Outline of Paul's Doctrine: Three Addresses

Table of Contents

1. The Church Before Paul
2. Paul’s Ministry: the Key
3. Paul’s Role in the Church
4. Paul’s Gospel
5. The Right Emphasis
6. The Right Perspective
7. The Right Scope
8. Three Revelations
9. The Christ
10. The Lord’s Supper
11. The Resurrection and Rapture
12. The Right Standard
13. Two Great Dangers
14. Rationalism
15. Ritualism
16. A Witness for Christ
17. A Right Path
18. Persecution
19. Service
20. The Spirit’s Unity
21. The Sin of Division
22. Obedience and Service
23. Living for Christ

The Church Before Paul

One was requested to give these addresses, and, furthermore, the subject of them was likewise suggested—that is, “Paul’s doctrine in these last days.” We might consider, especially for the benefit of those who are younger, the ground of gathering together for collective worship and fellowship. Confessedly, this is a large subject; we could not hope to do it justice in one address. So we have arranged, God willing, to have three addresses on the subject. That means that some of the things we would like to say tonight will have to remain unsaid for another night, when we will be able to complete the circle of truth we have in mind.
Perhaps we should start out something like this: We know according to the promise of the Lord Jesus that a new thing was to be brought forth upon the earth when He said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Evidently it did not exist at that time. To go on a little further in its history, we find at the close of the gospel of Luke that the Lord tells the disciples they are to tarry at Jerusalem where they should receive power from on high. This is again alluded to in Acts 1. We find the disciples obeying the injunction as they waited together in the upper room, and, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Spirit of God came and formed an entity upon the earth. It was not complete in all the purposes of God, because the Gentiles were to be brought in later, but it had its beginning, its birthday, on the day of Pentecost. Peter was the one the Lord had chosen to use the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He used them on the day of Pentecost, later he used them in admitting the Samaritans, and, finally, God used him in a definite, special way to throw the door wide open for the Gentiles in Acts 10. When Peter has finished this mission, we do not hear a great deal more about him. He soon bows out of the scene, and another unique figure comes before us who dominates the remainder of the history of the church as we have it recorded in the Word of God. That man, of course, was Paul, the Apostle.
Our thought tonight is to trace the connection of Paul’s ministry with the revelation of the truth of the church of God. Paul has a dominant place in this particular revelation. Of the eight holy men through whom God chose to give us the New Testament, here is one who occupies a most important place. The other apostles were chosen by our Lord when He was here upon earth; they had companied with Him. That was one of the requirements in order to be numbered among the apostles. But with the Apostle Paul, God acted in an extraordinary way; He separated that man from his mother’s womb. Paul was a definitely chosen, prepared, elect instrument from the time he came into this world. God had great work for that man, and He chose and fashioned an instrument that could do it better than any other.
I suppose that Paul’s ministry has evoked more opposition than that of any other author in the New Testament. Modernists are almost all opposed to Paul’s line of thinking, because they say he narrowed Christianity down to the Jewish way of thinking and reduced it to a system of vicarious sacrifice in order to approach God. Thus they say the world lost its opportunity to carry out the great conception of Jesus as to the brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God. Modernism definitely does not care much for Paul’s line of things. When you come to the other branches of Christendom, those who profess to believe the Bible, they seem somewhat reluctant to go all the way with Paul. They evidently feel that Paul condemns many of the things with which they are going on, for you cannot consistently profess to believe a thing and act directly contrary to it. So, many a man — many a Christian leader — who says he believes the Word of God —who says he is a fundamentalist — will definitely sidestep many of the things in Paul’s ministry, because they come into collision with the system with which he is connected.
When we come to consider Catholicism, we find that they do not want their people to know about Paul’s ministry. Why should they want their followers to know that there is but one Mediator between God and men, or to read of the fact that by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified? No, that branch of the professing Christian church does not care to have Paul’s ministry spread abroad among their followers.
On a train recently one had a long talk with a Catholic priest, a young man about 27 years of age. He confessed without a blush that he had never read Paul’s ministry. Yes, he had read the four gospels, but in his five years in training as an ecclesiastic, he had never given one cursory reading to the ministry of Paul.

Paul’s Ministry: the Key

Paul’s ministry is the key to the present dispensation in which we are living. Without it we are going to lose our proper character as those who are possessed of the heavenly calling, those who wait to be taken out of this world, those who are expecting His return to take us into the place where we belong.
Going back into the historical sequence of things, in the second chapter of Acts the church was formed. And in the next two chapters, the Spirit of God energizes them with such unique power and Christian affection as the world had never known — not a jarring note; everything is in lovely harmony — a beautiful answer to our Lord’s prayer in John 17 that they all might be one. Very soon failure came in, for, remember, the Word of God never promises a perfect condition in the church of God. We will never have it while we are down here in this world, for wherever anything is committed to man, we can look for failure to come in. So it was in the fifth chapter, in the lie of Ananias and his wife; likewise, in the sixth we discover selfishness. We find trouble early in the church of God. I trust none of us are so self-complacent as to think we can expect or look for a perfect company. Mr. Armet used to say that if he found that company, he would not join it, because, if he did, it would be spoiled. No, we are not looking for the perfect company, but we are seeking to discern from the Word of God the path marked out for faith in these last days.
In Acts 7 we find that the Jewish nation sins again against Christ in the stoning of Stephen. They definitely say, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). How final was Israel’s rejection of their Messiah!
Immediately, in the next chapter, we find grace beginning to work outside the bounds of Israel proper, and the Samaritans were brought in. All is orderly progress from the day of Pentecost right down to the ninth chapter. Here Saul of Tarsus is converted, that chosen instrument whom God, as it were, had hidden away. His eye was upon him. Saul of Tarsus thought he was going on in his own way and using his dynamic drive to wipe the name of Jesus off the face of the earth. There was no name he hated like that name. Nevertheless, he was a chosen vessel of God, a vessel of mercy. God was going to demonstrate in that vessel that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so, in Acts 9, it is Saul who is brought to God. Acts continues in the tenth and eleventh chapters with the introduction of the Gentiles into the church formally.

