The nature of the Epistle to the Ephesians is quite distinct from that of Romans. In Ephesians we have nothing to do with the responsibility of man; we have with Christ, and man is looked at as dead in sins, and there is a new creation. Consequently the question of justification is not raised in Ephesians, but acceptance is. We have seen before these are the two great subjects in connection with the gospel; namely, the meeting of the responsibility of man, and the counsels of God before ever there was a responsible man at all. These counsels are in the Second Adam, not the first. The first man was the responsible one; the Second man is the man of God's counsels, the Last Adam, the Second man. In Ephesians these counsels of God are taken up; in Romans the responsible man, in grace, but still responsible, sinners, every mouth stopped, and a propitiation through faith in Christ's blood, the whole question of God's meeting us in grace in our responsibility and failure, were fully brought out. In the Ephesians there is nothing of this. It begins with the counsels and intentions of God, and puts us in Christ. Now the structure of the epistle is this. In chapter i. we have these counsels of God as to glory, as to Christ, and as to our inheritance; only at the end the apostle begins to unfold how far the foundation is laid for their accomplishment in what He has already done. So that, after stating the counsels, he enters on what God has done; that is, He has taken Christ from the dead and set Him up far above all heavens, principalities, and powers, and every name named. He commences, observe, with the raising of Christ from the dead. There you get not merely counsels, but the accomplishment, so far as exalting the Second Man into glory above all heavens. Chapter 2 shows how far God has accomplished that mighty work in us. We have been raised from being dead in sins and put into Christ, sitting in Him (not with Him, we are not there yet) in heavenly places. It is the operation of God putting us into His place. It is in Christ I am sitting, not with Him. This makes us God's workmanship; and then He brings us forth a step further in making both Jews and Gentiles one. It is still what He has accomplished or is doing so far. He has put down the middle wall of partition, and reconciled us in one body by the cross, that is, down here; and He is not only building a holy temple to the Lord (it is not built yet), but we are builded together Jews and Gentiles for the habitation of God by the Spirit down here. That is what God has accomplished. He has raised Christ from the dead, and set Him in glory; He has raised us up spiritually from the dead and put us into Christ; He has abolished all differences of Jew and Gentile, and He has not only made peace between Jew and Gentile, reconciling them, but He has reconciled them both in one body by the cross. They are reconciled to one another and reconciled to God, and they are going to be a temple, and they are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, that is, down here. This is what is accomplished of His purposes, the foundation being laid for them all.
In chapter 3 follows another thing. It is neither God's counsels nor God's operation, but Paul's administration of all these, the dispensation committed to him. As to the substance of it, it is Paul's administration of the mystery, not God's counsels about it, but the apostle's administration of it; and at the end, as it refers to earth, there is the second prayer which is addressed to the Father of our Lord Jesus where Christ is looked at as Son. The first prayer, which is found in chapter 1 is addressed to the God of our Lord Jesus as the glorified man; but this is addressed to the Father, and Christ is looked at as Son, a divine person. Therefore it is here not the object or the thing objectively, but rather that Christ may dwell in our hearts, that is, power brought in down here according to His counsels. So that there is to be glory to God in the church in all ages. This is a power that works in us, as the other was toward us.
Having the counsels and the operation and Paul's administration, the effect is looked for in chapter 4 as regards there being a habitation of God through the Spirit down here; and then, secondly, there are the individual gifts. This goes down to the end of verse 16. Verse 17 begins the ordinary exhortations as to how to walk. They were to walk together. All distinctions of Jew and Gentile have disappeared. He has brought them together as one habitation of God through the Spirit, and now they are to walk together and keep the unity of the Spirit. Then we go on to individual gifts, and in verse 17 we begin the practical exhortation for all saints, which is continued in chapter 5. At the end of chapter 5 occasion is taken from the case of the husband and wife to bring in the relationship of Christ and the church. After going into the different relationships in which saints are to be faithful, the conflict in heavenly places is taken up.
Now another thing may be remarked as to the epistle, that is, that everything refers to heavenly places; not that we are not upon earth, for we are, but that still to principalities and powers in heavenly places may be known through the church the wisdom of God. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ, we are a testimony to principalities and powers in heavenly places, and we are fighting with wicked spirits in heavenly places. Our blessing, our place, our testimony and our conflict are all in these heavenly places. Now you will find that ministry here is connected with all these.
