any congregation or community of Christian people in all the world.
A creed, or confession of faith, is an ecclesiastical document, drawn up and subscribed to by some synod, council, conference, or body of church dignitaries possessing authority, and such document becomes the constitution of religious bodies, terms of communion, a document by which persons and opinions are to be tested, approbated, or reprobated. Certain religious bodies of people are said to be builded upon these creeds. As bodies of religious people, these creeds are their constitutions; and as religious structures, they form their foundations. They are, therefore, the very basis of religious parties and denominational bodies. All these modern creeds are human and fallible because they are the pro duction of human effort, and are the offspring of human authority. There is no divine authority for their existence, and no person on earth can produce a single scriptural warrant for them. No apostle, prophet, or evangelist in the primitive church gave authority to any church or council to furnish such documents.
These church covenants are absolutely human because in their conception, design, and execution they are the products of fallible men, and the stream can rise no higher than the fountain or spring from which it emanates. They are but the traditions of men. It was as a result of these human traditions that Jesus Christ was condemned by the Jews and crucified. It is an undeniable fact of history that millions suffered martyrdom because of, or as a result of human creeds. History is replete with instances of severe and bitter persecution because God-fearing men and women refused to take on the yoke and submit to these creeds of men. The Jews said concern ing Christ, “We have a law [a creed, a discipline] and by our law he ought to die.” You see that law or creed by which Christ was condemned was the decision of their councils, and those ancient traditions have a parallel in the modern creeds of Christendom. Oh, how many times God-fearing men and women have been declared heretics and cast out as a result of these documents! A long line of worthies who have graced the Christian church, as Wycliffe, Jerome, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Bunyan, and a host of others, have been persecuted, branded as heretics, and even some of them put to death because of creeds.
These human creeds are without any divine authority whatever. God never commanded anyone to make them, no one to write them, and never gave a hint that any church should receive them. To the fully enlightened, they simply attempt to dethrone the King, Lawgiver, Prophet, and exclusive Head of the church—Jesus Christ. He alone is “the author and finisher of our faith.” A very serious objection to human creeds is the fact, as stated by Christ, that they “make void the commandment of God.” I will here take the liberty to state an incident that proves this to be true. A prominent, outstanding minister of a certain religious denomination paid a friendly visit in my home. We spent some time in social conversation covering the topics of the day, and finally our talk ran into religious and scriptural topics. As the minister left I handed him a copy of my book: Christian Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Feet Washing. And as I did so I remarked, “Brother, you and I agree quite well on the first two sections of this book, but I want you to read the last one hundred pages which treat on the Christian rite of foot washing.” I shall never forget his reply: “Brother Riggle, there is no argument on that point. I have always believed and known that Jesus instituted this rite, intending for his followers to practice it. The only reason why I do not and have not observed it is because our
CREED DOES NOT TEACH IT.”
True Christians can never, nor will they ever unite on any one of the various creeds of modern Christendom. Nor could they unite on all these creeds together, for they are contradictory and controversial in their nature. As honest, God-fearing men and women, and in warmest Christian love and fellowship, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I appeal to you to drop these human, fallible, contradictory documents and church constitutions that have divided Christianity into a thousand schisms and factions, and let us unite in one bond of love and Christian union and fellowship in Christ alone, on the Bible alone. Here and here only can we, as God’s people, come back to the unity, love, fellowship, and plat form occupied by the saints of God in the primitive church. There is but one side to truth, and all the human creeds of men must be on the other side. Not only is the New Testament the creed of the Christian church but it is her infallible discipline. In 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 we read, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction [discipline] in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Jesus said, “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.” “I have given them thy word” (John 17 :8, 14). Everything necessary to the success of church work, how to deal with unruly members, a brother who errs, or in case of trespass, in fact the exercise of discipline as pertains to local church work, or the general work of the church, is found in the New Testament Scriptures. Hence there is no excuse for fallible men to write additional documents, called disciplines. God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son through the Holy Ghost is said to be “above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). This preserves the perfect unity of his people. As head of the body, the church, he issues all the governing laws and gives all the instructions necessary. His ministers who are simple messengers of the Lord, deliver and enforce his Word, without adding thereto or taking therefrom one jot or tittle. In view of this truth, there is absolutely no excuse for the modern, fallible disciplines that men have written.
|
CHAPTER 11
THE NAME OR TITLE
ISAIAH is generally recognized as the evangelistic prophet of the Old Testament. With the possible exception of David, there is probably no Old Testament seer who gave us, in prophetic language, as clear an outline generally of what was to take place in the Christian era, as this prophet. On the above subject he thus spake of the Christian church: “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name” (Isaiah 62:2). The same thing is again spoken of in Isaiah 65:15. “The Lord shall slay thee [the Jewish nation], and call his servants by another name.” The prophet here is foretelling the fact that the Jews as a nation would reject their Messiah, and the kingdom of heaven would be open to the Gentiles. An entire new order would be enacted, under the new covenant. The people (church) of God under the new dispensation were to receive, or be called by “a new name,” and this name was to be given by “the mouth of the Lord.”
All this was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus said in his prayer to the Father, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.” “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name” (John 17:6, 12). While men foolishly affirm that there is nothing in a name, the Lord attaches importance enough to the naming of his church to constitute it a matter of prophecy. He excluded all man’s attempts at naming it by preannouncing that it should be “named by the mouth of the Lord.” There are many reasons why the name of the church is of vital importance. One purpose was given by Christ in this very prayer from which we have quoted. “Holy Father, keep through [Greek, in] thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17 :11). The word through in this text is en in the Greek, and is the same word that is regularly translated “in” throughout the New Testament. Of twelve translations I have examined, all except the Common Version render this “KEEP IN THY NAME.” Thus, even in the name perfect unity is provided for. The entire church of the New Testament is to be kept in the one name as a means of its perfect oneness.
It is true that other church titles are not the chief cause of divisions, yet party names have contributed their share in keeping Christians divided. If oneness in name is not at all essential to complete visible unity in the church, why did the Savior pray as he did? We readily admit that many true, humble, and sincere children of God are still identified with religious bodies that exist under various titles, but by giving the one name for the church to be known by, the Lord provides for her visible unity, “that the world may believe.”
The apostles held this prayer of our Lord in profound respect. Let us see how they understood and carried it out. As applied to the New Testament church in its uni versal phase, we read: “Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God” (1st Corinthians 10:32). “Despise ye the Church of God?” (1st Corinthians 11 :22). “I persecuted the Church of God” (1st Corinthians 15:9). “Beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it” (Galatians 1:13). “If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?” (1st Timothy 3:5). “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God” (1st Timothy 3:15). Now speaking of the local, visible congregations of God’s people we read: “We have no such custom, neither the Churches of God” (1st Corinthians 11 :16). “We ourselves glory in you in the Churches of God” (2nd Thessalonians 1:4). “For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus” (1st Thessalonians 2:14). “The Church of God which is at Corinth” (1st Corinthians 1:2; 2nd Corinthians 1:1).
The word “church” frequently occurs without the qualifying part of the name; because, there being but one true Church of God built and organized by Christ him self, it was unnecessary to designate it every time by its full title. But that men should not give some appellation of their own to the divine community, either local or general, we find it twelve times denominated “THE CHURCH OF GOD.” This clearly fulfills the prayer of the Savior that the divine ecclesia should be kept strictly in the Father’s name.
The name chosen by divine wisdom beautifully acknow ledges the various relations of the New Testament church. First, in its catholic, or universal phase, the church is the family of God, and all its members are “sons of God.” This being true, each child inherits the name of the father, and the family is named after him. To the fully enlightened, because of this beautiful relation, to assume any other name is to insult a jealous God who will not give his glory to another. “For this cause,” says the apostle, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; of [from] whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3 :14-15). We also observe that this title, “the Church of God,” acknowledges God as its founder, builder, and owner.