Paul’s Role in the Church

Perhaps we might open our Bibles to Acts 11:19-25. There is something significant there. The moment the Gentiles begin to accept the gospel, this man of God who was full of the Holy Spirit — this man Barnabas —instinctively feels that the man who is needed to fill in right here is Saul of Tarsus. No doubt he was guided by the Spirit of God in those thoughts, so he goes to Tarsus, gets Saul, brings him to Antioch, and, in verse 26, “it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people.” That is characteristic of Paul: “With the church.” How his name is linked all the way through Scripture with that precious ministry — Christ and the church. So here, early in his ministry, he is at Antioch spending a whole year with the church. Something also significant comes out here: “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” — Christians! You do not get Christianity recognized as a definite and new thing until you find it under the ministry of Paul down at Antioch far removed from Jerusalem. From here on Peter’s leadership is rapidly eclipsed by that of Paul, save for a single crisis which arose later in connection with the Gentiles and their relationship to the law. But even there it was not Peter but James who gave the mind of the Spirit in the final decision. In Acts 12, we hear Peter saying, “Go show these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place” (vs. 17). That is the last we hear of Peter’s formal ministry. But what do we find in the next chapter, chapter 13? “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul” (vs. 1). Yes, here Saul is right on hand in the church at Antioch and is selected to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. Moreover, he is the one used in a typical way to set aside the Jew under judicial blindness. “Then Saul  .  .  .  filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him” (vs. 9). Here we get the mystical intimation that Paul is the one to give the final word as to apostate Israel. Thus they were given over to judicial darkness so that they will not be able to find their way for a season; that season is going on at the present day.
This reminds me of when I was a boy and used to go to Sunday school and study under the International Sunday School lessons: six months in the Old Testament—those beautiful stories, such as Joseph in Egypt and David and the giant — and six months in the New Testament. We learned the precious story of the life of our blessed Lord. It was valuable, and I thank God for those things. I came from a home where I did not get these things. But the point I am making is this: We never made an excursion into the epistles of Paul, unless it was to wrest some verse out of its context and get a temperance lesson. We were not given the faintest idea of the grand outline of the ministry committed to Paul. Paul was neglected. That is what one is trying to emphasize in tracing this great servant. God raised him up in this definite line of ministry, and woe to the one who neglects Paul. He is going to be emaciated in his spiritual life; he will be out of communion with the mind of Christ.

Paul’s Gospel

Now we go on to chapter 14. Paul returns from his missionary journey, “and when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles” (vs. 27). Is that not significant? When they got back, it was the church that Paul sought. It was there he unburdened his heart and told out the story of God’s way with him on that eventful missionary journey. Yes, Paul was an assembly man, a church man, and I trust none of us here tonight, in our service for Christ, will ever get beyond the place where we feel the need of the assembly.

The Right Emphasis

I pass on the little illustration given me by a brother. He said, “Some brethren seem all gospel-minded. They do not seem to get much beyond the gospel to discover the importance of the assembly, and others are so church-minded that they seem to lose sympathy with the gospel. Neither is in accordance with the mind of God.” The brother went on to say, “In our ministry we should be like a compass — one leg planted in the middle of the assembly and kept there and never wandering away, and the other leg of the compass wandering as far in gospel testimony as it may, consistent with the Word of God.”
When the Apostle had finished this evangelical tour, he was back with the church in happy fellowship, telling them what God had done and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. “And there they abode long time with the disciples” (vs. 28). This man was a great servant, entrusted with the highest truth God ever committed to man, but he never became so infatuated with saving souls that he forgot or neglected assembly life and testimony. Here Paul abode a long time with the disciples. How easy it is to put wrong emphasis on things. I was thinking about Peter’s commission in John’s Gospel. After his restoration, what did the Lord tell him to do? Send him out to preach the gospel? Not a word about the gospel. He says, “Feed My sheep” (John 21:16). He is a shepherd—“My sheep.” It all had to do with the house of God. How the Lord loves the sheep, and when we put the gospel above ministry to the saints, when we discount teaching in order to elevate preaching, we have not the mind of God. The greatest preacher and evangelist who ever lived is this man Paul, but he did not think he was wasting his time by staying there a long time teaching the disciples.
Now we go further, to chapter 20. Here he is making his farewell address. “Now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. [This is Paul’s last visit with the elders from Ephesus.] For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (vss. 25-27). Now, if you are going to be in the good of Paul’s ministry, you will desire the whole counsel of God, and if you deliberately refuse it, you are cutting yourself off from what God has for you. And if you refuse it to others, you are like a man who wraps a cord around the arm of another and stops the circulation. If you rob the saints of some of the truth of the counsels of God for them, you are doing damage to them. Paul said that if he had done it that way, he would be guilty of the blood of those people. He means to say that he would be responsible spiritually for their being left lame, sickly, puny and lacking in normal growth, but he says, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Should we seek less? Should we be satisfied with less than the whole counsel of God?
Now let’s go to chapter 22:14. We are back to Paul’s conversion, but it comes in here in an orderly way. Ananias said to him, “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth.” Now the expression one desires to emphasize is this: “That thou shouldest know His will.” That is more than simply going out to preach the gospel. From the very start of his commission, Paul was to know God’s will.
Now we will go to the last chapter of Acts and the last two verses: “Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him” (ch. 28:30-31). We see the double character of Paul’s ministry there —teaching and preaching. They both went together. And what was the theme? The theme was the kingdom of God and all that concerned the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when you have those three titles put together in that way, it means God is seeking to bring before us all the range of truth that has to do with the Person of His Son — as Lord, as Saviour, as the Anointed, as the crucified Man up there — our Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the sad things that one notes in conversations with Christians at large is that you seldom hear them speak of “our Lord Jesus.” They will talk about “Jesus,” about “Christ” and about “Christ Jesus.” But how seldom do you ever hear Christians speak about “the Lord Jesus,” and even more rarely do you hear them speak about “the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Right Perspective

Paul, in his ministry and teaching, filled out the whole of God’s thoughts as to Christ, and he would have us do the same. Now let us connect that expression in Acts 22:14, “That thou shouldest know His will,” with what we find in Ephesians 5:17, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Does not that connect beautifully with Paul’s commission at the start, “That thou shouldest know His will”? How important it is, young Christian, to be instructed in the will of God. God does not want us to be unwise. Sometimes you hear Christians say, shrugging their shoulders, “You know some of us do not have time to study these things out. We do not know much about the Bible. There is brother so-and-so: We will let him handle that.” We shrug our shoulders and eliminate ourselves from the richest possible discoveries we can make in God’s Word. It is not just for the old brothers to enjoy: It is for every child of God. God does not want us to be unwise. He wants us to stand complete in Him. The Word of God is written for you: “Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17).
Now compare that with Colossians 1:9-10. We find ourselves on familiar ground. “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” I take from those two verses that you cannot walk correctly as a Christian unless you understand the calling of a Christian as given to us in the ministry of Paul. I see this demonstrated all around me as I look on the Christian world that has given up the ministry of Paul. Everywhere I go I see contradiction to the heavenly calling of the Christian. I find them with apparently good conscience mixed up in all sorts of worldly connections that deny their heavenly calling. Seemingly they would ignore the coming of the Lord as though there was no possibility that it could interfere with the orderly run of affairs down here. And so men plan and scheme in a religious way for years to come; they establish great and permanent institutions; they throw themselves wholeheartedly into political and social reforms, and so the doctrine of Paul, which leaves the church expecting the return of the Lord Jesus any moment, is so completely lost sight of that it is seldom mentioned.
One remembers visiting a family in Louisiana. The father was a dear child of God, a Methodist, and we had some good talks together. But when I tried to interest him in the blessed fact that the Lord Jesus is coming back again, I found my friend utterly indifferent. I could not see that there was the slightest response. His attitude was this: “If He is coming, He will come, and when He comes, why, I am ready. But I do not think that should form any part of our thinking or planning. We will go on in our gospel efforts as though He is not coming, and when He comes, He will come. That is all there is to it.” The pulsating hope in his heart’s affections was totally missing. Why? Not a Christian? No, he was saved, but he had had bad teaching — not wicked teaching, but poor teaching. He was not instructed in the will of God. How much had he heard of Paul’s ministry? How much did he know of the epistles, those precious parts intended for the saints of God — bread upon their table — how much? Very little! He knew the gospel; he traced the life of our Lord; he preached John 3:16. He knew about Christ and His death, but what did he know about the marvelous epistles that have to do with the glorified One up there, our vital union with Him, and that any day the church may be called to meet Him in the glory? It made no part of his thinking.
So, we cannot expect to walk rightly — we cannot expect to be right in anything in our Christian activity —if we are not instructed in the will of God as we have it in the Word of God, including the fourteen epistles of Paul.

