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Divine
Priorities and
Other Messages
By Henry Allan Ironside
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5706 Monkland, Montréal, Québec H4A 1E6
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Divine Priorities and Other Messages
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Contents
1. Divine Priorities and Other Messages .........................7
2. e Saviour’s Touch ...................................................15
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise ........................................25
4. Cleaving to the Lord .................................................37
5. Building God’s House: A Missionary Address ..........47
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?........................55
What “Protestant” Means ........................................................... 56
Protestantism Arose Because People Longed to Have Assurance
of Salvation .........................................................................57
Protestantism Insists at Each Individual Must Come to God
Directly rough Faith in Christ, the One Mediator, Not
rough Priests, Pope, Mary, or the Church .......................62
Protestants Accept the Bible Alone as the Divine Revelation of
God’s Will: Not Church Traditions or Decrees of Church
Councils or of Popes............................................................65
Evangelicals Believe Christ Was Sacriced Once for All, and
Need Never Be Oered Again ............................................67
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Salvation by Faith — e “Watchword of the Reformation” .......69
e Joy of Resting on Christ’s Finished Work ...........................71
7. e Humiliation of Christ .........................................73
8. Is Peter the Rock Upon Which the Church Is Built? 85
9. Divine Healing - Is it in the Atonement? ................ 105
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
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1. Divine Priorities and Other Messages
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1. Divine Priorities and Other
Messages
“Seek ye rst the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you.” — MATTHEW 6: 33.
WE hear much these days about priorities. A few
months ago the word was rarely ever used. To many it was
comparatively unknown. e war has brought several new
words into common usage which formerly had no particular
appeal. It was so in connection with the last war. I recall very
well being a witness in a lawsuit involving a will which was
protested by the other side as a forgery. It was supposed to
be an instrument conveying all the property of one brother
to another. e widow had a will dated a few days earlier
and her brother-in-law was endeavoring to take everything
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
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from her. As the trial progressed things began to look very
dark, so far as the widow was concerned. e brother-in-
law appeared to have an “iron-clad” case until it came to
the last few minutes of cross-questioning by the attorney
for the plainti, who put the defendant through a very
thorough examination as to minute details connected with
his contention that the will he had presented was not only
valid but was the latest instrument given by his brother.
e denouement was as striking as it was unexpected.
When he was asked to explain the circumstances under
which the testament which he oered for probate had
come to him, he declared that on a given date in 1912 his
brother had come into his oce and handed him the will,
saying, “I have already given another will to my wife in
order to keep her in good humor, but that was just a bit of
camouage. I am leaving everything to you.” e widow’s
lawyer questioned him very denitely, inquiring, “Are you
giving us the exact words used by your brother, or are
you simply giving us the gist of them as you understood
them?” He answered, “I am telling you exactly what my
brother said. He told me that the rst will was only a bit
of camouage and that all was to come to me.” Again the
defendant’s lawyer inquired, “Is there any word in your
testimony that you would like to change?” Rather angrily,
the other replied, “No, sir; I have told you exactly what my
brother said.” en, after a moment’s silence, the attorney
for the widow inquired, “Was your brother in the habit
of using the word camouage in 1912?” e eect upon
everyone in the courtroom, including the probate judge,
was electric. Everybody realized that the man had been
trapped, for no one in the United States was in the habit
of using the word camouage before the World War which
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began in 1914. e case was soon decided in favor of the
widow.
From the time the United States entered into the
present world war and our vast resources were lined up
behind our army, navy, and air force it was recognized that
the government should have rst claim upon all needful
metals, and other things required. e priority rightfully
belonged there. If civilian manufacturers or others desire a
supply of any such materials they must apply for a special
priority through the proper channels, otherwise they
cannot obtain them. is we all recognize is as it should
be. e war must come rst. Other things can follow after.
However, we may also speak of divine priorities for just
as in regard to many of the things which we have thought
essential to our happiness, in days gone by we recognize
governmental priorities, so we need to realize that in all
things our rst duty and responsibility is to God Himself.
e Old Testament prophets were constantly stressing
the law of divine priorities. I wonder what the Shunamite
woman thought when Elijah the prophet applied to her for
room and board! She explained that her little store of food
was almost gone; there was but a small quantity of meal in
the bottom of the barrel and a little oil to mix with it. She
was going to do a last baking for herself and her son and
then there would be nothing left. But Elijah, the man of
God, said, “Make me a cake rst.” One could imagine her
exclaiming, “What, make you a cake rst! you a stranger,
when I and my son have so little left!” And the answer
might well have been, “Yes, it is a question of priorities.
Henceforth you are to run a boarding-house for God. Put
God rst and He will look after you and your needs.” So o
she went and did as she was bidden, and lo, she had more
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than enough as long as the famine lasted and the prophet
remained as her guest. She gave God the rst place and He
in turn honored her faith and saw that she did not come to
want. He will never be anyone’s debtor. It is just a picture
of what He will do for all of us when we give Him the rst
place in our lives, in other words, when we recognize the
importance of divine priorities.
Our Lord Jesus insisted on this again and again. We too
often fail to put rst things rst, to recognize the importance
of honoring God above everything else. We fuss with one
another and we allow all kinds of trivial things to come in
to destroy our fellowship with each other. We take oense
and bear grudges and then wonder why our prayers are
not answered and why we miss the blessing of God in our
lives. e Lord Jesus said, “If you come to the altar and
remember your brother has aught against you, rst go and
be reconciled to thy brother, then come and oer thy gift.”
at is the law of divine priorities. First get right with men
in order that you may be right with God.
Again, in the matter of judging our brother, we are
told in the Word of God to judge ourselves, and we are
warned against judging others; yet we generally reverse
this. We are so busy judging others that we do not have
time to judge ourselves, e Lord Jesus said, “Judge not,
that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall
be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the
beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3). e verse
might be rendered, “Why beholdest thou the splinter that
is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the log that is in
thine own eye?” When we get before the mirror of God’s
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Word, we can see clearly to get the log out of our own eye,
and then we may decide that after all there was no splinter
at all in our brother’s eye. e fault was entirely with us.
Sometimes we hear preachers criticizing the eorts of
others; church workers, Sunday-school workers, gospel
singers belittle those engaged in similar services. ey can
see no value in what others are attempting to do for Christ.
No wonder there is so little blessing in their own ministry.
If we have the glory of our blessed Lord before us, we
shall not be judging and nding fault with those who are
preferred before us, but rather we shall obey the word that
says, “In honor, preferring one another.” Christ must have
the priority in our lives if we are to be vessels unto honor,
sanctied and meet for the Master’s use.
Paul was overjoyed at the response of the churches of
Macedonia when he sought to raise funds for ministering
to the famine-stricken believers in Judaea. He says, “ey
rst gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the
will of God.” ere you have the recognition of divine
priorities. ese Macedonian believers said, as it were, “All
we have and are belongs to Christ, and therefore to you
as His representative. Now tell us what to do, and we will
gladly obey.” If the people of the United States are willing
to do without many things in order to win this war, surely
we as Christians should be more than willing to let God
have His way in our lives in order that we may get the
gospel out to a lost world.
Remember, too, the word of the Apostle Paul in regard
to Christian young people. Many of them are serving the
Lord faithfully and endeavoring to do His will, but, sad
to say, there are many others who do not give God His
rightful place in their lives and yet make a great profession.
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e Word says, “Let them rst learn to show piety at home”
(1Timothy 5:4). Some can be very pious at church but
very thoughtless at home. Some are very pleasant when out
in company, but they can be so unpleasant in the bosom of
their own family, where, above all places, they should be
shining for Christ. I know it is true that often the home is
the place where we seem to get the fur rubbed the wrong
way: When one young girl said to an evangelist, “I nd it
so hard to live for God at home; they always rub the fur
the wrong way,” he answered, “Well, my dear young sister,
why not turn around?” at is, just give way and do not
ght back, and you will be surprised to nd how easy it is
to get along.
Christianity is not just repeating John 3:16 or Acts
16:31; it is yielding the heart and the life to Christ. “For
the time is come when judgment must begin at the house
of God: and if it rst begin at us, what shall the end be of
them that, obey not the gospel of God?” (1Peter 4:17).
We are called to a life of devotedness. “Seek ye rst the
kingdom of God.” Recognize the divine priorities.
What is the real trouble in our country today? Is it not
just this, that we have not given God His rightful place in
our national life, and so His chastening rod is upon us? We
have put money-making and pleasure-seeking rst. We
have said, “I want to live my own life,” and the result has
been ruin and disaster. Oh, for a national return to God
and His Word, a recognition of the divine priorities!
Put rst things rst in your life. Give God the priority
in your home, in connection with your talents, your service,
everything that occupies you. If you thus seek Him rst,
He guarantees to stand back of you and never let you fall.
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Recognize the divine priorities and you will enter into a
life of blessing such as you have never known before.
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2. e Saviour’s Touch
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2. e Saviour’s Touch
ere are six beautiful word-pictures, all emphasizing
in dierent ways the eect of the touch of the hand of the
Lord Jesus, that I desire to dwell upon.
e rst one is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7,
reading from verse 11 through verse 15:
“And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a
city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him,
and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate
of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much
people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw
her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep
not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare
him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee,
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Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak.
And he delivered him to his mother.”
e life-giving touch of Jesus! is young man, literally
dead, pictures, untold thousands of young men and young
women throughout this and other lands today who are just
as truly dead toward God and dead to all things spiritual
as he was dead physically to the things of this world, But
our Lord Jesus Christ who brought life to the dead when
He was here on earth, who touched that bier and then
spoke the word of life that restored that young man to his
mother, is still working in the same wonderful way. You
remember He has said, “e hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and
they that hear shall live.” We Christians were once dead
in trespasses and in sins, but Jesus came and put forth His
hand and touched us in our dead condition. He spoke the
word of life, and that word we heard even when we were
dead, and it brought us to life, and today we can rejoice that
we have life in Christ.
It is not very attering to men and women, to tell them
that they are spiritually dead, when most of them feel that
they are so thoroughly alive, but you remember we read in
the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, verse
one: “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the
course of this world.” is young man could not walk. He
was utterly dead as to the body. But there are thousands
all about us who are dead, and yet they are walking about.
ey are dead to God; they have no thought of pleasing
Him; they have never known the power of God in their
lives. Some of them are very religious, but religion and
salvation are quite dierent. ey do not know Christ, and
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the Scripture says, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of God bath not life.” But, thank
God, He came to bring life, and “today if ye will hear his
voice, harden not your hearts” but “believe and your soul
shall live.”
I like to think of the blessed Lord moving about among
people and, unseen, waiting for anyone anxious to know
Him, anyone anxious to nd life, and being ready to put
forth His hand in grace, for the touch of His hand and
the word of His voice give life. I ran across this verse in a
newspaper column, a strange place to nd something so
precious:
“e hands of Christ seem very frail,
For they were broken by a nail;
But only they reach heaven at last
Whom those frail, broken hands hold fast.”
ose hands were broken on Calvary when He hung
there, a bleeding victim between earth and heaven, giving
His life for us, and now those hands placed in blessing upon
those who look to Him give life — life to all who believe.
Now, let us notice a second picture. It is in Matthew’s
Gospel, chapter 8. It illustrates the touch of cleansing. We
read in verses 1 to 3:
“When he was come down from the mountain, great
multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched
him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his
leprosy was cleansed.”
It is not only true that men are dead in sins and need life.
It is also true that they are responsible beings before God
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and have been rendered utterly unclean by sin. Leprosy is
God’s awful picture of sin — that terrible disease which
may be working in the system for a long time before it is
manifested outwardly. A man is not a leper because he has
certain ugly sores somewhere upon his body. He has those
sores because he is a leper. And a man is not a sinner simply
because he does wrong, because he sins against God and
his fellow man. A man does wrong things because he is a
sinner. He is constitutionally a sinner. And just as leprosy
makes a man utterly unclean, so that he has to be put away
from the company of his fellows, so sin makes a man so
utterly unclean that he cannot have any place in the city of
God, for “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that
deleth.” One might cry, “How, then, can I ever enter that
city? What possible hope is there for me?”
“Tell me what to do to be pure
In the sight of all-seeing eyes.
Tell me, is there no thorough cure,
No escape from the sins I despise?
Will my Saviour only pass by,
Only show how faulty I’ve been?
Will He not attend to my cry?
May I not this moment be clean?”
Yes, there is cleansing for all in the precious blood of
Christ. ere is cleansing in the touch of His hand. e
leper came fearful and yet hopeful, too, crying, “Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean.” And Jesus immediately
replied, “I will be thou clean,” and He touched him and the
leprosy departed from him. If any other man had touched
that leper, that man himself would have become unclean
and would have had to go to the priest and present himself
for cleansing. But when Jesus touched the leper, instead
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of being deled by the uncleanness of that poor, wretched
man, His touch gave life and healing and cleansing. ank
God, today He is still the healing Christ, the cleansing
Christ. You who have been living away from Him do you
feel utterly unclean and unt for God’s presence? Look up
to the blessed Lord, then, as that leper did, and let your
heart cry, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean”;
and He will answer. He will say to you as He said to him, “I
will; be thou clean,” for His touch is the touch of cleansing.
A third picture is found in the same Gospel, in the
seventeenth chapter. e disciples were on the mountain
with the Lord Jesus Christ. ey were in the presence of
His glory. He was transgured before them:
“His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was
white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them
Moses and Elias talking with him.
“en answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it
is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here
three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and
one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud,
which said, is is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they
fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came
and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And
when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save
Jesus only” (vs. 2-8).
is was one time while our blessed Lord was here on
earth that the glorious deity enshrined within His humanity
shone out through His very body, and He became radiant
before His disciples. As they saw Him there with Moses
and Elias, they were thrilled. ey did not know what to do.
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It was such a remarkable thing! And Peter, who was always
blundering, always anxious to do something and so often
doing the wrong thing, always anxious to say something and
so frequently saying the things he should not say — Peter
looked up and said, “Lord, let us build three tabernacles
here; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.”
It was as though he would put the representative of the law
and the representative of the prophets on a level with the
Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father would not have that. A
cloud shut out the two Old Testament, men, and the voice
of the Father was heard saying, “is is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.” e disciples were
so stirred and they were so awed as they heard that voice
coming from the cloud that they fell upon their faces in
fear. ey felt they were too close to God, I think, to be
comfortable, and they were lled with dread; but Jesus put
forth His hand and touched them and said, “Arise, and be
not afraid.” And He lifted them up and they stood before
Him in by and condence.
How often we, too, are lled with fear as we contemplate
the ways of God. ere are so many things that we cannot
understand. We sometimes look forward to the future with
dread, or the present. hour is lled with fear; but the Lord
Jesus is here with every one of His own — here to put forth
His hand, to say, “Be not afraid.” It is the touch of assurance.
