Preached in the Free Presbyterian Church, Oban, by the
Rev. NEIL CAMERON, St. Jude’s, Glasgow,
at the Induction of the Rev. Donald Beaton.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” Psalm, cxxvii. 1.
IN considering these words we will notice briefly two things.
I. First of all we have brought before us here the house that was being built.
II. In the second place we will notice a few things concerning the building of that house. How vain the work would be if the Lord Himself did not build.
I. The House that was being built.
We may mention that no man would allow other men to build a house for him as they liked. All know very well that a man who is having a house built takes good care that it is not every, or any man that will build it. The house must be built according to the man’s mind. Concerning the house of God, there are some men who think that they can build as they like. They bring in their own furniture, and throw God’s furniture outside.
(1). Notice first of all concerning the house that is to be built, that it was a house for God.
We have in the Word of God an account of the first house built in the world for God and His worship. It was the tabernacle in the wilderness. We see that every cord, pin, board, and piece of cloth which went to the building of the tabernacle were definitely stated by God Himself; as regards length and everything concerning them, and how they were to be put together. God revealed His plan first to Moses on Mount Sinai, and also the specification. Everything which was to be in this house was to be done according to the plan and specification which God showed Moses in the Mount. We are told that Moses did all things according as they were revealed to him. Consequently he got the character of being a faithful servant in God’s house. It was not Moses’ house at all, it was God’s house. He did not seemingly alter a hair’s breadth the length of a cord, or post that held the curtains. He did just exactly according to God’s mind. He did not consider himself at all wiser than God. He did not think that he knew better how to build the tabernacle where God was to dwell than God Himself.
(2). Notice in the next place, that when the Temple was to be built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, that God revealed to David, and made him to understand all about the plan and specification of it.
That was the plan and specification that was given to Solomon, and he was not only commanded to build according to God’s plan, but everything connected with the Temple was to be done according to the specification. The house was built exactly to the plan, and everything that was in it. There was nothing of man’s wisdom seen about it, or considered. They looked to the plan, and did everything in strict accordance with the plan, and to the specification. I am not going to follow that out just now, but see how men changed what God had at first set up in the tabernacle. See how men began to bring in their own wisdom and inventions until God withdrew His presence from the Tabernacle and left it. The same thing is true of the Temple. Men did not continue as God had commanded. In the end the Temple was left a cairn of stones on Mount Moriah, on account of the fact that men would not take God’s revealed will as the rule of their worship. Men would have their own way, and would not do as God required, until at last God destroyed the Temple. When they came back from the Captivity they rebuilt the Temple but it was not very long until they began to bring into it of their own. The House of God which Christ said was to be a house of prayer they made a den of thieves, or a house of merchandise. It was demolished. It is lying there as a cairn of stones for the whole world to look at. Whatever is in the future I don’t know, but the Temple is as it were a cairn of stones for over 1800 years, a lesson to the end of time for men to take care not to bring into the House of God anything but that which is consistent with God’s mind. It is not man’s house at all. It is not your house or mine. It is God’s House.
(3). Let us notice what God has said about another house, and of a different matter.
The Tabernacle and Temple were real places of worship, and they were built for real worshippers, but they were only shadows of good things to come. God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Heaven is His throne, earth is His foot-stool and what house can be built to Him? There is another House brought before us in the New Testament. It is a spiritual house in which God was to dwell. You find the Apostle in writing to the Corinthians brings before them this house which God was building in the world. That house was early seen in the world’s history by God taking up His dwelling in the souls of men; living and walking in them. The Apostle addressing the Corinthians calls them the Church. That is especially true of those, whom God has made a new creation. Speaking of such, he says: “Ye are the temple of God, and if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy.” God dwells in the individual soul of His people. He dwells in and among them. With regard to this house, or church which God set up in the New Testament we are told that its foundation is the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. It is a spiritual house—not a material house made of stones and timber that must pass away. Although there must be places for public worship for convenience sake, that does not mean at all that they are temples of God. “The temple of God are ye” those in whom He lives and moves by His Spirit.
