Great things of the Bible : Sunday morning messages

Front matter

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Contents

I GREAT THINGS OF THE BIBLE

II THE GOSPEL .OF CHRIST -

III THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL

II

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." — Eomans 1: 16.

On the left bank of the Tiber, fifteen miles from where that river flows into the sea, looking down from her seven hills, stood the ancient city of Rome, with a population of one million two hundred thousand souls. Among these were a few Christians to whom Paul addressed his Roman letter, the only one of his epistles, with the possible exception of the Colossian letter, written to a people with whom he had not previously labored, but unto whom he purposed soon to come. In the words of the text he sounds forth with no uncertain tone his faith in the Gospel of Christ which is to be his message when he reaches Rome. Why should he be ashamed of the Bible ? It has God for its Author, humanity for its audience, redemption for its theme, and truth for its contents. It is the oldest, truest, most transforming, and only infallible document in the world. More authentic history, sublimer truths, purer ethics, richer poetry, and sweeter strains of eloquence cannot elsewhere be found. For two thousand years man has been a student of the inspired Word, but some of its richest and sweetest truths he has yet to learn. Who would be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ?

I. Who?

What man is this who was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ? It was Paul, the scholar, the learned student of Gamaliel. There never was a time when scholarship had less occasion to blush for believing the Bible than today. The promise of Isaiah to the Church is constantly being fulfilled: "No weapon formed against thee shall prosper." The house in which Voltaire once lived in Geneva is now used as a depot for Bibles. On the spot, in Peoria, Illinois, where Ingersoll prepared some of his cutting witticisms against the church and Scriptures, now stands the Young Men's Christian Association building. So the Word of God goes triumphing over its foes. In a ministerial meeting one day, the subject of higher criticism came up, a minister having just read a paper on ' ' How We Should Defend the Bible. ' ' One brother arose and said: "Brethren, that old Book doesn't need defending; what it needs is preaching. These fellows who are running around trying to defend the Bible remind me of a pug dog trying to defend a lion in a cage. That lion doesn't need defense; just turn him loose and he will look after his own defense. What the Bible needs is proclamation, not defense. No man has ever been commissioned to defend the Bible, but thousands are commissioned to preach the Bible."

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Paul's declaration was to the effect that a scholar need not apologize for believing the Bible as if there were something in it that could not bear the closest scrutiny from every point of View, either in respect to its historical basis of fact, its divine rationality, its doctrinal system, or its power to give salvation to man. The more light thrown upon the Gospel, the less occasion the believer has for shame. Every tablet overturned by the pick of the archaeologists, and they are at it all the while, confirms the authenticity of the Bible. Why should scholarship have shame when every test to which the Bible has been subjected only substantiates its message? The Bible is as reliable as the sun; our interpretation of it as variable as a clock. We may adjust our clocks and turn them forward an hour or move them back at will, but the sun moves on without variableness. It would not be more foolish to attempt adjusting the sun to agree with the clock than it is foolish to alter the Bible to agree with one's preconceived ideas. Scholarship need never stagger at the Word of God.

Paul was not only a scholar but he was a chosen messenger of God. Of all men who should not be ashamed of the Gospel, surely the minister stands first. Paul had just said, "As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also." No man is ready to preach, nor should he receive ordination at the hands of his fellowmen to stand in this holy office, until he can say with Paul, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." The first qualification of the minister of the Gospel is not that he be learned or eloquent, but that he believe. Whatever may be the position of other men, he must accept the Bible as the Word of God. If this be impossible, then let him choose any other honorable profession but certainly not the ministry. Doubts may settle about the Gospel herald but he must face and master them in secret and come before his audience with an unclouded mind and a positive message. The pulpit must be a fountain of faith and never should the blush of shame hang over it to dim its holy light.

The war against this old Book is most aggressively waged in institutions of learning, some of them operating under a Christian name and supported by Christian money. Institutions, if you please, where young men are being trained for the high office of the Gospel ministry. From these hot beds of doubt and liberal thinking have come not a few men who are today posing as ambassadors of God who cannot say with Paul, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." One of these modern liberalists stated frankly when being examined for the ministry, that he did not believe in the inspiration of the Bible as a whole. Is it any marvel that his ministry has been a failure ? Read the biographies of the great spiritual men who have moved the world Godward and you will find they held fast to the old Book, believed it, preached it, and lived up to its standard.

