Notes of an Address
In every sphere of human activity there is unrest and confusion, because God is left out. In politics, for instance, there is much talk of democracy, which was once defined by a famous man as, “Government of the people, for the people, by the people.” But this has one great fault—it is all of fallen man. There is one fatal omission—God is left entirely out of the reckoning. One may say that it is horizontal, never rising higher than man. When God rules we have that which is perpendicular, reaching down from above.
When Israel came out of Egypt a Theocracy was established in their midst, but later they turned aside to their own ideas. They chose Saul, a type of man in the flesh, by outward show, by feet and inches and by good looks. So God said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam. 8:7). As a result they chose misery and disaster.
Now Theocracy, i.e., the rule of God, is clearly God’s way, and democracy should not mark Christians. Its principles are foreign to the church of God, and its spirit betrays a lack of the knowledge of God. All nature is under control to God: should man, and especially a Christian man, be an exception? We have known unspiritual Christians to say, “I’ve as much right to speak and give out a hymn as So-and-so.” Have we any rights? We have privileges. We ought to recognize that believers “are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). The recognition of this would leave the spirit of the world outside and beget in us a reverence, a subjection to God that would be acceptable to Him.
There are in the Scriptures three great passages dealing with “gifts.” Ephesians 4; 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12. In the first of these we read of our Lord, “He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” It says, you notice, “unto men,” not “unto the Church,” for what is the mission of the Church in the world? Is it not to be a continuation of the life and testimony of our blessed Lord? Its destiny and all its promises are heavenly, yet it is not intended to shut itself up in solemn contemplation of its own blessings, but to be set for blessing toward the world. It is not part of the world. Its power lies in separation from the world, yet in being animated by the spirit of its Founder, who went about doing good.
The first gifts mentioned are the apostles and prophets, and upon their foundation the Church is built; though, infinitely more than this, Jesus Christ Himself is the chief Corner Stone. This guards against the Church arrogating to itself the place that belongs to Christ alone. He gives character to the Church. He is the rock upon whom the Church is built, according to His words to Peter in Matthew 16. If Peter had been the rock, as Romish authorities wrongly teach, he would have furnished a very insecure foundation, for in the same chapter the Lord had to say to him, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” Yet Peter confessed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;” and that was the Rock upon which everything was to stand. The apostles and prophets appear in Revelation 21, as in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem, which symbolizes the Church. They were appointed to lay the foundation by their preaching and teaching, and by means of their inspired writings, especially those of the Apostle Paul, to give teaching and guidance to the Church when they themselves were gone.
The evangelist is another of the gifts given to men, and his service lies in preaching the Gospel to sinners, seeking souls for the glory of Christ. It has been well said that the evangelist should be like a pair of compasses—the fixed leg firmly set in the assembly, for he should be a good churchman; the movable leg stretched out as far as he is led of the Holy Spirit, it may be to the ends of the earth. Thus He brings his converts, first to the feet of Christ and then to the assembly. Suppose you were about to establish an apiary, what is the first step you would take. Would you procure a swarm of bees? You would find yourself in a difficulty if you did. Where would you put them? No, the first thing would be to obtain a hive so that when the bees are procured they may be placed at once in their future home. God is the Author of order, so His first gifts were apostles and prophets to lay the foundation of the Church—thus producing the hive—then come the evangelists who labour to fill it.
The next gift mentioned is that of the pastor. He is one whose heart is touched with the spiritual interests of God’s people, old and young. He devotes his energy to feeding the flock in the absence of the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then there are the teachers. Now teaching is not merely the ability to expound a passage of Scripture, for mere human intelligence has no power to unlock the treasures of the Word. One who is enabled by the Holy Spirit, in expounding the Word, to really convey its spiritual meaning to his hearers, may truly be termed a teacher, it is a rare and valuable gift.
Teachers are to be prized, not idolized. They are to be listened to with affection and respect, but not placed on a higher plane than their brethren, for all gift is received from God, and without the power of His Spirit nothing avails. Clerisy in all its forms is to be avoided. It creeps in with subtlety, and has helped to produce most of the parties and divisions which we have to deplore today. The French infidel, Voltaire once sneeringly said that the French had many soups but only one religion (meaning Roman Catholicism), but that the British had many religions but only one soup. By this he aimed his satire at both British cookery and British sectarianism. As to the sectarianism he was sadly correct, and behind it is to be discerned the master hand of Satan. He can never destroy Christ’s body on the earth, but he has had a large measure of success in marring its outward and visible unity. Paul could say of himself, “I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles,” and at the same time he was a great evangelist and a great teacher, as witness the epistles that came from his pen. This illustrates the fact that between teachers and evangelists and all the gifts there is to be nothing but the greatest harmony, and oneness for the furtherance of the Lord’s interests in His absence.