Are you trembling in fear? Perhaps circumstances have
come into your lives that seem literally to overwhelm you.
How many breaking hearts there are! How many homes
broken by death! How many others have answered the call
to the colors, and parents and dear ones are asking, “Will
they ever come back?” and their hearts are lled with fear.
If you only know the Lord Jesus Christ, you have One with
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you who can make up for everything else, and He reaches
forth and puts His hand on your troubled head and says,
“Fear not; be not afraid.” Trust Him, No matter how dark
the clouds may be above, be assured of this: “All things
work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.”
But now a fourth picture, and this one in the ninth
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. is is the actual scene that
was before the mind of the hymn writer, though he used it
as given in another Gospel, when he wrote the hymn, “Jesus
of Nazareth Passeth By.” We read in verses 27 through 30:
“And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men
followed him, crying, and saying, ou son of David, have
mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the
blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe
ye that I am able to do this? ey said unto him, Yea, Lord.
en touched he their eyes, saying, According to your
faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus
straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.”
Another thing that sin does for us: it blinds our eyes.
You know our eyes are really in our hearts when it comes to
spiritual things. We read of the unsaved that their hearts are
blinded and their understanding is darkened. ey cannot
see; they cannot understand. But Jesus comes to open blind
eyes, and how many there are who could testify that when
they were blind, blind to the things of God, blind to the
things of eternity, they met with Him!: ey heard that
Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and they came to Him as
these blind men came, crying, “Lord, that we might receive
our sight,” and He touched their eyes and they were able to
see. Some of us remember when we had eyes for the things
of the world but no eyes whatever for the things of God
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“till grace our blinded eyes received, Christ’s loveliness
to see.” Have you known the touch of the Saviour’s hand
upon your eyes, opening your eyes and giving you to see
spiritual realities?
A fth picture is found in the Gospel according to Luke,
chapter 22, and this I think of as the corrective touch, for
sometimes you know it is in the hand of the Lord that has
to put right some of the things that we put wrong. Jesus
had risen from His knees in the garden of sorrow and had
gone to nd that His disciples were still sleeping.
“And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he
that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them,
and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto
him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?
When they which were about him saw what would follow,
they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?
And one of them smote the servant, of the high priest, and
cut o his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suer
ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him” (vs,
47-51).
is man was one of His enemies, but the heart of the
Lord Jesus went out to Him in compassion. Peter had made
the same mistake that so many other servants of Christ
make. We want to help men, to bring blessing to them; we
want them to hear the word of God, and yet we go about
things in such a crude way. We cut o their ears and yet
expect them to hear us. I cannot imagine Peter going to
that man and asking him if he had put his trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ as his Saviour. I think Malchus would look at
him and say, “You come to talk to me about that You, the
man who cut o my ear!”
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We are often like that, and we hurt our own testimony.
But our blessed, understanding Lord often corrects our
failures; and so here you have the corrective touch. He
reached forth His hand and touched the ear of Malchus
and him in a moment. What a wonderful thing it is to
realize that, after all, the nal word is not with the servants
of Christ but with the Master of the servants. He so often
overrules our failures and our blunders and brings blessing
out of that which otherwise would be a means of sorrow
and disappointment.
Our last picture is found in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter
8, verses 14 and 15:
“And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his
wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her
hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered
unto them.”
I think of this as the quieting touch. You know the
restlessness of fever. I can imagine Peter’s wife’s mother
there, tossing about upon that couch, so troubled, so
distressed, probably with a terrible ache in her head and
her nerves all upset and the fever burning in her body. Jesus
came, and they said, “Mother is sick. Will you go in and
see her?” and Jesus went in, and there she lay — troubled,
distressed, tossing about. Jesus touched her hand and the
fever left her.
Everything becomes quiet and restful when you feel the
touch of His hand. Sometimes we Christians are just like
Peter’s wife’s mother. We, too, become so feverish and so
overwrought and so upset, and we get worried and anxious
and perplexed, and instead of improving things, it only
makes them worse. But when Jesus Himself comes, when
you feel the touch of His hand, then all the distressing
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circumstances seem to disappear. “He touched her hand
and the fever left her.”
Do you know this blessed Saviour? Do you know the
One of the life-giving touch and the touch of cleansing and
assurance and the illuminating touch and the corrective
touch and the restful, quieting touch? Do you know Him?
He has said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If you have never
come to Him before, won’t you turn to Him now?
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
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3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
I AM going to ask your attention to two passages of
Scripture, as I begin this message. We may turn to a number
more as we go along. In the book of Proverbs, chapter ten,
the last part of verse twenty-one, we read: “Fools die for
want of wisdom.”
And then in First Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18: “Let
no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to
be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may
be wise.”
ese verses may seem almost paradoxical, but in the
one instance God is speaking from the divine standpoint
when He uses the word fools. “Fools die for the want of
wisdom.” A fool is an unthinking, a thoughtless, a careless
person, a person without true understanding — in plain
English, a “simpleton.” And God says these fools die, die
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in their sins, die under the divine judgment for want of
wisdom.
In the other passage the word fools is used from the
standpoint of ungodly men who look upon those who have
been awakened by the Spirit of the Lord and who have
turned to God in repentance and have put their trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ, as though they were the fools. We
know that is a very common thing in this world. We have
seen people living in all kinds of sin, ruining their own
lives and wrecking the happiness of others. en when
they came to Christ and everything was changed and they
lived new lives to the glory of God, unthinking, godless
worldlings dubbed them fools. And God says, as it were,
“If you are looking at it from this standpoint, if any among
you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a
fool, that he may be wise.” So there are unwise fools, and
there are wise fools! ere are fools for the devil, and there
are fools for Christ’s sake.
I was on a ferryboat going from Oakland to San
Francisco with a group of Christians. Among us was a dear
friend of mine who played an English concertina. Our
little group sat together in one corner and he played and
we joined in singing. I even joined in myself, which is a
very rare thing! But we were all enjoying the singing, till
a man came up in a perfect rage, and said: “What do you
mean, you fools, singing religious hymns here on the ship?”
My friend was an Irishman and he jumped right up and
said: “We are fools for Christ’s sake; whose fool are you?”
e man looked at us and ran. He wasn’t waiting to hear
any more.
at is the question I would like to ask you. A lot of
us through innite grace are fools for Christ’s sake. We
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are content to be counted fools by the world who rejected
our Saviour. But those whom the world counts fools, God
counts wise. Whose fool are you? Are you a fool for the
devil, or are you a fool for God? It is very interesting to
run through the Word and trace out many dierent kinds
of fools for the devil of which we read in the Bible. In
fact, there are so many of them I wouldn’t dare take time
tonight to refer to them all. But there are seven that came
especially before me as I was threading my way through
the Book.
ere is the atheistic fool of whom we read in the
fourteenth Psalm and the rst verse: “e fool hath said in
his heart, ere is no God,” ere are a great many people
who take that position, and they imagine they are very wise
because they come to the conclusion that there is no God.
Rut the Bible does not mince matters concerning these
people. God says that people who say there is no God are
fools, just imagine anyone with common sense going out
at night and looking up into the starry heavens, or in the
daytime gazing upon the sun and the marvels of this world,
and then saying there is no God! How did it all come into
existence then? Can you conceive or a universe without a
mind, an intelligent mind, behind that universe? “He that
formed the ear, shall be not hear, and he that formed the
eye, shall he not see?” Surely. e wise in heart know there is
a God, and He has spoken to them not only in creation but
in His holy Word. If you deny the existence of God, don’t
pride yourself on your culture. Don’t pride yourself on your
intelligence. Don’t pride yourself on your understanding.
God calls you a fool. “e fool hath said in his heart, ere
is no God.”
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
28
en in the rst chapter of the book of Proverbs
and the seventh verse we read of another kind of a fool,
though he is very closely allied to this one. “e fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise
wisdom and instruction.” at is the ignorant fool. God
has spoken in His Word. He has given instruction here in
His blessed Book. He has shown us the path of life, He
warns of judgment to come, He tells us plainly the way
of salvation, and men turn away with a sneer and they say,
“I don’t believe that book. I don’t understand it anyway!”
And they are only telling us what they are. God calls them
fools! “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” If you have
never given heed to the wisdom and instruction God has
given in His Word, then this is His name for you tonight,
a fool. I have no right to call you that. e Lord. Jesus
has told us that we are not to call one another fools. He
said, “Whosoever calleth his brother a fool is in danger of
hell re.” So I wouldn’t dare use that name for you, but I
am telling you what God says about you. He Himself who
reads the hearts of men says, if people despise His Word, if
they despise wisdom and instruction, they are simply fools.
Closely linked with this, we have the opinionated fool,
the fool who will not learn anything because he is not
teachable. Proverbs 12:15 says: “e way of a fool is right
in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is
wise.” He is not ready to listen, he is not willing to learn.
He understands, he has investigated, and he has come to
a conclusion, and he is absolutely certain that his way is
right and yet he is living in disobedience to the Word of
God! is opinionated fool is shutting his eyes to the great
realities of eternity as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. He
is a bigot and a fool. God says so.
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
29
en we have, in the fourteenth chapter of the book
of Proverbs and the ninth verse, the mocking fool. “Fools
make a mock at sin.” Did you ever see a fool like that? When
the man of God dwells upon the exceeding sinfulness of
sin, when the one whose eyes have been opened by the
Spirit recognizes the awfulness of sin against a Holy God,
fools mock and jeer. ey revel in iniquity “as if sin were
sin no longer and life were no more vanity.” One shudders
today when he hears young people, young men and young
women, some scarcely out of their teens, some, in fact, still
in their teens, mocking and sneering in regard to things
that a generation ago people thought of most seriously.
Nothing is sacred any more, and these poor young fools,
as God’s Word designates them, mock at everything pure
and everything holy. ey ridicule the boy or girl or man
or woman who seeks to stand against the abounding
temptations of the day. ey sco and sneer if you point
out that this or that course of conduct is sinful and wicked
in the sight of God. ey imagine they are showing their
brilliance, their smartness, when thus they mock at sin.
God says, Oh, no, they are just telling out what is in their
hearts. It is fools that make a mock at sin, not wise men.
ere is a fool of whom we read in the tenth chapter
of the book of Proverbs that comes home rather close, I
am afraid, to some folks. e eighteenth verse of the tenth
chapter of Proverbs: “He that hideth hatred with lying lips,
and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.” I wonder if any
of us are fools like that! “He that uttereth a slander is a
fool.” We know it is not very nice to repeat evil tales about
people, but I wonder if we ever faced what God says about
this thing of uttering slander. “He that uttereth a slander,
is a fool.” ey that pass along an evil story about others,
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
30
malign their character, seek to wreck their reputation, may
think themselves abounding in smartness, but God says
they are fools. “e word of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart.” It nds us out just where we are, and it doesn’t
mince matters. It calls us by our names and enables us to
realize what God thinks of us.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel there
is a sixth character. In this instance our blessed Lord was
actually speaking to believers. Sometimes real believers can
do and say very foolish things. He says in the twenty-fourth
chapter of Luke and the twenty-fth verse: “O fools, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”
is is the unbelieving fool, the fool who has the Word
of God in his hand, who reads its testimony and yet who
refuses to believe it. e blessed Lord designates such a one
as a fool, or simpleton.
ere is just one other of these characters that I will
take time to notice, and that is the covetous fool of whom
we read in the twelfth chapter of Luke’s Gospel. In verse
16 we are told that the Lord spake a parable unto them
saying:
“e ground of a certain rich man brought forth
plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What
shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my
fruits? And he said, is will I do: I will pull down my
barns, and Build greater; and there will I bestow all my
fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, ou fool,
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
31
this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose
shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”
And now listen — “So is he that layeth up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God” (vs. 16-21). So our
Lord tells us that every man and every woman who is more
concerned about getting some of this world’s goods, about
getting along in life, about making money: about having a
nice home, about enjoying the abundance of good things
that money will provide, than he is about eternal things, is
a fool. He who is not concerned about the home in heaven,
who is not concerned about riches that never fail, who is
not concerned about laying up treasure! where moth and
rust doth not corrupt and where thieves do not break
through and steal, is a fool.
I have often told the story, and you have often heard
it, of the king’s fool. In the oldest days a king had in his
court a jester. And this court jester was such an amusing
comedian that on one occasion the king handed him a rod
and said: “Look, I want you to take that. It is my scepter.
I am giving it to you because you are the biggest fool I
have ever seen in all my life. I want you to take that and
if you ever nd a bigger fool than yourself, give it to him.”
You remember the story, how years went by, and one day a
messenger came to the poor fool to say to him, “e king
is dying, and he would like to see you before he dies.” And
the poor fool got the rod and went to see his master, e
master said, “Fool, I am going on a long journey, a journey
from which I shall never return. I have called you here to
say farewell to you.” And the fool looked at him and said,
“You are going on a long journey; I suppose then you have
made inquiry about the place to which you are going and
about the conditions that prevail there and that you have
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
32
made proper preparation for it.” “No,” said the king, “I have
been so busy I haven’t had any opportunity or inclination to
pay any attention to the life beyond the grave or to prepare
for it. I am going on this long journey, but I don’t know
where I am going.” e fool looked at him for a moment
and then handed him the rod and said, “Take it. Take it.
You gave this to me long ago, because you said I was the
biggest fool you had ever known, and you told me to keep
it until I found a bigger fool than myself. A man who is
going on a journey from which he will never return and
doesn’t even take the trouble to nd out anything about the
place where he is going, who is indierent to his future and
the condition of his soul, is a bigger fool than I am, for I
have given attention to these things. Take the rod!”
Who can be a greater fool than the man who thinks
only of feathering his nest for time, of getting along in this
poor world, and forgets the eternity that is yet to come?
One day a young woman in a pensive state of mind was
walking through a conservatory looking at the beautiful
owers, and she took a card out of her purse and wrote a
few lines on it.
“To think of summers yet to be
at I am not to see.
To think a weed is yet to bloom
From dust that I shall be!”
She laid it down by one of the plants and went on. A
little later somebody else picked it up and wrote a few lines
on the other side. e lines he wrote were these:
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
33
“To think when Heaven and earth have ed,
And time and seasons o’er,
When all that can die shall be dead
en I shall die no more!
Oh, what will then my portion be?
Where shall I spend eternity?”
Oh, the folly of the man and the woman who are
indierent to the consideration of their eternal destiny!
Dear unsaved one, if tonight the same voice that spoke
to the covetous fool of old were to say to you in silence
and the darkness: “ou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee,” what would you have to say for yourself?
You know better. You know that Christ has died. You know
there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. You know that
God has provided salvation for you, and you have neglected
it. God calls the man or woman who does that a fool.
