BY THE REV. MURDO MORRISON, LOCHINVER,
Retiring Moderator of Synod.
Preached at Opening of Free Presbyterian Synod at St. Jude’s Hall,
Glasgow, on 20th May, 1919.
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,” etc.—I COR. iii. 11-12.
BEFORE we begin to speak directly to the words which are contained in the text, we should like to refer to two outstanding events which have taken place since we last met as a Synod. One of these was fraught with far-reaching consequences and joyful interest to the whole world, that is, the ending of the War. As the awful war of four years and a-half, embracing the whole might and resources of all the civilised nations of the earth, developed into its last stages, it was becoming increasingly evident that victory was veering round with increasing volume to the side of the Allies, and the final sigh of relief from the strain and tension of these years came to the minds of all on the Germans’ request for an armistice. The hearts of God’s people rose in gratitude to him for such an end to the appalling conflict, but what now gives grief and sorrow to their hearts is to see the abounding impenitence, the ever-increasing unbelief and the indifference to the truths, claims, and judgments of God on the part of the people as a whole, as well as on that of the nation in its corporate capacity. On this account, we fear we may look for further judgments on the land, judgments which may take diverse and more overwhelming forms. We, however, pray and hope that the Lord may, in His infinite mercy, prevent resumption of hostilities, because the International horizon is still overcast with threatening clouds. May the Peace Treaty which has been drawn up result to all future time in the promotion of peace and goodwill between all nations, until in the Lord’s own time it comes to pass that all the mighty kings on earth shall fall down before Him, and all the nations of the earth shall do Him service.
The second event is one which was fraught with a more immediate and direct interest to ourselves as a Church—that is, the separation of three brethren from us, to whom we were deeply attached, and whom we were accustomed to respect. The haste and precipitancy with which the preliminaries were carried
through in regard to so weighty and delicate a matter as Union between two bodies, the relations of which had formerly been so acute on account of outstanding differences, were in themselves calculated to defeat the end so strenuously advocated by these brethren. It gave much grief to all truly concerned about the cause of Christ in Scotland—not only in our own Church, but, we venture also to say, in the Free Church. We do not deny but they may have had mingled feelings themselves in doing what they did. Two of those who left had championed, and unsparingly laboured in, the cause of Christ as represented by the Free Presbyterian Church from the very beginning of the movement, and at this time of day exchanged this cause, which, at any rate, all Christian friends, within and without, will admit, and enemies cannot deny, was noble, truthful, faithful and self-denying in its origin and history up till now—exchanged it for one of which those qualities could not be predicated to anything like the same extent. In advocating for Union, which is, on strictly Scriptural, Confessional, and practical grounds quite right, but which strict grounds, we are sorry to say, were wanting in this advocacy, our erstwhile brethren went the length, by the step they took, of breaking a unity of a more reliable nature than the one which they took such a leap to find. In so serious a matter one should be fully persuaded in his own mind, and should not unduly influence others; and people, adhering to a cause which, at whatever cost, they would have faithfully approximating as nearly as possible to the standard of the whole counsel of God, should in no wise be influenced to divert from it; rather should it be that those who are at a further remove from this standard should be influenced and directed to get as near to it as they possibly can, in dependence on the Spirit and Grace of Christ. We are convinced more and more in the light of present-day religious tendencies, which are so derogating to the honour and glory of the Lord and of His Christ, as well as ruinous to the eternal interests of the souls of men that a united front within the Free Presbyterian pale should have been maintained, and from its standard unfurled, the cry should go forth unceasingly, “Rally round the flag of the old evangel, and true reformation principles, as embedded in God’s Word, and so maintain a united and stronger front against the floods of the enemy.”
Let us now, in dependence on the Spirit of God, endeavour to say a few things from the words of our text.
I.—The laying of this foundation, which is “Jesus Christ.”
II.—The building which is reared upon this foundation.
I.—We may, and ought to, consider the laying of this foundation under at least two aspects. The first is that which relates to God’s direct hand and work; the second respects the apostle’s labour.