In looking at this we desire to notice two or three things concerning this house which God is building in New Testament times, and which will never look back again to the tabernacle or temple. God’s worship was confined to the temple in Jerusalem while that Temple continued, but as Christ told the woman of Samaria: “The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” The time now is as far as that is concerned—it does not matter whether God is worshipped on the hill-side, on the sea-shore, or in a house made by the hands of men—it makes no difference at all. It is spiritual worship which is required, and all in connection with it is spiritual.
1. The first thing I desire to notice concerning it is this.
All the doctrines that are to be taught to men are set down in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Men are not at all to go and devise doctrines and teach them to the people. They are to go to the Word of God, and give nothing of their own. If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God, not at all according to his own wisdom, imagination, or ingenuity. That is not what is meant when a man is commanded to preach to sinners on the way to an endless eternity. The truth of God alone is able to make men wise unto salvation. Never was one sinner saved, and never shall be but by just preaching Law and Gospel. God’s Word alone is the only hope that can be held out in preaching and in practice to perishing men.
2. We shall notice in the second place the form of worship in the House of God—the Church of God.
That form is set before us in the New Testament. It is set down by God as surely as was the form on Sinai, or the form given to David for the Temple. The worship of God is not at all left in the hands of men to devise what they will. God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth, in, and with nothing but the Truth. With regard to this worship which God has set up in the world many things ought to be mentioned. I only mention three.
(a). The first thing in the worship of God is: His Word is to be read.
The Holy Ghost in the epistle speaking to Timothy says among other things. “Give attendance to reading.”
(b). The second thing to do is to preach.
To teach the people the meaning of God’s Word. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Comparing parts that may be difficult to understand, expounding those parts, and placing them beside other parts of the Word that may be more simple. This is a duty laid on the preacher.
(c). The third thing I desire to notice in this connection, as regards the public worship of God, is that men are not to devise or invent anything they wish and bring it into the House of God.
With regard to singing it is to be the psalms alone—”Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, these three parts make up the psalter, or the Book of Psalms, as that appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Had the Holy Ghost only said psalms He would have meant only a portion of the Book. It was the whole Book He meant, and it was the whole Book He said. Nothing must be brought into God’s House but what He asked for, all that men have brought into the church which God had not prescribed are only ruining themselves and the Church of God. I may say in passing that a great many heresies in the church came in through hymns. Some of those hymns sung in Protestant Churches, were made by Roman Catholic priests and others no better. We are to sing the psalms, and to sing them with our mouth, which is the organ that God has given us with which to sing His praise. If I know anything at all about the taste of grace in the soul, I say that you would be very sorry indeed to hand over to a mechanical instrument the service of that organ which God has given you not only for enjoying Him, but also of keeping His ordinance. While the psalter was in use in the Church you find that God was visiting individuals and families with divine blessings. Look back on the history of our country and you will find that the doctrines which God blessed to perishing men were just what is called Calvinistic doctrines. The doctrines of God’s Word as regards man’s ruin, and God’s sovereignty in His dealings with man whether in mercy or in judgment. The same thing is true concerning the psalter. While the church kept to the psalms you find that many times in Scotland (I mention just now the times of persecution) men, my friends, not only could sing but could sing far better, and sung tunes which were far more solemn than the rattling tunes of this generation. I certainly testify that your singing here is solemn enough. I am not finding fault with the singing of the congregation in Oban. Your singing is very good. God is to be worshipped according to His own plan, with that which He has put into the hands of men—His own Truth. Nothing but the Truth in preaching and praise, and in everything concerning His worship. There are no grounds for anything else. No man can bring scriptural grounds to prove that hymns of man’s composition have any authority in God’s House. Neither can they bring scriptural authority for an instrument of music, harmonium, organ or anything else.