"What am I to do?" asks the doubting messenger, "I cannot believe the Bible as our fathers did." I will tell you in three words what to do. Quit the pulpit. You are an unhappy man if you deliver an uncertain message. God has withdrawn His approval and you can be little more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. One of these theological doubt dispensers preached in a country church and at the close of the sermon an old man said to him, "Young man, you dug up more snakes than you killed." It is high treason to God for one of His ambassadors to neglect the great themes of ruin and redemption, moral accountability and coming judgment, for science, philosophy, book reviews, political economy or the glories of our splendid materialistic civiliation. A minister recently preached on "The Psychology of the Solar Plexus. " Such flummery makes one feel as if that minister needs to be handed one in his solar plexus.

Jesus never wavered concerning the Scriptures. Every mooted passage of the Old Testament He quoted or in some way used in His short ministry. He never entertained a doubt as to the authenticity of any part of it. He quoted from the story of Jonah. Surely where He went we should unhesitatingly follow. Some of these doubters ask, "Do you believe the Israelites were saved by looking at a brass serpent !" Jesus believed it. Why should not I ? He said, ' ' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. " The church or preacher that does not accept the Bible as a whole might as well exchange it for any work of philosophy or a patent medicine almanac as far as the salvation, of the world is concerned. If you are ashamed of the Bible get out of the pulpit.

II. Where!

Paul was facing the Greek and Roman classical world not only to preach the Gospel of Christ, but also to challenge the claims of any and all religions with which the Gospel came in conflict. Not ashamed of the Gospel in Rome, the center of the world's political power, the seat of religion and learning? Here were the famous schools of philosophy. Here was the Pantheon with its many gods. Here was the throne of the Caesars terrorizing the world and exulting over the death of Jesus. These things Paul knew and they gave color to his ringing declaration, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." The expression of his belief in the Gospel robbed him of his liberty in Rome as he was quite certain it would, but in spite of this knowledge, his declaration was none the less fearless. When Paul wrote these words, Rome was the metropolis of the world, the seat of universal empire. In imperial splendor she sat upon her seven hills and all nations of the earth bowed at her feet. She had been enriched by the spoils of war and tributes of oriental monarchies, but greater riches she was to receive when Paul came with the Gospel of Christ.

The world needs the same old Gospel today. I can bring you nothing better than the unadulterated truth of God.. I am not ashamed of the Gospel for what it has done for me, for what it has done for the world and for what it will do for your city. Why do we not have the Bible read in our public schools? Are we ashamed of the Book? When I hear some men try to account for the fact that the Bible is not read in the schools it reminds me of what took place in the sharp rivalry between the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The question came up in Minneapolis as to whether or not the Bible should be read in the schools. This was left to a committee of three men. One member of the committee, a Christian, favored having it read. A second member was a Catholic and opposed having it read. The third man was neutral and realized that his vote would determine the whole matter. He said he had never read the Bible and could not intelligently vote until he had read it. They adjourned, giving him two weeks to read the Book. When they met again he was still undecided and two weeks more were given him to read. In casting his vote he said, ' ' This is undoubtedly a very great book, a wonderfully good book. I think as a rule it should be read in the schools, but I vote against having it read in the schools of Minneapolis ; for by careful reading, I find that it mentions most favorably St. Paul many times, and I don 't find Minneapolis mentioned once. ' ' There are men who for like foolish reasons turn this old Book down. You cannot afford to be ashamed of it at any time or place.

The Bible, like many of our mothers, is a little old-fashioned and decidedly plain; but who would be ashamed of either of them anywhere ? One of the most pathetic things I ever saw was the picture of a poor, over-worked widow sitting at the kitchen table weeping over a letter received from her son in college. She had looked forward to the day when she might go to the college town and hear him deliver his graduating oration. It was this anticipated joy that enabled her to do from four to six washings a week to support herself and keep him in school. Now he writes, "Mother, don't come to see me graduate. Your clothes are not good enough. You would feel bad and I would be embarrassed. ' ' Poor, heart-broken mother ! Young man, never be ashamed of the mother who gave you birth and manicured her fingers over the washtub to give you an education.