Second, there is another striking relation of the church as we shall see in the following chapter—that of a bride. She is “the Lamb’s wife.” Christ then is her husband. Is it not proper and right then that the heavenly bride should honor her husband by assuming his name? Does not a true wife honor and respect her husband by bear ing, or taking his name? Suppose a wife should take some other man’s name than her own legal husband’s, does she not dishonor him and in the eyes of the world make herself an adulteress? And that which is true in the natural relation between husband and wife is true in the spiritual also. There is one divine Godhead. Three distinct persons of one eternal substance constitute the eternal Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Of the Son, Christ, we read, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom” (Hebrews 1 :8). Yes, Christ is God. His bride then should bear his name. Accordingly we read in Romans 16:16, “The churches of Christ salute you.” This is identical with the title, the Church of God. When people have clear light on this, I am sure they will be ready to drop the various denominational names by which they are designated. May I here inquire, Would a title that does not indicate whether the church originated from God, man, or the devil do equal honor to God with that which ascribes it wholly to him?
The glorious institution that Jesus founded, as we have clearly proved in a previous chapter, is a complete organization. Since this is true, nothing could well take on regular organic form without designating its name. The first clause of every constitution of earthly organization reads something as follows: “This society shall be known by the name of,” etc. So when Jesus founded his heavenly Jerusalem on earth, he put on record that this holy community of saved people should be kept in the name of the Father, and the apostles were inspired to give us its title, thus: “The ecclesia OF GOD.” In this one name the oneness of the church is to be maintained. By this fact we clearly see that there is something in a name, and it is a matter of no small moment in the sight of God.
|
CHAPTER 12
THE CHURCH THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE
UNDER this heading we have two very striking and distinct aspects of the Christian church. These are in no sense contradictory. They simply present to us the church in two well-defined phases. We will take them up in their order. First, the present spiritual relationship between the church and Christ is expressed by marriage. Christ, the husband—his church, the wife or bride. Thus, “He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom.” Of this relation the Old Testament seers prophesied: “For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name . . . . the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called” (Isaiah 54:5). Again, “As a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” “Thou shalt be called Hephzibah [my delight is in here], and thy land Beulah” (which means married) (Isaiah 62:4-5). This is fullfiled in the Church of God which Christ “purchased with his own blood.”
Thus Jesus came to earth to purchase for himself a bride. He purchased her with his precious blood, and under this figure she became his. Just as a man leaves father and mother and cleaves to his wife, Jesus left the eternal glory of his Father, and came to earth to obtain for himself a wife. A woman, in order to take upon herself the solemn obligations of marriage and be come the wife of her husband, must forsake parents, home, and everything for him. This is exactly what Christ now requires of his people. We must forsake all to become his holy bride. This is the real meaning of ecclesia - “called-out one.” We are called out from the world and sin, robed in the garments of salvation, clothed with his own righteousness, and this is termed “pure linen, clean and white.”
Paul, in Romans 7:1-4, draws a beautiful analogy between a couple joined in the sacred bonds of wedlock and the present relation between Christ and his people: “That ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.” Again in Ephesians 5 :23-33 the same apostle clearly shows a present relation between Christ and his church, and that which exists between the husband and the wife in natural matrimony. As the husband is the head of the wife, Christ is now the head of the church. As the wife is to be subject to her husband, so the church is now subject to Christ. Husbands are exhorted to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Husbands are exhorted to nourish and cherish their wives even as the Lord does the church. As a husband and wife are no more twain, but one flesh; so we “are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” After giving a detailed description of the various relationships between a husband and wife in the normal state of marriage, the apostle unmistakably tells us the point he is stressing: “I speak concerning Christ and the church” (vs. 32). Yes, as a true wife loves her husband and lives in true affection with him, so we love Christ “because he first loved us.”
In Song of Solomon 4:7 we read, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” And again (chapter 6:9), “My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother.” It is generally held by commentators that these texts, at least in a secondary sense, point to the New Testament Church of God. Here we have the blessed unity and purity of this institution presented. Christ has but one bride, one wife, hence, but one true church. In the light of this truth a multiplicity of institutions, a number of distinct religious bodies called churches and bearing various titles, all claiming relationship to Christ, is absolutely wrong and really an insult to the divine Savior. May the Lord awaken his people clearly to see this truth.
Instead of her husband standing over her, emphasizing his demands with “thou shalt,” having his hands full of rocks ready to stone her if she disobeys him in the least, he tenderly, affectionately says to his wife, “If you love me, you will”; and with her heart burning with this divine principle, she responds, “For the love of Christ constraineth us.” This is delightful service. As a good husband, he supplies all her needs. In Philippians 4:19 we read, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Yes, “thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (Psalms 23 :5). This table is spread with the dainties of heaven, rich things of the kingdom of grace; the willing and obedient are enabled to “eat the good of the land,” and are “abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house.” He even makes them to drink of the rivers of his pleasures (Psalms 36:8). What a good husband! He not only feeds his wife on the very best that heaven can afford but clothes her with the beautiful garments of salvation. The Lord has also become the light of his church and people. “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” To her he also says, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” When a heavy task is laid upon her, he shares in it by saying, wife, “I am a present help in every time of need.” Glory to God for this blessed, intimate relationship and sweet association now enjoyed by the saints.
Under this figure the New Testament church is our spiritual mother. Accordingly, we read that “Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:26). The church being the spiritual mother, she travails for the salvation of the lost world and brings forth children, a numerous family (Isaiah 66 :8). As a good mother, the Scriptures tell us, she bears us upon her sides and dandies us upon her knees” (Isaiah 66:12). She satisfies her children “with the breasts of her consolation,” and they are permitted to “milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory” (Isaiah 66 :11-12). Every one of her “newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby” (1st Peter 2 :2). As seen in the previous chapter, as a true wife she should honor and reverence her husband by bearing his name. How consistent, then, the name given her by the Lord, the only name that is used as a church title to be found in the New Testament—the CHURCH OF GOD.
Second, our future and eternal union with Christ, our personal association with him in the new heaven and new earth, which begins at the time of his second advent, is also expressed by the term, “the marriage of the Lamb.” Under this figure the church in her present state is said to be betrothed, or as we commonly term it, engaged, a state of espousal. Accordingly we read in 2nd Corinthians 11:2: “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Under this aspect the bride of Christ is being made ready, and the time is the entire Christian dispensation. This is expressed in Revelation 19 :7-8: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteous ness of saints.”
Jesus, in his description of the second coming and the judgment, speaks of this great event in Matthew 25:1-13, as the time of “the marriage.” His coming is the appearing of “the bridegroom.” He comes to receive his wife to himself. This is called “the marriage of the Lamb.” “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” What that supper will consist of we are not now able to tell, but then will be fulfilled the words of Jesus when he said he will “drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” The joys and glories of our present experience of full salvation in perfected holiness and Christian perfection is but a mere fore taste of what that will be when “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7 :16-17). In anticipation of all this it is no wonder Paul broke forth in the following language, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
|
CHAPTER 13
THE CHURCH AS A VINE AND ITS BRANCHES
JESUS was the greatest teacher and preacher of all time. One of the chief characteristics of his ministry was the simplicity of his messages. By using illustrations and lessons from nature that could be easily understood by the common people, he presented some of the deepest and most profound truths that ever fell from human lips.
In John 15:1-8 we have an example of this. The Holy Land has always been a country of vineyards. The people in general perfectly understood the cultivation, care, and fruitage of the vine. So Jesus in this lesson draws a beautiful comparison between the vine and its branches and the intimate relationship between himself and his followers. He starts out by saying, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (vs. 1). Husbandman here means the vine dresser, and the one who gathers the harvest. In carrying his illustration further, he says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (vs. 5). Some modern theologians teach that Christ here likened himself to the vine, and the various denominational bodies today are the branches. And referring to these human institutions, they say people should join and belong to some branch of the Christian church. Multitudes have been educated to believe this kind of teaching. But this is absolutely wrong, and there is not one fragment of evidence or proof in this lesson that Jesus gave to sustain such a position.