You get that God is working in chapter 2 is that the whole building effectually framed together groweth into a holy temple. It is only growing up to this end. But we have it “ye are builded together for a habitation of God.” This is taking place. The holy temple will be in glory. They are building for a temple like Christ saying, “I will build my church.” The temple that is to be is that spoken of by the Lord in Matt. 16, “I will build my church on this rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” You get it also in Peter, “Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” There they are built up stone after stone. So in Ephesians, “and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” It is growing into a holy temple, but is not yet finished. The house that Christ builds is a perfect thing, it is not finished yet but what people commonly call the invisible church. But then there is an actually manifested thing by the Holy Ghost being here: “Ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” They are two characters of the assembly, the body of Christ, and the habitation of God now by the Holy Ghost. When we speak of the body of Christ, the members are looked at as united to the head in heaven; when we speak of the house, it will be a temple; when we speak of the habitation, it is by the Holy Ghost down here. It is the same thing as far as they went, but they soon ceased to be identical.
In verse 21 it is a temple not yet completed. When it is completed, it will be in glory. We are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit; this is the present thing. It is just the confounding of these two things that has made popery and ritualism. That is, they have attributed all the privileges which belong to what Christ is building and has not yet finished to this thing that is built on earth. Now when you get a thing built upon earth, God sets it up all right; but like everything else, like man himself when he was created, it is put into man's responsibility. God carries on His own purpose, and against what Christ builds the gates of hell will never prevail. But always in the first instance whatever God sets up, He puts into man's responsibility; and then it is all ruined. Nevertheless God's purpose is all accomplished in Christ. This is true of everything. It is true of Israel. It is true of individual saints, and of the whole church. What Christ is carrying on, the gates of hell will not prevail against. The administration of it is on earth. In 1 Cor. 3 Paul says, “As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” This is not Christ building. It is not Christ carrying out, “I will build my church;” nor the living stones coming and growing into a holy temple. In the latter case there is no agent but Christ. It is He that is building; and therefore of course Satan's power cannot prevail against it. In 1 Cor. 3 it is not Christ building; it is man's responsibility, as it is said, “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” Wood and hay and stubble can be built in; and if you attribute to wood and hay and stubble the security of what Christ is doing, you will be making a grave mistake. Papists and Puseyites are taking what has been built by man and confounding it with Christ's work, saying the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. They confound two different works.
God set up right even what is upon earth; “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” God's work was right; but soon false brethren came in unawares, Simon Maguses and I know not what, because man was put under responsibility, and the first thing he does is to sin. Noah had the sword put into his hands for governing, and the first thing he does is to get drunk. The law was given, and the first thing the Jews did was to make a golden calf. Priesthood was set up, and the first day they offered strange fire, and Aaron never went into the holy place with the garments of glory and beauty. When royalty was set up, the son of David loved many strange women, and his heart went after their gods. The church was set up and it failed. Christ will be the perfect man; Christ will govern the world in righteousness; Christ is the perfect priest; Christ is perfect as the Son of David; He will arise to reign over the Gentiles. He will be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe. Everyone of the things put under the responsibility of man will be perfectly carried out. If I confound this accomplishment of purpose in Christ with what is placed under the responsibility of man, and attribute what belongs to the one to the other, I am justifying all the evil and corruption about us. That is the question now in the church of God.
The body is never looked at as incomplete in itself, it would spoil the whole idea. When the purpose of God is brought out, it is looked at as in that purpose. In chapter 1 He gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. There it is looked at as complete when all things are put under Him. All things are not yet put under Him; it is not accomplished yet; it is in counsels. The moment I get it down here, I get both the house and the body.
Verse 22 is the house as set up not upon earth: only when God set it up, He set it up all right. “Ye are builded together for a habitation of God.” It is a present thing.
