BY REV. JOHN TALLACH, INGWENYA, SOUTH AFRICA.
(Continued from page 456).
III. In the third place we observe that, this unchangeableness in Him and so precious to us should result in a certain fixedeness of purpose.
(a). And first in our attitude to His Word. The Word of God is not only a revelation of Christ but it comes to us solely on His account, it belongs to the economy of grace and on that account it has as its foundation a permanently satisfied justice, a foundation which cannot change and so by it taking its nature from its foundation cannot change either. To the extent of every inspired word it is saturated with the unchangeable Jesus. We feel grieved indeed when it is interfered with but the Word written takes the words of the Word Incarnate, “Weep not for me but for your children” and grief is turned to pity for those who trifle with it. In Him it is established fast in the heavens and so cannot really be interfered with; for, if men on earth change it the Word in heaven simply disowns this as being no longer the truth and charges it with being another gospel than that of Christ the unchangeable. A variable Bible must mean a variable Christ and out text outruling the one outrules the other. Let us look at it in this way. Christ and His Word answer the one to the other as wax to the seal. The Word gives its impress of Him, “Unchangeable or no Christ at all” and He gives the Word of His impress, “the same yesterday and to-day and forever” to every word or no word at all. The Word lives, moves, and has being only in the revelation of a present and unchangeable Christ. In this sense the Bible can never be detached from the Lord and a true spiritual contending on its behalf must spring from a personal loyalty to Christ as the unchangeable. Now, this suggests a thought or two that we all may lay to heart. In contending for the faith our sword is no dead thing but the living Word of the living Christ, and we draw it in sight of Calvary, in sight of the empty tomb, in the presence of the living Jesus so that when we speak His Word we do not merely convey His mind but rather He is here and now actually employing human language as His mouthpiece. There is a difference between my saying, “I speak God’s Word to you” and, “the Lord is speaking to you through His Word.” Now, here is solidity, here is strength, here is the true sword of the Word. When a person is brought face to face with His Word he is face to face with the Lord of Truth and his answer must be to him and not to us. At the strongest your witness is weak but He who shall sit to judge the quick and the dead fills the words you witness to, they are clothed with the dignity of the great white Throne. His words are “the same yesterday and to-day and forever” because He lives in them in a constant now. Oh! how careful, should we be in the use of His Word. How careful, especially, that self in the form of puerile personalities casts not its shadow between men and the Christ of Truth. Wretch indeed would he have been who would have sat down with Christ on the Mount that he might supplement His Word and His authority with those of a fallen creature. A hell-deserving sinner to advertise himself on Immanuel’s platform. I am that wretch if I cast my shadow along the edge of truth, if my contending for truth is no more than a contention that self should have some part of what is Christ’s. In contending for our creed this must be a fixed article in it as in all else. “No flesh shall glory in His presence,” and He is unchangeably present in the Word we contend for.
(b). And now in the light of our text what should be our attitude to Church Standards as these are based on the truth in which He resides. I think there is sometimes a danger of detaching and isolating these standards from the Lord Himself and we must jealously guard against this for to the extent we do this we remove the authority for them from Him to mere men, while on the other hand the constant association of them with Him as Head of the Church will enhance their authority and preserve for them a constant freshness in our hearts. If some of my younger friends were asked the question: “What think you is at the very centre of your Church’s contending for the truth?” I wonder what the answer would be. Those outside your church will give her struggles no higher motive than that of a dour conservatism, a purpose simply not to change, while you rejecting this will say that these struggles have something to do with the infallibility of the Word and a conscientious cleaving to Standards. To an extent you are right in your reply but I wish you to get a firm hold of something more. What is the proper background behind all that our Church stands for? It is not church courts. You must lift it higher, you must in fact find that background in the truth of our text. On his deathbed John Knox desired that the 17th Chapter of John should be read to him. Here he first cast his anchor. Prior to the Reformation you see him alone on his knees with the unchangeable Jesus who communes with him in this Word. A realization that He is the same yesterday and to-day and forever, a strong affection for Him as His unchangeable Saviour and then, the Reformation. I can well remember when on one occasion the late Mr. Cameron* was preaching what is sometimes called a “witnessing sermon” and while making some forcible remarks on the infallibility of the Word he paused, then throwing his left arm across his breast with tremendous conviction he exclaimed: “precious Jesus.” The true background of your Church’s strivings is there then, in the closet, on the hills, souls alone with a living Saviour to whom as “the same yesterday and to-day and forever” an unswerving personal loyalty is freely yielded. They know no variable Christ in heaven and they know no variable Christ in the Word. We are gladly fixed to an unchanging Bible because of our unchanging Christ in the Bible. Nor are we cribbed in being thus fixed. “Go where you will,” said the eagle to her young, “but remember that you are limited to the heavens.”