Centuries before any of the modern denominational bodies, called churches, came into existence, Jesus said, “I am the vine, YE are the branches.” This language was addressed directly to his own disciples. It was a part of a sermon he delivered to them after instituting the sacred Lord’s Supper in that upper room in Jerusalem. But it not only applied to those to whom he spoke directly, but to every Christian in all the world to the end of time. Every child of God constitutes a branch, or a member of Christ. Paul speaks of these branches as “members of Christ”; and this is identical with membership in the church. In other words, membership in Christ is membership in the New Testament church. It follows, then, that the church in its universal phase includes all the members of Christ, every true Christian.
But there is an implied truth here worthy of our consideration. This is not true of the world in general. It cannot be said of the myriads of unregenerate, un converted people that they are members of Christ. Jesus said of such, “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8 :44), for “he that committeth sin is of the devil” (1st John 3 :8). In the eleventh chapter of Romans Paul presents the same truth under the figure of a wild olive tree and a good olive tree. “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree” (vs. 24). Fruit growers fully understand this. If a scion is cut out of a wild, or sour tree and grafted into a good, sweet tree, it brings with it the wild and sour nature of the original tree from which it is taken. After the graft ing, while it partakes of the sweet life of the new tree, it still bears sour fruit after its original nature. But in the kingdom of God we are grafted “contrary to nature.” This simply means that while we bring with us into the new relation the original wild nature, the sweet life and grace of God of which we partake enables us to bear sweet fruit or the fruit of the Spirit of God.
Then to become branches of the true vine or members of Christ, his church, people must be cut out from the wild tree and vine of sin and ungodliness, and be en-grafted, through the work of regeneration and a sound conversion, into Christ, the true vine. A radical moral change must take place. Now the question arises, Who does this engrafting? Is it the preacher? If so, then the minister can take members into the church. But a moment’s reflection here will convince any reasonable person that no preacher on earth has the power to take man out of the kingdom of darkness and sin and trans plant and engraft such into Jesus Christ and his spiritual kingdom. This is absolutely the work of God through the Holy Spirit. This is beyond all question the only scrip tural method of church membership.
Going back to John 15, we note that one purpose of this engrafting into Christ and being branches of the true vine is that we “bear much fruit.” This, of course, refers to the unmixed fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians 5:22-23. In order to bear this fruit and demonstrate our religion in a practical way to the world, Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:4). In 2nd Corinthians 5:17 we are told, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Then all members of the true New Testament church are new creatures in Christ Jesus. Their lives have been changed. The “things” of sin that they formerly indulged in entirely disappear, and a new life begins.
In verse 2 of the fifteenth chapter of John, Jesus speaks of two kinds of branches, one class “that beareth not fruit,” and the other class “that beareth fruit.” We will consider these in their order.
First, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” Note the fact that these branches are “IN CHRIST.” This implies that a radical change has taken place in their hearts and lives. They are not mere professors, but Christians. They have been grafted, converted, regenerated, and made new creatures. But they are in an abnormal condition. While they are “in Christ,” yet they are not laden with fruit—”beareth NOT fruit.” This must be possible or Jesus would not have said so. There must then be causes, certain things that bring about this abnormal state. Having been a fruit grower myself, I have observed three outstanding causes why some branches in a tree or vine do not bear fruit, and these natural causes find a parallel in our spiritual relation in the church. In a local assembly of God’s people we often find those largely barren of fruit, and others richly laden with the fruits of the Spirit of God. Then again whole congregations will be found that are not so fruitful as they should be, while other assemblies are rich in the fruits of the Spirit. Now as to the cause.
One natural cause is accident. A limb or branch may be bruised, the bark broken, and this naturally hinders the sap from flowing through and vitalizing the branch so that it may produce fruit. Now for a spiritual analogy. Young converts are tender. Just like a baby they need to be nurtured, cared for, and dandled upon the knees of the mother church. Sometimes, and too frequently, the older saints require too much and demand these newborn babes to measure up in every respect to the high standard to which they have attained, but they forget that it took years of struggle, effort, and growth to reach the high plain to which they have attained. Under such extreme teaching the young, tender branches are bruised and rendered fruitless. Then young converts who are not properly taught may unguardedly do wrong under sudden provocation. They should repent quickly, for not to do so will hinder growth and fruitfulness. And unless properly taught, these tender branches, through discouragement, accusations of the devil, wrong religious teaching, or unwholesome environment may lose the victory of faith, and become fruitless. There is much need of fervent, earnest prayer, and the seeking of divine wisdom and grace in order to be fruitful in the things of God.
Another cause of fruitlessness in the orchard and vineyard, and probably the most common cause, is frost. The tender buds become frostbitten usually about the blossoming period. On this point there is a striking spiritual analogy. Some congregations of professed Christians are below the freezing point. But in the warming-up period of a revival, someone is really, soundly con verted. But oh, too often the young convert gets a chill almost as soon as he has experienced regeneration. The dead, lifeless congregation with divisions rife among the people, too much talkativeness, and perhaps a lack of confidence soon render the delicate new convert fruitless. The new engrafted branch needs food—sap—in order to grow and produce fruit. But too often the pulpit deliverances are so lifeless, foodless, the sermons contain no vitamins, and often the general services, the singing, praying, and witnessing are so conventional and formal that the new convert begins to “wither” (vs. 6), dry up, and the result is no fruit. Thus the new life, enthusiasm, and zeal of the young convert is hushed; it meets with a rebuff, and soon, very soon, Such are consigned to the fruitless class. This is because the new spiritual life is actually robbed of its chance of expression. The social life of some churches may also be loose, the entertainment programs too worldly, and the young, tender, sensitive branch may thus be nipped in the bud—frostbitten.
Another natural cause for fruitlessness is insect pests, borers, scale, and blight. These sap the life of the branch either in vine or tree, and render them fruitless. There is likewise a spiritual analogy to all this. There are many things that will sap the spiritual, inner life, and prevent fruitage. Carelessness—in prayer, attending services regularly, being baptized, taking an active part in church work, keeping busy for God, tithing, and going on into the experience of perfected holiness and entire sanctification—these and many other related things are borers that enter into the very inner life of people and sap out spirituality, so that there is no fruit.
Then worldliness is a pest, a scale, and blight that will render any person barren, and wither up the soul. Under this heading could be mentioned many things, such as covetousness, worldly dress, attending movies, theaters, and keeping company with worldly, sinful companions. People are usually known by the company they keep and too often unconsciously they become like their company. Backsliding is a gradual process. Just as sickness and disease steal upon the body until the crisis is reached, and a person comes face to face with death, so these members of the church, branches in Christ, can gradually dry up, wither, become lifeless and fruitless. To kill the insect pests, scale, blight, etc., on the vines or trees it is necessary to spray with a solution that is poison to these things. A live ministry, a wide-awake church should follow the spraying process by preaching, witnessing, and practicing the clear, definite truth of God’s Word, also by keeping filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
The tragedy of all this is expressed in the sixth verse of the lesson: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” This is the pruning process. The husbandman cuts off all the withered, fruitless branches, and then they are gathered for the burning. The once saved, for the above and many other reasons, were rendered worthless. And in the great day of judgment and eternity, “the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:49-50).
Second, we will now consider the fruit-bearing branches. “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The word purgeth here is from kathairo rendered in Young’s Analytical Concordance, to cleanse. Fruit-bearing branches in Christ are to be cleansed, and the purpose of this is that they “may bring forth more fruit”—not a different kind of fruit, but more abundance of the same kind, for Jesus said, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear MUCH fruit.” This takes us back to the natural process of grafting, and for emphasis I repeat a fact already stated. A scion or graft taken out of a sour crab-apple tree and grafted into a golden, sweet apple tree retains its original sour nature, and because of this will never bear anything but sour crab apples. Before it could bear golden, sweet apples that scion would have to be purged or cleansed from its original sour nature. Now in the spiritual realm, in the work of salvation, when we are converted we are taken out of the wild tree of sin, completely severed, and engrafted into Jesus Christ the true vine. We partake of the sweet life, the new life of Christ. But as Paul expresses it in Romans 11, “contrary to nature” we bear sweet fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. This is the justified life and experience. Now mark the fact that this implies a definite work of divine grace wrought in the human heart and life. Taking us out of the kingdom of sin and transplant ing us into the kingdom of God, cutting us clear from the wild tree and engrafting us into Jesus Christ, making us new creatures in him, fruit-bearing branches of the true vine, is a positive work of divine grace.