The dwelling of God with men down here is a distinct definite fact, and the fruit of redemption. God never dwelt with man apart from redemption. He did not dwell with Adam; He never dwelt, with Abraham; He never dwelt with anybody down here until Israel was redeemed out of Egypt. No doubt this was an outward redemption, still it was in a certain sense redemption. God redeemed His people out of the bondage of Egypt, and in the end of Ex. 29 he says, “And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them.” The moment redemption comes in, He makes the redeemed people His dwelling place, and He comes down and dwells among them in the tabernacle. This was given up at the captivity when the times of the Gentiles began.
Since Christ's rejection and the accomplishment of the better redemption, the church is established on earth for God to dwell in. This habitation of God through the Spirit was set up, consequent upon redemption, but down here trusted to man's responsibility. What it has become now is Christendom.
The increase of the body is spoken of in chapter 4. It is merely the fact that here it grows. You afterward see the different gifts and all of them exercised, and you find the body grows up, just as a child grows up. There are persons brought in; but they come into it all as a complete thing. The individual persons come in and are a part of that growth. You get evangelists as well as pastors and teachers. Still when individuals come in, they are only part of the same body. So when I eat, my body grows. Of course they are mere figures after all.
But in speaking of these things, you get the individual before anything of the body or the house. You will always find the individual has the first place. The individual relationship is with the Father; the corporate relationship is with Christ as a man; and the house relationship is with the Holy Ghost come down. There are the three. The first is that we have the adoption of children to Himself; and then comes that He has given Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body. Here is our relationship with Christ as raised and glorified, but before that comes all about the individual. Then in the third place there is the Holy Spirit come down to dwell. It makes a wonderful scheme and plan to put all these things together.
If you look further to the application of all this to ministry, you see when he is beginning he says, “Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, wherefore he saith [it is the ground and basis that is given for ministry], When he ascended upon high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” We first get the basis of all these gifts, Christ, but, not Christ on earth as the Jew had Messias. All that has disappeared from the apostle's mind; and he sees Him going down into the dust of earth, and then ascending far above all heavens, and he takes up the effects. He went down into the lower parts of the earth, the grave, but hades for his soul. He went into the under world, the lower parts of the earth, and then He is far above all heavens. He has been below creation, for death and hades are in a certain sense below it, and then He is above it and in this way He fills all things. We see Christ in His redemption power filling everything. All service and ministry have their place in that. They flow from it. He has come down where Satan had his power, death and hades (called hell). He goes down where Satan's power was, and breaks it, He leads captivity captive, and He puts man in the glory of God in His own person far above all heavens; so that He has met on the one hand the power of evil, and on the other put man in the glory of God. As man He gets these gifts, as we were reading in the Acts “Being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (the Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father), “he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” He has done that as man, not merely as God observe; but Christ, in virtue of this redemption by which He fills all things, receives the Spirit and sends Him to men whom He has rescued out of Satan's hands and builds up His church here. It gives a wonderful place to ministry.
Here in Ephesians we find the individual saints the first object, as it is said, “for the perfecting of the saints,” and then it is added “for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The first thing is that each saint should grow up to Him who is the head, that is, Christ. There are three objects. One object is first of all distinct. There is a different preposition in Greek. He does all things “for the perfecting of the saints” (there He is the first-born of many brethren); and it has these additional characters, it is for work of ministry down here, and for edifying the body as a whole. You must not lose sight of the individual when you get into the body. He carries on the perfecting of the saints to the end of verse 15, and in verse 16 He comes to ministry and the edifying of the body. “Till we all arrive at the unity of the faith” (that is each individual of course” (and of the knowledge of the Son of God, as the full-grown man, as the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ” (nothing short of that); “that we be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error; but holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ.” There we see individuals; and they grow up to Christ. Then he goes on— “From whom the whole body” [now I have the corporate thing] fitted together and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, worketh for itself the increase of the body to itself—building up in love.” That is the second thing, the second object. First, the individual saints grow up to the Head in everything, and, secondly, the building up of the body. It is the body building itself up; but still it is service and ministry. It is wonderful grace that He who went into the lower parts of the earth has gone to glory and has done this immense thing—put the saints in personal connection with Him.