In the house built in Old Testament times not only was there set up what they were to teach the people, and how to praise God, but in it there were governors set up. Now-a-days we are for the most part, every one a rule to himself, but that is not to our advantage. God set up governors in the Tabernacle. There were door-keepers. There were men who had control over the sacrifice and the altar. There was the Holiest of all where the high priest entered once a year. The government of the Tabernacle was given by God Himself. You will find the same thing in the New Testament, and right down from the Apostolic age. You do not find in the Word of God any office-bearer mentioned other than elder and deacon. These are the two offices God has appointed in the Church. We have got the authority for appointing them, but not only that, we have the character described that those men ought to bear in the world. We are told very accurately who was to be an elder. An elder and bishop are just one. These two words mean the same person looked at from different points of view. You see the character of the man who is to be an elder given in the Word of God, how he should live, and how he should be looked upon by his fellows. He is to be a God-fearing man. Not a man of the concert and dance, and theatre. He is a serious-minded man, a God-fearing man. The same thing is true of the deacon. How they in our day managed to get the character of the deaconess I fail to see, God has given them no character in His Word, and no authority for having any such thing in the Church of God. Certainly He has given very definitely the character of the man who is to be an elder or bishop; and as certainly, He is very particular concerning a deacon. He gives none other. The men who are taking in what God never asked to rule in His House are doing great damage. I may say that there was a controversy between some of the Reformers at the time of the Reformation. The Reformers of Scotland held that nothing should be brought into the Church of God as regards doctrine, worship, or government but just exactly what was found in God’s Truth, itself. The opposite was taken by the Church of England which kept many of the limbs of Anti-Christ. They maintained that they were at liberty to take in anything which was not forbidden. They said: “If God does not forbid a thing, it should be allowed.” Others held that unless God commanded the thing it should not be taken in. See the effect in England, and the effect in Scotland too, when men begin to bring into the House of God office-bearers, doctrines, and forms of worship, which God never commanded. It has already turned nearly half of our beloved countrymen into infidels. These men who are always devising things for themselves, are always doing it for their own ruin.
Notice further with regard to discipline. If you see a family where the children rule the parents, what do you expect? You may expect to see a family who will be a disgrace to their parents, and to the place where they were brought up. But the family of God have discipline. In the Old Testament the door-keepers would not admit one individual but such as were clean. They made sure that they were ceremonially clean. In the Church of the New Testament men ought to take good care that those who profess to be God’s people should show by their conduct in the world that they are such, and if not they should be kept out from membership. There ought to be order and discipline, and the people of this country have lost exceedingly on account of the want of it. When there was order in the Church there was a high standard of integrity and morality among the people. On account of that no one could receive a place of being a godly man or woman unless their conduct proved that they were so. In our own day, at least those of us who have got grey hairs know, that there was a time when there was no such thing as those who went to the dance being allowed to go to the Lord’s Table. Those who desecrated God’s Day would not be allowed to the Table, nor would such as were guilty of drunkenness or of going to the theatre. Those who were guilty of such things were brought before the courts of the Church and suspended until they showed by repentance and reformation that they had ceased to try and mix the world and the flesh and religion together. To-day you will find men and women of the dance and theatre sitting at the Table of the Lord and given the name of Christians. At one time such people were not allowed the name of Christians at all, unless they conformed to the rules of the Christian religion. Until this is done again in our country we shall be going down-hill.
Let us notice how our fore-fathers looked upon the House of God. They did not consider it consecrated as the Roman Catholics and Episcopalians of England do, but they looked upon it as a place of worship, a Holy Place, kept for worship and for worship only. Now at the present time you will find that in the very places where men profess to worship God, they will have a concert, a social gathering, and sometimes even a dance. In Glasgow in the halls of some of the churches they have dances, and I question if they have a prayer meeting at all. Again, what used to be the House of Prayer—the House of God—men turn in our day into a den of thieves. They bring materials which you will find in the shops of Oban into the Church, and turn the House of God into a house of merchandise. Men professing religion doing this piece of work against the mind of God! Their position is clearly set out when Christ purged the Temple of these things.