The Right Scope

Further on in this chapter, verses 23-25, Paul receives a double ministry: “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.” What verses those are! What a wealth of truth is contained in them! Here is this special instrument of God who receives a double ministry, a ministry of the gospel, which he calls “the glad tidings of the glory” (2 Cor. 4:4 JND; 1 Tim. 1:11 JND). Paul’s gospel included John 3:16, but it took in the whole range of all that is ours as a consequence of Christ’s having suffered and died and risen again and having taken His place at God’s right hand.
Not only so, Paul says that God has committed to him another ministry of the church, the ministry of the body of Christ. “Who now  .  .  .  fill up that which is behind [lacking]” and “fulfill [complete] the word of God” (Col. 1:24-25). What does it mean? Well, saints, in Paul’s ministry you have brought out all that God has for man, and after Paul lays down his pen, the whole scope of the truth of God is now revealed. Now, that does not mean that other men did not write after Paul. John wrote long after Paul, and after Paul had written this to Colosse, he wrote other things. That does not mean that this was the last thing that God was going to pen to the church — definitely not. We know there were other communications, but in none of those communications was the Spirit of God exceeding the borders that have been explored in Paul’s ministry. Paul had to suffer for that ministry, so he says, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church” (ch. 1:24). Paul’s ministry has always necessitated suffering on the part of the saints of God. Paul says, “I am filling up what was lacking in the suffering of Christ.” It was not atoning suffering — not that! Paul was proving that he was so in fellowship with the mind of Christ that he was sharing the same kind of rejection that his blessed Lord had had in this world. If you and I go on with Paul’s ministry, his doctrine, with the full circle of the truth of Christ and the church, we are going to find it costs something. It never has been possible in this world, and never will be possible, to escape rejection by this world if we testify to all the truth — especially the heavenly truth brought out by Paul. If you adopt Paul’s ministry in its full character and accept its consequences, you will find that it is not wanted even in Christendom. “Even the mystery  .  .  .  God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:26-27). As it were, Paul exhausted the vocabulary when he got into that subject — Christ and the church! How much does it mean to us? How much does it mean to you? Are you satisfied to be just taken up with the gospel, or are you definitely interested in the truth of the church and order your life accordingly? If you do, it may cost you something. “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (vs. 28). Now I understand that that is the highest ministry. How many of our ministries go that high? You cannot go higher than that: “Present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Any ministry that has less than that for its object is ministry that is too limited; it cannot have the full sanction of the Spirit. It is only a partial ministry.
Do we, in our ministry, seek to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus? This is not to just present the old brothers or the leaders or the gifted or the preachers or just the brothers and leave sisters out. No, God wants every one of us to be perfected in the range of truth that is brought out in Paul’s writings, as well as the truth ministered by the other New Testament writers. Paul’s heart was burdened right down to the end that they might stand complete in all the will of God.

Three Revelations

Let us open our Bibles again to Colossians. We have already had one address in this series on Paul’s doctrine and its bearing on our life and testimony in these last days. Last time we traced the bringing in of the church historically and the conversion of the Apostle Paul, together with the testimony that was committed to him. We saw in his ministry how he sought to bring all the saints into full fellowship with the revelation that had been given to him as the special Apostle of God. Confessedly, the Apostle has a unique position unlike that of other apostles. Of those spoken of in Scripture as “apostles,” Paul was not a whit behind the very chiefest! Paul was the chosen vessel through whom Christ revealed the truth of the church. In fact, Paul is the only one of the eight authors of the New Testament who speaks of “the church of God.” To be sure, others of the apostles speak of “the church,” but Paul only, I believe, uses the expression, “The church of God” (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:22; 15:9; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 1 Tim. 3:5).
In our last address, we followed Paul down to the first chapter of Colossians, and we laid emphasis on this statement: “Christ  .  .  . whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col. 1:2729). Then, in the next chapter: “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God” (ch. 2:12). Leave out the remainder of that verse. You will find it omitted in the better translations. “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (vs. 3). The Apostle’s exercise there is that there should be the acknowledgment in your life and mine of the whole truth of the mystery of God. And the mystery of God is connected with Christ and the church.

The Christ

In God’s ways and wisdom the Apostle Paul became the medium for the communication of three distinct revelations. The greatest of these is first alluded to in 1 Corinthians 12:12: “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is [the] Christ” —“the Christ”! I am not supplying the definite article there without reason. It is so given in the Greek text. “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” (vs. 13). “So also is [the] Christ.” What does that expression, “The Christ,” mean there? It means that the union of the members of the body with the ascended Head is so real that the whole looked at together — the body, Head and the members — are regarded as one and so are called “the Christ.” The mystical “Christ,” then, comprehends the Head in heaven and the members down here on earth. Paul in that first chapter of Colossians said that he had received a double ministry. The first part of that ministry was connected with the gospel, and Paul’s gospel always connected man with the glory, as he calls it in the fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians, “The glad tidings of the glory of the Christ” (vs. 4 JND). Why was that? When Paul preached the gospel, he did not stop with telling sinners that Christ died for them and by receiving Christ they would get their sins forgiven. Paul preached that the gospel was of such enormous purport and power, that the man who received Christ not only received forgiveness of sins but became attached to the Man in glory — connected with that One up there. Yes, he goes further in this doctrine and sees the believer seated in the heavenlies in Christ.

The Lord’s Supper

The second revelation that Paul received was closely connected with the first. In addition to this truth that the church is a heavenly institution joined to the glorified Head by the indwelling Spirit of God, there was also committed to Paul the full doctrinal significance of what we commonly speak of as the Lord’s supper. In the religious world around us it is spoken of as the communion service. In the Word of God we find it brought before us in 1 Corinthians 10-11 as the great central ordinance to express through all the church’s history the truth of Christ’s death for us. Now, to Paul was committed the bringing out in connection with the remembrance of the Lord the additional significance of the one loaf. “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf  ” (1 Cor. 10:17 JND). Thus is the unity of the body of Christ (the church) brought before us.

