A celebrated professor once gave orders that all works older than ten years found on the shelves of a medical library should be consigned to the cellar. The march of knowledge in the medical world had rendered them out of date and useless.
Should such an order be given in connection with the old gospel, hoary and reverend with its well-nigh two thousand years? Aye, it is older than that, it is as old as the Fall of man. For no sooner did man sin than God made the promise of salvation through the Seed of the woman, and the sinless victims were slain, their blood shed, and their skins provided a covering for the nakedness of our first parents—all typical of the atoning death of Christ, of the old gospel.
New conditions of a startling and vital nature have arisen within the last few years, the great war developing and bringing these new conditions up to date in an arresting and remarkable way.
In view of the new conditions must the old gospel be modified or is something else needed to meet the case?
In answer we turn to the “law and the prophets”—to Holy Scripture. We have no other appeal. Those with whom the Scriptures have lost their authority are as rudderless ships driven by the remorseless tide upon the devouring rocks.
But thank God there are tens of thousands to whom the Bible is indeed the authoritative Word of God, inerrant and inspired, and it is from its pages we shall get the true answer to our question. And these we appeal to are the excellent of the earth.
Such can take their place beside the Apostle Paul when he triumphantly asserts, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).
In his own experience he had felt this mighty power—greater than the might that called worlds into existence, for it was a moral power that bent the will of the ardent zealot into an instrument for the glory of God. It was, in short, a new creation. Great as the miracle was in the case of the Apostle Paul it is as great in the case of “every one that believes.” Converted thieves and Pharisees, saved drunkards and moralists, can all alike testify to the power of the old gospel. It comes in upon men in varied conditions, and is the only and real remedy for sinful men.
We remember hearing a lady, who had for many years laboured among inebriate women, state that they had tried will-power, the signing of the pledge, the change of environment and influence, the use of drugs and medicines but, she added, after long years of experience we have found there is only one effective cure for the power of drink, and that is—CHRIST.
The New Conditions Foretold
These are briefly yet amply and graphically delineated for us in Holy Writ.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, [is this not true, whether it be autocracy or democracy?], covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers [does this not delineate in a striking way the aims and spirit of Germany in this late war?] disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers [as witness “the scrap of paper”], false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
Surely if the Scripture can foretell so accurately the new conditions, it is reasonable to believe that it likewise supplies the remedy. Does it propose an altered gospel? Once when Judaizing teachers sought to alter it the Apostle denounced the attempt as tampering with the very foundations of Christianity.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be ACCURSED” (Gal. 1:8).
No; not one solitary line of Holy Scripture can be construed to suggest an adjustment or reconstruction of the old gospel. Wherever received it proves itself to be all that is claimed for it.
But there must be failure somewhere. Less and less is heard of gracious revivals. Conversions are becoming rare. The gospel does not attract as it once did. This is the testimony of all true Christian workers.
Doubtless the universal indifference and widespread infidelity that characterise the moment affect the Christian generally. Lethargy and depression alas! mark many. Should this be so? Surely not. God is the same—His love, His wisdom, His power unaltered. Our resources are unimpaired.
Where then is the failure, where the fatal leak, where the dry-rot that has set in? Emphatically not in the old gospel, but rather in the giving of it up so largely, in relying upon adventitious aids instead of on the Holy Ghost, in the adoption of the Higher Criticism, of New Theology, of the doctrine of Conditional Immortality and the like. What then is the remedy?
We propose to answer this question under four heads:
(1) The Message.
(2) The Man.
(3) The Manner.
(4) The Preparation for the Message.
Evidently if the Message is right and there is failure it must be with the Man.
The Message
First, it concerns a Person, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” He only is a Christian who confesses thus a Person, who is “over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom. 9:5), yet “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Scripture presents Him in the unity of His holy Person. This is blessedly revealed to us in Scripture, yet the understanding of this inscrutable mystery is wisely and rightly withheld from the creature in the words, “No man knows the Son but the Father” (Matt. 11:27).
Second, it concerns a work. An ardent evangelist was about to cross the Atlantic to preach the glorious gospel, when an aged servant of Christ said to him, “H—, preach facts.” Wise advice. So we read, “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). It is a testimony to the atoning value of the death of Christ.
Third, it concerns the Resurrection. With great power gave the apostles witness of “the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33). Resurrection is the great testimony to the efficacy of the finished work of Christ, and should have a very distinctive place in the message. It is supernatural and upon it hangs the whole scheme of the gospel.
Fourth, it brings the offer of personal salvation—salvation from the penalty of sin, and deliverance from the power of sin, and from the power of the world. “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4).
Fifth, it gives us the promise of the redemption of the body. This will take place at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even the young Thessalonian believers were “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9-10).
Sixth, it testifies to the everlasting punishment of the unrepentant sinner. “These shall go into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46).
The Man
“How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” are the divine queries. What is wanted for the new conditions today are heaven-sent preachers. Alas! so many preachers do not know the gospel themselves, for they have not come under its power. If the message had come in power to themselves then they could preach the message in power.
Look at the great pattern preacher, coming under the power of the message, the message was powerful as he proclaimed it. He says, “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is to me, if I preach not the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16). Again, “I have not shunned to declare to you all the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). There must be no hiding the truth, however unpalatable it may be. The testimony not only as to the grace of God but also to His government must be rendered; not only to His Redeemership with all its winsome story of grace, but also to His Creatorship with its claims upon the creature must be clearly put forth. Mr. Gladstone, commenting on the denial of an eternal hell, said, “What is this but to emasculate all the sanctions of religion, and to give to wickedness already under too feeble a restraint a new range of licence?” How true is this testimony.
The heaven-sent preacher must have a powerful impression of the message if he is to give a powerful expression of it. He must be unworldly, self-denying, ready to put his own ease and pleasure aside in order to win souls.
For the glory of God, will be his motto. If the blessing of man be the predominant thought his message will lose in power and dignity; it must be for the glory of God.
The end, too, God has in view must command his soul. Sinners are saved in to be worshippers; they are saved in this present time to form part of the church—the bride of Christ. They make up the ecclesia, the called-out ones from among the nations.
The Manner
Naturally if the message is of God, and the man is first himself impressed by it, his manner in giving it out will have a dignity, a sobriety, an earnestness.
The Apostle Paul could write, “Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you in all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears” (Acts 20:18-19). He tells us in verse 21 his testimony to both Jews and Greeks was “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” so we see how the message, the man, and the manner all went together.
The Preparation of the Message
This is summed up in two words, the knowledge of the message and the dependent state of mind in connection with it.
A preacher once got up and gave an impromptu address of great power and thought. Someone said how extraordinary that he could give such an address without any preparation. “On the contrary,” said he, “I have been preparing that address for thirty years.” Preachers must know their Bibles, not only its outward form but its inner meaning.
Then as to the dependent state of mind that is expressed in the words of our Lord, “This kind comes forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.”
Prayer is bringing God in; fasting is shutting mere nature and human resources out.
We do not look for the conversion of the world. The apostasy is fast ripening. But we do look for God’s gracious work of saving souls till the end, and it may be, nay it will be, deepened exercise and prayerfulness on the part of those who preach the old gospel will result in increased blessing.
It is something if the preacher stands up profoundly convinced that the old gospel is the only message for the new conditions, and gives it out in all its dignity and impressiveness, relying upon God the Holy Ghost, to carry its truth and message in all its converting and sanctifying power to souls.
May God deepen this exercise in the souls of all those who preach the old gospel, and stir up many of our younger brethren to seek to proclaim it as “God’s power to salvation to every one that believes.”