The prayer in chapter 3 is wonderful, “that he might give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” He asks that the power of the Holy Spirit might be in the heart of the individual, and that Christ might be in the heart of the man, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,” that is, that Christ may be realized by faith. I have got now Christ—who is the center of the whole universe of blessedness—dwelling in my heart. Thus I have the center in me, and this is perfect love sure enough, for He is dwelling in God and God in us. And I am rooted and grounded in love. Being there my heart takes in all the saints, “rooted and grounded in love that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints.” You cannot leave them out, for they form part of this plan of God, the nearest circle to Christ. Then I get the whole scene of God's glory and purpose, I apprehend the breadth and length, and depth and height, that is, the whole scene of God's glory. All the glory that God surrounds Himself with I have got by having Christ in my heart, by faith realized in the power of the Spirit. But as I might be lost in this glory, I get back to Christ with whom I am familiar, and he prays that I may “know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge.” I find in this galaxy of glory I am perfectly intimate with the person that is the center of it all. He dwells in my heart, and I know the love of Christ. Then you see this does not narrow, but really quite the contrary, because it passes knowledge. Therefore He says, “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that ye may be filled up with all the fullness of God.” I have what surrounds God in the glory, and now having known the personal love of Christ I have got to God Himself. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” This passage is generally quoted as referring to what God can do for us. People in their prayers say (piously no doubt; I do not attribute any harm) that God can do more than they ask or think. That is quite true, but it is not what is here. He says, “to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Thus it is a very different thing. “To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages.” We are carried out into all this of which we have been speaking; it is a power that works in us so that He is glorified in the church in all ages and of course now. That is where He sets us before He takes up the question of ministry.
The prayer is not that we might know the hope of His calling and the glory of His inheritance, but that the Father of our Lord Jesus according to the riches of His glory may strengthen us with might. It is according to all this thing in which He is glorified that He strengthens us. In the first prayer He prays that the eyes of our hearts may be opened and we may know the things that are ours. The glory is ours and the inheritance is ours. Here He comes not to what is objective, but to what works in us. The prayer is to the Father, not to God; and he looks for Christ dwelling in our hearts. He is looking for power in us, not objects before us, “that we may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” He prays that this power may work in us, but it may not be working. He is not looking that we may know certain things that are ours, but that the things may exist. I may not be strengthened with Might in the inner man, though I may have the Spirit. It is a positive state He is praying for.
The first prayer is not a prayer for anything to work in us, but that we may see the things, and He puts the things before us as objects. The things are ours. We have got the calling; we are partakers of the heavenly calling, as is said in Hebrews, and if we have not got the inheritance actually, we are joint-heirs with Christ. He prays that the eyes of our hearts may be opened so that we may look at these things, but they are ours. It is wonderful that the Holy Ghost cannot show us anything of glory that is not ours. The power spoken of at the end of the chapter, which does work in us, is a power that has taken us when dead sinners and put us in the Christ where He is. But this is all settled. “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which be wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” There we find that you who were dead in sins He has quickened. That is the power that has wrought and made a Christian of me. Here in chapter 3 he is praying that the power may work in us now. Practically it is the realization of it.
In chapter 4 is one of the three “worthys” in the walk. We are called to walk worthy of God who has called us to His kingdom and glory; we are called to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing; and here we are called to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, that is, the habitation of God through the Spirit—the whole thing, but specially the last part. They are all brought into unity, reconciled to God, brought together the habitation of God through the Spirit. Here he tells them to walk worthy of that calling. It is striking how He goes on directly to lowliness and meekness. This is the walk that is worthy of the vocation. We would feel our own nothingness if we thought of this place. It is very simple if we could take it practically. He has made us all one by the Spirit; we are all builded together like stones in a house; and He looks to us walking in that unity and spirit of peace. We are to walk in the sense of these great things and of our own nothingness.