II. A few things concerning the builders of this House.
The first builder as regards manual workers was Moses. Moses was a man that was very faithful right through. The second was Solomon. After him came Zerubbabel—”His hands have laid the foundation of this House.”
In regard to the Church of the New Testament you will find that it was set up by the Apostles. Of it we are told “that its foundation is the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” You will find in the New Testament how the Church was set up among the Jews first, and then among the Gentiles. You will find there the sure foundation for the Church and for the individual. “As a wise master builder,” the apostle says, “I have laid the foundation.” He says further, “But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, 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, every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” Those who build hay, wood, and stubble shall find it burnt about their ears, but because of the foundation they shall escape as a man out of an house on fire. It shows how far a man that is truly converted may go who lays the foundation of faith and hope for Eternity on Christ and Him crucified. How far he may go on; as it is called here building hay, wood, stubble, things that will not stand the fire. He will have nothing in Eternity of his work in the world. But the man who builds gold, silver, and precious stones, these things will stand the hottest fire; and lose nothing.
In connection with this you will find in the building of this House what the apostle Peter says that as there were false prophets in the Old Testament dispensation, so there would be false teachers in the New; though sometimes more numerous in one generation than another. There was only one Elijah, and 850 between the prophets of Baal and the groves who taught the people that they might worship according to their own tastes. But there was only one Elijah. You know how fond we all are of flattery. We desire flattery much more than we desire straight forward speaking. The same thing as was true of the Old Testament Church is true of our times. We are told by Peter that there were false prophets in the past, so there would be false teachers among us who would lead men away from the Truth, and from the God of Truth, ruining themselves and others. Alas, alas! how many in our day are leading the people of this country away from the living Truth of God—away from the only Saviour of the lost, the Lord Jesus Christ. Away from God to the vanities of the world, and to the imaginations of men which will end in weeping.
You will notice when men get credit for having a great deal of learning they are looked up to. When a man gets a name for being learned, as a rule what he says is swallowed and God’s Word is refused. We do not deny at all that learning is a useful thing when seasoned with the salt of grace. Learning without grace is a curse in the things of God. We do not deny either that learning as regards physical science was never in the history of the world so high as it is at present. This generation has made strides in physical science which were not dreamed of in the past in regard to many things. We do not deny that. But we must say this, that when we turn to the field of science regarding the doctrines of God’s Word—theology, you will find that men have lost, not gained. They have lost much of the knowledge which men had in theological science, say about 300 years ago. Take you up a book written, or a sermon preached and written by one of the Puritans of England, or by one of the godly men of Scotland, I will mention only one—Thomas Boston. Take his writings, and take the writings of the man in our day who gets great praise for his learning, with perhaps Doctor of Divinity added to his name, compare the two, and if you have any discernment at all you will find that one is not within sight of the other. We are going down, glorying in our shame, going back to darkness. That appears distinctly in connection with much of the literature which is issued from the press of our country in our day, and it comes to this; we never trouble ourselves about it. Much of our theological literature is full of errors, brimful. My friends, while we never deny, that this generation, as I have said already, have made great advances in physical science; yet we certainly charge them with turning their back on God’s Word. Instead of making strides ahead in this direction, they are thousands of miles behind. We have not got the backbone our forefathers had. They would not follow any man, but as he followed Christ. What a difference to the builders of our day who are building with untempered mortar. Building a church of men who have never been converted, and which God says will fall on the top of themselves. I have pointed out already that no such thing as holiness is expected in members, office-bearers, or ministers in certain quarters. They build God’s House with untempered mortar, clay that has never been wrought upon by the Holy Ghost. They are not new creatures in Christ Jesus, and therefore they will fall, and their fall will be great. They never repented of their sins, never looked to Christ as the only remedy for guilty sinners. There never was and never shall be a single sin forgiven but through the blood of Jesus. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, only the blood of Christ could do that. “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Those who are building away from this foundation which is Christ and Him crucified; away from the doctrines of the apostles and prophets; and away from the life of holiness in the world, are ruining men for Eternity. If we had ministers who could teach the people the need of repentance, turn from their sins to God, there would be hope that sinners would turn. But when men teach that God is so merciful that He will receive all at last, and that there is no such place as Hell, what may we expect? Notice in connection with this that all the learning and eloquence which men who depart from the light may have, does not make their case one bit better. We must admit that such men are using the English language for a bad purpose. They can certainly speak the language, but they do not speak it to the glory of God. What these men are trying to do in this country is, to destroy the foundation of such things that matter in Scotland to-day. The foundations were laid by our godly fore-fathers at the Reformation, defended by their blood, and for 23 years they had to hide in the dens and caves of our land. Such foundations the enemies of Truth are seeking to demolish.