Now these are the individuals spoken of when Jesus said, “Every branch that BEARETH FRUIT.” Mark the fact, these are fruit-bearing branches in Jesus Christ. In other words, saved men and women. For them is pro vided a second, definite work of divine grace. This is called “purging” or “cleansing.” From what, we in quire, do newborn babes in Christ need to be cleansed? From that old, sour nature—carnality (1st Corinthians 3:1-3), and when thus cleansed by the blood of Christ, these fruit-bearing branches are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2nd Peter 1:4). This experience and work is entire sanctification, and this text with many others is decisive proof that the cleansing in sanctification is a second work of grace. Conversion constitutes us members of the New Testament church and all such are eligible for the experience of perfected holiness. This is proved by the fact that sanctification is not for sinners, but is for church members. Read Ephesians 5:25-27. When sanctified holy, we possess not only the divine life but the divine nature, and are enabled to bring forth more abundant fruit of the Spirit of God in our lives.
|
CHAPTER 14
THE RELIGION OF THE CHURCH
RELIGION is almost, if not altogether as universal as sin. You may go where you will, to the darkest corners of the earth, to the heart of Africa, or to the cannibal tribes in the South Sea Islands, and you will find some traces of religion. Originally God created man with a moral nature and conscience within that made him accountable to a Supreme Being. Sin has not been able entirely to erase this from man’s spiritual moral nature. God is “the Father of spirits.” He “formeth the spirit of man within him,” for “there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Lord giveth him understanding.” At death, we are told that “the spirit shall return unto God WHO GAVE IT.” Thus we are “the offspring of God.” This definitely and clearly differentiates between man and the animal creation about us. Man possesses a rnoral, spiritual nature by which he stands associated with God and things eternal. This is why the human family as a whole has an inward consciousness of a Supreme being: I used to think that the pagans, when they fall down before certain objects made of wood, stone, or other material, worshiped that particular visible object as God. But after studying heathen philosophy, and also from my own observation in world travel, I am fully convinced that this is not true. The apostle Paul clearly states the pagan philosophy. These people are conscious of, and have a vague knowledge that there is a Supreme Being. In their own inward conscience they feel the guilt of sin and that they have offended this Supreme Being. That is why they try to appease the wrath of their gods and remove the guilt from their souls by washing in rivers, torturing themselves, and offering sacrifices on pagan altars, etc. But what of these objects before whom they fall? Some are attractive, others are hideous monstrosities. The apostle told the Athenians that “The unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” In the first chapter of Romans the same apostle tells us that they have “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God” into visible images “made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” The thought is, they are conscious of a Supreme Being but have lost a true conception of him, so in their worship they liken him to these various objects.
In our own Christian land most people want a religion of some sort. If they will not have it while they live, realizing the importance of eternity and the solemn, awful realities of the future, they usually want to have it before they die. Those who think little of religion in their hours of health and activity often send for the minister when they are about to die. But it is a poor religion that a person may put on as if it were his shroud to be buried in. We want a religion not merely to die with, but to live by. In Christianity is comprehended the religion of the New Testament church. But since we have true and false Christianity today, true and false religion, it is absolutely necessary that we investigate and become possessors of true and genuine religion, the one religion of the one and only true Church of God. We can well afford to be mistaken in a thousand of the transitory things of earth and time, but in this matter of religion we cannot afford to be mistaken. There is too much at stake. There is too much involved. It is a problem of eternal moment, because our eternal destiny is involved.
WHERE IS TRUE RELIGION TO BE FOUND?
I will treat this point after the old Puritan method. First, negatively, second positively. It is not to be found in old ecclesiastical systems which contend that theirs is the genuine because they are ancient and date back not far this side of the apostolic period. On March 22, 1922, while a missionary in Syria and the Holy Land, Ibrahim Shelida Maloof, my translator, and I visited Meshtaiah, Syria. We were on a tour of evangelistic work in the interior of that country where evangelical Christianity had never been preached. In the above city was a large Greek Catholic convent. Through the influence of Dr. Elias Obeid I had the privilege of preaching in this institution on the Lord’s Day. On this particular Sunday the archbishop of the diocese was present. Just before I entered the pulpit he called me into his private office and addressed me as follows: “Mr. Riggle, before you enter our pulpit I want you clearly to understand that you are now face to face with the church of Jesus Christ as founded by him and in the very country where he established it. You hail from a new country not five hundred years old, therefore, we assume that yours is a new religion. Ours, we claim, is the genuine.”
A few moments later in the presence of this same dignitary, about fifty priests, and several hundred worshipers, I entered the pulpit and preached from Romans 1:16. My subject was “True Religion.” In this sermon I stressed the fact that no religion of our time can lay claim to being identical with the religion of Christ and the apostles because they are ancient, and can trace their existence back through many centuries of succession through popes, bishops, and church councils. I showed that there was room for apostasy, and that down through the centuries such had actually taken place. I stressed the historical fact that some of these old, established, ecclesiastical bodies in their contention that they are genuine, in order to make others conform to their religion, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and even put to death millions of those who differed from them. Then with all the power at my command I boldly presented the incontrovertible fact that the only way any religious body of people can lay claim to being identical with the primitive church is by comparison. That body of people today who possess and demonstrate in actual experience, life, and teaching, the characteristics of pristine Christianity can lay claim to being identical with the apostolic church. This is the truth of the matter. In sharp contrast with the old established formal churches we have a lot of new companies of well-meaning people who have broken away from these older religions and some of them excommunicate all others but themselves. But to affiliate one self with any of these religious bodies, either old or new, will not make him a recipient of, an actual true possessor of genuine New Testament religion. Naturally the question arises then, and every earnest truth seeker has a right to ask, Where shall I go to find true, genuine religion? On this point we have a positive, definite answer. Go back to the spring and fountain of all truth, of Christianity as revealed in the gospel. If I am thirsty and want a drink of pure water, I will not go down along the stream and dip my cup into its muddy waters. Too many little tributaries from different sources empty into that stream. I will go to the spring and fountain and there dip my cup into the pure sparkling waters as they issue from the rock. In religion, that spring is Jesus Christ. The only source of genuine religion is he. He is the fountain from whom flows the truth of the gospel, the promises of full salvation, and all the blessings comprehended therein. Everything in the plan and work of human redemption emanates from Christ. There is absolutely no need to go to any other source. Friend, unless you come into vital relationship, into direct con tact with Jesus Christ, the world’s only hope, your religion is vain.
WHAT TRUE RELIGION IS NOT
A great number of things have been substituted for Bible religion. I will here mention a few. It is not the observance of religious rites or ordinances. Under both the old and new covenants we have “ordinances of divine service.” In the Christian dispensation we observe a number of these that were instituted and enjoined by Christ himself. They are very important, and are intended to be strictly observed by the church; but to substitute these ceremonial rites for true vital religion is a very sad and serious mistake. Some denominational bodies are built around the observance of one or more of these ordinances; and to subtract these would leave them with practically no religion. But these observances are only the symbols, the outward signs of spiritual truths. They are but helps to religion, and teach us by figure the meaning of true religion. They are the kindergarten of the church, and this is all that Jesus really intended by their institution. The outward ordinance of circumcision did not save the Jew, neither will water baptism or the Lord’s Supper save men in this dispensation.
It is not the mere observance of outward forms of religious service and worship. Forms may be useful, and are beneficial along with the reality. Forms, however, will not and cannot save. They may be likened to a shell without a kernel. Without the vital principle of Christian religion in the soul, that which changes man’s inward nature as well as his outward life, forms are useless. Religion is not mere outward reforms, because that would make it external, the product of man himself. This was the philosophy of such great men as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle—a religion of self-culture, out ward pruning, the result of human effort; but the true religion of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, is of God, divine, and internal. It first cleanses that “within . . . . that the outside . . . . may be clean also.”