First, Jesus Christ, according to the apostle, and according to the uniform testimony of God’s Word and the experience of the
saints of God, is the only foundation of the whole of true religion as well as of the salvation of lost sinners. As a foundation laid for the above-mentioned purposes, its exclusiveness is emphasized by the negative form in which the apostle states this very truth, inasmuch as he says: “For other foundation can no man lay,” etc. The laying of any other and of all other foundations, on the part of any man, is absolutely excluded by the fact of this foundation being already a laid foundation.
- The laying of Jesus Christ as a foundation for His own Church in the world was the work of God Himself in the first instance. There is no foundation laid, and consequently no house built, without some man being engaged upon the work. When one—to use a figure—is to build a house, his first thought is about selecting a place, and then marking it out and setting it apart, after which he digs deep and prepares for laying the foundation, so that it might be made firm and secure. Christ was elected and set apart in the eternal councils of peace. And who did this? It was God the Father.
(1) God the Father laid this foundation in a past eternity, and this was no less than His beloved Son, who ever dwelt in His bosom, who was always His delight, and who was an all-sufficing object of His love from everlasting. God’s love to poor sinners required the giving up and the setting apart of His own Son—this all-sufficing object of His love. None among created beings could be found sufficient to undertake this work, or to become this foundation. The persons in the adorable Trinity entered into a mutual arrangement before the foundations of the world, that sinners who were the objects of their love should be infallibly saved and brought to the enjoyment of the inconceivable glories of heaven. All the conditions which were proposed between the persons in the Trinity were voluntarily accepted by the Son. He gladly undertook to fulfil perfectly all these conditions—the assumption of our nature, the taking unto Himself all our legal relations and responsibilities which we sustained to God’s holy law, the enduring of the awful penalty which man’s guilt incurred at the hands of an infinitely holy and righteous God. Man’s sinful and miserable state, into which he came as the necessary consequence of his own doing in the exercise of his own free will, under Satanic temptation, was divinely foreseen and divinely anticipated, and hence divinely provided for. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, was seen by John, in the revelation given to him, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Though He was not actually slain before the world was—a thing which could not be until He had actually appeared in the flesh, in our nature, in which alone it could be possible for Him to die—yet He was, in virtue of His covenant engagements and in the mind and intention of God, a Lamb slain before the world was at all. Thus, Jesus Christ was the foundation laid by the Father before the world was.
(2) This foundation, being elected and laid in the councils of salvation, is marked out and held before the view of sinners in time. It is pointed out in the first promise after man fell: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Promises concerning Him, as the Saviour and Deliverer from sin, were further amplified and multiplied in the course of time. All the shedding of blood, the sacrifices of animals, and the different kinds of beasts slain for sacrificial purposes, which were appointed of God under the Old Testament dispensation, were typifying and foreshadowing the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The whole of the ceremonial ritual under the law of Moses was but pointing men to the coming Saviour who was to offer Himself through the Eternal Spirit without spot to God, and who, by the one sacrifice of Himself, hath perfected for ever them who are sanctified. Further, we have many clear predictions and prophecies of the Messiah, the Lord’s anointed, which speaks of Him as if He had already come, as if His work were already finished, as if the glory which should follow were already His. This, we might look upon, as a preparing for the laying of the foundation. How clear was the Prophet Isaiah, the human vehicle through whom the Holy Spirit announced many hundreds of years beforehand the laying of their foundation. “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Is. xxviii. 16). To Him says Peter all the Prophets bear witness, and so did the Patriarchs, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so did certain of the Judges and so did the Psalmist. After He had risen from the dead, and had on one occasion joined Himself to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, He, rebuking their unbelief, said:—”O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke xxiv. 25-27).