The Resurrection and Rapture

The third revelation committed to Paul was that of the resurrection of the departed saints plus the fact that some of us may never have to die. How does that integrate with the other two revelations? In this way: If the truth of Christ and the church is the highest truth that God can give to man, and if the memorial of the Lord’s supper is the expression of that truth for the church here on earth, what about the saints that have passed off this scene? Are they going to lose any of the benefits accruing to the living saints? No, we are assured that they lose nothing, for the Lord is watching over them and is going to bring them all back that they, with us, should be changed and so fitted for the blessing when we enter into the fullness of what we have now received by faith. This raising of the dead saints and the changing of the living to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air is commonly called the rapture or the catching away of the church.
When all who are predestinated to form part of that mystical body are gathered in through the preaching of the gospel, there will sound the shout in the air as the church is caught away from the earth forever. We must go to 1 Thessalonians 4 to find out how this takes place. All these three revelations committed to Paul are interrelated. Together they complete the special Pauline testimony.
In our chapter this afternoon, Colossians 2, we find the Apostle is much concerned that there might be full acknowledgment of the mystery of God. “This I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words” (vs. 4). “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him” (vss. 8-10).
Dear saint of God, “Ye are complete in Him.” Oh, how jealous Paul was that that truth continue with us. “Complete in Him” — but that is connected with the truth of Christ and the church. You cannot separate them. It all hangs together, and Paul says in that first verse, “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you.” On what point? That they might be saved? No! That they might get to heaven when they die? No! That they might enter into this mystery — that that might form and fashion their lives. And he goes on to develop the doctrine as it practically affects the life of the believer.
Turn to the last chapter of this same epistle, verse 12: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” There was a man who labored in spirit for the Lord by praying. Was he gospel-minded? I have no doubt he was. No saint is in a healthy state of soul who is not gospel-minded, but I tell you there was something about Epaphras that went beyond being gospel-minded. Epaphras was church-minded. Are you church-minded? Are you? Paul was. Paul commends Epaphras for the fact that he labored and sweated and toiled in spirit that the saints of God might enter into the full acknowledgment of all the truth of God. We are living in such shallow times that Christianity has become so watered down that in many places today it is becoming synonymous with the concept of a home and foreign missionary society.

The Right Standard

I shall relate an incident. One afternoon we had a nice Bible reading at a conference. A minister was there, a child of God. I knew him personally. In fact, his mother was in the meeting. I remarked to him at the close of the reading what a lovely time we had had over the Word of God, and he gave a rather reluctant agreement to the statement and added, “I don’t attach much importance to this kind of thing. I believe that God measures all things in terms of the salvation of men’s souls.” He meant it. He was sincere, and I believe he was a real soul-winner, too. Someday all his service for Christ is going to pass in solemn review at the judgment seat of Christ. Do you think that his idea will be the measuring stick in that coming day? Is God going to sum up our Christian lives in terms of how many souls we have won for Christ? Paul said in writing to the saints, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2). What do they read in you? Do they read only that which concerns man’s salvation? Or do they find in you the spirit of Epaphras, who was seeking to be in harmony with the will of God concerning Christ and the church? We need the right standard of measurement; if we do not have it, we may drift far off from God’s thoughts.
One remembers, perhaps 30 years ago, brother M. and I helped a widow to excavate for a new home. We measured the length and width, but one inch of the yardstick had been cut off, and we did not know it. When the mason came to lay the bricks, he was disgusted to find the hole in the ground was too small both ways. We were sincere; we did not know there was an inch missing — never dreamed of it. We had to be convinced. But we were using a faulty standard of measurement, and the result showed up in our work. The mason came along and saw the error. And if we use the wrong measuring stick in our work down here for God, we can expect our work to be faulty. We want to be sure in our Christian life and testimony that we are making room for the whole scope and realm of God’s full and free revelation.

Two Great Dangers

Notice how Paul says, “Lest any man spoil you” (Col. 2:8). And as you look out in the Christian world today, can you by any stretch of the imagination conceive of anything more unlike to its origin than Christendom? Of all the babel of voices found in the world today, Christendom excels. We find every kind of schism, truth, error, cult, ritualism and rationalism — all parading under the banner of Christianity.