There is threefold unity, one body, one Spirit, and ourselves called in one hope of our calling. We then get the outward profession, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; and afterward a still greater circle—one God and Father of all, above all, and through and in you all. In other words, we get unity of the Spirit, the unity of the Lordship, and the unity in connection with God and the Father. It is the Spirit, the Lord, and God, as you find it in 1 Corinthians where he speaks of gifts, diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, diversities of administrations but the same Lord, and diversities of operations but the same God that worketh all in all. It is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: this is not the thought, though it is connected with it, but the Spirit and Lord and God. You have the Spirit, the active agent down here, the Lord under whose authority the work is carried on, and after all it is a divine thing—the same God that works all in all. So it is in the Corinthians, but it is the same principle as here. There is a difference between the gifts there and here, and a very important difference, though here as there the Spirit, and the Lord, and God. We have the Holy Ghost down here; then Christ as man in glory (He is more than that, but still He is man; God has made Him Lord and Christ; He has got an official place. It is not that He has not a human nature, and a divine nature. That is all true, but He has an official place); one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Then follows a wider larger circle, one God, who is above all, through all, and (bringing it back to this internal power) He is in us all. Scripture is remarkably correct. Pantheism puts God into everything, and makes it all God, but Paul gives us the truth.
Next we come to every one of us. Each of us has his own special niche; we all fill some little service whatever it is. “Unto every one of us is given grace,” it is individualized. It is to every member of the body.
“Every one” is contrasted with that unity. He takes them first all as one thing, and then He takes them separately. It is according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We have Christ the giver now. You do not get this in 1 Cor. 12; and the difference is an important one practically. There it is the Holy Ghost come down and distributing divinely. The Holy Ghost distributes to every man severally as He will, and therefore in the Corinthians they are merely looked at as powers. Must a man necessarily speak with a tongue because he is able to speak with it? No, says Paul, you must think of the edification of the church: everything must be done to edification. If the gift you have does not edify, you must be quiet. If there is no interpreter, you are not to speak. That is, we have power, but power subject to the ordering authority of the Lord in the church of God. They were speaking two or three at a time. They said they were all speaking by the Holy Ghost, and they thought they must utter what they had got to say. “No,” says the apostle, “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” There must be order. There was power, but this power was restrained and authorized by the God of order. The possession of power was no proof that the person possessing it was to exercise his power; he was only to exercise it when it would edify the church. In consequence we find in the Corinthians what is called sign-gifts. There are no miraculous gifts in Ephesians, whereas in Corinthians appear healings, miracles, tongues and various signs of power, which you do not get here. There it is the Holy Ghost down here. Here we have Christ on high caring for His own body and looking for its edification, and hence have only those gifts which are permanent for its good. The apostles and prophets were the foundation. The foundation is not being laid now; but the other gifts are given till we all come to the unity of the faith to a full-grown man. That is, it is not a mere question of power, but of the faithfulness of Christ to His own body, the assembly, which He nourishes and cherishes as a man does his own flesh.
The word gift has a double sense. If you do not see this, you might be apt to take it in verse 7 as if it was Christ that is given. It denotes the giving as well as the thing given. Grace is merely a favor given, as a special grace conferred in giving a man such a qualification from Christ for service. To everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. That is, I have got this grace, this thing that is conferred upon me, in the measure Christ has given it. You cannot say grace is given me to use a gift when the grace is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
The grace is the gift. It is according to the measure of the giving of Christ that He gave this. If grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ, everyone would have perfect grace according to the gift He had given.
It is character, it is God's grace given; but it is a gift whatever it may be. “To me is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
It is tantamount to every member of the body having a gift. Also He makes a distinction between permanent gifts and what every joint supplies. He does not give pastorship, He gives pastors. This is not unimportant, because Paul a prophet was not always prophesying, though always a prophet and he was an apostle, though not always exercising his apostleship. Therefore Christ does not give apostleship but apostles. Taking it as such given to him, it is a certain position and place of service given to him, and he is that. Christ ascends up on high and gives him. In Psa. 68 it is said, that, when He ascended up on high, He received gifts in man. The point is that Christ as a man has gone up and is a giver. It is the measure of the gift of Christ, not, of the Holy Ghost, though it operates by the Holy Ghost.
Supposing I say I give you to an act of pastorship to-day, and that is all about it. This is not the case here. He gives the man as a pastor, and he is always a pastor though God might deprive him of it if He liked. The man has that place and office. Paul was always an apostle. It was not a certain thing that came upon him and was gone, but he was an apostle always. When we get to the power of the Holy Ghost in Corinthians we read that God “set in the church first apostles, then prophets;” but it is much more an action of the Holy Ghost present down here as power. Here then we find what we have referred to already—we come to this immense truth Christ going down to the place of death, His soul to hades, and His body to the grave; and then going far above all heavens and filling everything. Having led captivity captive, He now comes in power and makes other men the instruments of this power. Then being so exalted, He gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, &c.