*The late Rev. N. Cameron, Glasgow.
(e) This same thought can be profitably pursued in connection with the ordering of His house here on earth. One would think, if we are to believe some, that the practice of the church depends solely on the opinion of men so that it can be changed by any majority of unbelievers but the truth is that all church rules have direct connection with the teaching of our text. When we remember that “to-day” Christ is the same as in the “yesterday” of the early church we begin to see how serious it is to do much that passes as harmless in the professing church to-day. An unchangeable Christ in an unchangeable Book of rules must mean a changeless practice in His Church. Innovations are outruled, not by men in assemblies merely but by the finger of Christ. This is so true that what are often regarded as differences between churches are really points of difference between bodies of men and the mind of Christ, their quarrel is first with Him rather than with those who will not change. On such questions as church praise and the keeping of the Lord’s Day He who sits midst the seven candlesticks is here and now of the same mind as when He sang these Psalms on earth and filled the first Christian Sabbath with His own personality, peace, and power. The Church is His; to His mind the means which He gave it are sufficient so that any addition or change in them immediately contradicts our text, raises the question of a changeable Christ. Those who take up a strong position on the matter of church practice are often spoken of as being narrow and self-righteous. The truth simply told is this, we profess and feel that we are poor needy sinners who are utterly weak and unstable. A Saviour would but increase our misery. We know that the Word of God brings before us an unchangeable Saviour and this is all our hope and all our salvation. Can it be expected of us wilfully to grieve Him by changing anything wherein we see Him to be “the same yesterday, to-day and forever?” By His Spirit He maintains a constant witness in us to His own unchangeableness and shall we be expected to please men at the cost of desiring Him to remove this witness. For we must first quench this witness before we proceed to bring in changes and in quenching we request that such witness should cease. With this witness in this glorious Person in Heaven, with this witness in His word in earth, and in our hearts why should it be wondered at when we say: “Never!” to all calls to change practice in church matters that are in accordance with His Word. Hard sayings and unjust accusations that we are uncharitable leave us cold, unresponsive, indifferent. And so long as we are able in any measure to see the glory of our unchangeable Lord we may with great indifference take any name men are pleased to give us. The crown of His work and love is this, “I change not” and are we to see that crown removed from off His head; and see it trampled under foot; and that by people professing His name; and in that very worship professed to be to Him; and, seeing and knowing, are we to join in with these acts? approve them? be silent before them? Be silent when the heavens are ringing with the word “Immutability?” Be silent when the whole Covenant of Grace resounds with the glory of an unchangeable Saviour? Be silent when the only revelation of Him we possess, His Word, absolutely denies all knowledge of any changeable Christ and loudly witnesses in every word of it that He cannot change. Be silent when all our comfort, hope, prospects for time and eternity are knit up with the heart of our gloriously unchanging Lord? When we say that these innovators are doing the work of those who are enemies of His glory we are saying what we firmly believe to be the mind of Christ in the matter; but even then we do not expect that our attitude will be understood. In fact, we expect to be misunderstood. But let those lovers of change do the first things taught in God’s Word and we will then look for them to understand us. Let them but betake themselves as poor needy unstable sinners to the feet of Christ; let them come and meet us as they rejoice in an unchangeable Saviour and then and not until then are they in a fit state to appreciate our tenderness in such matters. There is no doubt about it but to change in practice from Him is to change in conscience towards Him. Change in practice is a practical change in doctrine especially this doctrine of His unchangeableness and no wonder changes in creed follow. The law of spiritual gravitation comes in here and there is no saying where the end may be.