Rationalism

In our portion here (Col. 2:8,18), there are two solemn dangers before the saints of God — one is rationalism and the other is ritualism — and either one will rob you of the preciousness of the truth of God. Let me urge it upon you young people — these addresses are primarily for the benefit of younger Christians: Rationalism is the result of letting your mind work in the things of God. Rationalism is the attempt to mentally dissect the things of God, and if you allow it, it will maneuver you off the ground of the truth of God without your realizing it. It is a subtle thing, and Satan knows that by using your mind, he is using an instrument that he has had experience with for 6000 years. He knows how to put things in a specious way that appeals to the natural mind. The remedy is Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “Casting down imaginations [reasonings], and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” If we can learn to take the truth of God in the simplicity in which it has been given to us, we shall be safe.
In that connection, I think of Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 11: “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (vs. 3). Young folks, value that expression: “The simplicity that is in Christ.” The things of God, the truths of God, are called simple, and they are simple to faith, but they are stumbling blocks to reason. Yes; it is no wonder that the world hears the gospel and terms it foolishness. So it is with the natural man. But to the believer, the Word of God is a precious storehouse and treasury, and out of it he brings forth treasures new and old. So in our chapter, the Apostle says, I do not want you spoiled. Are you going to allow the enemy to spoil you and rob you?
I saw a book advertised in a fundamentalist magazine. I got a copy of it and read part of it. It was alluringly written — yes, ably written. But the whole book was an attempt to fit God’s plan to man’s mind. It was an attempt by human reason to force the truth into a mold that would be accepted by man in the flesh. Before I finished that book, I was impressed how a child of God can be led so far astray. I felt Satan had maneuvered that man so far off the ground of truth that he was actually preaching serious error. He had really lost God’s Christ — the Eternal One. Yes, his Christ had become the offspring of God — not in those words, of course, but in sum and substance that is where his reasoning led. How careful we need to be! Do not trust those minds of yours! Remember, God gave us His Word, and He did not take us into consultation when He did it. “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?” (Rom. 11:34). That is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Romans. Yes, who helped God out? Who gave Him advice when He was forming His plan for time and eternity? Paul rules that all out. The part of wisdom is for you and me to submit to the truth of Hebrews 1. God has spoken unto us, and, if we are wise, we will receive what God has said, and we will receive it without question. In Colossians 2 we are warned that Satan would love to maneuver us off the ground of truth, either by rationalism or by ritualism.
You know, in the modernism we have around us today, you see the full-grown result of man letting his mind work in the things of God. You have the extreme exponent of it in Henry Emerson Fosdick, who says openly that he does not believe in the resurrection of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ or the atoning work of Christ. He comes out openly and solidly an infidel. That is the end of the road; that is where modernism leads. Modernism, or rationalism, starts out with modifying or neutralizing Scripture, and it may be in little things. But all are on the same road; it is only a question of how far we go. For instance, one of the radio preachers who likes to be classified among the fundamentalists recently came out with a defense of denominationalism. He made the remark something to this effect: There will always be denominations as long as the church is here. We dress our children in different kinds of clothes; we do not dress them exactly alike. We permit them some individuality and dress them according to their personality. And he dismissed the denomination question with a wave of his hand, as much as to say that that part of the matter is left up to us. Is that faith or is that rationalism?
In the early part of 2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul uses this expression: “We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” Notice how weighty it is! The margin reads, “Which deal deceitfully with the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” Could it be put more solemnly or more weightily than that?
I read in the Word of God that divisions in the church of God are a sin, and one that is solemnly condemned. If God, as it were, has given us a definite part of His instruction for His church as long as it is here, then denominationalism is rebellion against God. It is of man. Can I glibly and suavely make allowance for it? Is that dealing with the Word of God faithfully before God, in the sight of God? Someday we are going to give an account of all these things. Yet, is it not true that many of these things are handled as though they did not amount to anything — just a matter of personal opinion?
One remembers reading an address that the president of a Bible institute gave to a graduating class. I suppose he had at least twenty different denominations represented in that class, and I presume he wanted to make them feel good, as they graduated and then went out into the field of Christian labor and conflict, so he said to them, “I believe God raised up different denominations for different emphases: He raised up the Methodist Church to put emphasis on method in Christian work, the Baptists to lay proper emphasis on baptism, the Presbyterians to lay proper emphasis on church government,” and he went down the list and named perhaps six or eight of the well-known denominations. Is that faithfulness to Christ? Is that the truth of the Word? Will that stand the test of the judgment seat of Christ? In principle, that is rationalism.
What is rationalism? It is that which neutralizes the Word of God — neutralizes the effect on the conscience so that man can take up the Word of God and ride right over its plain statements with a calloused conscience, because those who had instructed him had encouraged an elastic conscience on these points — had given him to feel that they were of no weight.
When Epaphras was laboring there on his knees in prayer for the saints of Colosse, what was the burden of his heart? That they might stand complete in all the will of God. Well, dear saint of God, where do you stand today? Are you bowing at the shrine of reason, or are you submitting to the Word of God? Are you seeking to fit your life into the pattern of the marvelous revelations which we have received through Paul?
Paul speaks of “the church of God.” “The church of God” — what one are you connected with? Perhaps there is someone here this afternoon who says with pride, “I belong to the best of all — I’m a Baptist.” One would perhaps agree that there is much to be said in favor of the Baptist Church, but I can assure you of one thing: Paul was no Baptist, for he said, “Christ sent me not to baptize” (1 Cor. 1:17). So you could not claim Paul. Now that is just one example. Perhaps you might say, “I belong to the Friends.” “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). Yet perhaps the most definite thing the Lord Jesus asked His own to do as long as they are in this scene is, “This do in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24). “Eat this bread, and drink this cup” (1 Cor. 11:26). “This do” — not something else! These dear people never, never have the Lord’s supper. It is not a part of their plan or program or setup at all. Is that Paul’s doctrine? Does it make any difference to what you belong? God’s truth is one complete whole. Paul is very anxious for people to get the whole of it, and he makes no allowance for ever having any will in the matter. It is for us to receive what God has said in His Word. Rationalism can rob you of the truth!

Ritualism

Then there is something else that can spoil you too. And they work together, one on one side of the street and the other on the other. They seem to get along pretty well side by side. The other is ritualism.
Everything around us in Christendom today is tending to one of two climaxes. The head of the revived Roman Empire will be an absolute “no God” man, but he will act in close liaison with the woman, the “great whore” (Rev. 17:1), the eventual form of apostate Christianity. Part of the Christian world now is heading for the man — rationalism — and part toward the woman — ritualism! When the true church is taken out and all is left behind that is unreal, then you will find those two forces working together for a little while. And then, finally, in His governmental way, God uses the one to destroy the other, and then the Lord Himself destroys the infidel power. Everything around us today is moving toward the man or toward the woman — toward rationalism or toward ritualism. Which way do you want to move? Where do you want to be? Remember, according to Paul’s doctrine, there was to be a definite, clear-cut testimony rendered to the world by the church. The church was left in this scene as a testimony for our absent Lord. She is waiting for the return of her Lord. We are “partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). How much does the church know about it? How far has the church departed from it? Yes, we are called to heaven, not to earth. “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” (Heb. 3:1). Where is He? In heaven. The church was never put here as an institution belonging to earth. Eventually, the church is to be taken out of the world. In the meantime, the church is waiting for the Lord to summon us to glory. That is the testimony of the Word of God according to the truth Paul brings out.
If Satan cannot corrupt things through rationalism, he will corrupt them through ritualism. Anything that seeks to make your soul fit for God apart from the work of Christ is ritualism. Any least thing that is brought between your soul and the finished work of Christ is ritualism, and it will spoil you and rob you. But you know it comes in bit by bit. It is referred to in the end of this chapter: “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?” (vss. 20-22). In the Revised Version you will find that these are put in opposite order: “Handle not; taste not; touch not.” Now, this is not a question of temperance; anything like the liquor or tobacco question is not involved at all. It is a question of religious ritualism, and God is showing how man, rather than accept the completed work of Christ to which nothing can be added, that sets him perfect before Christ — rather than accept that, he introduces religious performances to perfect himself before God. He introduces them innocently, as one might say, and finally secures the sanction of some great ecclesiastical authority, and they become so solemnized that perhaps only one man in the world dares touch them with his finger, but at the same time it had led away from Christ — led away from His completeness — that fullness that we have in Christ. So men are robbed in their souls.
This morning some of us came together and we remembered the Lord Jesus in His death. Did you? If you did not, where were you? How often do you remember the Lord? He did not say, “As seldom as ye do it,” but, “As often as” you do it (1 Cor. 11:26). We came to do it in solemn, precious memory of Him, and we drank the cup in solemn memory of His blood shed for us. Why did we do it? Was it a means of making us acceptable to God? Was there merit in it? Did eating that bread and drinking that cup give us some kind of religious position or standing that we did not have before? Not the slightest! There was not one atom of virtue in it from that viewpoint. It was simply a question of doing what the blessed Lord asked us to do — almost the last thing He asked us to do. Yet is it not a fact that some Christians become so busy with their testimony—giving their testimony — so busy in the Lord’s work that they do not have time even to come aside and remember the Lord in His death?
I remember an interesting case of a sister in _____ , who was connected with a church there; perhaps that church would rank at the top among fundamentalists. They have thrown themselves into gospel work but disregard almost entirely the line of truth we have before us today. This sister became exercised as to taking her place at the Lord’s table. She went to the minister about it, and he discouraged her leaving, but she said she felt she must leave because she did not find in the _____ church some of the things she found in the Word of God. He asked her what were some of the things. “Well, I feel in my heart a desire to remember the Lord in His death, and I would like to do it with those who meet for that purpose, not as a denomination, not as some certain church, but meet in simplicity of faith to remember Christ.” His reply to her was, “You know, there are a few of us in this big church that feel that way too. We meet to remember the Lord each Lord’s Day except the Sunday the church has communion.” What an admission! Are there two standards? Two ways? Is God the author of confusion? Three Lord’s Days in the month they hold that semi-private memorial, but on the fourth Lord’s Day this is given up to meet as a denomination. Is that according to the truth and teaching of the Word of God? I do not say this to disparage any truth taught in that church; thousands of souls have been blessed there, no doubt, but that does not atone for the sad inconsistencies we have just called attention to. I do not discount the truth, but in the fear of God I am here to state we are not loyal to Christ if we compromise the truth — if we seek to hide some of it so as to become acceptable to the religious world.
In the next chapter, Paul says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above” (Col. 3:1). If you and I are seeking those things which are above, we are not going to be occupied with what man thinks. If the Apostle Paul cared for what man thought of him, he would never have written what he did in 1 Corinthians 4:9-13: “I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.”
Why did Paul have to suffer those things? That he might fill up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ for His body’s sake. Friend, here this afternoon, how much have you really suffered for the sake of the church? How much have you paid of the price for treading the path of separation? If you and I are going to be obedient to the doctrine of Paul, it is going to isolate us from the great organized bodies of Christendom around us. The doctrine of Paul as to the church has been given up long ago. For it was substituted the fallacy of what they call the “church invisible” and the “church visible.” And so all of Paul’s doctrine as to the “church invisible” was given over to the keeping of the angels, as it were, while man took over the “visible church,” after his own pattern. What sad confusion he has made of it! You can see it everywhere.