But now we have the other side. We are told that “the
preaching of the cross,” which is God’s only remedy for sin,
“is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are
saved it is the power of God.” And the Apostle Paul says
that which the world counts folly we have rested our souls
upon, and if any man desires wisdom, let him take his place
in identication with the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter
what the world thinks of Him, and he will be assured of
that wisdom which cometh down from above and which
guarantees an eternity of bliss. So he says, “We are fools for
Christ’s sake.” We are willing for the world to look upon us
as out of our minds, we are willing that we be accounted as
the very oscouring of the earth because we have turned to
Christ, whose precious blood alone can save.
I remember years ago when I was a young Salvation
Army ocer, we were conducting an open-air meeting, and
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
34
a man stepped out and told how he had been a drunkard,
how he had been down in the depths of sin, and how God
in grace had spoken to his soul in the Salvation Army hall,
and he, penitent and broken, had yielded himself to Christ
and trusted Him as His Saviour. He told how Jesus had
given him a new life and a new nature, and now everything
was dierent. As that dear man was giving his testimony,
urging others to come to Christ, a very well-dressed man
in the audience who looked as if he ought to have known
better, stepped forward and cried, “Wake up, old man, you
are asleep, you are dreaming! ere is nothing in it! Wake
up!” A little girl ran through the crowd and caught the
man by his coat and said: “Please, sir, don’t wake him up!
Sir, don’t wake him up!” e man looked at her and said,
“What do you mean?” “Don’t wake him up. at is my
daddy, and before he went to sleep like this, he was such a
bad daddy. He was drunk nearly all the time and he beat
Mama and beat me and we never had enough to eat. But
since he began to dream like this everything is dierent.
Now he is so kind, so good, and we have all that we need at
home. Please don’t wake him up!”
In the eyes of the worldling that man was a fool.
But he was a fool for Christ’s sake, and he had the
wisdom that cometh down from above. Friend, face it
honestly for yourself. Are you one of the devil’s fools? Or
are you willing to be a fool for Christ’s sake? Are you going
on denying God and rejecting His testimony and priding
yourself that you don’t need to be instructed by the Word of
God, living in self-righteousness and in covetousness and
in unbelief? Or do you know Christ as your own personal
Saviour? Oh, if you have never known Him before, you
can know Him now. I would like to introduce you to Him.
3. Fools: Wise and Otherwise
35
I would like to take you by the hand and bring you face
to face with our blessed Saviour. I would like to hear you
say to Him: “Lord Jesus, I am coming to ee as a poor
sinner; and if ou canst do for me what ou hast done
for thousands and millions of others, I am ready to trust
ee tonight.” He will take you up in grace and make you a
new creature and deliver you from your sins and your folly,
and He will give you the true wisdom that comes from
above. e world will dub you a fool. e world will think
perhaps that you are out of your mind, but you will know
that you have the wisdom that is given by God Himself.
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
36
4. Cleaving to the Lord
37
171867
4. Cleaving to the Lord
“en 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, Who, 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,” — Acts 11:22, 23.
THE background and context of these verses is intensely
interesting. Some years had elapsed since the glorious
Pentecostal outpouring when the work of grace began in
the city of Jerusalem. Our blessed Lord had instructed
His disciples to begin there and go throughout Judea,
Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, proclaiming
the wondrous story of His salvation; but, somehow, His
disciples were very slow when it came to obeying the Word.
ey lingered in Jerusalem and Judea. One at last had faith
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
38
enough to go to Samaria and was followed by two of the
apostles, but there the work seemed to stop. ey seemed
not to have the spiritual energy to reach out among the
Gentiles. So God shook them up. Persecution broke out,
as a result of which the Christians were scattered. ey
went everywhere preaching the Word, but even then they
preached only to Jews. Finally, some went as far as Antioch
and launched out in a Gospel campaign among those called,
in our Authorized Version, the “Grecians.” Ordinarily, the
Scriptures distinguish between “Greeks,” the Gentiles,
and “Grecians,” the term used for the Jews born among
the Gentiles. ey were Greek-speaking Israelites and
were characterized by many of the mannerisms of the
Gentiles. at is the word used here in the Authorized
Version, but actually, according to the best texts, it should
be translated “Greeks,” for these Jewish believers went to
the Gentiles and preached Christ to those in Antioch who
had been before worshipers of idols. e great work of
God continued. It went on for months, and a great many
were saved. Word of this great ministry was carried back
to Jerusalem, and when the brethren heard about it they
said, “We had better investigate. If God is working this
way among the Gentiles, we had better nd out.” So they
sent Barnabas, and when he saw for himself the evidence
of the grace of God working among the Gentiles, his soul
was stirred and he began to exhort and try to help those
who were already saved, telling them that with purpose of
heart they should cleave to the Lord.
Now this verse came to me as I thought of the many
who have had their hearts opened to their need of Christ
and have trusted Him as their Saviour. We would not have
you think conversion is actually the end of the Christian
4. Cleaving to the Lord
39
experience — it is only the beginning. When people come
to Christ and put their trust in Him, that is just the start
in the Christian life. When we receive the Lord Jesus we
are born again but are only babes in Christ and need to
grow. Certain things are important in the nurture of a
babe — proper care, good food, constant cleansing, and
fresh air. A great many things are required that the babe
may develop and grow in a way that will cheer the hearts
of the parents, relatives, and friends.
So, often, people are converted in great revival
meetings, and years go by and they seem not to develop as
Christians should, and unthinking people turn and blame
the evangelist, saying, “People get converted but do not get
anywhere or amount to anything for God,” at is true if
the converts are not built up in Christ afterwards, Barnabas
realized that and went among these young converts and
exhorted them, that “with purpose of heart they would
cleave unto the Lord.”
at is the exhortation we would bring to all today
who have recently accepted Christ. We plead with you for
your own soul’s blessing that you cleave to the Lord with
purpose of heart. You have trusted Christ, have taken Him
as your own personal Saviour. Now see to it that you set
your mind on the work of glorifying God in everything.
You could not be saved through any eort of your own,
but now that you are saved it is necessary for you to put
forward every eort you can to glorify Him. If you have
been born again you have been bought with a price. e
Apostle Peter wrote:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
for ever. For all esh is as grass; and all the glory of man
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
40
as the ower of grass. e grass withereth, and the ower
thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for
ever, And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you.”
Salvation does not depend on a happy feeling or an
emotional upset or signing a card or holding up your hand
or rising from your seat and going to the inquiry room.
All these things are right and proper in their places, but
new birth depends upon having received the word of the
truth of the Gospel. “Of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth,” and that Word speaks to the conscience,
and the power of the Holy Ghost produces new life. If you
believe the Gospel you begin as a babe in Christ. As a babe,
you need food. You need with purpose of heart to acquire
that food which will be for your spiritual nourishment
and upbuilding. e Apostle Peter’s rst letter, chapter 2,
opening verse, reads, “Wherefore laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil
speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word, that ye may grow thereby.”
You will never grow, you will never make progress, you
will never really develop as a Christian if you neglect your
Bible. With purpose of heart cleave to the Lord and let
one evidence of your cleaving be that from now on you will
never permit a day to go by that you do not spend some
time over your Bible. And as you open it, lift your eyes to
Him who wrote it (for “Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost”) and ask God to reveal
His mind and will to you in His Word, and seek grace
to walk in obedience to His will. ere is no other way
to make a success of the Christian life. Back in the Old
Testament, in the book of Joshua, there is a verse I like
4. Cleaving to the Lord
41
to give to young converts, “is book of the law shall not
depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy
way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”
(Josh. 1:8). ere you have it! You want to make your way
prosperous? You want to have good success? You want your
Christian life to count for God? en do not neglect your
Bible!
Some of you may say, “I have never been in the habit
of reading the Bible. I do not know how to go about it.
Frankly, there is so much in it I don’t understand,” Of course
not! You can expect that in a book from God. “For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa.
55:2). But remember God, who wrote it, has given you the
Holy Spirit. “After that ye believed ye were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). e Holy Spirit
has come to dwell in you. You who have trusted Christ,
your body is new the temple of God and the spirit of God
delights to take the things of God and show them to you.
As you open your Bible, look up to Him and say, “I do not
understand it all; but, Lord, by y Holy Spirit open it up
to me,” and you will be surprised how He will delight to
do it.
Some of you may say, “Shall I take it as a whole or
by certain sections?” I think if I were you I would begin
immediately to read thoughtfully, prayerfully, through
the Bible — from the rst chapter in Genesis to the last
chapter in Revelation, Perhaps take a chapter a day — it
takes only a few minutes; and then after you read it, pray
over it and look it over again and say, “What in this chapter
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
42
is for me, what speaks to my own heart?” If you do not nd
something, look to the Lord to open it up, wait on Him.
Perhaps He will answer another question. Ask Him or
yourself this question, “In what way is Christ presented?”
Take the rst chapter of Genesis you are reading through.
You ask, “In what way is Christ presented?” e rst chapter
says, “Let there be light.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the
world.” You read God made the sun and Jesus is called
the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2). So wherever you go
in your Bible you will always nd something speaking of
Him. en look it over and say, “Is there anything here I
should be careful to avoid or obey or against which I am
warned? Is there anything God is showing me I ought to
do?” So read your Bible, chapter by chapter, and you will
nd the more dependent you are on the Holy Spirit, the
more it will open up to you.
I would like to suggest this to you. Besides reading
through chapter by chapter, I think it will be a wise thing
for you who have only recently accepted the Lord to take a
book like the Gospel of John and read a chapter of that each
day, because you know John’s Gospel was given especially
to make known the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. “ese
are written,” John tells us, “that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye
might have life through his name” (20:31). You will nd
wonderful truths which will make the things of God more
and more real.
en if you are able to set apart three periods a day,
may I suggest another book. You want to learn to pray
and praise. Read one of the Psalms daily and meditate on
that Psalm. Ask the Spirit of God to open it up to you. I
can promise you this, in a few weeks and months, though
4. Cleaving to the Lord
43
you may not realize it, others will see you are growing and
developing as a Christian.
A second thing, you not only need to read your Bible
in order to grow in grace and knowledge, but you need to
set apart some time daily for prayer. Let me read a passage
from Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6,
“Be careful for nothing [that may be translated, “Be not
anxious about anything.” It is natural for us to be anxious.
ere are so many things to worry and distract us]; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.” And then
he promises that “the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.”
Now, you can be a Christian without giving yourself to
a life of prayer, but you will never be a growing, healthy,
useful Christian if you neglect prayer; and so I would urge
upon you that with purpose of heart you cleave to the
Lord in prayer — that just as you set aside a certain time
every day for reading the Word, so, in connection with
it, you take time to pray. Some of you may say, “I do not
know how to pray.” Perhaps you have not prayed since as a
child you said, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Perhaps you
were never even taught that. May I suggest, you could not
nd a better model than that given by our Lord in what
is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. Until you can pray
at liberty yourself, until the Holy Spirit opens your heart
and lips so you can pour out your soul in intercession, take
those words as a guide in prayer. He said, “When ye pray,
say, Our Father.” it is a wonderful thing to be able to say
that. You who have accepted Christ, only now do you have
the right to say that. You may have used the words before
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
44
but now you are entitled to pray and say, “Our Father.”
As you think of that it would be well to say, “God is my
Father — and just as I go to my earthly father and tell him
what is in my heart, so I can tell Him how I long to live
for Him, how I want guidance and help along the way,
and the supply of my temporal and spiritual needs, for He
says, ‘Be not anxious about anything but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God.’”
“Hallowed be thy name.” at is, He would have you
enter into a spirit of worship and adoration as you come
into His presence.
Pray for the extension of His work. “y kingdom
come.”
Pray for temporal things. “Give us this day our daily
bread.”
Pray for deliverance from trial and temptation. “Lead
us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: for thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
And I would suggest that you accustom yourself to
praying out loud when you get alone in your room where
nobody will hear but God and you. Half of the victory in
your prayer life is gained when you become accustomed
to hearing your own voice. Many people cannot pray in
public, because they have never become accustomed to
hearing their own voices. If you have liberty in praying
in secret, you will soon have liberty in praying in public.
Because your words seem crude and seem not to come all
at once, do not discontinue praying. Continue to cleave to
the Lord and you will nd He will open your lips and heart
and really teach you to pray.
4. Cleaving to the Lord
45
e last thing I want to say to you is this: e one who
bore your sins is not only your Saviour but is your Lord
and Master. erefore you must recognize the fact that you
are no longer your own. Before you were saved, you did
what you pleased and went where you liked. at should
be over now. You should say, “I am not my own. I belong to
another. I have been bought with a price. erefore I must
be careful where I go, I must be careful in choosing my
companions. I am called to serve the Lord Christ.” In the
twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans there is a very
important exhortation in the rst verse:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Do not be discouraged because you are not all you hope
to be at the beginning. Do not be discouraged if you nd
old things tugging at your heart and you do not see the
immediate will of God. As you become better acquainted
with His Word and spend more time in prayer and walk
with Him, the more clear all these things will become.
As young Christians you should also avail yourselves
of the opportunity of coming together with the people of
God, that you may get better acquainted with His Word.
He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. He said,
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is” (Heb. 10: 25) but to come together and
wait upon God together “and so much the more, as ye see
the day approaching.”
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
46
So I can assure you of this — if in these things you with
purpose of heart cleave to the Lord, your Christian life will
bring joy and satisfaction, and you will be used in winning
others to Christ.
5. Building God’s House: A Missionary Address
47
171868
5. Building God’s House: A
Missionary Address
I AM going to ask your attention for just a little while
to an Old Testament passage, and perhaps at rst sight you
may not think of it as a missionary passage but I think you
will soon see that it is. It is found in the book of Exodus in
chapters 35 and 36.
We will read from chapter 35, verse 4:
“And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the
children of Israel, saying, is is the thing which the Lord
commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an oering
unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him
bring it, an oering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass.”
e Lord told Moses a number of other things to be
used in building the tabernacle — and then in verse 10:
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
48
“And every wise-hearted among you shall come, and make
all that the Lord hath commanded; the tabernacle, his
tent,” and so on.
en in chapter 36, verses 1 to 7:
“en wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every
wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and
understanding to know how to work all manner of work
for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the
Lord had commanded. And Moses called Bezaleel and
Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the
Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred
him up to come unto the work to do it: and they received
of Moses all the oering, which the children of Israel had
brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make
it withal. And they brought yet unto him free oerings
every morning. And all the wise men, that wrought all
the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work
which they made; and they spoke unto Moses, saying, e
people bring much more than enough for the service of the
work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses
gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed
throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman
make any more work for the oering of the sanctuary. So
the people were restrained from bringing. For the stu
they had was sucient for all the work to make it, and too
much.”