(d) Now the more that we regard the Word of God as thus the face of the unchangeable Christ on His church the more shall we feel ourselves bound down to, more than we can at present look into. The fact of our having a fixed place in the bosom of Immanuel is at such a discount to-day in the church that hardly a week passes without some change being brought in. The result is that God’s true people are being made to examine the articles of their faith and calling, again, and again. The term “the Gospel” has come to have so many meanings to-day that it is applied to almost anything so long as it is applied by some church even although that church be Anti-Christ. The gospel is so accommodating, so adaptable, so readily changeable that it can be made to fit in anywhere and into anything. But “I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me” there in its naked simplicity stands the unchangeable gospel among us. Men are to be drawn to Him and Him only; by Him and by Him only, and through His being lifted up and that only. Recognising the presence of the unchangeable Lord among us let us be careful that these three particulars are matters of the utmost concern to us. I say utmost concern, because no mere nod of recognition to these particulars as part of our creed will satisfy Him. In the words quoted above he speaks “to-day” with the same emphasis and assurance as He did in the “yesterday” of His earthly life, He means every word of it and He means it for all time. Oh! let us then listen again and again to the “I” and the “Me,” listen until every word becomes a fire in our souls and the conviction becomes predominant and permanent, there is salvation in no other, there is nothing but the fire of hell for all outside Christ. “He is beside himself,” “these who have turned the world upside down,” “thou art mad” are some of the things said about Christ Himself and those who were His followers and in light of these sayings we can measure to what extent this truth is a mere mental view and how far it is a heart conviction with us. Men may be drawn to concerts, to church, and to put their names on the communion roll but the incessant question is, “Are they being drawn to me and by me?” There may be finance committees, statistics, organisation, elaborate machinery, but all these are but so much empty things if men are not drawn to Him. He is the same too in His present ordering of the instrument to be used in leading men to Him, the law. He looks at the law in His Word and then He looks at us and He says, “Use it as a schoolmaster to lead to me.” Use it in the pulpit as a mere corrector of moralism or as a hope of salvation, or as a weapon to hit off your opponents with and you are acting forthwith the desire of Christ in the matter. The law is holy, just, and good, the law is spiritual in its application, final in its standards, absolute in its authority, inflexible in its demands, awful in its threatenings yet deliberately preached with the feet of Jesus as its present end. And not alone in the matter of it but in the spirit of it He shows to us His present will. “When He beheld the city He wept over it,” yes, even while pronouncing judgments against it. “The same yesterday and to-day and forever” in this as all else He would have us preach the law with the spirit of the gospel. He has also fixed for us for all time the Agent of gospel blessings, the Holy Spirit. Men are either dead or alive as these conditions admit of nothing in between. “Yesterday” at Pentecost men were raised from their spiritual graves by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit and their condition being unchanged the same Power must be at work or otherwise there is no regeneration experienced. The Holy Spirit has given Himself over to this work in the name of the ever living Christ for there is an infinite value bound up with the work and name of Christ and the Holy Spirit recognises no other channel of approach to men dead in sin. In this way to say, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to-day, and forever” is equal to our saying, “The Holy Spirit the same yesterday and to-day, and forever through Jesus.” Any ignoring of His place in salvation, any displacing of His function by any other person or thing brings us into conflict with our text. Now, believing as we do that Christ is unchangeable in His attitude to the Holy Spirit and His work we raise for ourselves a very practical question. Are we as preachers and congregations showing that intelligent, humble, prayerful, and trusting attitude of expectancy towards the Holy Spirit which our belief demands? Is not the Lord constantly with us in unchanged sufficiency? And is He not constantly to-day as yesterday the way of the Spirit’s approach to men? “Constantly,” does not this word seem to constitute a challenge to us? “The same yesterday and to-day and forever,” the ladder is there not one rung of it removed, but where is the uplooking, waiting expectant church gathered at its foot? Too often, alas! we are at a remove discussing the work of the Holy Spirit when we should be waiting for Him. Closely connected with the above is the relation in which our text stands to the gospel call. The scope of the call is to the ends of the earth with a “beginning at Jerusalem” and the history of the church largely centres round persons who have been the means in their generations of directing the attention of the church to this duty. The result has been that the gospel has been preached to a wider and wider circle of this world’s inhabitants. In this progress of the raising of men and the directing of the subsequent movements we see the hand of the Lord. The presence of the unchangeable Christ in His church was the spring of all these movements and this in the “to-day” of each generation He revealed His unchangeable will of yesterday. And as far as we are concerned He still looks us in the face with “Jerusalem” and “the ends of the earth” on His lips. No shadow of doubt is there in His purpose, His present command nor in our unchangeable duty in the matter. The “Jerusalem” of yesterday comprised, scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, Christ-rejectors. This mass of