A Witness for Christ

But Paul’s doctrine cuts a distinct line. The church is the witness for Christ, a witness for her absent Lord, maintaining all the truth as to Christ — not just a part of it. He left the church here, not as an institution to establish foundations in the world or to build for generations to come, but as a witness now —now — with the thought that at any moment we are going to leave it.
Over forty years ago now, I was worshipping in a church. We had a godly man for pastor. I was active there. Many dear Christians were in that institution. I left there because I did not find the doctrine of Paul. I found a part of the truth, but I could not go on with the doctrine of Paul and stay there. When I left, my dear old pastor wrote me a letter telling me what an awful blunder I was making in leaving a big ship to get into a very small one. Then he went on to tell me what a big thing the M. Church was, and he gave a long list of statistics. The whole letter was a mass of comparative figures. But there was not one verse of Scripture in that two-page, typewritten letter — not one verse of Scripture — and, what is more, there was not one reference in that whole letter to the will of God. No, it was a question of human wisdom. I was making a blunder, sacrificing my chances in life, jeopardizing my opportunities for advancement in the ecclesiastical world by stepping out and aligning myself with a group of “nobodies.” Forty years have rolled by; that old institution still stands — I pass it many a time, but never with one note of regret that I did not stay there. I am glad that God revealed to me comparatively early in my spiritual life that the truth of Christ and the church is so dear to the heart of Christ that I cannot be in full communion with Him unless that truth forms a part of my thinking and a part of my path and practice.
Paul says of the counsels of God, “I kept back nothing” (Acts 20:20). Friend, are you keeping back something? Are you compromising the truth? Fellow-Christian, I feel so helpless as I close this address; I feel I have just scratched the surface. I feel there is so much here, and one would love to go on in this line. It is in this Book. Make it your own. Dig deep; find out what it has for you. Value it! Do not let anyone rob you of it. God forbid that I should discount the gospel. I do not mean that, but I mean, Do not stop at that. Go on to perfection. I want to read this verse in closing: “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28).

A Right Path

This is the third and final address in this series on Paul’s doctrine. In the first address we traced Paul’s doctrine historically. We found he was a special witness for the unfolding of those wonderful revelations. We outlined the main points of it in our second address. We spoke of some of the things that corrupt that doctrine: the influence of ritualism and the influence of rationalism, either of which can rob us of what Paul gave us by the Spirit.
Tonight one desires to speak of the problems that face the church of God and render the observance of Paul’s doctrine a far more difficult path than in Paul’s days. Confessedly we are living in the last days.
When man launches a new enterprise of any kind, perhaps a stock company, he gets out a prospectus, perhaps a very lovely brochure, and tells the investors what a wonderful success it is going to be, how they can buy this stock at $10 a share, and how, in a short time, perhaps, it will jump to $100 a share. They demonstrate by figures and arguments and statistics that it cannot possibly fail. It is going to be what they call a success. When we come to the introduction of Christianity into the world, we have the promise of the church, the promise of the reception it was to have in this world, the promise of the progress that the truth was to make, and then the promise of the final consummation of all at the end of the age. We find that exactly the opposite kind of prophecy is made. As we trace the history of the church — as we follow it in the seven churches of Revelation 23 — we find the downgrade, with rare exceptions, the thing ending in that which is so nauseous to Christ that it has to be spewed out of the mouth as a thing hateful to Him. The Apostle’s writings abound with warnings that in the last days things are going to be bad, that it is going to be a difficult time. We learn that toward the end it is going to be hard to find real, genuine faith on the earth. We find that the love of many is going to wax cold, truth is going to be surrendered, people are going to refuse to have ears to hear the Word of God — especially those lines of truth peculiar to Paul. How different from what man desires!
We find ourselves in the end of the Christian dispensation, if we can call it a dispensation. We are faced with the problem of finding a clean path through the confusion Satan has brought in. Who can look out over Christendom today and not recognize what a babel it is? We cannot wonder that people stumble about hopelessly, something like in the days when Israel was without a king and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Men have come to the cynical conclusion that all that is left to do is to do the best they can and go with the confusion. In the case of Israel, there was no king, and everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. You and I cannot say that in reference to the church of God. No! We cannot rob Him of His headship of the church. He did not jeopardize that headship by making it dependent upon the faithfulness of man. He did not put the keeping of the body of Christ in the hands of man and make it man’s responsibility. No, it is in His keeping: “I will build My church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).
When the day comes for Christ to claim His church, He is going to present it to Himself perfect, without spot and without blemish. It is going to answer perfectly to all that He has planned and purposed — not a blemish. Glorious! It is going to be in company with Himself — His work. That is His responsibility. That is going to be His glory. That is His workmanship.
Now, we are not going to talk much about that side of it tonight. Our problem is to find our way through the difficulties besetting us as to human responsibility in connection with the truth entrusted to us, and that especially in connection with the church of God. When our Lord Jesus gave His farewell address to His disciples, He held out a very dark picture as to how their testimony was to be received in this world. Perhaps we might trace this in John 15:18-19: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Next chapter and the last verse: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (ch. 16:33). The next chapter, verse 14: “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (ch. 17:14).
One ventures to say that it is a safe conclusion from the sentiments expressed there that it was never our Lord’s intention that the church was to be an accepted institution in the world. In other words, the program that is outlined by the Lord as He takes His departure from His disciples — as He takes them, so to speak, into the holy of holies in chapters 14-17 of John’s Gospel — the burden of what He has to say is this: “I am leaving you in a hostile world, and the testimony that you have to bear in that world will never be accepted.” Christianity was never intended to be a popular affair in the world. And I would say I believe I speak the truth that Bible Christianity has never been popular in the world. Oh, I know we have a situation today where the church boasts of the power it has succeeded in grasping in worldly affairs, and the world boasts of the presence of the church. The world feels that it needs the church, and the church has certainly aligned itself with the world in many ways. It has become increasingly so, but the path we find marked out in the Word of God is the church passing through this scene and finding everything hostile to it. Paul took up this testimony in his writings, he bore it out personally in his own life and doctrine, and he pressed it upon the disciples.