I have always hoped that some day before the Lord
takes me home to heaven, I might have the experience that
Moses had there. It has fallen to my lot through the years
to devote a great deal of time seeking to stir the hearts
of God’s people to recognize their responsibility to give
toward the building of the house of God; but I have never
5. Building God’s House: A Missionary Address
49
yet come to the place where I had to be told by the deacons
and church ocers to tell the people that they had brought
too much already — not to bring any more. It would be a
delightful experience!
You will observe this Old Testament passage has to
do with a subject very dear to the heart of God — the
building of a house in which He was to dwell. I wonder if
you have ever noticed that it takes two chapters in the Old
Testament to tell the story of the creation of the universe.
In Genesis you get the outline of the story and in chapter
2 God gives more detail, dealing more particularly with the
creation of man. ere is no contradiction, as some people
imagine, ey simply have not apprehended what God is
telling us. ose two chapters bring before us the whole
story of the creation of the universe. When we come back
to Exodus, we nd it takes sixteen chapters to tell the story
of the building of the sanctuary of Jehovah, the tabernacle
that was set up in the wilderness. at tabernacle in the
wilderness was a very modest building indeed; it would not
in any way be compared, so far as size is concerned, with
many of the great temples for religious worship that exist
today, though because of the value of the metals used in its
construction it was a most costly sanctuary.
ere must be some reason why so much space is given
to the instructions for this sanctuary. Well, you know God
loves to dwell with His people, and Israel was no sooner
out of Egypt than they were singing, “e Lord is a man of
war: the Lord is his name. I will prepare him an habitation.”
God took them at their word and said, Yes, I want you to
bring material, give your best and give willingly with a glad
heart, to build a sanctuary that I may dwell among you.
And that sanctuary in a wonderful way tells us the story
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
50
of redemption. at is one reason it has so large a space in
the Bible. I sometimes say I would be willing to rest the
doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible on the ve books of
Moses; particularly on what we read of the building of the
tabernacle, its furnishings, and the ceremonies connected
with it. All the New Testament rests on that. You cannot
understand the New Testament and the story of redemption
in Christ Jesus, you cannot understand the atonement and
our Lord’s sacricial and high-priestly work unless you
understand what God revealed to Moses concerning the
construction of that “temple” — as it is called in Psalm
29:9. A better rendering would be “His sanctuary,” for the
temple was not built at that time. He was referring to that
house of curtains which God owned as His sanctuary. We
are told that every whit of it uttereth His glory, every detail
of the sanctuary in the wilderness told out in some way the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work.
In the New Testament we nd God referring to it again
and again and showing us it was a type of the house in
which He now dwells. Let me call your attention to two
or three verses in the third chapter of Hebrews. Here the
apostle shows how the glory of the Lord Jesus transcends
by far the glory of Moses, the servant of God in the old
dispensation. Verses 3 to 6 read, “For this man was counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who
hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
For every house is builded by some man; but he that built
all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all
his house, as a servant, for a testimony [notice this, for a
testimony] of those things which were to be spoken after,
but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are
5. Building God’s House: A Missionary Address
51
we, if we hold fast the condence and the rejoicing of the
hope rm unto the end.”
What is the Holy Spirit telling us here? He is telling us
the house of curtains built of old typies the house of God
in which He dwells by His Spirit today, whose house we
are. at is, the house of God at the present time is not a
house of stones, brick and mortar like this great building
and many other similar buildings dedicated to the Lord,
but the house of God is built of men and women saved
by grace and brought into holy, happy fellowship by the
indwelling Spirit of God. ere are a great many people
who profess to be Chris tians but prove their profession
is not genuine for the Scripture reads, “whose house are
we, if we hold fast … rm unto the end.” It does not do
to profess to be a Christian and by and by turn away and
deny the Lord who bought you. ere are many who join
the church, are baptized and whose after-life proves there
was no genuine work of grace in the soul. When people
are born again, they manifest the reality of that work by
continuing steadfast in the faith, and those who thus prove
to be truly born of God and are His regenerated children
constitute the house in which God now dwells,
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
in whom all the building tly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
You see, it is not complete yet; it has been in the course
of construction 1900 years. When Peter made his great
confession, “ou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God,” Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church.”
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
52
Augustine, of Hippo, has well said, “So then Christ, not
Peter, is the rock upon which the Church is built.” And the
foundation of that building was laid in the death of Christ
on Calvary and ever since Pentecost God has been adding
one and another to that building.
Here is where the missionary message comes in. at
temple is nearly completed; it will not be long until the
last piece of material will be set in place, and then the
Lord will take the entire Church out of this world to be
with Himself in yonder glory. Our business now is to be
occupied with building that Church and going out after
those who seem worthless, to go after those with whom it
would seem nothing could be done; but whom, when they
believe the Gospel, God in His matchless grace transforms
and makes His own. e Apostle Peter said, “To whom
coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house.” And so it is our business,
then, to go out and get the material to build living stones
into that house.
If we are going out, as we have been commissioned to
take the Gospel to others and carry on a great worldwide
missionary program, conditions are such in this world that
it demands constant sacrice and self-denial. God told
Moses to tell the people to bring in all that was needed for
the construction of the house of God, but to tell them to
bring with a willing heart. He did not want anything given
grudgingly. He did not want a gift from those who said,
“I hate to part with it, but I must keep up appearances.”
Moses said, “We don’t want gifts from them. ose who
give must give willingly.”
5. Building God’s House: A Missionary Address
53
ey came from all the families of Israel. Here comes
a man with a talent of silver and puts it down, and here
comes another man with a great purse of gold. Here is a
poor woman who hadn’t much to give, but she sheared a
couple of goats and wove the wool into part of a goat’s
hair curtain. Here is one who can’t bring silver and gold
but brings copper. I think he is in preeminence today. God
has been using gold, silver and copper in the building of
His work, and I think if you were to put it as Paul puts
the three graces, you would say, “Now abideth gold, silver,
copper; but the greatest of these is copper,” It is wonderful
how much work of the Lord has been made possible by the
people who were able to give only the copper; but God has
been able to do what all the alchemists of the Middle Ages
were not able to do — He has transmuted it into pure gold
for His honor and glory.
ey came and brought their gifts so gladly and of stich
quantity that the builders nally came in Moses and said,
“We are swamped; we already have more than we need,
you must tell the people to stop.” Just think of some church
where one would have to meet the people at the door,
crying, “Stop! don’t bring any more. We don’t know what
to do with it.” Wouldn’t it be great! Well, dear friends, we
have the privilege today of seeking to emulate those men
of old.
God is still seeking materials for the building of His
house. He wants redeemed sinners to be builded together
for His dwelling-place. In order to reach them He requires
men and money and it is our privilege to provide them. O
for willing hearts to respond to the missionary call!
e dire need of the pagan world is in itself the
Macedonian cry, imploring Christians to come over and
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
54
help them, bringing to those who sit in darkness and the
shadow of death the light and liberty that only the Gospel
can supply.
us new material will be builded into the house of
God and the coming of the Saviour hastened. Even though
we may not all be able to go out and seek for the lost we
can all participate in the work. By prayer, by our gifts, as
well as by our personal testimony, we can help to provide
that which is necessary in order that the work may soon be
completed.
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
55
171869
6. Should Protestantism Be
Liquidated?
RECENTLY, I saw it stated in a Roman Catholic
periodical that it would hasten peace and make for a more
settled order of society if Protestantism were liquidated.
Practically all of our present international troubles were
traced back to Martin Luther and the Reformation. I want
to ask you to look with me into this question and see if the
Romanist was right in his contention.
Let us read from the second chapter of the Epistle to
the Galatians, beginning with verse 11:
“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him
to the face, because he was to be blamed,
“For before that certain came from James, he did eat
with the Gentiles: but when they were come, be withdrew
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
56
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision.
“And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him;
insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their
dissimulation.
“But when I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter
before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner
of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou
the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
“Knowing that a man is not justied by the works of
the law,
“We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the
Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justied by the works
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justied by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the
works of the law shall no esh be justied.”
What “Protestant” Means
With these words before us, I want to try to speak
to you tonight on the subject, “Should Protestantism Be
Liquidated?” at term Protestantism is often used in a
very loose and careless way. It is perfectly true that in the
beginning it bore not only a religious but also a political
signicance. But we need to remember that in the times
when the Protestant movement was rst brought into
being, Church and State were very intimately connected in
every European country, so that it was almost impossible to
protest against anything of a religious character without at
the same time making a protest concerning things political.
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
57
Evangelical believers were rst designated Protestants in the
year 1529 after a formal protestation had been handed in at
what was called the Diet of Spires, when a great company
of ecclesiastics met together to consider the Lutheran
movement and what their attitude should be toward it, and
a number of the German princes and the representatives
of fourteen cities entered a protest to the Diet when they
refused to consider the liberty of any German principality
to rid themselves completely of Romanism and endorse
the new evangelical program if they so desired. e Diet of
Spires held that the mass must he everywhere recognized
and that no German principality should be permitted any
other form of religious service than that of the Roman
Catholic except the few which had already become what we
today call Protestant. ey themselves were simply called
evangelicals. But after putting in this protest, the name
Protestant was applied largely by the Roman Catholic
adversaries to the evangelical group. Eventually, however,
they took it over for themselves for they felt there was
something in the name which was worth preserving. ey
were protesting against certain great doctrinal principles
and certain practices which they honestly believed to be
contrary to the Word of God.
Protestantism Arose Because People
Longed to Have Assurance of Salvation
Protestants accept, and always have accepted, all the
great fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith which
were preserved in the Roman Church down through the
centuries, as well as in the Churches of the Last. Protestants
hold to the doctrine of the Trinity, to the incarnation
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
58
of the Son of God, to the atonement of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to His physical resurrection, to His ascension to
God’s right hand in heaven, and to the fact that He is
coming again as Judge of the quick and of the dead. In
these doctrines Protestants and Catholics so-called are in
unanimity. We who are called Protestants have nothing
new to oer as to them. We maintain what the Church
has maintained all down through the centuries. How, then,
did the cleavage between the old church and the newer
group come in? It was not the result, as some supposed, of
the political upheavals in Europe, though these did come
in connection with it; but it was the result of a widespread
exercise among the common people of Germany, France,
Switzerland, Holland and the Scandinavian countries as
to how a troubled conscience could nd pardon and peace
and become sure of personal salvation.
Now I am not saying anything unkind in regard to our
Roman Catholic friends or their views when I remark that
there is no certainty of eventual salvation for anybody in
the Roman Catholic church so long as he is in this life.
For instance, when I was in Rome some time ago I found
they were still celebrating masses for the repose of the soul
of Pope Leo XIII. Now, Leo died a good many years ago.
Many of us here who are middle-aged or older remember
when he passed away. Nobody in the church of Rome
knows today whether Pope Leo XIII is in heaven, in hell,
or in purgatory; but they hope that he has at least gotten
as far as purgatory. Masses are still being oered in the
thought of getting him out of purgatory and eventually
getting him into heaven. at is not a singular thing. Rome
promises no assurance of salvation to anybody in this life.
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
59
In the little paper, Our Sunday Visitor, published by
Bishop Noll, in the April 23 issue, 1939, are found these
words:
“We do not know with certainty what the eternal
destiny of any individual may be unless he is canonized by
the church.”
Of course, no individual is canonized by the church until
he has been at least one hundred years dead, so that what
I said in the beginning is true. Rome gives no assurance of
personal salvation to anybody while he is still in this life.
You can take the history of a good Catholic — and I
have great respect for my Catholic friends and I would
not want to say one unkind thing about them, but they, of
course, if they were. speaking of my views, would feel free
to point out what they thought was erroneous in them, and
I feel free to do the same thing in regard to their views. But
you take a person born into a good Catholic family. As a
child, he is baptized and his baptism is supposed to deliver
from the delement of inbred sin. Suppose the child dies
suddenly after baptism. I ask, “Has that little child gone to
heaven?” Nobody can tell me. Nobody knows for certain.
But if he grows up, he is instructed in the teachings of the
church and when he comes to the proper age and shows
an understanding of the instruction received, he takes his
rst communion, and is conrmed into the membership
of the church. He comes home from the rst communion
happy to have had that wonderful privilege. But I say to the
ociating priest or I say to the parents, “Are you absolutely
certain now that this dear child is saved, saved for eternity?”
e answer is, “No, nobody can be sure of that.”
What then? Well, the child is now called upon to
persevere in good works, to be sure to make a good
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
60
confession whenever he is conscious of having sinned, to
do the prescribed penance put upon him, by the father
confessor, to attend every church service he possibly can,
and, above everything else, to be present at Easter time.
And as he grows up from boyhood to young manhood and
does all this, is he eventually certain of salvation? I have
put the question denitely. I have often put it to Roman
Catholic priests with whom I have been in conversation. I
remember one answering me in the words of the Roman
Catholic translation of the book of Ecclesiastes, “No man
knoweth whether he is worthy of favor or hatred.”
Well, suppose this person perseveres all through life. He
is very faithful in walking according to the ordinances of
the church. He is very regular in attending the sacrices
of the mass, receives the communion as frequently as he
possibly can. Is he then sure of salvation? No, he is still
left in absolute uncertainty. Perhaps he enters into the
marriage relation. Marriage is called a sacrament and is
recognized as lasting as life itself, and this person observes
the rules of the church in everything in regard to marriage,
and a father or a mother carries out to the end all that is
required by church order and regulation. Again I put the
question, “Is this person saved? Are you certain now that
this person will spend eternity in heaven?” e answer is,
“No, no, nobody can be sure.”
Finally, this one comes down to death and a kindly,
well-meaning priest is sent for and he gives the last rites of
the church and perhaps lays a crucix upon the breast of
the departing one who breathes his last and goes out into
eternity, and I turn to the ociating priest and say, “You
are sure, aren’t you, that this dear one has gone to heaven?”
e answer is “No one can tell, nobody knows. Very few
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
61
people in the hour of death are good enough for heaven.
Many are too good for hell but too bad for heaven, and
so there is a state called purgatory, in which they enter in
order eventually to be cleansed, and friends are asked to
pay for masses for their souls in order that they may pass
from purgatory to heaven.”
I have before me a little paper. It is a parish paper from
one of the churches of this city. I won’t mention which one,
but I notice a little item in it of striking importance. It says:
“You are often wondering to whom to make a gift, and
what to give. . . . But have you ever thought of sending a
gift to the Poor Souls, to your friends and relatives still
held captive in Purgatory? And yet, they are craving for
something you can give to them: the soothing drops of Christ’s
precious Blood to extinguish the cleansing ames. is year,
be resolved to include your beloved dead when you prepare
your anksgiving and Christmas gifts. Have for them
MEMBERSHIPS in the EUCHARISTIC WEEKS
ASSOCIATION. ere is no gambling, no insecurity, no
loss in the investment we propose. e SHARES oered
are drawn from the Eucharistic Treasury. Christ, the King,
is the Banker: His Sacred Heart is inexhaustible. His
generosity is innite . . . e SHARES are the Poor Souls.