antagonism lay deeply round the doors of the early church, and to-day, if we look, we see it still there. Rejectors who take His name in vain, rejectors both church-connected and churchless, rejectors who profess the name of Christ but who find nothing more easy than to draw a line through His Word, divinity, and authority. We rightly lament the increase of Romanists, of Communists, of Higher Critics, of unbelievers in general, but let us lay it to heart that these comprise the “Jerusalem” of our “to-day.” Begin here. This is His mind if we mistake not. Did the flesh in the disciples get its way they would have begun anywhere outside Jerusalem. A promise to write to Jerusalem or a purpose to return after their position was strengthened by victory elsewhere might compromise conscience on the matter. But no, begin here. He was gone but His Word was of equal authority with them as when He was with them on earth. They were fixed down to this duty by the Holy Spirit and the means used by Him were simply a practical apprehension of the unchangeableness of Christ. How often are we guilty of regarding our “Jerusalem” at a distance as if we were under no duty to make it one of our immediate interests. We even go further. Do we not at times indulge in a dangerous form of self-pity when on any account we have to rub up against its religion or irreligion? We pity ourselves, not our “Jerusalem.” Does this not look like the spirit of Cain? Am I my brother’s keeper? It certainly does; it is as alien to the Spirit of Christ as Cain was alien to the God who found him guilty. My friend, do you find yourself less interested in this aspect of our Lord’s unchangeableness than of some others mentioned? Know then that you sin deeply by as much as thinking that you can make the Lord changeable to meet your ideas, changeable to excuse you from plain duty. Your whole comfort for personal salvation comes to you from the assurance that He is unchangeable. He unchangeably wills that you are a saved sinner and He unchangeably wills that you begin at Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth. Rejoicing in His salvation will you now divide Christ? Will you now evade the burden of Jerusalem and the ends of the earth? I speak of a church as a whole. How each member in it is to serve lies with the individual and his or her Lord. Only let us be clear that in this as in all else He is “the same yesterday and to-day and forever,” and let us prayerfully and tenderly ponder His will on the matter.
And now, in conclusion, has not His unchangeableness a very definite message of encouragement to those churches which may be mean and poor in the eyes of the larger churches? The Lord did not choose the children of Israel because they were a great people, nor did he make choice of the throne, wealth and power of Caesar to spread the gospel but His choice fell on a handful of poor men who as a whole claimed neither great gifts nor wealth—”The weak things to confound the mighty.” And in this His choice of human means He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Now, has it not happened sometimes that a realisation of His unchangeableness has been at the root of a church’s separation and consequently the reason why she is so often despised by larger churches? Christ a changeable one, a variable one, an adaptable one, Christ cut and carved to fit into modern thought and morals, Christ interpreted outside the Word by individuals, by churches, by religions this is the one so loved by many churches and they have naught but the fiery furnace for all who will not bow down to this image. But let us note that small and despised though a church may be in the eyes of men yet if it but witness to His unchangeableness He will make use of its witness. We know that the influence of such a church must go much further than its apparent reach but He alone can estimate its power to the full. The kneeling church refuses to budge an inch to right or left from His feet, she is bound to them. Yes, and those who pass by cast mire on her, they mock her, they make jest of her seeming worthlessness, but year after year finds her still kneeling and there is a great joy in her heart. And why? She well knows that whatever may befall her nothing can befall that crown which He wears and which shall flourish upon Him and she is content. For His unchangeableness is a crown to Him and a church’s crown is its practical adherence to Him as unchangeable. “Let no man take thy crown,” no ideas of our own bigness from within, no mocker from without. In the past He has used the weak to be not only a depository of truth but a channel of it to men and may we not grow more and more expectant that He will so use us too? It is the Father’s purpose to glorify this very Christ we know and believe in, “to the ends of the earth” and He will glorify no other. “I know thy poverty but thou art rich,” yea, and these same riches shall yet be poured out to those who are poor indeed making them rich for eternity. What a work! To be enabled to carry on the witness to an unchanging Christ to a generation yet unborn and who shall come and declare that He hath done this. In weakness let us seek to preserve this light, in face of all opposition carry it, and the blessings of the Three One God attend us, blessings under which the little one will become a thousand. My dear friends, this is no idle sentiment although we often speak as if it were little more. This is the truth as the annals of Heaven declare it, and in time history attests it. We are not faced with a shadowy future, a mere fulfilling of our duty in our day and nothing beyond. The truth we carry is even now weighty with the glory of our Lord. In the light of the foregoing, here and now we are on the way to the fulfilling of a purpose as high as any merely human beings can be called to. Put the ear of faith to the mouth of the Word, listen long enough and you will hear the tramp of generations already on the way who shall arise and call you blessed. They will rightly gauge the import of your witness, appreciate your struggles, and prize your crown as around the feet of our Lord and theirs they praise Him as “the same yesterday and to-day and forever.”