Persecution

If we turn to 2 Timothy 3, we find him saying this: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (vs. 12). Now, I call attention to the fact that he does not say, “They that do,” but, “They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” If you and I dress up our Christian testimony so as to make it acceptable to the world, we can escape that persecution, but if we are seeking to live godly in Christ Jesus — if that is the purpose and desire of our lives — the Word of God says that we will be rejected —we will suffer persecution. What had been Paul’s personal experience? As we noted in our previous address, the Apostle Paul had been treated as the “filth of the world  .  .  .  the offscouring of all things” (1 Cor. 4:13). That is about as vivid language as it would be possible to use — to be counted as refuse — the filth and offscouring of all things.
In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul speaks of his ministry. “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (vss. 4-10). Oh, what a ministry! What a ministry! That is the man that God raised up to give us the truth of the church, and he says, I am going to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). Yes, the church was to be an institution in this world that would call forth the hatred and opposition of the unsaved around. Paul’s testimony was never popular. When he stood there on Mars’ hill in Athens and preached to that critical Greek group, they termed him, “This babbler” (Acts 17:18). That was not the only time he was termed the equivalent of a babbler. If we follow him through his ministry, what a life we witness! He was a man who was not afraid to work with his hands. He worked that he might not be a burden to the saints. He earned his own way so that none might say that he was in the Lord’s work for money. He was willing to make tents if thereby he could make the gospel without charge.
In the early part of 1 Corinthians the Apostle rules out all natural wisdom. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (ch. 3:19-23).
“Let no man glory in men”! Is it not a sad thing that the Christian church has become like a vast arena where men strive for honors? They have their gradations of achievement, they have their titles, and at times they contend for them with bitter jealousies. Men deck themselves with various degrees and titles and disport themselves in the church of God as though it were a place for someone else than Christ to be seen. Is that not sad? How Satan must delight in that kind of display.

Service

In 2 Timothy 4, the Apostle says, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. 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. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (vss. 1-5). Do you want to serve the Lord? I trust you do. If I may use a figure of speech, there are no drones in God’s hive. Every one of us has the privilege of Christian testimony, brothers and sisters everywhere. Do you want to do some little bit in connection with the ministry of the gospel? You have your opportunity. “Make full proof of thy ministry.” How are you going to do it? By seeking constantly —every day, every hour — to prove all by the Word of God, for we can become so inured to departures from God’s way that finally we accept them as a matter of fact and raise no question. Yes, that is the way it comes about: first small departures, which afterward wear callouses on our Christian consciences so that we fall in line and accept them as part of what was intended to be. Dear young Christians, you and I are called upon as long as we are down here to check all by the Word of God. You have a little meeting here in L.A. and you have one up there in S.M.: What is the excuse for such little assemblies? If we, in a divided and separated Christendom that has broken itself into 1500 different kinds of sects and parties, have no God-given scriptural testimony to render, then why should we not lock the door here, forget about this place, and dissipate ourselves among the sects about us? Is there anything worthwhile to contend for, anything vital at stake, or have we followed a course of self-will—followed a mistaken leadership? If we have, it is a tragedy! I remember reading William Kelly’s remark: “I believe some of us have suffered a deal for a delusion, if that is what it is.” Is it worthwhile to stand for the owning of no other name than that of the Lord Jesus and refusing to compromise that name by any human arrangements outside of what we find in the Word of God? I verily believe it is, else I would not be speaking to you tonight.
I recall that in one of the Gospels, the disciples came to the Lord quite agitated, saying, “We saw one casting out devils in Thy name  .  .  .  and we forbade him” (Mark 9:38). The Lord’s answer was something like this: “Do not forbid him. No man can work a miracle in My name and speak lightly of Me.” I hope I have learned that lesson. I hope I rejoice in every voice that is lifted up in this poor, mad world today to magnify Christ. I was in a home only this week where I heard someone down here at A.T. speaking on the radio, and I heard him exalting Christ and my heart rejoiced. I trust I have not dried up in my affections so that I do not rejoice when Christ is well spoken of. So Paul did in Philippians 1; he rejoiced when Christ was preached. He was not disposed to forbid Christ being preached, even though it was a Christ of contention. So would I stop nobody’s mouth, but I would seek to be faithful to the testimony as I find it in the Word of God, if there is any such in this present-day Babylon. I would seek to continue in the path which God plainly marks out in His Word.