Some of them are probably your actual creditors. ey can
do nothing to redeem themselves. Unless you pay o their
debts of sin to God, they may have to stay a long time in
the ery prison. . .”
Now. I did not write that. No Protestant critic of the
Church of Rome wrote that. at is a statement in the
parish paper, put out by a local priest, urging his friends,
his members, his parishioners to do what they can, give of
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
62
their money for masses in order, as he puts it in so many
words, to redeem the Poor Souls in purgatory.
Well, after masses have been oered for years, I turn to
the ociating priest as he comes down from the altar and
I say, “Now, are these souls redeemed from purgatory? Are
they in heaven at last?” He says, “No one knows, no one can
know.” at was the best that the Church of the middle
ages was able to give to anxious, troubled, conscientious,
distressed men and women who were facing eternity. And
they said, “We want assurance, we want to know for certain
how a man may nd. peace with God: we want to know
how one may be sure that his sins are forgiven, that he has
life eternal, that he has been freed from guilt and that he
is certain of going to be with God in heaven when death
takes him from this world.”
It was the attempt to answer those questions from
the Word of God that resulted in what has been called
Protestantism. And there is as much need today as there
was then for the testimony given in the sixteenth century
in answer to those questions.
Protestantism Insists at Each Individual
Must Come to God Directly rough Faith
in Christ, the One Mediator, Not rough
Priests, Pope, Mary, or the Church
What were the great doctrines that the Protestants
armed and for which they have sought to stand
throughout the centuries?
First of all, the soul’s direct relation with Christ Himself.
In other words, Luther, Calvin, Ecolampadius, all the great
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
63
reformers, William Farel, and many others, some of whom
laid down their very lives for the truth’s sake, insisted on
this, that the statement of Scripture as given in the First
Epistle of Timothy, chapter 2, verses 5-6, be taken exactly
as it stands, “For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testied in due time.”
How can anyone, in the face of a Scripture like that,
anyone who professes to believe that this blessed Book is
the Word of the living God, believe in Mary or the saints
as mediators? And mark you, our Roman Catholic friends
profess to believe, just as truly as we Protestants, that this
Book is the Word of the living God. ey insist on it. We
honor them for it. We insist on it, too. But they tell us we
can understand the Word only as we read it in the light of
the teachings of the church. But we turn to the Word and
read this to them, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches.” It does not say, “Let
him hear what the church says to him,” but “what the Spirit
saith unto the churches.” God’s Word is addressed to the
churches of God and the churches of God are responsible
to hear what is written in this Book.
One of the rst fundamental statements is that which
I quoted, “ere is one mediator [only one], one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
himself a ransom for all.” And therefore we, as Protestants,
insist that each individual soul is responsible to God and
must deal directly with our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. We
search our New Testament in vain to nd any intervening
priestly class coming in between believers and the blessed
Son of God Himself. ere is not a shred of evidence in
the New Testament that there was ever such a person as
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
64
an ociating priest in the Early Church. ere is no such
word used. ere is no such individual mentioned. But, on
the other hand, all believers are called priests and that by the
blessed Apostle Peter himself. Catholics tell us that Peter
was the rst pope, and that the pope speaks ex cathedra,
with absolute authority. And the Apostle Peter, addressing
all believers, calls them “a holy priesthood” and also “a royal
priesthood.” But Peter does not know anything, Paul does
riot know anything, no other New Testament writer knows
anything of an intermediary class coming, in between
people and God. Christ is the one mediator between
God and man; not Christ’s blessed mother, precious and
wonderful as her life was. When our blessed Lord was here
on earth, as He was on His way to the cross, an excited,
emotional woman shouted out, “Blessed is the womb that
bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked,” that is,
“Blessed be your mother,” and Jesus said, “Rather, blessed
are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” He would
not have anybody glorifying His mother and turning away
from Himself. He alone is the mediator between God and
men. ere is no other.
e last recorded mention that we have of the mother
of our Lord Jesus Christ is in the rst chapter of the book
of Acts and there we read that the disciples were gathered
together for prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem with
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with the women, the holy,
godly women. Notice, they were not praying to Mary; they
were praying with Mary. She knelt with them as on one
common level, and together their prayers were going up to
the Lord. at is the last mention of Mary, the mother of
our Lord, in the Word of God. ere is not another passage
that refers to her in all the New Testament after that time.
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
65
I know, of course, the application that is often made of that
mystic woman in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, the
woman who has a crown of twelve stars upon her head, the
moon under her feet, and clothed with the sun, but as you
study that, it would take a strange imagination to make
that refer to the blessed virgin Mary. It refers clearly to the
people of Israel. It is God’s marvelous picture of the nation
of Israel, of whom as concerning the esh Christ came,
who is over all, God, blessed forever.
Shall we then as Protestants give up the great truth that
we go to God directly through His Son? We cannot aord
to do it. We dare not do it. We have found such joy, we have
found such peace, we have found such blessed assurance
in coming to Christ direct that we could not think of
turning to any other, neither His mother, nor saints, nor a
priesthood on earth. We will put no mediator between our
souls and God save our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
Protestants Accept the Bible Alone as
the Divine Revelation of God’s Will: Not
Church Traditions or Decrees of Church
Councils or of Popes
As Protestants, we stand on the Bible. e Romanist
says, “Well, the Bible can be understood only in the light
of the teachings of the church.” But we maintain that God
gave the Bible in order to instruct the church. He gave it
through holy, inspired men in order to show the church
how to behave and to make clear to them what the truth
of God really is. Letter after letter in this New Testament
is addressed to one or another of the dierent churches.
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
66
ere is a letter to the church in Rome, two letters to the
church in Corinth, a letter to the churches in Galatia, a
letter to the church in Ephesus and so on. ese messages
to the churches contain the truth that we as Christians
need to know and we take our stand upon the statement
of Chillingworth of old in the seventeenth century who,
when he was challenged as to the ground of authority
as recognized by Protestants, said this, “e Bible, the
whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of
Protestants,” We dare to stand on that. And we are sure of
this, that God’s Word will never fail us, because it comes
from Him who is immutable.
We are told in 2Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is protable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished
unto all good works.” Observe the Word of God; the
Scripture is protable for four things: “for doctrine” — for
the unfolding of the divine truth; “for reproof” — to
show where we are wrong; “for correction” — to show us
how to get right; “for instruction in righteousness” — to
show us how to keep right. And as we give heed to the
Holy Scripture, not to the teaching of some body of men,
however sacred their oce may seem to be; as we give heed
to the holy Scripture we may “become perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.”
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
67
Evangelicals Believe Christ Was Sacriced
Once for All, and Need Never Be Oered
Again
Perhaps the greatest cleavage between the Roman
church and the evangelicals is that in connection with the
sacricial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both, as I have said,
believe in His atoning work, both believe that He oered
Himself on the cross for sinners, but the great dierence
between the two is this: the one believes that although
He oered Himself there on the cross for sinners, this is
not enough to save souls, but there must be a continual
unbloody sacrice oered on Rome’s altars day in and day
out, year after year, for the sins of the living and of the
dead and that only as men avail themselves of this constant
sacricing of Christ in the mass can they have some hope
of eventual salvation; hope, not assurance, because, as I
have said, nothing is known of assurance there.
But now I turn to the Word of God and what do I read?
is is Hebrews 9:24-26:
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made
with hands, which are the gures of the true; but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for
us: Nor yet that he should oer himself often, as the high
priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood
of others; for then must he often have suered since the
foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrice of
himself.”
What does that tell us? It tells us this, that Christ’s one
oering on Calvary’s cross is all-sucient to settle the sin
question, that nothing can ever be added to it, nothing can
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
68
ever be taken from it. It is not necessary that He should
oer Himself often.
I was having a friendly talk with a priest one day, in Santa
Barbara, California. He had come out of the monastery.
Talking to him, I said:
“Do you ociate at the altar, at the sacrices of the
mass?”
“Yes.”
“And you arm that when you ociate you oer up
Christ for the sins of the living and the dead. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Our Bible says, ‘Without shedding of blood there is no
remission.’ Do you believe that when you thus oer Him, it
gives more ecacy to His blood?”
“Yes.”
“But it means, then, that you yourself immolate Him,
you kill Christ afresh.”
“Oh. No.” he said. “It isn’t that exactly. Christ is both
oerer and sacrice and in the person of the priest He
oers Himself in the mass every time that sacrice takes
place.”
“Well, then,” I said, “explain this: ‘Nor yet that he should
oer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with blood of others’” (Heb. 9: 25).
He looked at me a moment and said, “Well. I don’t
think we had better discuss it,” and he walked away.
ere is God’s own word for it, that there is no
other oering, no other sacrice contemplated, no other
atonement for sins possible. e one oering of the Lord
Jesus has settled the sin question forever.
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
69
Salvation by Faith — e “Watchword of
the Reformation”
e great text of the Protestant Reformation was
that which is found in the Old Testament, in the book
of Habakkuk and three times in the New Testament as
though to draw special attention to it; in the Epistle to the
Romans, in the Epistle to the Galatians, and in the Epistle
to the Hebrews — “e just shall live by faith.” at text,
I might say, was the mainspring of the Reformation, and
it is the great truth that we are seeking to stress today, and
we need to stress as long as there is a poor sinner seeking
salvation. “e just shall live by faith.” “By the deeds of the
law there shall no esh be justied in his sight.” Paul said,
speaking in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia, “Be it
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and
by him all that believe are justied from all things, from
which ye could not be justied by the law of Moses” (Acts
13:38, 39). Look at that. rough personal faith in the
Lord Jesus one may be assured that his sins have all been
forgiven and that he stands justied before God.
What is justication? It is the sentence of the judge in
favor of the prisoner. And when man, a guilty sinner, comes
before God and confesses his sin and puts his trust in the
Lord. Jesus Christ, God says this man is justied. “Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God” (Rom.
8:34). God will not hear one charge against the man who
has put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
ese are the great outstanding truths for which
thousands upon thousands of men and women and even
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
70
little children actually laid down their lives; and these are
the truths for which Bible Protestantism stands today.
Should Protestantism be liquidated? Liquidated? at
would mean throwing overboard all these precious truths!
It would mean turning away from the simple Word of God,
and putting our faith in the statements of men as fallible
as ourselves. It would mean ignoring the one Mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and turning to lesser mediators. It
would mean refusing to believe that by one oering He
has perfected forever them that are sanctied, and instead
seeking salvation through many oerings that can never put
away sin. It would mean endeavoring to save ourselves by
works of righteousness that we might do, by human merit,
by deeds of kindness, by charity, by reformation of life, by
prayer, and supplications, by penances. And the Scripture
declares that all these are but as dead works from which
we have to turn in order that we may be saved by grace.
Someone may say, “But don’t you believe in charity, don’t
you believe in almsgiving, don’t you believe in reformation
of life, don’t you believe in good works, in penitence for
sin?” Yes, we believe in them all, but not as having anything
to do with the salvation of our souls but rather the results,
the eects of that salvation wrought in us by the Holy
Ghost when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“I would not work my soul to save,
at work my Lord has done:
But I would work like any slave
For love to God’s dear son.”
6. Should Protestantism Be Liquidated?
71
e Joy of Resting on Christ’s Finished
Work
So I stand before you a confessed and a convinced
Protestant and yet with a heart, I trust, lled with love for
all my brethren who do not see as I see. I have no unkind
thought for my friends in the Roman Catholic group or
any other great groups who do not see these things. From
the depths of my heart I long that they may be brought into
the same joy and the same assurance that I have myself; for
there is the wonderful thing about it: when you rest in the
Word of God, you have absolute condence. I have stood
sometimes at the brink of the grave and I have watched
many a Christian slip away into eternity and I have never
known one who did not bear witness that all was well. And
as they bade good-bye to friends on earth, they had the
assurance that they were going out to be forever with the
Lord. John Wesley said when people were criticizing his
followers, “Well, the wonderful thing about Methodists is
that they die well.” And that is a great testimony. When
one has risked everything on the nished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and then comes down to facing eternity, there
is no fear, there is no dread, nothing but perfect rest and joy
and assurance based upon the work of Christ.
As a dear man was dying he looked up and somebody
said, “Well, is it all right with you.” He said, “Yes, it is
nished. Upon that I can hang my whole eternity.” What
did he mean? Christ on the cross nished the work that
saves and he could risk his all on that, and he knew that all
would be well forevermore.
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
72
“Upon a life I did not live,
Upon a death I did not die:
Another’s life, another’s death,
I hang my whole eternity.”
if Christ fails me, then everything is lost. But if Jesus
Christ abides, if He is the same yesterday, today and
forever, then everything is well for eternity, for God in
grace links up with Him all who put their trust in Him.
I would not want to be without Him. I would not turn
from Him to any church or any sacramental observances,
to any ritualistic services, to any eorts of my own. I would
not turn from Christ to trust in anything that might be
presented for I nd absolute satisfaction in Him, He has
met every need of my soul and He has settled the sin
question to the divine satisfaction. No, we will not attempt
to liquidate Protestantism. We will go on preaching, in love
and in the power of the Holy Ghost, as the Lord enables
us, the blessed realities that were recovered for us at the
glorious reformation through which all the centuries since,
millions of people have found the full assurance of faith
and trusted Christ alone and would not rest on church or
sacraments for salvation. We stand today for these same
precious things, and by the grace of God we will proclaim
them as long as He gives life and strength.
7. e Humiliation of Christ
73
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7. e Humiliation of Christ
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name:
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — PHILIPPIANS
2:5-11
THE Epistle to the Philippians is one with which
I am sure we are all very familiar. It is the epistle of
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
74
Christian experience. It does not deal with the great
and high doctrines of our Faith, yet there is a wonderful
background of doctrine running all the way through as
evidenced particularly in the passage I have just read.
But in the Epistle to the Philippians the Spirit of God
is dealing particularly with Christian experience, and this
really consists of three things. First of all, the knowledge
of Christ. Until one knows Christ he is not a Christian
and until one becomes a Christian he cannot have a
Christian experience. So it begins with the knowledge of
Christ. Second, the enjoyment of Christ. No one has a
true Christian experience who is not enjoying fellowship
with the Lord Jesus. We realize at once that if that be true
there are a great many experiences Christians have which
should never be termed Christian experience. It is quite
possible for Christians to be out of fellowship with their
Lord and have very grievous experiences as a result, and
those experiences should never be designated as Christian
experiences. ird, the manifestation of Christ. We have
real Christian experience only as Christ. is seen in our lives,
and that comes out very beautifully in this letter to the
Philippians.
e epistle naturally divides into four parts, according to
the chapters. In Chapter 1 the outstanding theme is Christ
as the believer’s life; in Chapter 2, Christ as the believer’s
example; in Chapter 3, Christ as the believer’s object; in
Chapter 4, Christ as the believer’s strength and his all-
sucient supply. is letter is, if I may put it so, one of
the most psychological of all the New Testament writings.