No such thing remains as an Established Church now, that has been cast down and is in the hands of men. They have appointed already a committee of influential men, but they do not know yet, whether they will revise the Confession of Faith, or make a new one altogether. The people of this country are so careless that they will just follow them. I do not speak this, in order to cause you to follow us. I speak out for the sake of Truth.
I desire to notice further that we must keep the Word of God to the letter. The Doctrines, as Doctor McDonald expressed it in his poem might be taught so smoothly that the plane of the joiner could not take the least thing off it. Orthodoxy of itself will not save men. I may mention a case of nearly fifty years ago, I went to hear a man who was teaching the doctrines of God’s Word as scholarly, and Calvinistic as it was possible to do. Yet I think that even the atmosphere in that house was colder than the hand of death itself. It had in it all that man could do, but Christ says “without me ye can do nothing.” However well men may set forth God’s Truth, if it is not done in absolute dependence on the Spirit of God it will be in vain—”Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” How absolutely useless that duty, that preaching will be if God do not send His Spirit. Perhaps you have heard already what is recorded in the life of that most eminent man, Robert Bruce, of Edinburgh. When he was down near Larbert, he was to preach in a small church to which men were coming from long distances to hear him. One day he stayed past sermon time in the little hut that he had for going into between the services. A young man who got impatient went to ask Mr. Bruce to come out, as they were waiting to hear the sermon. When he reached the hut he heard Robert Bruce saying: “I will not go to-day, unless thou go with me,” and he kept repeating it. The young man thought Mr. Bruce was speaking to someone, and returned to his companions without entering the hut. He told his companions that the minister was speaking to someone, but he could not hear him getting an answer, but that he was saying very persistently, that he would not come out unless the man came along with him. “Oh,” said a companion, “we will just wait for him and his man.” They waited, and it was realised that when Bruce came out he did not come alone, the Lord came with him. All that is done in this place if not done in the spirit of love, and followed by the pouring out of the Spirit of God, will be of little value for time or eternity.
I must address a few words to those who are truly God’s people. They are called in the Scriptures co-workers with God. They are doing exactly what God would have them do, how imperfectly they know in some measure themselves. Look at the father and mother with the little child who is hardly able to walk, but it is doing something. How pleased the father and mother are. God, my friends, is pleased with the weakest efforts of His children.
I mention these things on such an occasion as this when a minister is being set over you, that both minister and congregation may keep their eyes on God’s Word for everything. Also keep your eyes towards the God of Heaven that He may pour His Spirit upon you as a congregation and as individuals, that God’s Truth might run and be glorified in your midst, that He may raise up from among the young of Oban living witnesses for Truth in the world.
Until we have a full belief and apprehension of the Scripture doctrine of the remission of sins, we are under a kind of necessity of denying, extenuating, and explaining away, the guilt of them; and this seals us up in blindness, impenitence, and hardness of heart.—Adam.