There are rife in Christendom today a number of weird religions, or perhaps a better term would be modernistic cults. The trend of the human mind is seen in the seeking after novelties, and the misconstruing of Scripture to make it fit in with strange ideas. Alas! it is easier to propagate error than truth. Error appeals to the flesh in some way or other. Truth sets aside man in the flesh and brings in God. In the face of all this it is extremely important that we should be found following the exhortation, “Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20).
If we turn to 1 Corinthians 12, we find the gifts referred to in this passage are those exercised in the assembly with the Spirit of God as the living power. It also set forth the position of the Church since the ascension of our Lord. The Head of the Church is exalted to the right hand of God in glory, and His body is here—the continuation of His life through its members. This is effected by the Holy Spirit taking of the things of Christ and showing them to us, and reproducing His life in us—Christ in us, the hope of glory.
In our natural body all direction proceeds from our head. So it is in spiritual things. The body of Christ is in the place of dependence upon its Head, and in intimate connection with Him. If the members, instead of looking to an earthly head, look up to Him, come under His control and walk in the Spirit, His guidance will be manifested, especially in the assembly. The state of the Corinthians was not a high one as the reproofs and exhortations of the Epistle show. Evil, both moral and doctrinal was amongst them, and in carnal fashion they were turning gifted men into leaders of parties, so as to mar the expression of unity. They were saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I am of Apollos,” and “I am of Cephas,” and worst of all, “I am of Christ,” as though they would make Him a party to their sectarianism and strife. What was at the bottom of all this ungodly discord? Was it not that the saints at Corinth had got out of true dependence upon their risen Lord?
Then again, instead of respecting those among them who were sober, godly and dependent, they were fascinated by those who could make a display with their lesser gifts, such as tongues and healings, or who had the natural ability of eloquence and persuasive speech, things which attract the natural man. Therefore the Apostle pleaded with them to “covet earnestly the best gifts;” that is, such gifts as prophesying, teaching, etc., which excel to the edifying of the Church.
At the present time the state of Christendom is sadly like that of the Corinthians. If I were to advertise sufficiently a meeting in the Town Hall, where I would manifest some gift of tongues or perform some miracle of healing, there would not be enough seats to accommodate the crowds which would come to gratify their curiosity. The display, even if genuine, would only be that of the inferior gifts. We do well to give these sensational displays a very wide berth, for speaking generally they are by no means genuine. It is not worldly display or worldly organization that counts. The Church of God is a living organism, with its unseen Head in heaven, and we may be sure that if dependent upon Him we shall find He has made all provision for order and administration during His absence.
To sum up, in Ephesians 4, we have the gifts seen from the standpoint of Divine purpose, and that purpose will be fulfilled in the day when we all come to the unity of the faith. Surely that will be reached at the Rapture, when our Lord’s prayer in John 17 will be gloriously fulfilled, “that they may be one, even as We [the Father and the Son] are one.” In this passage the gifts are the men themselves: THE LORD is the great name in this chapter, and the gifts are given to men for the blessing of the world.
In 1 Corinthians 12 the assembly is the sphere for the exercise of gifts. This gift is given to this one, and that gift is given to another and all as the Spirit in His sovereign will pleases. THE SPIRIT is the great name in this chapter.
In Romans 12 the gifts are seen in connection with the house of God, and therefore are manifested in the relation of one saint to another. It ranges from that which is exercised in the assembly, such as ministering, teaching, exhorting, to that which is exercised amongst the saints in their intercourse one with another, such as being “kindly affectioned one to another,” giving, showing hospitality, and so on. GOD is the great name in this chapter.
We recommend the careful comparison of these three great chapters. Above all may every breath of the spirit of this age be foreign to the saints of God, and may God, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit each have His portion in God’s people, especially as we come together in assembly. In these broken days failure has to be confessed in every direction by the Church of God, for every Christian is a member of the one body, and what affects the whole affects each member just as what affects each member affects the whole.