How different the story of the son of a southern widow whose excellent work made him the valedictorian of his college class. He was also to participate in an oratorical contest and insisted upon his mother's presence to hear his oration and class address. With no little hesitation she came, clad in her plain dress and sunbonnet. Her presence gave him an inspiration which made his delivery masterful, and when the moment came for the awarding of the medal the great audience was breathless with interest. A gentleman stepped to the platform with the beautiful gold medal dangling from a ribbon which hung on his forefinger. After a few appropriate words he called the son of this widow to his side and announced that he was the winner of the prize. Instead of pinning the medal on his coat lapel, the honored youth, to the surprise of all, stepped down to the plain little woman and said, "Mother, you wear this. You are worthy of it, for without you I never could have won it. ' ' The applause soon ceased and the audience wept in honor of an act so brave, so noble and so appropriate. There is little hope for a boy who is ashamed of his mother and his mother's Bible.

III. What?

What is this of which Paul was not ashamed when he set his face toward Rome 1 ' ' The Gospel of Christ. ' ' There are five things about this Gospel which must have prompted his courageous declaration. He was not ashamed of the antiquity of the Gospel of Christ. Some of the religions of the Roman Empire were based on myths whose fancied existence antedated history. To them Christianity was but the ' ' Infant of days. ' ' The Brahmin will tell us that for three thousand years his ancestors have worshipped the Indian Triad on the banks of the Ganges. The Hindu claims his faith was hoary with age when Christianity had its birth. Paul saw the mistake of dating the Christian religion from the birth of Jesus. Christ incarnate, crucified and risen from the dead was only the culmination of a revelation already ages old. Abraham believed in Christ and rejoiced to see His day approaching. Christianity is supported beyond challenge by historic environment. The first simple records of our faith, as soon as man sinned and fell from communion with God, record the promise of salvation through Christ. Who wants a religion which antedates man and sin? When Paul marched forth the champion of the Christian religion, he had espoused no new faith, but one as old as man himself. He was not ashamed of the prophetic character of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus came in fulfillment of a hundred predictions uttered by prophets of many ages. His coming was set in symbol and sacrifice, in type and ceremony. Every detail of His advent was so buttressed by prophecy that Paul stood uncompromisingly for the Deity of Christ. Mysteries may surround the Incarnation but of the glorious fact he was not ashamed. Every circumstance and characteristic of Christ's ministry, the manner and details of His death and resurrection, and the spread of His Gospel to all nations, were clearly set forth in prophecy centuries before He came. In this respect the Gospel of Christ stands without a rival among the faiths of the world. The heroes of all false religions have been either myths or self appointed men for whom their disciples neither looked nor were prepared. Who prophecied the coming of Confucius or Mohammed? The heroes of all false religions were at best but teachers. Jesus stands on an entirely different platform. He is not only a teacher, but a Savior as well. He alone can say, ' ' I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" and prove His assertion by the power of God. Surely there is nothing in the life of Jesus of which we need be ashamed. He was a friend of publicans and sinners; tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin. His enemies were among the first to lay at His feet a tribute to His goodness and glory. Nineteen centuries have passed since He walked among men and He is still the peerless Man, "The chief among ten thousand, the one altogether lovely. ' ' Who would be ashamed of this Divine One?

Paul was not ashamed of the doctrine of the New Birth. The Gospel of Christ shows us not only righteousness for us, but righteousness in us by regeneration, so that every saved man becomes a new creature in Christ. The one indispensable plank in any religious platform is the Cross of Jesus Christ. Two methods of salvation have been repeatedly offered to the world. The one is merely ethical; the other, by the way of the blood-stained Cross. There can be no fellowship between the two. The first may be popular but no man was ever saved by any sort of ethical process. It is emphatically stated, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified." The New Birth through the blood of Christ is no aristocratic privilege reserved for the favored few. It graciously makes provision for these, for all men are sinners, but it extends its unspeakable pivilege to the outcast and most degraded. The royal invitation is, "Whosoever will, let him come. ' ' Paul was not the minister to direct men to heaven by sending them over the ethical drawbridge which ever stands open, making passage to the Celestial City impossible. ' ' Ye must be born again, ' ' is the trumpet call of the Gospel and of this he was not ashamed.