(3) He is actually laid, that is, Jesus Christ is actually laid as God’s foundation in Zion in the fulness of time. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. iv. 4-5). In order to the laying of this foundation, God the Son must come down from heaven, and speaking with all reverence, dig deep to lay firmly the foundation of the house. Consider, then, for a few minutes how deep this foundation is laid. The Son, of the same essence with the Father, having power, glory and honour equal to the Father, possessing the ineffable perfections and attributes of the divine nature, just as His Eternal Father does, condescended to draw over all this essential and unspeakable glory
the veil of humanity;—all this wonderful glory was, for the time of His birth, life, humiliation, obedience, death, and the time He remained under the power of death, concealed and obscured from the view of the wicked world, except that, at intervals in His wonderful life, rays of His glory penetrated through with ineffable lustre, as, for example, in His miracles, His heavenly speeches and conduct, and in His transfiguration on the mount. To His people it was given to see somewhat of this glory while He was on earth; for John says:—”The Word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Thus, He came from the Father’s bosom to be born in a stable and laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, for there was no place for the Lord of life and glory, who made the heavens and the earth, and who claimed a right to all their belongings in which to appear and be born—no place higher than the stable of an inn. O the marvellous condescension exhibited in this act! O the infinite depths of meanness, humility, and lowliness into which He voluntarily descended! He who was rich became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be rich. As soon as He is thus born the life of the holy child Jesus is sought. The jealousy of the great ones of the earth is excited, and the infant of days should be put to the sword. Divine providence must come to the rescue. During His whole life He was subject to all the reproaches, dishonour, enmity, wrath, malice, and false accusations which the minds of wicked men and the councils of hell could devise and cast upon Him. He was thus a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There was no distinct place of residence for Him who was the Creator of all, but was one who had nowhere to lay His head: “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” Hungry, thirsty, and weary was He, as He went from place to place, healing the sick and all manner of diseases among the people, showing mercy to the miserable, and proclaiming pardon to the guilty, and cheering with the comforts of His grace and salvation the poor and the needy. Yea, words will fail to recount the gracious, merciful acts, and personal dealings of His life.
This same Lord of life and glory receives the cup of wrath into His hand in the garden of Gethsamane, and as He beheld it and what He had to drink until not a drop was left without His tasting of it, in His blessed soul and body, He cried—”Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me; but not my will but thine be done.” “My meat and drink is to do the will of him that sent me.” He fell three times forward on His face, crying and repeating the same words, while His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, and while He sweated great drops of blood which fell to the ground. Surely He was one who had His vesture dipped in blood, indicating the awful agony of His holy soul in the garden. But soon after, this suffering ended in His
being betrayed by one of the twelve, and sold for thirty pieces of silver; in His being denied thrice with oaths by Peter, His professedly foremost friend and companion; in His being forsaken by all the other disciples. He is laid hold of as a common, and worse than common, malefactor. He is apprehended, arraigned, falsely accused, and wickedly and unjustly condemned to die, and His death to take the most malicious, accursed and agonising form. No dissentient is heard against the wicked and unjust sentence consigning Him to death, for they all cried—”Away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him.” He suffered from His Father, in the position of a righteous Judge, condemning Him for the sins of His people, which He imputed to Him, for it was the Father’s wrath against sin which He tasted of to the full, and made His heart to melt within His bowels like wax. He suffered from the wicked world of Jew and Gentile, whose enmity and malice knew no bounds, and was like a flood overwhelming His soul. He suffered from all the powers of darkness and hell, and their councils failed not to scheme all possible plans to encompass His death. Moreover, the thousand sins, each of which was a heavy burden in itself, of every one of the redeemed, who are countless in number, were laid upon Him as He stood in His Own Person responsible for them all as their suffering surety before the Lord His God. And when He cried out, “It is finished,” He died, and gave up the ghost. Continuing under the power of death until the third day, He rose, despoiling death and hell of all their terrors for the redeemed.
What a foundation has God Himself laid! There is no creature in heaven or in earth sharing the honour with Him in this matter. “The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” The laying of it entailed infinite cost, infinite labour and suffering to God Himself, and what awful responsibility is his who refuses to accept Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as his only foundation for eternity? Well is He worth now being tested by poor sinners, because it is a foundation laid deep in his Eternal Person, two natures and His three-fold offices, Prophet, Priest and King, and particularly in His Priestly office, of which we have endeavoured to speak above, a foundation for the exercise of the others.
- We may now briefly mention the qualities of this foundation.
(1) It is a sure foundation in opposition to all false ones. It is so sure as never to fail the poor creature who places his trust in Him. In one’s own changing feelings and frames you may not have a sensible hold of this foundation, but the sureness and certainty of this foundation is to be found, not in our feelings, but in the everlasting covenant, in God’s promise, and in the least true, gracious desire after Him. The foundation is sure there. It is a sure foundation to you, poor soul, who find Him to be all-sufficient to your needs, and is heartily satisfied with Him as your Saviour, and as yours alone.