It is not a life regulated by the opinions of men. Too much present-day religion is the worship of human opinion. Jesus expressed it thus, “After the command ments and doctrines of men,” for “they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.” This kind of religion reaches its end in this life, and will have poor results in eternity. Human influence, authority, rank, and advantages count for little when it comes to Bible religion.
False religions have cursed the world from the beginning of time. These religions are perversions and distortions. They are human. Every religion that has not its origin in God and does not harmonize with the whole truth is false, and such religions are dangerous, vain, and empty. We might inquire then as to what are some of the marks of a false religion. I will enumerate a few. Any religion that will not completely save and keep from sin in this life is false. A religion that opposes holiness in experience and life is erroneous. True religion will always produce a clean life, an honest life in the home, community, and world at large. A religion that rejects any part of the gospel of Christ is a spurious religion. As before observed, a religion of outward ordinances without spiritual life in the soul is a sham. Without divine life and power within, all religious acts are a delusion. It is a deception for people to practice an appearance of religion, when in reality they have none. Jesus must be the very center and soul of our religion, for the Christian life is from God, with God, to God in the power of the Spirit.
The way to discern a false religion is by the following rules. They are mere systems, and their devotees are mere system worshipers. This kind of religion does not build any substantial moral structure. It is a mere out ward scaffolding that is sure to fall. A religious structure merely built om system will finally be swept away in the wrath of God. False religion is usually characterized by a display of outward polishing and a desire to parade itself. The further people get away from the truth, the more anxious they are to make a showy display. The Bible terms this “a fair show in the flesh.” Such worshipers care for drill only on review days, because they “love the praise of men more than the praise of God.” But right in the face of all this, allow me to say that the power and beauty of a soul possessed of spiritual life cannot be imitated by the greatest zealot of outward reforms. A living man in poor clothing is a million times ahead of a corpse in costly array.
The fruits of false religion always have been and always will be manifest. They make void God’s command ments by substituting human traditions. They cause people to oppose the truth. They have martyred probably more millions than all the wars of history. They blind people to the truth and these folk are the hardest to reach with the pure gospel. They cause poor innocent children to walk in the religion of their parents and thus bind millions for eternal burnings. But, thank God, there is a way of escape.
Be honest with your own soul. Investigate the truth with unprejudiced mind, and be willing to know the whole truth at the cost of sacred tradition. Then when you fully arrive at a satisfactory knowledge of the same, walk in all the light of God even though in so doing, like Paul, “what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” and his salvation. Even though it may mean bitter persecution and suffering, it will pay immensely.
WHAT TRUE RELIGION ACTUALLY IS
It is an experience of the heart and spirit. Much present-day theology teaches that we are to be imitators of Christ. But the essential and vital principle is usually left out. We must be PARTAKERS of him. No one can walk in the footsteps of our Savior until he first partakes of his love and grace. We must be Christians in heart and life. This is what the old folks used to call experimental, heart-felt religion. This is the need in our day. The religion of Jesus Christ is a purifying of the fountain of life, a quickening of the soul into a vital, spiritual relation with God. Regeneration is the work of the Spirit, and “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It is not the outward man that undergoes this great moral change, it is man’s spirit, his soul, “the inward man” of the heart.
Suppose the reservoir or water supply of a city is impure, unclean. Suppose a great flock of geese and a herd of swine frequent that place and keep the waters continually roiled up and unfit for use. Would it not be the height of folly to go to the enormous expense of erecting filtering plants down along the stream that flows into the city in order to give the people clean, wholesome water? Would it not be wiser and better to remove the trouble from the source of supply, from the fountain itself? Much of our modern religion can well be illustrated by the filtering-plant system. True Bible religion goes to the fountain, and purifies that. That fountain of man’s life is the heart, “for out of it are the issues of life.” The blood of Jesus Christ washes and cleanses the heart from all sin, both acquired and inherited. Jesus expressed it thus: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Paul declared it to be an experience in which “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Peter informs us that people who have attained this blessed experience can “love one another with a pure heart fervently.” A clean, holy, and righteous life is the natural result of this inward condition. Jesus thus expressed it: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.” This is true religion.
Eternal grace is joined to outward performance. A Christian life is regulated by the gospel, and is the out-flow of an inward condition. The outward observance is the actual, visible fruits of the hidden life within. Thus true religion has two sides—the spiritual and practical. A Christian is not one outwardly, but he is a Christian who is one inwardly, in the heart and in the spirit. I want to emphasize this point that in true religion the outward life is the result, the natural result of the inward condition. Its characteristics are an enlightened understanding, a balanced judgment, a submissive will, and a thing of principle. It is a religion that is earnest, diligent; it exhibits the Christ character, where the Lord’s approval crowns a holy life. It is void of hypocrisy and shallow ness. It is real, solid, and deep. It does not go by spurts and jumps, but is an all-around everyday religion. It is as pure in the secret life as in the public. It demonstrates itself in the everyday home life, hence is a family religion, and enables its possessors first to “show piety at home.” It is a religion that produces confidence in your own experience, and commands the confidence and respect of others. It is attractive and fulfills in the church the declaration of David, “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.” Yes, this religion will stand by you and sustain you amidst all the changing scenes and circumstances, the adversities and disappointments, the trials and temptations of life, and then when the shadows of death begin to surround you and the scenes of earth and time fade forever from your view, and the solemn, awful realities of eternity break in upon you, it will stand by you in your dying hour and will admit you into heaven at last.
|
CHAPTER 15
THE CHURCH OF TOMORROW
THE above title may be defined as the church of the future. By this I do not mean a new church, or a different church from that of today. We have observed in a previous chapter that the essential elements of the new covenant church remain the same through all ages.
The church was founded by Christ; it was his ideal; it cannot be improved upon today. Thank God, we have found that beautiful ecclesia as portrayed in the New Testament, and through salvation hold membership in the same. As a body of people we hold membership in no other. The church of tomorrow can do no more.
The church of tomorrow then is the same church in process of growth, development, increasing influence, and power. It should realize the dreams and visions of today, not a theoretical, mere picture-book church to look at, but a real, living, practical church, demonstrating before the world the actual truth that we preach—a church where the next generation perpetuates the cardinal truths for which our pioneer brethren sacrificed and suffered to bring forth. To accomplish its purpose in the world, it must be a church that has not lost the message, but that holds in sacred memory the men and women who have blazed the way for us, a church whose motto must be “a clean rather than a big work.”
I vision the church of tomorrow as one alive to her mission of soul saving, with a vision of world evangelization, whose influence will be felt and demonstrated all around the earth. She must be fruitful, not barren. One where every talent and faculty possessed by its members can find room for development and use, and where every gift of the Spirit functions freely. A church with plenty of room for its young people, one church composed of both old and young. A church full of zeal and sacrifice, where the grace of liberality is prominent, and each member pays to the Lord his tithe. A church full of miracles and healing, full of the Holy Spirit and power, where human machinery will never supplant the work of the Spirit of God. One that will profit by the mistakes of the past and will show more patience with people who are slow to see the truth as we see it. A church that will give proper recognition and extend warm Christian fellowship to all the Lord’s people. A church that will use more successful methods in evangelizing, and carry the message of saving truth to every part of the earth. Such a church will fulfill her mission, will conquer, will be an honor and praise to God, and will fill the earth with its influence. God grant it so.
|
CHAPTER 16
THE CHURCH OF GOD A TRIUMPHANT CHURCH
NOW thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place” (2nd Corinthians 2:14). In the modern religious world we hear considerable about the church militant, and the church triumphant. The general teaching is that the former expresses the church in the present state and life, and the latter the church future, in her glorified and eternal state. But this teaching, in the light of the above text, is not true. The apostle positively declares that the church is not only militant here, but can always be triumphant, victorious, and conquer in every conflict of life.