There are first the apostles and prophets. They are passed away, but we have their writings, and they are precious. I mean we have not their personal presence, we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets; and of course there is no foundation to be laid now. Then he takes that which must come first to have the church, for you cannot have pastors and teachers till you have had an evangelist to bring people there to be pastored. You see the foundation must be laid first, whence you have apostles and prophets first. Then how are you to get souls to be taught if there are no evangelists? “How shall they hear without a preacher?” Hence evangelists come next. It is a most blessed gift. I think more of evangelists than of pastors and teachers. They face the world more for Christ. Still I believe a pastor is a rare gift. The work of the evangelist is simpler. He stands in the face of the world for Christ. A pastor must be like a doctor; he must know the right food, and the right medicine, and the right diagnosis, and all the pharmacopoeia, and must know how to apply it too. In one sense it is a rare gift, and very precious.
Pastor and teacher are distinct things, but they are in Greek, and indeed in English, joined. They are connected, but not absolutely one, because a pastor includes in a certain sense the other; whereas a teacher has nothing to do with the office of pastor, as to care for souls. I might expound the scripture, and yet not really have wisdom to deal with individual souls as a pastor has to do. That of pastor is a wider gift. Still they are closely connected, because you could hardly profit an individual without teaching him in a measure. A person may teach without being a pastor, but you can hardly be a pastor without teaching in a certain sense. The two gifts are closely connected, but you could not say they are the same thing. The pastor does not merely give food as the teacher; the pastor shepherds the sheep, leads them here and there, and takes care of them. I think it is a thing greatly wanted, but I believe it is a rare gift and always was. Pastors must have a heart for the sheep. There are degrees of completeness in it, but that is what the pastor has to do. The testimony is in the evangelist, but his work is simpler. He carries the gospel to the poor sinner, whereas the pastor has saints on his heart and cares for them.
One has taken some comfort out of the thought that the evangelist was not so important, for God would be sure to do the work. But it is not the way the apostle put it, for he says, “how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?” There is nothing like going to the word of God. God can do anything He pleases in that way, I have no doubt; still His ordinary way is by preaching.
The extent of an evangelist's work is to announce the glad tidings. It extends till they receive Christ and remission of sins. The evangelist throws the net into the sea, and it gathers of every kind, and then the fishermen put the good fish into vessels. It is the same figure in that parable. No distinction is made there. The net is drawn to shore at the close of the dispensation. Their business was good fish. They got a lot of bad ones into the net, and they put the good ones into vessels. Hence it is now a question of sorting. Then an evangelist distinguishes between those truly converted and those not. In that parable he speaks in general of all. Those that were pulling at the nets were putting in the vessels too.
But the evangelist has nothing to do inside the church as an evangelist. A man may not be a public speaker very much, but there will be evangelizing going on, if there is much life. Saints always rejoice in the truth. There is a great deal of the teaching gospel now. Saints want the gospel very often as much as sinners (I mean the clear plain gospel); and therefore what I call a teaching gospel really has its place. It is another kind of thing from what awakens the sinner.
It is a mixture of a teacher's and evangelist's work. You will hear one man praying and beseeching God to bring in poor sinners, and you will hear another praying that Christ may be glorified in His sheep; the one in principle has a pastor's heart, and the other an evangelist's. You thus see where a man's heart is. The one is for people outside, and the other's desire is that Christ's sheep may glorify Him.
Owing to the perverse teaching which is abroad, you have to get converted people to the gospel. It is not the same thing as going out to the highways and hedges, and compelling them to come in. To such one would preach not only about their sins, but the grace of Christ for them in their sins. Rom. 3 comes before chapter 7; but I was in the seventh before I got to the third, because I had nobody to preach to me. The first thing a person wants to know is that he is guilty, and when he knows his guilt in his conscience and his responsibility, the blood of Christ meets it, and there is forgiveness and cleansing.