(2) It is a strong foundation. He is described in Scripture as a strong tower, and also a strong rock. He is strong to withstand all the mighty assaults of His enemies and of the believer’s. He is strong to support, with no danger of giving way in the least, all the burdens each believer, and all believers, from first to last, can lay upon Him. The foundation is as strong and fresh now as it was thousands of years ago.
(3) It is an immovable foundation. Many attempts have been made to overthrow it in past history. Oceans of heresies have dashed their proud waves against this foundation, and it remains now as firm as ever. There was the Cerinthian heresy, which denied that He came into the world clothed in human flesh, and held that it was a celestial body He had. There was the Arian heresy, which denied His true divinity, and levelled Him to the position of the highest created being. There is the Socinian, which denies there are three persons in the Godhead; and various others, which space will not permit to consider. And all these heresies are still rolling their proud billows, while they, from time to time, suit their form and movement to the mood of the age and generation. Very particularly are these found in the Churches of this land.
(4) It is an everlasting foundation. It is not for a time, or for all time; it is to exist the same unalterable rock and foundation through all eternity. Those whose feet are fixed upon this rock and foundation are united to Him, and shall continue so for ever.
Secondly: The second aspect under which we now consider the laying of this foundation is as it respects the labours of Paul and other apostles. Paul informs us that no one had reason to boast of men. Even the best and the most eminent servants that Christ richly owned were but men who planted and who watered. It was God alone who gave the increase. Some among the Corinthians were inclined to overlook this fact, and wished to be considered as followers of either Paul or Apollos. This the apostle deprecated. He would have them to consider that they and other apostles were only fellow-labourers or co-workers with God in His Church on earth. The Corinthian believers were God’s husbandry or God’s building. Paul and Apollos and others were labourers with God in promoting the interests of this husbandry, or in helping to erect and finish this building. He gives himself a further designation when he says, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.” Therefore, as a wise master-builder he laid this foundation in the Corinthian Church:—
(1) As one who preached the gospel for the first time where Christ was not preached before. It was, indeed, eminently characteristic of Paul that he loved to preach Christ, and thus lay Him as a foundation in places that had never heard of Him before. He thus says himself: “So have I strived to preach the
gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation” (Rom. xv. 20). Where there is no true, faithful, and scriptural preaching of Christ as God’s only foundation, laid in Zion, to a congregation or in a Church, in its organized and corporate capacity, there is no foundation at all laid, in the sense of Paul. The building for which such are responsible is one reared on the sands of men’s imagination, not on this foundation of Paul, because our text says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Could anything be clearer and more self-evident? He took care that Christ Jesus—considered with respect to all the faithful representations and aspects under which He reveals Himself in the gospel—would be the exclusive theme of his sermons, discourses, and exhortations. “For I determined,” he says in another place, “not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Of what real avail is anything else? Is anything beside this to do for perishing men in view of death and eternity? Verily not! Why are poor men so foolish as to be deluded with subjects and themes that are as the shifting sands of time, and as the mire down which they sink until they are finally engulfed in the destructive vortex?
(2) There is another way of looking at laying this foundation, from the point of view of the gospel preached. We read of the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, and it is upon this foundation that all believers are built and rooted up and established in the faith. The Old Testament prophets and all the apostles held Christ forth in all His fulness and glory, as the Holy Spirit enabled them, as the only Mediator between God and men, through whom God is reconciled to sinners. They unmistakably pointed out to Jew and Gentile that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness; that the Mosaic economy was at an end, and the whole body of the ceremonial law became dead and buried with Christ’s death and burial, never again to be resurrected. They took care and precaution to clear away the shadows and the types and carnal ordinances, imposed indeed “until the times of reformation,” and to lay bare in full view the sure foundation which they were thus laying by their preaching. Just like the man who, about to build a house and to lay first the foundation, clears away the earth and rubbish until he comes to a rocky and stable ground on which to lay the foundation. This was indeed the method employed by the prophets, and especially by the apostles.
II.—Now, let me come to consider briefly the second general head of our discourse:—The building which is to be reared on this foundation.