Life is a battle ground, and Christianity is an aggressive force. Jesus Christ is said to be “the captain of their salvation,” and like a mighty warrior goes forth “conquering and to conquer” The church here is to follow him as an “army with banners.” Every individual Christian must step out on life’s battle-field “a good soldier,” and “fight the good fight of faith.” When Paul came to the end of his earthly career he testified, “I have fought a good fight.” Each member of the church is exhorted to “put on the whole armor of God.”
Our foes are the devil, sin, and the world. We also have many things in ourselves to overcome—our human desires, appetites, passions, weaknesses, etc. On this point the apostle testified, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1st Corinthians 9 :27). Not only is the present life of the Christian a battle-field, but the church, in its organic form, both in its local and general phases, has its battles to fight and its victories to win. This is the militant aspect of the church.
But right here in this life we can be victorious, conquerors, triumphant. Probably Paul engaged in as bitter and hard conflicts as anyone who has ever graced the Christian church. But listen to his triumphant testimony: “Nay, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him that loved us.” Thank God, the church in her individual members, in her local aspect, or in the general phase, never needs to lose a battle or suffer defeat. She can ever march forward to certain victory.
Of course there are certain essentials to a victorious life. All Bible conditions must be fully met. A settled experience predicated on the Bible must be enjoyed. A faith resting upon the immutable promises of the gospel. Eternal decision and a settled determination to go through at any cost. A holy boldness that gives courage, such as David possessed, to go out and meet every Goliath that comes in our pathway. Individuality is essential. Every successful man of God in all ages has possessed this quality. We must not allow ourselves to be affected by the successes or failures of others. Joshua, Elijah, Daniel, and the three Hebrew children are outstanding examples of individuality.
Another essential quality is the power of endurance. Then, too, many church members are constantly on the defensive. They are in constant fear of attacks from the enemy of souls. But the church, to be triumphant, must take the offensive and be aggressive in this great warfare. Paul says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds.” The good Book informs us that when we are fully saved and sanctified, and “filled with all the fullness of God,” “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” With God on our side, an unlimited supply of his grace, glory, and infinite power at our command, why should we fear the foe? The Lord has adequately pro vided every essential for a life of constant victory. Every conflict won makes the church stronger. Defeat always weakens and depresses. Let us set before us success, victory, triumph, and constant achievement, and never entertain the word defeat. The following poetic language by D. S. Warner is very appropriate in this connection:
Men speak of a “Church triumphant,” As something on earth unknown, They think us beneath the tyrant, Until we shall reach our home.
Oh, cannot the great Redeemer Prevail over Satan here? Or must we remain yet under Confusion, pressed down in fear?
He built on a sure foundation, And said that the gates of hell, Against her divine munition, Can never indeed prevail.
Then how can you say, dear people, You cannot be kept each day? The infinite arm is able, His Word has not passed away.
‘Tis not in the church of Jesus, That people yet live in sin; But in the dark creeds they’re joining, And vainly are trusting in.
God’s church is alone triumphant, In holiness all complete; And all the dark pow’rs of Satan, She tramples beneath her feet.
Thank God for a “Church triumphant,” All pure in this world below; For the kingdom that Jesus founded, Does triumph o’er ev’ry foe.
|
CHAPTER 17
THE PRISTINE GLORY OF THE CHURCH
IN THE book of symbols—the Revelation (12:1) we have the primitive church brought to view under the figure of “a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Prior to this John saw a door opened in heaven, and heard a voice, saying, “Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And im mediately I was in the spirit” (Revelation 4:1-2). This explains such expressions as “there appeared a great wonder in heaven,” and “there was war in heaven,” etc. While in the spirit, John saw in symbol the things recorded. In other words, there passed before him a panorama of visions, symbols, of great events that were to take place upon the earth. That is, he saw in a vision of heaven that which would take place on earth in reality.
The woman here described represents the true Church of God—the bride of Christ—in her primitive unity, purity, and glory. She was “clothed with the sun” —a striking emblem of Jesus Christ, the “SUN of righteous ness, “the light and glory of the church. The church was clothed with his righteousness, which is represented in the same apocalypse by “fine linen, clean and white” (Revelation 19:8). She was clothed with his holiness, with the beautiful garments of his salvation. Thus the primitive church was a pure church, a sanctified church, “without spot or wrinkle.” She was also clothed with his infinite power, and was equipped to battle the hosts of hell; and this power was manifest in overcoming the prejudices and superstitions of those times, the rescuing of a great host from the powers of sin and hell, the healing of the sick of all manner of diseases, and the destruction of sin and sinners from her midst. That primitive church was clothed with his authority and judgments. The result was that “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all.” “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.” “And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.”
“And upon her head a crown.” Ah! she sat a queen. Her husband, the glorious Lord, is the King of heaven— “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” When Christ ascended on high and took his seat upon the throne at the right hand of God, he was “CROWNED with glory and honor.” That was coronation day. From that lofty throne in heaven Christ reigns supreme, the monarch of earth and sky. His wife—the church—shares this royal honor. With the same glory that the Father crowned him, he crowned her. “And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.” She shares his reign in the kingdom of peace and grace, and thus wears “upon her head a crown.” Peter informs us that in this dis pensation God’s people are “a ROYAL priesthood” (1st Peter 2:9). Not in a future millennial age, but in this propitious, preeminent dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the Lord has “washed us from our sins in his own blood, and HATH MADE us kings and priests unto God” (Revelation 1 :5-6). Praise God, it is in this life that God’s people reign through grace. “They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Thus the church reigns with Christ over Satan, sin, and the world. To his wife, Christ says, “I give unto you power . . .. over all the power of the enemy.” “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” “I have overcome the world,” and, as a result “what so ever is born of God overcometh the world.”
The twelve stars in her crown represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb. These adorned her fair brow. Thus in symbol we have presented the church in her primitive glory. I will here give a brief summary of the truths already presented in this book, relative to the church as founded by Christ and manifest in the apostolic period. She is the everlasting kingdom set up by the God of heaven and foretold by Daniel the prophet. Isaiah looked forward and saw her in her glory. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the bright ness of thy rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3). “Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God” (Isaiah 62 :3).
As we stand on the summit of present truth and point our telescope back over a period of more than sixteen hundred years, back to the first, second, and third centuries of the Christian era, we behold her on the mountain of God’s own holiness, the Church of God, resplendent with the morning light of his own glory.
With admiration we view her; and behold, she is “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” She is “all fair,” the “city of the great king.” That golden city is the primitive church. Her chief characteristics and outstanding attributes were purity and unity. As we have seen, she was presented to the world one divine exclusive and distinct body—church, a visible organic institution, exclusive and yet universal, unchangeable and indestructible. She broke down the walls of division between Jew and Gentile, and both were reconciled “unto God in ONE BODY by the cross.” Salvation constituted people members of this ecclesia, and all the saved of earth were included in her membership. She recognized no earth-born creed, but her adherents “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship.” Her only bond of union was the love of God. Such indeed was the original church.
|
CHAPTER 18
THE GREAT APOSTASY
THE clear morning glory of the church did not last long. In this the prophecy of Isaiah 63 :18 was fulfilled. “The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.” The early ministers went forth with the knowledge that a long, dark period of superstition, error, and counterfeit religion lay before them. They clearly fore saw that a great apostasy would come.
In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 the apostle foretold this in positive language: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” In this text the words “falling away” are derived from the Greek apostasia, meaning apostasy. In verse 7 of the same chapter Paul tells us that “the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” And this work ing was and would be “with all deceivableness of un righteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in nn righteousness” (vs. 10-12). From this we learn that the seed that would produce this great crop of apostate religion was already being sown by false teachers before the death of the first apostles. Even before the close of the first century this “mystery of iniquity” that was finally to develop into a false and corrupt Christianity was already working. In this same chapter the apostle makes it clear that apostate religion was to continue right up to the second advent of Jesus Christ. The day of the Lord was expected by those Thessalonian brethren during their lifetime. He exhorted them not to be troubled or shaken in mind on this question “that the day of Christ is at hand.” “That day shall not come,” that is, Christ’s visible second advent to resurrect the dead and judge the world would not take place “except there come a falling away first.” Thus the great apostasy was to be prevalent in the church and world during the Christian era. In verse 8 he tells us, “Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
Jesus clearly foretold this reign of deception and warned the church: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16). “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). “Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:11-12). You see this reign of deception was not to be a mere local affair, but universal.