Recollect we are talking about preaching the gospel when all the world professes to believe in Christ. When Peter preached the gospel to the Jews, he says, You have crucified and slain Him, and God has raised Him from the dead. You go and tell a sinner in the street that God has raised Him from the dead, and he will say “I know that as well as you.” They preached facts then. I believe that the gospel is really a great deal more powerful when we preach or bring forward the great facts of the gospel. There is immense power in these facts, but at the same time in the ordinary sense they are admitted, and hence you have to press their power and value upon people. When they went to heathens first, they told them that God had sent His Son into the world, that the world had crucified Him, and that God had raised Him. If you tell that to people now, they do not deny it. We have now to take the other part, “Be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” That is the effect of it. I believe the more facts are brought forward by the evangelist, the more power will be in his testimony.
It is not always knowledge. If a man has just got his soul saved, he is sometimes more in earnest than a man a long time saved. You find persons just converted in that aspect. better evangelists than others. But then you must bear in mind that we are evangelizing in Christendom, we are not going to Hindus or Chinese. If you do not take account of that, you will have a very superficial gospel. Evangelizing in Christendom is not evangelizing in heathendom, it is in worse case if you please.
But take a fact, when a man's sins are brought forward and you press it upon him—you show him Christ. It is not the teaching that does the thing, it is a certain character of gospel that deals with the condition of soul, and after it they cannot go on with what they have got.
The parable in Matt. 13 is descriptive of the kingdom of heaven, how it goes on. You do not get directions how to do it, nor will directions ever do. If you want an evangelist, you must get a man that has love for souls; and counsel as to the manner of it would never do anything. Of course I may suggest to another: that is very well in its place. But the thing to be desired is a fervent spirit and love to souls.
The gospel is the glory of His grace. I get a much clearer gospel in its first elements if I know the glory. It is a more teaching gospel. I may say, How can you stand before God in glory? and Christ is in glory; and if you look to Christ, and He has borne your sins, they must be gone; for He has not got them in glory. This is the thing that gives peace to his conscience. I might take the coming of the Lord and present it as terror, and it might be used to awaken the conscience, and there is nothing done till conscience is awakened. It is a bad sign to receive the word at once with joy, unless there has been a previous work. You must have one consciously brought into God's presence, or you will never have anything real. There is no bringing the soul to God except by the conscience; because a man cannot be in God's presence without his conscience being awakened. What a preacher has to do is to bring the light to bear on a man's conscience and make him thus find himself out in the light.
There may be a preliminary work—what the old Puritans call the common operations of the Spirit. There may be appeals to the conscience, which may have reached it, and the soul going on as before. The conscience may be reached, and a man may be quickened, or he may not: and the conscience may be reached and bring out the bitterest enmity against God. The consciences of the people whom Stephen addressed were reached and made them gnash with their teeth. When God quickens, the conscience is reached and the man is made to feel he is a sinner. The conscience may be reached, however, without that inward work as well as with it.
Wherever the Holy Ghost works, it produces a want. In Nicodemus' case, it went on to quickening. You have the words, “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” It is not His work in the sense of saving or quickening, but the conscience is reached. That is the reason why the Puritans call such the common operations of the Spirit.
There is a conscience in every man. The fall of a tree may alarm a conscience. If God accompanies it in grace as He did in the case of Luther, whose friend was killed by a flash of lightning, the work is effectual. You see men alarmed and plunge into greater wickedness to get rid of it. They are distinct things, though they may go together.
In the last of the seven parables the gospel is the net that takes the fish. But then they caught bad fish as well as good. It is all God's work, but He employs workmen. Not only God works, but He works alone as to everything good.
There is the casting the net into the sea. “How shall they hear without a preacher?” is what God says. I quite admit God will have His own. Scripture is plain upon it, but He has His way of doing things. His ordinary way is by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” This is the ordinary rule of God. I see two ways of God's love manifested. One is His own essential blessedness in Himself: He gives us to enjoy this in communion by the Spirit. There is another thing in God, and that is, the activity of love towards those that have no communion with Him; and He gives us a part in it too. And the fact that He acts by instrumentality, as He speaks here, is an enormous blessing. He gives poor creatures like us a part in this activity of saving souls. If it is man's work, it is good for nothing.