He was not ashamed of the faculty or organ by which salvation is apprehended. It is not the faculty of reason, as many think. Reason is not large enough to be the organ of Christianity. To make it so would destroy the universality of the Christian religion. All men cannot reason but all men can see, therefore imagination or the faith faculty is the organ of Christianity. Of this fact Paul was not ashamed nor need we be. The child and the untutored are not noted for their reasoning, but they possess an inherent imagination. Reason has its place in Christianity; it is to Christianity what the rudder is to a ship. The rudder directs the ship, but it cannot carry the cargo ; faith is the ship itself. The intellect may pare away the husk from soul food but faith alone can feed upon the delicious "Bread from Heaven." A window is a good thing in a house but you do not enter your house by the way of the window, you have a door for that purpose. Reason is an important factor in Christianity but the way to enter the holy temple of righteousness is by the door of faith. An adventurer may as well set out to explore the Mammoth Cave and expect to map it correctly with only the light of a glowworm, as for one to endeavor grasping the whole of Christianity with the feeble light of man's reason. You might as well attempt to pull a box car through the barrel of a shot gun as to expect your reason to admit the whole of Christianity.

Paul was not ashamed of the Bible doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The resurrection of Jesus proves the promise of immortality, not by argument but by demonstration, and gives us the guarantee of a like resurrection. Did He not say, "Because I live, ye shall live also. I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live." We are taught in this Gospel that these bodies of ours, mortal though they be, shall be fashioned anew like unto His glorious body. The fact that Paul was not ashamed of the doctrine of immortality is clearly seen in that it was frequently the theme of his message to the Church. A memorable incidence of this is seen in the fifteenth chapter of 1. Corinthians. May God help us not to be ashamed of this transforming, soul saving, sin defeating Gospel

of Christ.

IV. Why?

Briefly notice why Paul was not ashamed of this Gospel. We have his reason in these words, ' ' For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Power was the pride and boast of Rome. She was proud of her imperial authority, proud of her victorious legions, proud of her world-wide domain, and proud of her wealth and learning. Power, not virtue, was the goal of her ambition. Her whole history culminated in an apotheosis of power, personified in the Caesars. Paul does not say, "The Gospel of Christ is the wisdom of God," nor "the love of God," but "the power of God." That is the word to use to catch the ear of Rome. When he mentions power, Rome responds just as the subscriber on a party line telephone recognizes his ring and seems not to hear

^he many others. Rome listened as if to ask, "What have you to tell us of power, Paul ? Wherein does this new power of which you speak differ from Caesar power?'' He replies, "Caesar power is a destroying power; the power of God is a regenerating power, a divine power, a power which brings the dead to life, a power unto salvation, not limited to the favored few but offered to every one that believeth."

Paul would introduce this new power into Rome ; he would set over against Roman militarism, and the brute force of Caesardom, the power of the Gospel, with full confidence as to the result. This domineering subtlety which he faced was the infant reptile of which the poisonous brutality of modern Prussianism is the full-grown venemous adder. As Paul zealously offered Rome the regenerating, transforming Gospel as a gracious and everlasting substitute for the insidious serpent of despotism, the United States and her Allies with no less zeal have resolved in defense of their honor and their lives to exterminate from the earth the atrocious monster of Hohenzollern intrigue. Their death dealing blow at this malignant viper is being so effectively delivered that the whole of Kaiserdom has drawn its last natural breath, and the glad day with all certainty will dawn when liberty giving democracy shall triumph forever over brutal, barbaric autocracy, for we will keep everlastingly at it until this despicable creature ceases to wiggle. Mark you, Paul relied implicitly upon the power of the Gospel and with all of our unprecedented splendid war equipment we must not for one moment in this gigantic struggle divorce ourselves from the invincible power of the Gospel.

God says, "My Word," . not Shakespeare's nor Emerson's, nor Browning's, nor Carlisle's; not some man's opinion about that Word, but "My Word," saith the Lord, ' ' shall not return unto Me void. ' ' You try reading Bacon, or Spencer, or Shakespeare to a poor, lost soul in sin; try to win back a wayward boy or restore a fallen girl with anything else than the Word of God and you will certainly fail ; but go into the redlight district or the rescue mission with the Word of God and read to your hearer, the repentance Psalm, the fifty-first, and you need not be surprised to see tears on the cheeks of the listener; then read the three-fold . parable in Luke fifteen, of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the wandering son, and you need not keep that up long to find that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.

Paul uttered these words nineteen hundred years ago, but the Gospel has the same power today that it had then. It is still making drunkards sober and libertines pure; it is still bringing infidels to their knees and changing men from trickery and intrigue to accept the precepts of Jesus and practice the Golden Eule. You can preach Buddhism without Buddha, or Mohammedanism without Mohammed, but you cannot preach Christianity without Jesus Christ. When you preach Christ, you present a Gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. ' ' The simple condition upon which the power of the Gospel will save is, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." "He that believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Faith accepts Christ; unbelief rejects Him. The believer has all things ; the unbeliever has nothing. Faith is the conducting medium through which the power of God flashes like an electric shock from God into the soul. May the Lord help every unsaved person in this audience to open the heart in belief to Christ and be eternally saved.

