Passing through a park recently our eye was arrested by a notice couched in polite language:
“The Public are asked to protect what has been provided for their enjoyment.”
Looking at the well kept flower beds, admiring the roses in all their magnificent bloom, we reflected that if some thoughtless or dishonest person were to appropriate those roses for his private pleasure, he would be robbing others of the enjoyment they were intended to give. Whereas by enjoying them where they were, not only would we enjoy them, but they would be available for the enjoyment of others.
The notice set us thinking of something which is of infinitely more importance. God has given to men a revelation of the truth, of Himself, of His ways in grace to sinful men, of His thoughts concerning His people. All this centres round the Lord Jesus Christ, the Revealer of God and His love,
“Who came to earth to make it known,
That we might share His joy .”
All this is given to us in the Bible. The truth, the Person of Christ, the Word of God, have been the objects of the ceaseless attacks of Satan. It is the responsibility of God’s people to protect what God has provided for their enjoyment, nay more than for their enjoyment, for their salvation and eternal blessing, without which there can be no blessing at all.
It was early in the Christian era that we read the words, “It was needful for me to write to you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). And if it was needful in Jude’s day, how much more necessary is it today. We are clearly at the very end of the Christian Dispensation. At any moment we may hear the summoning shout of our blessed Lord to call us hence to be for ever with Himself. But whilst we are left here the fight gets hotter and hotter.
The truth is indestructible. “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2 Cor. 13:8). Thank God for this! We have no changing foundation. We stand on the Rock of Ages, which has withstood all the storms and assaults of the enemy.
The truth is indestructible! A professor of a theological college may, for instance, deny the existence of hell. His denial does not alter the truth that there is a hell. So with any truth. We may deny the truth, we may give it up in parts as, in our opinion, impracticable, but
THE TRUTH REMAINS.
But there is a responsibility resting on every believer, that is more and more serious in its call upon our earnestness and fidelity as the threatened apostasy foretold in Scripture asserts itself. We cannot destroy the truth, but we can allow it to be filched from ourselves and others, so that we lose its enjoyment, and, what is worse, God loses the satisfaction that His heart desires in seeing His children walking in the truth.
If the Apostle John could write, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth,” surely it can be said of God Himself that this is His joy, in far deeper measure than known to the most devoted servant on earth.
These are days when Modernism, which is infidelity of the worst kind, and Ritualism, which is undoubtedly seeking to put the yoke of Rome on the necks of believers, are rampant. Perhaps the most insistent call that comes to the Christian today is this:
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel [unbeliever]? … Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
If all Christians had acted on this plain word of God the apostasy would not have advanced as far as it has. How often one has heard the plea of expediency, that by staying in fellowship with those who teach Modernism, or practice Ritualism, they are able to put a brake on the wheels and stem the tide of apostasy. But it is just this temporising that has helped on the apostasy.
It is nothing short of disloyalty to the Lord to remain in outward fellowship with men who deny the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Virgin Birth, eternal punishment—men who deny the very fundamentals of the Christian faith.
If any of our readers are in this entanglement, we would ask you to get upon your knees, open your Bible at the passage just quoted, read it aloud, and then ask God’s grace to act upon it.
We have heard cultured Christians say with a shudder, Do not send your sons to this or that University or College if you want them to remain Christians. One young graduate said, “I attended the college chapel and heard all the sermons, and thank God, I am still a Christian.” The heads of theological colleges are with a few exceptions Modernists.
It is no protection of the truth to go on in outward fellowship with men that deny their Lord. The Word of God is prophetic with a graphic clearness. We read:
“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” (2 Peter 2:1-2).
The day has come for plain speaking, and for action. If the true Christians were to a man to refuse to darken the doors of places where modernism and ritualism hold sway, it would be the dawning of a better day for the church of God.
Before the Lord comes may there be a revival among God’s people, an awakening to righteousness in this matter. May we one and all put the Lord first. To do so may entail the breaking of links long formed, but He is worthy, and faithfulness to His word is the only practical way that we can take in preserving for ourselves and our children the truth of God.
Some one said to me recently that one Sunday they would be treated to a sound gospel discourse, or a sound exposition of the Scripture, the next Sunday they could hardly sit upon their seats as they listened to blatant Modernism from the same pulpit.
We replied, “Would you be content to let your children have a drink of milk and then a drink of poison? You know you would not.”
These are serious days, and we need to put the Lord and His word above every other consideration.