- No foundation can have any meaning except with regard to the edifice which is to be built upon it. There must be a building reared on the foundation. When we see a man laying a foundation, we are sure that he is to build a house there if he has the
wherewithal to do it, unless he be like the man spoken of by Christ in the gospel who began to build a house and had not the wherewithal to finish it; for he did not first sit down to calculate the cost, and men began to mock him. There are many religious professors in this age who set out to build a house and have left it as they began, because they had not sufficient stock to finish it. Their profession was never built upon this foundation; they never experienced the new birth which is wrought in the soul by the effectual operations of the Spirit of grace. You find them in the college and divinity hall; in the pulpit, in the sessions, and in the pew. But in considering the building we, first of all, take it as it comprehends believers themselves; and, secondly, as it comprehends the doctrines of God’s word.
(1) The building comprises all true believers. When a man lays the foundation for a house, he then goes to get the stones for the building. They may have to be quarried out of the rocks hidden under the earth, but stones he must find, where and howsoever he can, if the building is to go on. All mankind are alike by nature; there is no difference, in respect of their nature, between those who repent and believe, by God’s grace, and those who do not. They are all dead in trespasses and sins, and, like the rock, the stony heart of man does not feel, is not moved, and is not impressed by all the different ways in which God deals with him. Thus we are by nature like the flinty rock and adamant stone. But Jeremiah says by the Spirit, “Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. xxiii. 29). So the word of God, by means of the law and gospel, is like a hammer, breaking the rock in pieces. This hammer is wielded by the hand of the Holy Ghost, and when so wielded the most unwieldy material and irrefragable rock will break before its inevitable blows. A man’s heart is thus awakened to some realisation of his awful condition as a lost sinner. The rock, hidden, but broken under this hammer in the hand of God’s Spirit, comes now to the light. It is yet to endure many blows of this hammer, to mould its shapeless mass into its fitting shape so as to be placed on this foundation. Though they are thus quarried out, as they are described by Isaiah: “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness; look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged” (Isaiah li. 1)—though they are thus awakened to concern and roused out of their spiritual death, they would never come to Christ, the foundation of themselves, any more than the stones the man quarries for his house, and brings into shape, will move to the foundation until carried thereto. It is God’s own work, from first to last, to work upon every stone which He is to place on the foundation and in the building. It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Never do these stones live spiritually until they are thus laid and fixed upon this foundation. Like the mortar which cements the stones to
the foundation and to one another in the walls of the building, so faith, working by love, is the mortar which unites these stones to Jesus Christ, the foundation, and which unites believers to one another. Thus we have lively stones, as Peter tells us in the following words: “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, 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, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter ii. 3-5). Thus they are lively stones by their coming into living union with Jesus Christ, the living stone and the sure foundation. The building, in this sense, is still going on. To illustrate this further we quote the words of Paul in writing to the Ephesians:—”And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. ii. 20-22). These stones lay their whole weight upon this foundation; their burdens, their sins, their cares and anxieties; their hope, faith and love; their whole salvation, and that of others. He is sure, strong, immovable, and everlasting, to bear them all, and He never fails. This is how these stones build upon this foundation, and such as thus build upon Jesus Christ will have what is described in the verses following this as gold, silver, and precious stones, which cannot be consumed or burned up, but will come forth with all the greater effulgence and beauty through the fires of temptation and trials and suffering through which the Lord brings them—”That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be formed unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Everything which men cleave to and is not of this nature is like wood, hay, and stubble, which will be consumed in the fire of God’s law, and the fire of His Spirit, and the fire of His judgment at the last day; it may even go out, and be consumed in the fires of suffering and temporal judgments in this world, because what is wood, hay, and stubble, cannot survive so severe an ordeal.
(2) Let us look upon the building from a doctrinal point of view. Doctrines may be divided into two kinds, and both are represented by the material spoken of in the 12th verse. What are truly the doctrines of God’s word are represented by “gold, silver, and precious stones”; what are not so, such as false and pernicious views of these doctrines, are represented by the “wood, and hay, stubble.” There is, first, then, the outstanding doctrine of the Fall of man. Unless you have this doctrine solidly rooted in your soul’s experience, as it is in the word of God, you will never build aright on this foundation.