I am using the term psychological as it is ordinarily used
today. Psychology is supposed to be the science of the
mind. In the Bible, psychology is connected with the soul
7. e Humiliation of Christ
75
instead of the mind, but I am using the word as we use it
today. We have a great deal about the mind in the letter to
the Philippians. Of course, when you consider Christian
experience you have to take into account the activity of the
mind.
In Chapter 1, where we have already said Christ set
forth as the believer’s life, we have linked with that the
Gospel mind or evangelistic spirit. We who are saved
are saved through the Evangel, that is, the Gospel. We
believed God’s good news about His Son. Many believed
intellectually many years before they appropriated it for
themselves, but when they risked everything for eternity
upon His Word they received divine life. “Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever . . . and this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
Having been saved through the Gospel, a Christian
who is living in fellowship with his Lord must of necessity
be concerned about getting that Gospel out to others. So
the Apostle Paul wrote, “Only let your behaviour he as it
becometh the gospel of Christ. . . that ye stand fast in one
spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the
gospel.” Are you evangelistically minded? Are you really
concerned about getting the Gospel out to other people?
Real Christians are never satised with just going to
heaven themselves — they want to bring as many with
them as they can. at is the evangelistic spirit, the Gospel
mind.
In Chapter 2 the apostle brings before us the lowly mind
or humble spirit. “Let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus.” Pride, vanity, conceit, haughtiness — all
that is contrary to the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
76
should never be found in Christians. Yet we all have to
confess how we fail, how much pride we have hidden away,
how much vanity, self-seeking — — — but all these mar
and destroy true Christian experience.
en we turn to Chapter 3, where we have Christ as the
believer’s object, and we have the steadfast mind. Everyone
is called on to pursue without deviation the object before
us — of someday becoming like Christ in glory. We say with
the apostle, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.” And he adds, “Let us therefore, as many as be
mature, be thus minded” — a steadfast mind.
Chapter 4, which shows Christ as our strength and all-
sucient supply, stresses the importance of the trustful
mind or condent spirit which enables one to say, “I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
is is a wonderful letter. Four chapters teeming with
precious things which, made your own by the power of the
Spirit, will lead you on to a richer, deeper spiritual life.
But now in the verses I have read we have presented
the Lord Jesus Christ as our pattern. See the depths of
suering into which He went and the heights of glory to
which the Father has raised Him. I want you to consider
these things with me, especially in view of the fact that we
are going to observe the Lord’s Supper, remembering again
our Saviour who took our place on the cross and who said,
“is do in remembrance of me.” We not only remember
the work He did. We love to dwell on that, but we also
seek to be occupied with the Person who did the work. had
He been any less than He was He would not have been
7. e Humiliation of Christ
77
ecient to atone for our sins. He had to be what He was in
order to do what He did.
“No angel could our place have taken:
Highest of the high tho’ He,
e loved One on the cross forsaken
Was one of the God-head ree!”
e Apostle Peter says he was a witness of the suering
of Christ and a partaker of the glory to follow, We were
not permitted. to stand by the cross and see what our
Saviour underwent, but we may in faith through the aid of
the Holy Spirit stand by that cross and contemplate Him
hanging there and dwell upon His suering and sorrow,
and it is good for our own souls that we do this. It was for
our guilt that He was there upon that tree. Oh, surely, in
view of Calvary we might well banish every hateful proud
thought, everything like vanity or self-conceit! Surely these
should have no place at His table!
Let us look at this passage. “Let this mind” — that is
the lowly mind, the humble mind — it is distinctly called
the mind of Christ. In the earlier part of the chapter the
apostle besought the Philippians to be of one mind. How is
it possible for people to be of one mind? Take a throng in a
great church. ey represent so many dierent nationalities;
if you go back far enough, possibly even dierent races,
dierent heredity; environment and cultural opportunities
have been so dierent. How is it possible, then, for people
who have had all these varied connections in the past and
present to be of one mind? Of course, we will never look
at everything the same way. We do not look at political
problems or national problems the same way, much less all
our spiritual problems. Nevertheless, if we all show forth
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
78
the wind of Christ — all manifest that lowliness and grace
seen in Him — we shall be of one mind. “Let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” — that mind that led
Him to come to earth for our redemption, to leave heaven’s
glory — “who subsisting in the form of God . . .” You could
not nd any stronger term. No angel subsisted in the form
of God. No created being subsisted in the form of God. But
Jesus, from all eternity, subsisted in the form of God. He
was one with God the Father. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. It was robbery on the part of our rst
parents when they heeded the tempter, who told them, “Ye
shall be as gods.” ey reached out to become as gods, and it
was robbery — it was theft. But He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. When He said, “I and my Father
are one” He was not vaingloriously aspiring to a place that
did not belong to Him. He was declaring a self-evident
truth. It might be translated dierently. “He counted not
equality with God a thing to be retained.” He was always
one with God but stooped to become a servant. He might
have said, “ere is no occasion for me to leave the place I
have had with my Father from eternity, no occasion to go
down and take the burden of guilty man’s sin.” But no, that
would not be Jesus! He counted not equality with God a
thing to be retained. He said, “I will give it all up — the
glory I had with the Father before the world was — and
I will go down to the lost world to settle the sin question
for guilty men.” “He made himself of no reputation!” How
truly these words were fullled in the place He took on
earth. Men treated Him. with contumely. ey said He was
a devil and a Samaritan. ere was nothing you could say
of another that conveyed greater contempt. He took the,
lowest place. “e foxes have holes, and the birds of the
7. e Humiliation of Christ
79
air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay
his head.” I was reading a book some time ago in which
the writer used an expression I did not like, yet I realized
how naturally one might use it if one did not know the full
glory of Christ, It was, “Jesus, that marvelous tramp, who
has given the world such high ethical standards.” Jesus a
tramp! at is what He seemed like to the men of His day.
He had no home — He was glad to receive a drink of water
at the hand of a Samaritan woman.
“A homeless Stranger amongst us came
To this land of death and mourning;
He walked in a path of sorrow and shame,
rough insult, and hate, and scorning.
“A Man of sorrows, of toil and tears,
An outcast Man and a lonely;
But He looked on me, and through endless years
Him must I love — Him only.
“en from this sad and sorrowful land,
From this land of tears He departed;
But the light of His eyes and the touch of His hand
Had left me brokenhearted.
“And I clave to Him as He turned His face
From the land that, was mine no longer —
e land I had loved in the ancient days,
Ere I knew the love that was stronger.
“And I would abide where He abode,
And follow His steps for ever;
His people my people, His God my God,
In the land beyond the river.
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
80
“And where He died would I also die,
Far dearer a grave beside Him
an a kingly place amongst living men,
e place which they denied Him.
“en afar and afar did I follow Him on,
To the land where He was going —
To the depths of glory beyond the sun,
Where the golden elds were glowing —
“e golden harvest of endless joy,
e joy He had sown in weeping;
How can I tell the blest employ,
e songs of that glorious reaping!
“e recompense sweet, the full reward,
Which the Lord His God has given;
At rest beneath the wings of the Lord,
At home in the courts of heaven.”
— PAUL GERHARDT.
us wrote one of the great German pietists in the
seventeenth century. is wonderful Jesus, this homeless
Stranger, made Himself of no reputation. But here another
rendering might be suggested. He emptied Himself or
divested Himself. at is, He who was God from eternity
threw aside His glory, the insignia of His rank, and came
to this world and became poorer than the poorest in order
that we might share His riches. ere are those who have
misunderstood this and said that He emptied Himself of
His true deity, of His omnipotence, omnipresence and
omniscience, and therefore when He was here on earth He
was just a man like other men and so limited that when
7. e Humiliation of Christ
81
He spoke of the Old Testament as the Word of God He
was just expressing the opinion if the people of His day.
He did not know any better; He did not know it was not
inspired by God. So they tell us, but Scripture tells us
though He humbled Himself, divested Himself, He did
not cease to be for one moment true God, and He could
say, “e words I speak. are not mine but the Father’s that
sent me.” Whenever He referred to Scripture it was the
Father putting His seal upon the Old Testament. His voice
was the voice of God.
As a king might lay aside his gorgeous robes, stoop down
to take the place and clothing of a workman, so our Lord
Jesus laid His glory by and came in the world to die for us.
He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a
servant. e world came into existence at His command; it
was He who created the universe — but now He chose to
become a servant. e word for servant here is really slave
or bondman. He came into this world and surrendered His
will, for He said, “I came down from heaven, not to do
mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” He came
in the likeness of man, He was a real man, a true man, with
all a man’s sensitive nature and with all a man’s interest in
things about him, and then having been found in fashion
as a man — as though that were not enough and it was
not enough for if He would save sinners the incarnation
alone would not do, He gave His life on Calvary to redeem
sinners. I say it reverently, the Son of God could not save
men by His incarnation, His birth at Bethlehem — God
made manifest in the esh — was not enough. He must
go deeper yet! Calvary must follow Bethlehem. So “being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” I wish I
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
82
could read that in the spirit the apostle wrote it. I wish it
were possible to put in my voice the pathos and tenderness
which I know were welling in his heart. Let me try to read
it, changing the translation slightly. “Who, being in the
form of God, thought equality with God not something
to be grasped, but divested himself and took upon himself
the form of a bondman and became in the likeness of man:
and having been found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, such a death, that
of the cross.” e most degrading form of death to which
man could be subjected in that day was crucixion. Yet He
chose that. He went to the cross in order that there He
might settle the sin question and redeem our guilty souls.
Is it any wonder this same apostle said, “God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucied unto me, and I unto the
world”? ere upon that cross He was delivered to death for
our oenses, and when He had put away sin by the sacrice
of Himself, they laid His precious body in the tomb, and
three days later He was raised again for on justication.
And so we read, “God also hath highly exalted him, and
given him a name which is above every name: that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven,
and those on earth should those in the infernal regions,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” Oh, how God delighted
to raise up His Son and give Him the highest place as man
in the universe when His work was nished! You see, He
always belonged on the rone of God as the Eternal Son,
but now, since He has gone back to heaven as man, there
is someone there who was not seen before. ere is a man
on the throne of God — the man Christ Jesus! We like to
7. e Humiliation of Christ
83
speak of Him as the Man in the Glory. He sits exalted
there, our great high priest and intercessor. Some day He
is coming back. One can understand the joy of Bunyan’s
Pilgrim who, when traveling so far with his burdens on his
back, came to the cross and there just beyond it the empty
tomb. At the sight of that empty cross his burden fell from
his back and tumbled into the tomb. He fairly danced with
joy as he cried:
“Blessed cross, blessed sepulchre;
Blessed rather be,
e man who there was put to shame for me.”
For me! Can your heart say that? For me! You say, “I
know He died for sinners,” but has He saved you? I was
reading only this morning how a gentleman went into the
home of a very poor old lady and he saw something on the
wall that attracted his attention.
He said, “What is that on the wall?”
“I just don’t know what it be but it is a paper my uncle
sent me and I just don’t like to throw it away and I just
keep it there in remembrance.”
He exclaimed, “Don’t you see what it is!”
“No, I just don’t understand it.”
“Well, it’s a bank check. Look! ere is the name of the
bank on which it is drawn and ‘Pay to Jennie Johnson the
sum of $500,’ and there is your uncle’s name at the bottom
of it.”
“What,” she says, “did he intend me to have that money
and I have been living in poverty all these years!” And it
wasn’t too late to cash in. How many people are like that.
ey believe the Word and God’s promise — in a certain
sense. ey know Jesus died to put away sin. But they
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
84
have never cashed in, they have never trusted Him for
themselves.
Is this true of you? If so, why not put in your claim now?
Look up to God in faith. Tell Him you are the sinner for
whom Christ died and that now you take Him as your own
Saviour. Be assured that if you do this He will receive you,
cleanse and pardon you, and make you His own forever.
8. Is Peter the Rock Upon Which the Church Is Built?
85
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8. Is Peter the Rock Upon
Which the Church Is
Built?
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say
that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the
Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets, He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, ou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for esh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who
is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of
Divine Priorities and Other Messages
86
Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. en
charged he the disciples that they should tell no man that
he was the Christ. — MATTHEW 16:13-20, A. R. V.
THIS passage of Scripture has been the source of a
great deal of contention, and of dierence of opinion
among theologians for many years. In fact, ever since the
third century of the Christian era there has been continual
debate as to the exact meaning of a number of expressions
used here. For most of us commonly known as Protestants
these questions have been settled long ago. We do not have
any perplexity about them, we have learned to go to the
Word of God itself for the explanation of its own terms.
We believe with Chillingworth that “the Bible and the
Bible alone is the religion of Protestants” and so are not very
much concerned about traditions or about the decisions
of church councils or the declarations of popes, fallible or
infallible. We turn from all these to the Book itself.
I have been reminded that this is not true of a great
many people, people who are just as honest, I take it, just
as eager to know what God’s will is, and just as desirous of
doing His will as those of us who are called Protestants,
but they have been taught to decide questions from an
altogether dierent standpoint. In the rst place, they have
been taught not to search the Bible themselves for direct
instruction in regard to any doctrine. at may seem like
a rather broad statement but I believe that I can show you
that it is true. ey have been taught that inasmuch as
Saint Peter has told us that “no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation” (2Pet. 1:20), it is a very
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reprehensible thing for any individual Christian to sit down
over the Bible itself depending on the Holy Spirit to open
up the truth, without asking the help of the priesthood,
of the councils of the church, of the fathers, and of others
who are supposed to speak with authority.
e story is told of an Irishman who all of his life had
been, as so many of his nation are, a member of the Roman
Catholic Church. But someone had given him a New
Testament and through reading it he had been brought to a
saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had learned
that a man may have eternal life in this world and know it;
that he may have all his sins forgiven and be certain of it,
that he need not go to any human intermediary but may go
direct to the blessed Lord Himself to confess his sins and
obtain forgiveness. e result of his study gave Patrick great
joy and happiness. He did not know anyone like minded
with whom he could have Christian fellowship, so when
others went to the parish church, he remained at home
poring over the sacred pages of his New Testament, a Book
which he had never seen before but which now meant so
much to him. Finally the parish priest missed his erstwhile
faithful parishioner, so he arranged to visit him. He came
on a day when this happy convert was reading his New
Testament, and as the priest entered the room, Patrick rose
to meet him with the Book in his hand. “What book is
that?” the priest inquired.
