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, a new thing was to be brought forth upon the earth when He said, "I will build My church." 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, the Lord tells the disciples that 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 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 await 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 third 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 in lovely harmony-a beautiful answer to our Lord's prayer in the 17th of John 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 5th chapter, in the lie of Ananias and his wife; likewise in the 6th, 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." 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 9th 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 off the face of the earth the name of Jesus. 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 the 9th of Acts, it is Saul who is brought to God. The Acts continues in the 10th and 11th chapters with the introduction into the Church of the Gentiles, formally.
Perhaps we might open our Bibles to Acts 11:19-2519Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. 20And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. 22Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. 23Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. 24For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. 25Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: (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 Ghost, 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 the 26th verse, "And 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-"And 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 the 12th chapter of Acts, we hear Peter saying, "Go show these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place." That is the last we hear of Peter's formal ministry. But what do we find in the next, the 13th, chapter? "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." 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. 9th verse: "Then Saul... filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him." 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 about Joseph in Egypt and David and the giant, etc.-six months in the Old Testament 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.