The Spirit’s Unity

If we turn over to Ephesians 4:2, we find the Apostle speaking of the responsibility that lies at the door of every child of God. “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (vss. 2-3). Now, returning to my illustration, I can rejoice that Christ is preached at A.T., but I cannot cross the threshold with a good conscience. I can show no fellowship to one who said she believed all the Word of God except that little bit written by the Apostle Paul. I cannot show fellowship to an institution founded upon the denial of Paul’s doctrine, for in the chapter that she was referring to, the Apostle Paul said, “The things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” “If any man think himself to be  .  .  .  spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37). Woe be to the Christian servant, man or woman, who stands up and deliberately sets aside any part of the sacred Word of God! I would not wish to stand in their place at the judgment seat of Christ, and I trust by the grace of God that I may be kept free from such departure, for it is a serious one. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3).
Now God speaks about a unity that He calls “the unity of the Spirit.” If God talks about it, it must exist. Where is it? Yesterday a rather unusual thing happened. I found an old schoolmate of mine at the little meeting where I was. He had just dropped in, a converted man, whom I have known for 45 years. At the close of the little meeting where we remembered the Lord in His death, his poor wife was in a restless fever to know who we were and what name we went by. To her it was a strange thing that we did not care to speak of any place or name but that of Jesus. It seemed an odd thing to her, yet her husband parades a D.D. after his name — a D.D., Doctor of Divinity, whatever that is. And yet it was a strange thing that we met owning no name but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh beloved, that is the only name there will be in heaven — the only name worth contending for! When we begin to glory in man, we are doing an injustice to that One who deserves every bit of praise that your lips and mine can speak. Perhaps some of us are attracted by what the world calls the magnificent displays that are going on now in connection with Christian effort. Huge, immense conventions can fill Madison Square Garden — 20,000 people, wild with enthusiasm about hearing the gospel and worked up to a pitch of high excitement by trained bands and choirs and musical instruments of all kinds. Some of our young people are attracted by that kind of thing. Again one would reply, If any soul finds Christ there, we are glad. We are glad when anyone gets saved. Do not forbid them. “Costing thousands of dollars” is another attraction for these much advertised gospel efforts. Oh brethren, let us ever remember the exhortation, “Let no man glory in men” (1 Cor. 3:21).
Again I say, I rejoice that Christ is preached, but, brethren, you and I have a blessed, precious opportunity, in these last, closing days of the church’s history here on earth, to tread the path of rejection and to follow in the footsteps of a man who said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). That man was one of the greatest saints that ever lived, and to him was entrusted the revelation of the mystery of Christ and the church. That church is very dear to the heart of Christ. Yes, the gospel is dear to the heart of Christ. That is true. I know that; I hope it is dear to my heart. I know I rejoice whenever I hear it preached. One time my wife and I were stranded in Jacksonville, Florida — we did not know a soul in town — and we saw a father and a son playing a guitar and singing songs about Jesus. It warmed our hearts to hear others speaking the praises of our Saviour, though they were strangers to us. I rejoice whenever I hear the name of Jesus spoken well of. Most dear of all to the heart of Christ is His bride, the church. “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). How much do you and I love the church? If we love the church, we will desire to go on consistently with the doctrine of the church, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.

The Sin of Division

Do you think division in the church means anything to Christ? Do you think it makes any difference when I say I am of Paul or Apollos or Cephas? How Paul warned them there in Corinth! How he pleaded with them! How he begged them to put that thing aside. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:21: “Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (ch. 3:21-23). “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” (ch. 12:12). “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (vs. 25). That is the statement of the doctrine. Does it mean anything, or are we just to make our own choice?
Someone was telling me about listening to the biggest fundamentalist broadcast in America the other day, and this dear man was telling them how to choose their church. He said to just canvass around and find where the real gospel was preached; that was the place to go. Canvass around and make your choice! It is your choice! When Israel had no king, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Is that true here? Has He ceased to have an interest in the path His people tread? Tell me this: Is the Lord a hard master, reaping where He has not sowed? Has He not said that division is sin, and has He not told us to keep the unity of the Spirit? Is there a path for the saints right now in this time, just before He comes? Is there a path where I can avoid the sin of division in the church of God? If there is not, ah, well, let us scatter and each find that which suits him — his taste, his whim. You know we are all different; we all have our preferences in that kind of thing. Probably you would not choose the same place at all that I would choose. No, brethren, it is not up to us to go where we please. God marks out a path in the midst of the confusion.
Second Timothy 2:20. There was a time in my life when this portion in 2 Timothy had a loud voice for me — I hope it does still — but it was Christ’s voice to me. “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (vss. 20-22). I find there the intimation that in 2 Timothy, which gives us the last days when the outward profession is broken down, the house of God is likened to a great house where all kinds of vessels are found. Every kind of unclean bird has taken shelter in the branches of Christian profession today. I have read statements of most awful blasphemies —the most Christ-dishonoring doctrines — all connected with some kind of a confession of the name of Christ. What a defiled house it has become! And now hear this word: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (vs. 21).

Obedience and Service

Did people ever tell you that if you take the path of separation it will cut you off from opportunities of service and testimony? I have heard it many times. What does God say? God says if you take the path of separation, you will be prepared for every good work. Does that mean you are to be cut off from every great service? Not as He sees it. People say, “You are ruining your career. You are cutting yourself off from all your opportunities.” Did you ever stop to think there is a Lord of this harvest? “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:38). Who is going to see to it that all the sheaves are safely gathered in? Who is going to see that all the wheat is in the garner? Why, the Lord of the harvest. And if He gives me some little work to do in fellowship with Him, oh, I esteem it a great honor and a great privilege, but I know He can get along fine without me. Yes, He can accomplish all the purposes of His grace without you and without me. Service is not the great thing; obedience is the great thing. “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). Yes, that is the Word of God. Has the Lord as great delight in sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Now, in the next chapter: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). What fits the man of God for every good work? The Word of God! Will the Word of God warrant my departing from the plain exhortation, “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3)? May I transgress that? May I trample upon that and go on my way thinking I am entering a larger sphere of service by ignoring that plain exhortation? Sometimes as I walk my way to the little meeting back home, I pass other dear Christians. I see them with their Bibles under their arms. That makes my heart glad, and I hope they are His; I hope they love God’s Word. It looks good to see someone with the Word of God snuggled under his arm, but as I go this way and my brother passes me going that way, I think of that verse, “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” “The unity of the Spirit.” Is the same Spirit who dwells in me and in him sending me one way and him the opposite way? Must we pass, almost rubbing elbows, each headed the other way? Is that the unity of the Spirit? There is only one Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4 tells us that there is one Spirit, just one. And by that one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body. If we follow His leading and His guidance by the Word of God, will we not be brought to see eye to eye?
Let me reply: “If you are a child of God and have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, the Spirit is there to show you the things of Christ, and He will lead you to the right place.” In other words, the Spirit of God cannot sanction division in the church of God. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.”

Living for Christ

In 2 Timothy 4:10 we read about a man by the name of Demas: “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.” It does not make any difference where Demas went: He went away. He may have departed to Thessalonica, to Los Angeles or to Chicago: The point is, he left Paul! “Demas hath forsaken me.” It does not say he forsook Christ; it does not say he apostatized, but he forsook Paul. Why? Because he loved this present world. If he were living in our day, perhaps he wanted a D.D. or a bishopric, or, perhaps, he wanted to launch some Christian campaign. Perhaps he was not satisfied to follow in the footsteps of a man like Paul. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). That fellowship cut too close; he loved this present world. Perhaps he loved religious applause —not that he loved worldliness — he loved this present world! You can go out in this present world and be an immense religious success. You can get your name in the paper and you can capture the headlines, if you deliberately plan for it. If you are minded enough, you can do it. But, beloved, someday it is all going to pass in solemn review at the judgment seat of Christ. What is going to be the standard by which these things are going to be reviewed? What is the Lord going to use as the standard in that day when your service and mine pass in solemn review? Does He have a standard? The only one that I know of is the Word of God. And you and I are called upon before God and before angels to keep His Word and not deny His name. Is that a little thing?
This is my parting message at this time, and I want it to go home to your heart — weigh it. I hope I have not said one word tonight that can be interpreted as boasting. If I have, I am sorry; I do not mean it that way at all. Before God, I believe there is a path in the confusion and babel of Christianity today that we can tread to the glory of God and honor the name of Christ. If I am not in it, I want you to lead me there. Before God, I do want to be found there when He returns!