Pelagianism in the early centuries sought to make out that man
was not deprived of God’s image to the extent that he was unable to render himself acceptable to God by emulating good example. He was not a fallen creature at all, except to the extent that he could be led astray by wicked example. Could anything be more like hay and stubble than this? It is entirely opposed to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit concerning the Fall. This destructive view reappeared in a more refined and evangelical dress in the notorious Declaratory Act of 1892. According to this Act—and it is a dominant article of the Creed of the larger Presbyterian Churches of Scotland—man is not entirely destitute of God’s image; he still retains vestiges of the image of God upon his soul. But, the truth is that man’s natural conscience shows clearly that, while he once bore this image, which consisted in righteousness and holiness, he bears now not the least vestige of heavenly knowledge, righteousness and holiness, of which the divine image on man consisted originally. All the record we have of the experiences of God’s saints in the world confirms beyond doubt the Scriptural teaching of the total depravity of the human soul. He “must be born again” of the Word and Spirit of God, in order to the restoration of this blessed image. Such views as are opposed to this are wood, hay and stubble that shall be burned. But the doctrine of the Fall is like gold, silver, and precious stones, which the true Church of Christ always builds upon the foundation.
The second doctrine which may be mentioned, as like the precious metals, gold and silver, is election, or eternal election. This is denied also in the Declaratory Act, and the false Arminian view of this blessed and precious truth is now the generally accepted view in all the Presbyterian bodies of Scotland and England, except such as abide by and assert, maintain, and defend the doctrines of God’s Word, as confessionally embodied in the Larger and Shorter Catechism and the Confession of Faith. We, without boasting, and, we hope, in the spirit of humility, hold strongly to the scriptural view that all who are saved in time were embraced in the decree of eternal election, which decree, in fact, makes it certain that such shall be effectually called, and their salvation rendered secure for ever. The Arminian heresy, so repugnant to all who are taught of God concerning the utter helplessness of man, as well as his moral and natural inability to good, holds that man is able to repent and believe under certain aids of the Spirit, and that his election is conditioned upon his believing, so that the sinner is elected only in view of his repentance and faith! How delusive and puerile! What wood, hay, and stubble is this! And how many there are who build this chaff and rubbish on Christ the foundation. The doctrine of election is very comforting to the believer who is established in the faith, and to the aged saint, as the prospect is before him of an immediate dissolution. “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, yet my loving-kindness shall not depart from them
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee.”
The third doctrine, which is gold, and which the true visible Church of Christ builds upon Christ the foundation, is effectual calling and regeneration. The interest of the most of people in Christ in this day of declension, goes no further than a mere expression of belief in, or assent by the natural understanding to, the gospel, an outward reformation of life and manners or a sacramental profession. If one has some morality and common courtesy and common honesty, and is a fair churchgoer, he is a Christian and believer. Thus they build hay and stubble upon this foundation. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” This doctrine is like gold, silver, and precious stones.
Fourthly, the doctrine of a definite atonement by Jesus Christ. There is no countenance whatever given in God’s word to a universal and unrestricted atonement. It is only universal in the sense that it is freely offered to all to whom the gospel comes, but it is a definite atonement, and shall remain, so it matters nothing what the popular view is, because the wish to have it so is father to their thoughts—definite in the sense that all who were ordained to eternal life shall be infallibly saved by Christ’s atonement. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” “Mine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and not one is lost, except the son of perdition.” Anything contrary to this is stubble and hay, which shall be burned up.
Fifthly, Justification by faith, as an instantaneous act of God, the righteous Judge, without regard to anything in the sinner; Sanctification, proceeding in the soul from the moment God’s Spirit works in him, and carried on until his death; Adoption, as also an act of God’s free grace, whereby sinners are received into the membership of God’s household; the continual Intercession of Christ on their behalf in heaven, promising and performing all needed support, strength, grace and perseverance unto the end; all these doctrines are like gold, silver, and precious stones which the true Church of God has built in the past, and shall ever build upon Christ, the sure foundation. But all false faiths, creeds, views, inconsistent practices, and empty professions are wood, hay and stubble that will be consumed in the fire. If they will not be burned now in mercy, in the conscience and life by the fire of God’s law and Spirit, they will be consumed in the fire of His sore chastisements and awful judgments at death and at the judgment seat. May the Holy Spirit give us grace to make suitable application of these things! Amen.
It is the Holy Spirit that kindles the fire of the law in the conscience, but it is the Blood of Christ that will drown it.—
Rev. D. Macfarlane.