The apostles foresaw and gave faithful warning and prediction of this great falling away: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29-31). Again I quote from Paul. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1st Timothy 4:1-3). “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2nd Timothy 4:3-4). “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2nd Timothy 3:1-5).
I have here quoted at some length from Paul’s writings to show that he, by divine inspiration, foresaw and foretold minutely the workings of this great drift from primitive conditions. These texts foretell an awful reign of darkness and deception to come upon the church, a time when false teachers would lead people away from the pure primitive faith and practice, from the truth unto fables or false doctrine. It is a fact of history that following the pure apostolic period of the church, there grew up an ecclesiastical hierarchy, claiming to be the true and only church. This was largely pagan Rome with much of its idolatry and image worship clothed in Christian garb. The simplicity of pure Christian religion was supplanted by human forms and ceremonies. During this time, while this ecclesiastical power and religion were dominant, millions who would not forsake true religion and embrace this false system of Christianity were put to death. This is the “wilderness” into which the woman—church——fled (Revelation 12:14). Christ, the supreme head of the church, during this period was supplanted by popes and bishops who have fulfilled the apostle’s prediction in 2nd Thessalonians 2:34 that the man of sin would oppose and exalt “himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The bishop of Rome unquestionably has fulfilled this prediction, assuming to be the supreme head of the church, and it is said that he claims power even to absolve the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, something that God himself will not do. Some sensational modern preachers identify the Antichrist or man of sin with Mussolini, Hitler, and some other modern characters. But this is erroneous. These characters simply bear rule over certain earthly, temporal governments and countries. Their domination is largely local and circumscribed by certain boundaries; but the spirit of Antichrist was to work universally, and cannot justly be identified with mere temporal governments. The rule and influence of the “man of sin,” according to the uniform voice of Scripture, is ecclesiastical and religious.
Page 181 & 182 were missing from original book.
ministerial association of that city, one of its leading ministers arose and spoke against the Bible being God’s inspired Word. He made light of such recorded events as the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and other visitations of judgment from time to time. Voltaire or Ingersol could not have berated the Scriptures in more severe language than did this preacher. After the address, as he took his seat, the large majority of the ministers present applauded by clapping their hands. Following this, another minister arose in bold defense of the inspiration of the Bible and delivered a very forceful argument. At the close of this address only about ten of us ministers present gave approval. I am not sure but that the preachers of that city, if the facts were known, were quite an accurate criterion of the ministry in general. At another time, while pastor of the Church of God in one of the largest cities of America, a questionnaire was sent to every minister in the city. Among the questions asked were: “Do you believe the virgin birth to be essential to our Christian faith?” “Do you believe the bodily resurrection of Christ to be essential?” Many other like questions were propounded. I answered mine definitely and positively. I also received the results. On the above two questions, around 40 percent expressed themselves as not holding and believing that these things are essential. Surely, in view of these facts, we have in modern Christianity what I term a refined infidelity. What are the true people of God to do in view of these terrible conditions? Paul gives the definite answer, “FROM SUCH TURN AWAY.”
Surely the words of Peter are fulfilled, “But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2nd Peter 2:1-3). What an awful picture, and yet how true! The very things predicted have come to pass. Had the church always retained holiness, there would never have been an apostasy. But by descending from this lofty plane she opened the way for every species of false doctrine and error.
Going back to the early days of Christianity, through the pure faith of the gospel people received full salvation from sin and found grace to live holy lives. They were made perfect through the glorious work and experience of entire sanctification. Through faith in the name of Jesus the sick were healed of all their diseases, the lame were made to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak; demons were cast out; and great power and grace rested upon the entire church. The reader can readily judge what the result was when men fell away from that faith; they lost all the foregoing blessings of God. It can be easily seen how such a departure and falling away brought darkness, superstition, and all conceivable doctrines of devils into the world. Soon after the apostles’ death the ordinances were corrupted, and many primitive practices of the church were changed.
As before observed, the faith of the gospel clearly teaches that there is but one fold, one body—the body of Christ—which is the church; that salvation constitutes us living members of the same; that when it comes to fundamental truth, these members have one mind, one doctrine, all speak the same thing, and are all of one heart and of one soul: but when men fell away from that blessed state of unity, it became necessary for them to be identified with other bodies, to enter other folds, and adhere to contrary doctrines. This is exactly how it has come to pass that apostate religions have been organized in the earth.
|
CHAPTER 19
A RESTORATION FORETOLD AND WHAT IT COMPREHENDS
IN SCRIPTURE the gospel age is frequently spoken of as a day. The prophets in speaking of things that were to occur in the Christian dispensation said, “It shall come to pass in that day.” With prophetic eye these seers of old foresaw a better day—a day of salvation. That which they enjoyed in type and shadow was to reach the substance in Christ, who would usher in the most propitious age of grace the world should ever see. Thus Isaiah foretold it: “In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee” (Isaiah 49 :8). Paul, after quoting this language of the prophet, makes the application, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, NOW IS the day of salvation” (2nd Corinthians 6:2).
The gospel day naturally has had its morning, noon, and evening.. Some of the Old Testament prophets clearly foretold particular periods in this Christian day of grace and salvation. It had a clear morning. “Watchman, what of the night’? Watchman, what of the night? The watch man said, The morning cometh, and also the night” (Isaiah 21:11-12). This morning referred to the ushering in of the gospel dispensation. “For, behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and, gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isaiah 60:2-3). This time of darkness was the night of Judaism. It covers four hundred years, from Malachi to Christ. But the coming of Christ was to be a beautiful sunrise, and the Gentiles were to come to the brightness of his rising. Surely this was a glad morning to the inhabitants of the earth, who for long centuries had sat enshrouded in the night of sin. Brilliant was that “day dawn” (2nd Peter 1:19). Paul refers to it in Romans 13:12: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” I could multiply Scriptures to show the beautiful morn ing-light age of the church.
By referring again to Isaiah 21:11-12, it will be seen that following this morning there was to be a “night.” This refers to the great apostasy, particularly to the Dark Ages that followed the apostolic period. The Reformation period of the Sixteenth Century ushered in a distinct epoch of prophetic time described as “the cloudy and dark day” (Ezekiel 34:11-12). By reference to this Scripture the reader will note that this was to be an era when God’s people would be in a “scattered” state. And this prophecy has been strikingly fulfilled during the last four hundred years, which is properly termed the Protestant period, a time characterized by multiplied denominational bodies—churches—which have arisen, and in which the people of God have been led and scattered.
But during this period there have been great spiriftal seasons of revival, and a number of distinct reformation movements, each one bringing an increased degree of light. Luther, and the other reformers contemporaneous with him, restored to the church the great truth of justification by faith. Later Wesley and his colaborers reestablished in the church the glorious doctrine of entire sanctification as a second, distinct work of divine grace. Still later such men as Alexander Campbell, George Campbell, and John Winebrenner, showed the evils of creedism and boldly preached the doctrine of Bible unity. however, these men did not clearly discern the New Testament church as an exclusive, divine institution, with salvation its only means of membership, and its fold embracing all the saved of earth. The result was, their followers soon drifted into the denominational realm of human organization. However, each distinct step of increased light has been bringing the church gradually out of the utter night known in history as the Dark Ages of the church.