And Patrick answered, “Well, sure and your Reverence,
it’s the New Testament.”
“But, Patrick, don’t you know that that is not a book for
an ignorant man like you to be reading without instruction
and help? You will be forming your own private judgment
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about things and making all kinds of mistakes and going
o into some heresy.”
But Patrick said, “Well, sure, I have just been reading
here, and it’s the blessed Apostle Peter says it, As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word: that ye may
grow thereby (1Pet. 2:2), and sure, your Reverence, I have
just been born again and I am a babe in Christ and it is the
milk I’m thirsting after and I am reading the Word to get
it.”
“at is very good, Patrick, but you need help and
instruction, and the Almighty has appointed the clergy to
be the milkmen; He has given them the knowledge: of the
truth, and when you want instruction, you should come to
the church and we will give it to you as you are able to bear
it. You get to studying for yourself and you are sure to go
wrong.”
But Patrick replied, “Out there in the shed I have a cow
and when I was sick some time ago, I had to hire a man to
milk her and I soon found he was stealing half of the milk
and lling the bucket with water; but when I got well, I
discharged him and took to milking me own cow and now
I am getting the rich cream. When I was depending upon
you, it was milk and water stu you were giving me; now,
thank God, I am milking me own cow and it’s the cream
of the Word I am getting.”
Another story is told of a little lad sitting on the curb in
Johannesburg, in South Africa, reading a New Testament,
when the priest passed by and, recognizing him as a child
of a family belonging to his ock, said, “My boy, what is
that book you are reading?”
“It is the New Testament, father,” he said.
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“But that is not for an ignorant little boy like you to be
reading.”
e lad replied, “Sure, but I have a search warrant to
read it.”
“A search warrant! Why, what do you mean?”
“It says here, ‘Search the Scriptures,’ and so I am after
doing what I am told.”
How can anyone say that Christians are not capable of
reading the Word of God and getting the mind of the Lord
when the Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven for the
express purpose of opening the truth to those who honestly
seek that truth and are prepared to walk according to it?
Our blessed Lord said of the Holy Spirit, “But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto
you” (John 14: 26). Imagine a man cast out on a desert
island with nothing but a copy of the Bible; no teacher,
no clergyman, no. priest, no church, no other books of any
kind to instruct him. Do you mean to say that that man is
left without the possibility of acquiring sucient truth for
the saving of his soul because he is beyond the reach of the
visible church? Surely not, Wherever a man honestly seeks
to know the mind of God, the Holy Spirit is there to reveal
the truth to him.
ey tell us that we must not use private judgment but
must accept the judgment of the councils and the church.
But how are we going to decide to accept that? Must I not
use my private judgment and decide that I will forego the
reasonings of my own intellect and let the councils tell me
what to believe? After all, is that not private judgment? I
remember reading Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita
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Sua years ago. He tells how up to the day that he decided
to submit himself to the Church of Rome and accept the
dicta of that Church as his guide, he had very grave doubts
of many of the so-called Catholic doctrines, such as the
position given to the pope, the place given to the blessed
virgin Mary, the doctrine of purgatory, the intercession of
saints, and so on, but he said, “When I decided to submit
my judgment to the church, all these things were settled
for me.” But do you not see, he had to make the decision
himself? Was not that private judgment? I have investigated
these things. I have read much Roman Catholic theology,
I have examined a great many volumes put out by Roman
Catholic publishers, and after having compared them with
the Word of God, my private judgment tells me that I dare
not trust the salvation of my soul to the decision of popes
or councils if they go contrary to the Book. I am resting
upon what this Book reveals as to God’s way of salvation,
and if it tells me that Peter is the rock on which the Church
is built and that there is no salvation except for those who
are in the church founded by Peter, I want to know it, but
I must nd out from the Book.
Now, let us examine the account given in Matthew 16.
Our blessed Lord was nearing the end of His testimony
here on earth. He had been practically rejected by Israel
and was looking out upon the great world of Gentiles.
at is what is implied in the thirteenth verse, “When
Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi.” Caesarea
Philippi was the rst great Gentile city just north of the
land of Palestine, about twenty miles beyond the border of
Palestine, and Jesus had gone up into the northernmost part
of Galilee and was looking out toward that great Gentile
world thinking of the untold millions who were still in their
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sins to whom His salvation was yet to come, the men for
whom He was soon to die, and He realized that so much
depended upon men having a correct understanding of the
truth of His person. You will notice in the New Testament
that invariably faith is linked with the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only in one instance does it seem to be linked
especially with His work. Links of faith with His person
are: “He that believeth on him is not condemned”; “Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”; “Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest”; “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” It is the person
that saves, and trusting Him we go on to learn more of His
wonderful work, but we begin with faith in Christ Himself.
And so He turned to His disciples and interrogated them
in this way: “Whom do men say that I the Son of man
am?” And they told Him what the common report had
been. “Some say that thou art John the Baptist.” is, you
recall, was Herod’s rst reaction when told of His miracles
and testimony. Others said He was Elias, for it is written, “I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). Some said
He was Jeremiah, for some of the rabbis held that Jeremiah
was the unnamed suerer of Isaiah 53. And others said he
was at least a prophet. en the Lord asked the question
directly, “But whom say ye that I am?” Oh, how we honor
Simon Peter for his great confession, “ou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God.” Does the Church of Rome
honor Simon Peter? ey cannot honor him more than I
do. I thank God for his wondrous testimony and for the
ministry of this great Servant of the Lord; but I would
not think that Simon Peter was a sucient rock upon
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which the Church could be built. I nd as I read on in the
Word that there was too much frailty, too much failure,
too much sin in Simon Peter for me to rest my soul on
him, but I do honor him as the rst one who made this,
great confession, one in which gladly join, “Blessed Lord,
ou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” “And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
jona: for esh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my Father which is in heaven.”
It is always a divine revelation when one is brought to a
saving knowledge of Christ. It is not merely a natural thing.
We do not arrive at this conclusion by any intellectual
process alone. ere must be a work in the soul by the
Holy Spirit of God before people can recognize the true
blessedness of our Lord Jesus. “Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
Because of this a Roman Catholic theologian has declared,
“It is evident from these words that our Lord wishes us to
understand that Simon Peter had secrets with the Father
in which Christ Himself did not share. erefore, we can
conceive of circumstances where it might be safer to go to
Peter or to his successors than to Christ Himself,” at is
the conclusion that one came to when he swung away from
the plain testimony of the Word of God and subjected
his mind to the decisions of the councils and to church
traditions. Safer to go to Peter than to Christ! Every
Christian has the same revelation it is God the Father’s
revelation to every trusting soul and we get it through the
mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
en the Lord adds, “And I say unto thee, at thou art
Peter [a piece of rock, a rock-like man if we dare paraphrase]
and upon this rock I will build my church.” What rock?
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Upon Peter? No, nor upon Peter. en what rock? Let
one of the greatest doctors of the Church tell us, if they
insist that we must not use our own private judgment in
determining the meaning of Holy Scripture. St. Augustine,
of whom there is no greater doctor in all the Church, in his
comment on this verse, says, “So, then, Christ, not Peter, is
the rock on which the Church is built.” Clearly, what our
Lord is saying is, “is glorious revelation the Father has
given to you, Simon Peter; this great truth that you have
confessed — upon this rock I will build my Church and
the gates of hell — the gates of hades — shall not prevail
against it.”
You say, “But that is your private judgment.” Let me
turn, then, to an authentic letter written by the Apostle
Peter himself and learn from him what he understood the
Lord to mean that day. Undoubtedly, if he understood the
Lord to say that the Church was to be built upon him, he
would tell us so. Popes today are not at all bashful about
telling us that there is no salvation outside the church that
is built on Peter and that they are Peter’s successors. If
Simon Peter believed that, he certainly would not leave his
disciples in any doubt regarding it; he would tell them the
truth about a matter like this, 1Peter 2:1-7:
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed
of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood,
to oer up spiritual sacrices, acceptable to God b Jesus
Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture
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Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious; but unto
them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.”
Peter tells us that God is building a house and this
house rests upon a living stone and that be living stone
is Christ! He is the foundation upon whom this glorious,
house rests. is house is the Church of the living God.
Peter further tells the members of that Church that they
are living stones, built upon this foundation. Does not that
exactly correspond with our Lord’s words to Peter on the
coasts of Caesarea Philippi: “Peter, you are a rocklike man
and you are built upon this rock, the confession that I am
the Son of the living God”?
Let us see whether other apostles understood it that
way. But rst let us ask whether our Lord Himself had said
anything easier that might suggest the exact meaning of
this text. Turn back to the seventh chapter of Matthew’s
gospel, verses 24 to 25, “erefore whosoever heareth these
sayings of mine, and dotes them, I will liken him unto a
wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” What rock
was that? It was the rock Christ Jesus, for the man who
built upon that rock was the man who kept His sayings.
Turn to the writings of the apostle Paul, the rst Epistle
to the Corinthians, chapter three, and let us see whether
we have any light as to the rock upon which the Church is
built. In verses 9 to 11 we read:
“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s
husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of
God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have
laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon, But let
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every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ.”
Is there any question as to what that means? Do you
need a church council to expound this to you? Do you need
an infallible pope to tell you the meaning of the words,
“Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ”? But let us look elsewhere — the second
chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, verses 19 to 22:
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner
stone.” We do not read here, “Simon Peter himself being
the chief corner stone.” It should read that way if the other
teaching is correct. But it reads, “Jesus Christ himself
being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building tly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord;
in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit.” And so, whether you listen
to Simon Peter, to the blessed Lord Himself, or to His
servant, the Apostle Paul, you will nd that the Church’s
one foundation is not a man, however noble or excellent he
may be, but Christ Himself.
But, then, what of the other things that the Lord said to
Peter? “I say unto thee, at thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades shall
not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” It is assumed
that Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built and
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that the church built upon Peter will never come to grief.
In other words, the church built upon Peter is an outward
organization. But it is perfectly clear that the Church is a
great spiritual company, not necessarily visible to men but
one that includes all real believers, and against that Church
the gates of hell shall never prevail.
But did not the Lord say unto Peter, “I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven”? ere- fore, has
He not committed to Peter the right to close the doors of
heaven against any who do not submit to him and to open
to those who do? at is what is commonly thought in
Romanist circle. But observe, the Lord did not say to Peter,
“I will give unto thee the keys of heaven.” Christ never gave
the keys of heaven to Peter or to anyone else. He did say, “I
will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” But
is not the kingdom of heaven heaven itself? Most certainly
not! e kingdom of heaven is the sphere on earth where
the Lordship of Christ is acknowledged, even though some
in that sphere are unreal. It is what we call Christendom.
Look at one of the outstanding parables of that kingdom
for proof that it includes faithless professors as well as true
believers:
“en shall the kingdom of heaven he likened unto ten
virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet
the bridegroom. And ve of them were wise, and ve were
foolish. ey that were foolish took their lamps, and took
no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels
with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all
slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry
made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet
him. en all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for
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our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying. Not
so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather
to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they
went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready
went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord,
open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you,
I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the
day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matt.
25; 1-13).
Is that heaven? Surely not. e kingdom of heaven is the
sphere on earth of Christian profession. When Christ said,
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” it
was because of Peter’s great confession, and he was to have
the signal honor of opening the door of the kingdom of
heaven, rst to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. On the
day of Pentecost it was he who opened the door of faith to
the Jews, and in Cornelius’ house it was Peter who opened
the door of faith to the Gentiles. Now that the door is
open, it stands ajar and whosoever will may enter in.
Did not the Lord give special authority to Peter when
he said, “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven”? He did give authority to Peter,
but the same authority is given to the entire Church. In the
eighteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, verses 15 to 18, he
is speaking of any who oend, and he says:
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he
shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, But if he will
not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that
in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may
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be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it
unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let
him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily
I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.”
Is this authority given particularly to Peter? Not at all,
it is given to the Church of God as a whole. What is the
meaning of this passage? If a professing member of the
Church of God falls into sin, he is to be carefully dealt
with, and if he will not repent of his sin, the Church is
authorized to bind his sin upon him and put him away from
her fellowship. If he comes back a broken-hearted man,
confessing his sin and failure, the Church is authorized to
forgive him and receive him back into her fellowship. In
that sense the Church has been binding and loosing all
down through the centuries.
But someone says, “Surely, Peter had some special place
over and above others.” Turn again to his own epistle,
1Peter 5:1, “e elders which are among you I exhort, who
am also an elder.” ink of that for a moment. A literal
translation would be, “e presbyters among you I exhort,
who am a co-presbyter,” or one on the same level as the
rest. If Simon Peter was ever pope, he never knew it, for
he speaks of himself as a “co-presbyter” with all the rest of
the elders in the Church of God! He assumed no place of
authority over them.
What a solemn thing it is when you turn back to the
sixteenth chapter of Matthew to nd that within a short
time after making his confession, Peter proved an absolutely
untrustworthy guide:
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“From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his
disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suer
many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and
be killed, and be raised again the third day. en Peter took
him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord: this shall not be unto thee.”
Is this Peter an infallible pope, rebuking Christ and
saying: “Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto
thee”? But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get thee behind
me, Satan: for thou art an oence unto me: for thou
savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of
men.” Is the church built on a man that Christ called Satan?
What a strange church that would be! We were having an
open-air meeting years ago out West. A friend of mine was
preaching most earnestly, and a great big Irishman, half
drunk, stepped out and tried to break up our meeting. He
kept shouting out as he followed the preacher, with his sts
doubled, “What did the Lord say to Peter? Why don’t you
tell us what the Lord said to Peter? at is what we want to
know.” e man who was preaching perhaps did not have
wit enough to answer him quickly and so tried to go on
with his preaching, but a very dignied looking friend, a
typical New Englander, standing next to me, listened until
he could not stand it any longer. He stepped up to this
fellow and said, “e Lord said to Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan,” and the man almost dropped in his tracks.
He wanted him to say, “I give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven,” and he forgot that the Lord said to
Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
Long after the day of Pentecost, when one would have
thought that Peter would have been utterly beyond failure,
that he could have been trusted in everything, we nd that
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he turned aside from the truth for a time. In Galatians
2:11 we read, “But when Peter was to come to Antioch, I
withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”
What do you think would happen if one of the bishops
should withstand the pope to his face in the presence of
all the rest of them? But the apostle Paul did not recognize
any superiority in Peter; he did not see in him the head of
the Church or the rock on which the Church was built;
but saw him misbehaving and said, “I withstood him to
the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that
certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but
when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself,
fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the
other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that
Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”
e Greek word is “hypocrisy.” e apostle Peter is here
branded as acting the part of a hypocrite. e Church built
on one who, for a time, became guilty of hypocrisy and
whose inuence was so bad that it misled others so that
even Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy! And
Paul goes on to say:
“When I saw that they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them
all, if thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles,
and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles
to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not
sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justied
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justied by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the
law: for by the works of the law shall no esh be justied.”