Ill

' l A river went out of Eden, to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." Gen. 2: 10.

If , as one has said, ' ' The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, ' ' then this river of four heads might be a type of the four G-ospels. The Bible stands among other books just as Jesus stands among other men. As He was both human and Divine even so the Bible is both inspired and natural. I most heartily believe in the inspiration of the Bible but we do well to know it is an inspired message rather than an inspired manuscript. The message is unquestionably Divine but the manuscript breathes much of the human. Even the scholar, Paul, became so wonderfully interested in his message that he sometimes forgot his grammar. That is much better than for one to be so interested in his grammar that he forgets his message. It need not be thought strange that Matthew, who wrote to the Jews, heard Jesus say : ' ' Take no money in your girdle, ' ' for the Jews carried money in their girdles ; while Luke heard Him say, ' ' Take no money in your purses,'' for he wrote to the Greeks, who carried money in their purses. Their manuscripts differ but the message is the same. What they both say is, ' ' Take no money in the thing wherein ye carry money." Some imagine they see discrepancies if not contradictions in the Gospels and ask why some one writer, instead of four, did not give us the complete account of the person and work of Jesus. It is hoped in this message to see the wisdom of God in giving us the four-fold account of the world's Savior, and that as we hear the four Evangelists speak we may appreciate more fully the common voice of their testimony and get a new vision of our Risen Lord.

I. Matthew's Message.

Had Matthew wanted a text for his Gospel he could have chosen Zech. 9:9. "Behold thy King," for his theme is, Christ the King, the Son of David. He was a Jew and an official of the Roman empire. Jesus called him from collecting taxes to be one of His disciples. He soon made a feast for his new Master and saw in Him the fulfillment of prophetic promises of a coming Messiah who was to become the King of the chosen people of God. His Gospel is God's last message to the Jews. He quotes one hundred Old Testament prophecies to show them that Jesus is their King. It is in this Gospel alone that we read, "And thou Bethlehem * * * out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel. ' ' He traces the descent of Jesus from Abraham the father of their nation, through David, for the triple purpose of proving that He belonged to the royal line, was heir to the throne and the Promised King of the Jews. He rests the logic of his message upon Old Testament revelation, that the Jews might see the exact correspondence of Jesus in the promised Messiah. He draws two hundred and fifty comparisons of the great Teacher and the promised King. The historical character of the one is placed side by side with the prophetic character of the other. He continually points to the Old Testament for proof that could not fail to have great convincing power to the candid Jew.

It is in this Gospel that John the Baptist comes preaching "the kingdom," saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." In Mark and Luke he preaches "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. ' ' Matthew uses the term ' ' kingdom of Heaven" about thirty times. He records fourteen of our Lord's parables and eleven of them open with words like these, "The kingdom of Heaven is like a net," or "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven." In this Gospel we read, "The kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King, which made a marriage for His son, and sent out His servants to call them that were bidden, but they would not come." In Luke's Gospel it reads, "A certain Man made a great supper, and bade many; but they would not come." The King and the servants do not appeal to Luke, it is the Man he sees. With him, in the twenty parables he records, it is always "A certain Man." "A certain Man planted a vineyard. ' ' In Mark also, the title of honor is dropped; it is always "A certain Man." In Matthew alone do we find such words of authority as "Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. * * * Then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, Ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. ' ' It is Matthew who hears John the Baptist say of Jesus, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner ; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," — language perfectly suited to the Lord of the Kingdom, but for this very reason unnoted by Mark who sees in Jesus the Divine Servant. When Jesus and His disciples, passing through the corn fields on the Sabbath, plucked the grain, "The Pharisees said, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But He said unto them, Have ye never read what David did V 7 If they accept acts of King David can they not accept like acts of their Divine King ? In John 's Gospel, under a similar charge, His reply is not "what David did," but as the Son of God He answers, ' ' My Father worketh hitherto and I work." Mark and Luke follow Matthew's account until Matthew heard Jesus declare, "But I say unto you that in this place is One greater than the temple, ' ' and " If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would have not condemned the guiltless." Words found in no other Gospel, but quite fitting here as coming from their King.