In this particular era the prophecy of Zechariah has been strikingly fulfilled. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at EVENING TIME it shall be light” (Zechariah 14:6-7). From the fore-going we see that inspiration has marked out four distinct epochs in the church’s history, covering the entire gospel day: (1) A clear “morning” period. This expresses the primitive, or apostolic time of the church. (2) This was to be followed by a period called “night.” It refers to the dark ages covering more than a thousand years, reach ing to the Reformation period of the Sixteenth Century. (3) Next comes a period called “cloudy,” “not day nor night,” when the light “shall not be clear, nor dark.” During this time the people of God were to be scattered. This is the era since the Reformation when hundreds of humanly organized churches have come into existence. Pure primitive Christianity and its divine church, during this particular time, has not been fully restored. (4) But thank God, the prophetic declaration is definite and clear that “at evening time it shall be light.” That is, in the closing, or sunset of this gospel day all the mists and fogs, the clouds, and the dark night of apostasy, which for centuries have hindered the clear light of primitive Christianity, are all to be swept away. In other words, in the closing days of the Christian era, primitive conditions are to be fully restored. Thank God, we believe we have reached that time. The beautiful bride of Christ is now coming “up from the wilderness [apostasy], leaning upon her beloved” (Christ) (Song of Solomon 8 :5). That is, Christ is now leading his church back to the primitive state.
In the second chapter of this book it was clearly shown that Israel as a nation was a type of the Christian church. First, she was a theocracy, that is, God was her supreme ruler, head, and king. That was the morning glory of Israel’s history. She enjoyed the land of her inheritance, and God’s richest blessings rested upon her as a nation. Later, the people desired to become like the nations with which they were surrounded. They requested an earthly king. This was granted, and apostasy at once began its dreadful work, Their first king backslid and died without hope. Their third king drifted away from God and introduced rank idolatry into Israel. Following his reign, Israel became divided into two distinct nations and committed abominations worse than those of the heathen nations with which they were surrounded. Finally their city and temple were destroyed, and they were led away captive into Babylon. During the time of captivity there were men of God as Daniel, Ezekiel, the three Hebrew children, and others who held fast to the true religion of God and the Lord was with them, even though they were far from home in a land of bondage and captivity. After seventy years, the restoration period came. In the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, and Haggai, the children of Israel returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, rebuilt the city and its walls, and re-estab lished the true worship of God as enjoyed by their fathers centuries before. A full account of all this will be found in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
All this has a striking parallel in the Christian church covering the gospel dispensation. The morning glory of Israel’s history clearly typified the pristine glory of the New Testament church. Israel’s apostasy, and finally their captivity in literal Babylon were typical of the apostate condition and period through which the Christian church has passed. The return of Israel from their captivity in Babylon to Zion and Jerusalem, back to the land of their inheritance, was a precious type of the return of the church from their captivity in spiritual Babylon to the new Jerusalem, the spiritual Zion, the mount of God’s holiness. Thank God, this blessed gather ing from all the places where they have been held captive and have been scattered, coming back to the primitive state of true Bible purity and unity, is today being fulfilled.
“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35 :8-10). “There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray. And there shall be no lion there, neither shall any evil beast go up upon it, nor at all be found there; but the redeemed and gathered on the Lord’s behalf shall walk in it, and shall return, and come to Zion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be over their head; for on their heads shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall take possession of them; sorrow and pain, and groaning have fled away” (Isaiah 35:8-10 as rendered in the Septuagint Version).
On the pure way of holiness thousands are today returning to Zion, where the early church stood, to the same standard of unity, purity, and power that adorned the apostolic church. The following Scriptures are being fullfiled. “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away” (Isaiah 51 :11). “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” (Obadiah 17). “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people. . . So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more” (Joel 3:14, 16-17).
Here we have a restored church, primitive conditions brought back again. As the full gospel—the eternal judgments of truth—is again being preached, multitudes have been brought into the valley of decision where they must decide either for or against God. Those who decide on the side of truth and walk in all the light God reveals to them come to the mount of holiness, the mount of full and perfect deliverance. Hallelujah! And in this lofty Mount Zion the Lord has made a feast of fat things for his people. This is the time when the people of God would “return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Malachi 3 :18). People have been taught for long centuries that a pure sanctified church on earth is impossible. Here is God’s answer: “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth” (Jeremiah 15:19). “Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psalms 1 :5). “So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more” (Joel 3:17). All these texts refer to the restored church in this evening time. May God raise up many thousands of fire-baptized, sanctified witnesses to go forth with the righteous indignation of Josiah of old and, with the thunderbolts of heaven’s truth take away the high places of pride, idolatry, and sin, and abolish the abomination of division out of the hearts of men.
It is by returning to the true standard of Bible holiness, and the manner of church membership as set forth in the Scriptures, discarding all human creeds, dogmas, and doctrines of men, and abiding only in Christ that the people of God will return to the purity and unity of the primitive church and be able to demonstrate the same.
More than a half century ago, during the great holiness agitation, a number of outstanding men in that movement, among them D. S. Warner, clearly discerned the truth of the one, pure, divine church as established by Jesus Christ, outside of, and not circumscribed by humanly organized denominational bodies. The Lord, by his Sspirit, revealed to these men that the only true basis of Bible unity for all Christians everywhere is in Christ alone, “ALL ONE in Christ Jesus.” This distinct message made a great stir throughout the denominational realm. But gradually the leaven has been working, and more and more true Christian men and women every where are seeing the need of this unity among God’s people if we ever succeed in evangelizing the world. The slogan of our forefathers, the founders of our country— the United States of America—was “UNITED WE STAND: DIVIDED WE FALL.” This should be the slogan as well as the spirit of all true men of God today if we are to succeed in our task of saving the world.
|
CHAPTER 20
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
WHILE a large percentage of the professed Christian world, including both ministry and laity, are today drifting away from the true standard of Bible teaching many outstanding ministers are gradually rising above the petty, narrow denominational lines that have held them apart, and are discarding controversial scientific and technical theological questions that have divided Christians for centuries, and are seeking a closer bond of union and a warmer Christian fellowship.
It has been my privilege to attend a number of large conferences where this very subject was discussed by some of the most outstanding holiness preachers of our day, and I find that among these Christian men there is a decided awakening along the very lines of truth set forth in this book. As stated in the previous chapter, the leaven of truth is working throughout the entire body of genuine Christian men and women. In one conference Dr. Speer in essence expressed the growing sentiment: “Too much time has been spent caviling over mere theological questions that are not fundamental nor essential, arguing about scientific analysis of certain texts, instead of dealing in the great fundamental principles of truth that are essential to our Christian experience and success in the work of God. While this has been going on, the world has been drifting down to hell. It is time to direct our attention to things that are vital.” Unquestionably, the spirit of reformation is working everywhere. F. G. Smith, in his excellent book, The Last Reformation, has well said: “Honest Christian men and women will think, and they are now thinking in the terms of a universal Christianity. If I am able to discern the signs of the times, the rising tide of Christian love and fellowship is about to overflow the lines of sect and bring together in one common brotherhood all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (p. 5). On page nine of the same book Brother Smith further says: “From the particular operation of the Spirit of God. . . its influences are being felt in varying degrees throughout all Christendom.” On page ten the same author clearly defines his meaning: “Since, as we shall show, the present reformation is the work of the Spirit affecting all true Christians, drawing them together for the realization of a grand scriptural ideal, it is evident that no particular band of people enjoy its exclusive monopoly.” You see that Brother Smith here presents in very clear language the same facts that I have brought out.
In the Gospel Trumpet, issue of May 29, 1930, F. G. Smith gives us an editorial under this heading: “A World Reformation Working Today Everywhere.” I quote, “The present reformation identified by the scrip tural name ‘Church of God,’ does not claim exclusive right to the use of this Universal name, but sincerely seeks to assume and maintain a universal attitude—refusing to set up human creed-barriers, denominational standards of its own, or any other boundaries to separate itself from other real Christians. It is the purpose of this reformation to emphasize only those principles that will be conducive to a scriptural gathering together of all God’s people into one universal fellowship and communion, where all truly regenerated believers in the world are fully recognized as already being members of the Church of God.”
The above clearly sets forth our position and place in the religious world. A reformation movement in the church, with a distinct message, to assist in bringing about the unity of all God’s people to the standard of Bible truth. May the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit hasten this great work.
|
|
|Home|
|Contact Us|
|Tract Index|
|Live Recordings|
|6th Seal Books|
|Childrens Stories|
|Young Peoples Stories|
|Holy Bible KJV|
|The Gospel Trumpet|
|