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Here, then, we see Peter failing, sinning, needing
repentance; surely unt to be the rock on which the Church
is built.
e whole tradition about Peter being in Rome
and being the rst pope is absolutely unsubstantiated.
According to a tradition that had its rise in the latter part
of the second century after Christ, we are told that Peter
went to Rome in 42 A. D. and founded the church there
and then remained as bishop of Rome until 67 A. D.,
when he was martyred, led out of the city to be crucied.
ey were going to crucify him hi the ordinary way, but he
said, “No, I denied my Lord once, I am not worthy to be
crucied as He was. Crucify me with my head downward.”
Tradition says he was crucied I oat way. We have no way
of knowing whether he was in Rome to be crucied or not.
ere does seem to be a measure of testimony that would
intimate that possibly this is true, but when they tell us
that he was in Rome from 42 A. D. to 67 A. D., we have
positive evidence to the contrary, because those very years
are covered largely by the book of Acts.
We know that Peter was not in Rome in 50 A. D.,
because in that year the apostle Paul with Barnabas went
up to Jerusalem, and the council of Jerusalem decided that
the Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep the
law of Moses to be saved. Peter was there, and the apostle
Paul says that after discussing things it was decided at
that council that Peter should work among the Jews and
Paul among the Gentiles. Just imagine Peter, as bishop of
Rome, a great Gentile city, after it was denitely settled at
Jerusalem that his work was to be among the Jews.
Peter could not have been in Rome in 58 A. D., for
in that year Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans and
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102
sent greetings to a great many people, but there was not
a solitary reference to Peter’s presence in Rome. Neither
could he have founded the church there, because Paul was
to go there, and he stated himself that he did not build upon
another man’s foundation. e work there was commenced
without any apostle.
Peter was not in Rome in 61 A. D. to 63 A. D., for in
those years Paul was there in prison, and he wrote those
four wonderful prison letters, and there is not the slightest
recognition of Peter’s presence in any of them. Paul sent
greetings to other Christians, and you can imagine how
ready he would have been to say, “And Peter, the apostle of
our Lord Jesus Christ, sends greetings.” But Peter was not
there, so he could not send greetings. We have some letters
from Peter which were written between 60 A. D. and 67
A. D., and the second of these was written from Babylon,
where he was laboring among the dispersed of Israel. We
have not the slightest evidence that he was ever in Rome
unless he went there just before his death. He was never a
bishop of Rome. We can be very certain of this.
Did not our Lord give to Peter and also to the other
apostles special authority, such as only the priests of Rome
have today, when He said to them, as recorded in John 20,
“Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye
retain, they are retained” (John 20:22 and 23)? Did not
the Lord give unto His apostles as the rst bishops of the
Church special authority to forgive and to retain sins? e
best way to answer that question is to see whether we can
nd an explanation of remission of sins from somebody
who was there. When we turn to the tenth chapter of Acts,
we get just such a testimony. Peter, preaching in the home
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of Cornelius, said, “And we are witnesses of all things which
he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom
they slew and hanged on a tree; him God raised up the
third day, and showed him openly” (verses 39 and 40). And
now verse 43: “To him give all the prophets witness, that
through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission of sins.” How does Peter proclaim remission of
sins? rough faith in Christ. If Jesus had given to Peter
and to the rest of the apostles the authority to forgive sins,
when men came and made their confession, Peter would
have said to Cornelius, “To him give all the prophets
witness, that through. certain authorized ministers of his
you may receive remission of sins. If you will come and
make a good confession and do proper penance, your sins
will be forgiven.” But this was not the case; in the clearest
possible language he showed that all men who trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ have remission of sins. “To him give all
the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” So Peter
proclaimed remission of sins through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
I come to you as a genuine successor of Peter; I come
to you in the direct apostolic order. All down through the
ages saints of God have been following in the line of the
apostles; and as a Christian minister I say to you, by divine
authority, if you want remission of sins, come to Jesus, not
to a priest; acknowledge your guilt to Jesus; tell Film you
are the sinner for whom He died, and I dare declare to
you on the authority of the Son of God, when you do that,
you have remission of sins, for Jesus says, “Whose soever
sins ye remit, they are remitted.” If you refuse to come, if
you do not turn to Christ, your sins remain upon you for
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all eternity, for Jesus says, “Whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained.” If you are a weary, sin-sick soul, anxious
to enter into peace with God, come to Christ and nd
salvation in Him.
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9. Divine Healing - Is it in the
Atonement?
No instructed Christian can help acknowledging the
power of the Lord to heal the body as well as to save the
soul. He who credits the miracles of the New Testament,
as every sincere Christian must, necessarily recognizes
the healing power of God. It is not, therefore, my desire
to discuss the possibility of physical healing in answer to
prayer, nor the reality of many apparent miracles of healing
in our own day in connection with the ministry of certain
preachers, both male and female, who give a large place
to this particular phase of ministry in their public work:
God can heal. God has healed. God does heal. He heals in
answer to prayer. He heals where there is no prayer at all by
the recuperative power of nature. He heals, as in Hezekiah’s
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case, by the use of means. He has often healed in answer to
the prayer of the individual who was sick, or of others who
prayed for him. ere are too many reputable testimonies
at the present time to such healings to question them for a
moment, erefore, I do not intend to consider this phase
of the subject at all.
But there is another serious question for many tried and
distressed souls, namely, Is healing in the atonement and
therefore available for any Christian who claims it by faith
during the present dispensation of the grace of God?
ose who answer this question in the armative point
at once to what they consider to be an incontrovertible
proof text found in Matthew 8. ere we are told: “When
the even was come, they brought unto him many that were
possessed with devils; and he cast out the spirits with his
word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fullled
which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself
took our inrmities, and bare our sicknesses” (vs. 16, 17).
Now, I admit that a cursory examination of this passage
seems to prove conclusively that our Lord bore our
inrmities and sicknesses on the cross somewhat in the
same sense as He is said to have borne our sins in His own
body on the tree — that is, He suered instead of us. It
was impossible that our sins as such could ever have been
transferred from us to Him in such a sense as to make Him
actually the sinner. But He bore them in that He endured
the judgment which we had deserved because of those
very sins. So some believe that on the cross He suered
the pains and the anguish. and endured the symptoms of
all our diseases, thus becoming the substitute for sickness
as well as for sin. e horrible conclusion has been drawn
iron this theory that our Lord when on the cross became
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“a living, breathing mass of corruption.” I use the exact
language which I once heard used by a leading advocate
of divine healing. e speaker went on to say that every
disease to which humanity is subject had fastened itself
on the body of Christ when He hung upon the cross; that
He had endured all the ravages of these diseases in order
that He might bear them away from us. So that now in
resurrection, the new life of His gloried body is available
for us by faith to combat diseased pathological conditions
in our bodies. I may not have stated the doctrine in the
same way that all its advocates present it, but I am giving it
as nearly as I can recollect, in language which I heard used.
A more careful examination, however, of the verses
quoted from Matthew 8 will make evident at once the
striking fact that the inspired writer is not referring to the
atonement on the cross, but is explaining something that
happened during the earthly ministry of our Lord. As He
moved about among men He manifested His compassion
and power by delivering them from their diseases. He did
not do this without cost to Himself, In His deep, tender
sympathies, He entered into the sorrows and suerings of
those whom He healed. When the woman who touched
the hem of His garment was healed, He “perceived that
virtue had gone out of him.” ere was a response on His
part to her deep need. It cost Him something to heal. He
really bore the sorrows of others. He took their inrmities
and their diseases. He felt with them and for them. Any
true Christian minister who knows what it is to enter
into the distress and perplexities of those among whom
he moves, particularly if he labors among the poor, shares
in large measure our Lord’s exercises as recorded here.
Paul lled up on his part the suerings of Christ for his
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body’s sake, which is the Church, as he bore on his heart
the great burden of the people of God. is was to him
more than all his other suerings; for after enumerating
the trials he endured, he adds, “and besides all this that
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”
During the three and a half years of our Lord’s ministry
on earth, He never saw suering that He did not alleviate
it, unless, indeed, His grace was resisted. And it was this
intense compassion for mankind and sympathy for the
distressed, not merely the persecutions He endured, that
made Him the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.
e more we drink in His spirit, the more we shall know
the meaning of the poet’s words:
“Saddened, ah, yes, saddened
By earth’s deep sin and woe;
How could I pass unheeding
What grieved my Saviour so?”
To refer the bearing of sicknesses to the Cross instead
of linking it with the life and ministry of our Lord on His
way to the Cross is to misunderstand grossly His entire
mission. If He has made atonement for sicknesses, then
it is unthinkable that any believer could ever endure pain
or illness. Because He has made atonement for sins, no
believer shall ever come into judgment. e penalty is
forever removed. In the same way, if He had stood in the
place of the sick as He stood in the place of the sinner, our
sicknesses would be as far removed from us as our sins.
A well authenticated fact is worth, any amount of
unproved theories. If we can nd recorded in Scripture
any instance whatever where Christians were allowed to
be sick, and were not miraculously healed, then the whole
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theory falls to the ground. To four outstanding instances I
would direct attention.
First, there is that of the apostle Paul himself. He
had been caught up to the third heaven. Upon his return
to earth there was sent to him as thorn in the esh, “a
messenger of Satan to buet him” lest he should be exalted
above measure. ere was no danger for a saint in the
third heaven. ere was danger when he came back to
earth lest he should be lifted up in spiritual pride by the
abundance of the revelation given unto him. To preserve
Paul from this, God took disciplinary measures. It is not
necessary to attempt to dene the exact nature of the
thorn, but it is important to observe that it was in the
esh. It was something physical. It was something that
cost Him intense humiliation. It was something that cost
Him severe suering. It is termed an aiction. It in some
way weakened him. for he puts it in contrast with strength.
He besought the Lord that it should be taken from him.
He prayed earnestly that he might be healed. Instead of
answering his prayer in that particular way; the Lord, as it
were, said to him, “Paul, I will not remove the thorn. I will
not deliver you from the inrmity, but I will do something
better for you. I will enable you to triumph over it. My
grace is sucient for thee, and my strength is made perfect
in weakness.” Immediately the apostle ceased to pray for
deliverance and fell in with the will of God, exclaiming,
“Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my inrmity that the
power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Our second witness is Epaphroditus. of whom we read
in Philippians 2, verses 25 to 30. ere we learn that he
was a devoted servant of Christ, one worthy to be esteemed
by Paul as a brother and companion in labor and a fellow
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soldier. He was unselsh, faithful, and conscientious. But
he was sick; he was very sick. As the days and weeks wore
on, his sickness increased until he was nigh unto death. He
was sick for so long a time that word of his illness went
clear back from Rome to Philippi, and the saints there were
greatly disturbed concerning him. Paul prayed for him; so,
doubtless, did many others. Yet no miracle was wrought in
his case. No healer appeared to lay his hands upon him and
raise him up. Neither was he rebuked for his lack of faith.
His illness was permitted to run its course, and at last God
had mercy on him and he recovered. In this last expression
we may learn the truth as to physical healing during the
present dispensation. It is mercy. It is not something that
is ours by right. It is not something to be demanded. It is
not something that we can claim on the ground that. it was
bought and paid for on Calvary. It is simply divine mercy
meeting our deep need according to the will of God.
e third case in point is that of Timothy. No young
preacher was ever more highly esteemed than Timothy
was esteemed by Paul. He was a true pastor and one whose
tender heart was ever exercised by the state of the Lord’s
people. If anyone ever needed a robust constitution in
order to continue without let or hindrance in the work of
the Lord, Timothy did, so far as human judgment goes.
But Timothy was a dyspeptic. Like many other itinerant,
he probably suered from the ever-kindness of some good
Marthas and the penuriousness of others. Varying climates
and polluted water had grievously aected his health. What
a mercy if he could have attended a healing meeting and
gone down to the front to be prayed for! But neither Paul
nor Timothy had ever heard of a healing meeting in all of
their lives. Such gatherings had not yet come into existence.
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Instead of recommending anything of the kind, Paul gave
a common-sense prescription. He wrote, “Drink no longer
water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and for
thine often inrmity” (1Tim. 5:23). is is as truly inspired
Scripture as John 3:16, and the Holy Ghost has recorded it
for our learning. Paul, who had healed many by the laying
on of hands as a testimony to the supernatural character
of his ministry, instructed Timothy to use precautionary
measures to keep from breaking down his constitution and
to recover from the eects of previous conditions.
Our last instance is that of Trophimus. We read of him
in 2Timothy 4:20: “Trophimus have I left at Miletum
sick.” Of this man we know little, except that in Acts 20 we
learn that he was in Paul’s company when he went down
to Troas on his second missionary journey. As 2Timothy
was written many years afterwards, during the apostle’s
last imprisonment, it is quite likely that Trophimus had
been an intimate companion throughout the years. But he
was sick. He was so sick that he had to remain quietly at
Miletum and could not accompany Paul to Rome. ere
is no intimation that his sickness was a judgment upon
him. Neither is there any intimation that he was to blame
for remaining sick. We are not told that he might have
been well it only he had appropriated the resurrection
life of Christ by faith! What we do know is that he was a
Christian and a servant of the Lord. But he was sick. Tens
of thousands have been in the same circumstances since, in
spite of the fact that Christ died on the Cross.
It is very evident that neither Paul nor Epaphroditus
nor Timothy nor Trophimus knew anything of the
modern doctrine that Christ bore our sicknesses on the
Cross and therefore believers should never be sick. To be
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in the company of these men is to be in good company. If,
in the wisdom of God, a thorn in the esh is sent to us;
if, in the work of the Lord, we are permitted to be “sick
nigh unto death”; if the earnest missionary and faithful
shepherd of souls nds the need of care in regard to eating
and drinking that he may be at his best for God; if we nd
ourselves left at some Miletum sick, while others go on
with the work, or go out to prison and death for Christ’s
sake, the subject believer will simply say, “It is the Lord,
let Him do what seemeth to Him good.” ere will be no
complaining, nor will there be doubt and darkness because
an unscriptural doctrine is impossible of realization, in
practical experience. But we shall say with our brother
Paul, “Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my inrmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
On the other hand, we know that eventually as a result
of the work of the Cross, all believers will be fully delivered
from every physical result of sin. But this will be at the
coming of the Lord Jesus, when “he shall transform the
body of our humiliation, that it may be made like unto the
body of his glory.” is was what Paul looked forward to,
and has been the goal of saints all through the dispensation,
namely, the redemption of the body. It is our hope. But
until its realization “we groan being burdened,” but we
are enabled to triumph by faith in spite of sickness and
suering, knowing that all will be over when our Saviour
returns.
