“. . . Or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ. Wherefore show ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.” (II. Cor. viii. 23, 24.) As we have very solemn and important matters before us here to-night, I shall not take up time by saying anything by way of an introduction, but we shall notice briefly two things from the words read as the basis of a few remarks. I. The two-fold character of the brethren. II. The duty which ought to be performed towards them.
I. The two-fold character of the brethren.
- They are the messengers of the churches.
- They are the glory of Christ.
As my ministerial brethren know, the word that is here translated “messengers” is in the original Greek “apostles,” so that they are here spoken of as “the apostles of the churches.” Let it be noted that they are not referred to as the apostles of our Lord, but as the apostles of the churches. The word “apostle” is used in various connections in the New Testament. It is applied once to the Lord Himself. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” (Hebrews iii. 1). It is the name commonly given to those sent forth by the Lord Jesus to preach the Gospel and to organise His Church, and here, and in Philippians ii. 25, it refers to the ordinary ministers of the gospel church. Those who were sent by the Lord and are designated “Apostles” were given for a special purpose in view of the extraordinary circumstances in which the Church of the New Testament was placed at the beginning, in order, as has been stated, to organise the Church, and they were given power to work miracles and to speak with other tongues so that their teaching would be more convincing, for these gifts were for the confirming of their doctrines. These Apostles had no successors in office, for none were necessary, and there seems, in our text, to be a contrast drawn between them and the rest of the ministers of Christ in all ages, for the latter are referred to as “the apostles of the churches.” Although there is a contrast, there are also certain things in which there is an analogy between them.
(1) The word “apostle” is used of persons sent.
The ministers of the gospel are received by the churches, and judged as to their qualifications. When the church is satisfied as to these qualifications, in the men offering themselves for the ministry, and as to their call to that work, they are, after suitable and necessary preparation, sent forth to do that work for which the Church exists in the world, that is, to declare the glorious message of the Cross to a perishing world. We often see men who profess to be apostles of the churches and they seem to be at home in doing everything but to declare that message, and thus they have reversed the determination of the Apostle Paul. “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (I. Cor. ii. 2).
(2) The Apostles of our Lord were commissioned to preach the gospel to every creature.
So are the apostles of the churches for their commission also and the promise of His abiding presence is, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20). The manner in which they are to execute their commission is brought before us in the Scriptures in the advice of Paul to Timothy. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II. Tim. ii. 15), and also when he says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” (II. Tim. iv. 2.) In order to find the exact terms of their commission they must go to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and they have no authority to go elsewhere. It may truly be said that all the declensions that ever plagued the visible church in this world are the direct result of the neglect of the Scriptures, and of men taking counsel with their own wicked hearts. As Cæsar’s wife must be above suspicion, so must the true apostles of the churches be above consulting with flesh and blood, or pandering to the world and its ways.
(3) The apostles of the churches must continue in the Apostles’ doctrine.
We read that those, on the day of Pentecost, who believed, “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship,” and, as the apostles of the churches are guides in spiritual matters to those who form the church, they must give no other doctrine but that which was taught by the Apostles. It was for adhering to the doctrine of the Apostles as they, probably, learned it from those who were the apostles of the churches, that the Apostle Paul commends the Romans when he says, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” (Rom. vi. 17). The same Apostle is very explicit on this point when he says to Timothy, an apostle of the churches, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” (I. Tim. iv. 13). Their continuance in the Apostles’ doctrine must be proved by the matter of their preaching. Due emphasis must be laid on man’s condition as fallen in Adam. The Scriptures clearly reveal to us what the Apostles’ doctrine was on this point, and so it must be set forth, with no uncertain sound, that sin entered into the world through our first parents yielding to the temptation of Satan, and that their Fall plunged themselves and their whole posterity into an estate of sin and misery. “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom. iii. 9-12). In connection with that it must be shown clearly that all the miseries of this life, all the tokens of God’s wrath which are seen in this world, death and hell, are all the fruits of sin, for “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. vi. 23). Where such views of man’s condition are declared it must be clearly set forth that, through the Fall, man came into possession of a corrupt nature; that in his heart there is a corrupt fountain which is like the troubled sea, continually casting up mire and dirt, and that this corruption has permeated all the faculties of the soul and all the members of the body, so that the whole human race is as an unclean thing, and all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. If the apostles of the churches had nothing to declare but man’s lost and ruined condition it would beget despair, but in the Apostles’ doctrine, in which they are to continue, there is also set before us a remedy—a rich, great and glorious remedy, expressly provided to meet with the lost and ruined condition of man. They must, therefore, set Christ before their hearers as an all-suitable and all-sufficient Saviour. Their preaching must be largely taken up with the doctrine of the Person of Christ, His offices and His Atoning Work, and what more glorious news could an ambassador of the Cross have for ruined and perishing sinners than, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (II. Cor. v. 21)? Christ must be thus set before sinners. I remember shortly after I was ordained as a minister getting a letter from the late Pastor J. K. Popham, Brighton, whose personal friendship I value as one of the most precious privileges I enjoyed. At the time he was very advanced in years, and after referring to my ordination, he said, “Your ministry is beginning, mine is ending, and I will say to you what my minister said to me when I began to preach first: “Make much of Christ!” All true apostles of the churches will “make much of Christ” as God’s only remedy to meet with the lost and ruined condition of sinners. In doing so they must bear in mind that they have to do with dead sinners, and no matter how they proclaim to them God’s glorious provision in Christ, they cannot stretch forth a hand to receive it. Thus they are bound to set before their hearers the work of the Holy Spirit. I wish to lay special emphasis on this, for the reason that the work of the Holy Spirit is very much ignored in our day, so much so, that many congregations can say with the disciples who met Paul at Ephesus, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” The work of the Holy Spirit had a large place in the preaching of the Saviour Himself, and especially in His wonderful discourses to His disciples. The particular nature of that work is brought before us in connection with the promise that He would send them another comforter, and His statement as to what that Comforter was to do. According to the doctrine of the Apostles it is the Holy Spirit that reveals the “deep things of God”; it is through the Spirit that the Lord’s people mortify the deeds of the body, and it is the Spirit that helps their infirmities and makes intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. It is only by the Holy Spirit that any can say that Jesus is Lord; it is by the Holy Spirit that the Lord’s people are renewed, and it is by the self-same Spirit that they are sealed after they believe. Therefore, not to give prominence to the Holy Spirit in the work of applying to sinners the salvation wrought out by Christ is to neglect a part of the doctrine of the Apostles, and a sure way of grieving the Holy Spirit away.
(4) They must also continue in the Apostles’ fellowship.
In the passage quoted already from Acts ii. 42, to continue in the Apostles’ fellowship seems to be of equal importance with continuing in their doctrine. This is one reason why the Apostle John declared those things which he had seen and heard, to those to whom he was writing; “that ye also may have fellowship with us.” (I. John i. 3.) To continue in the Apostles’ fellowship, that must be done in one’s walk in the world. Paul lays special emphasis on this when he says “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.” (Phil. iii. 17); And again, in writing to the Thessalonians, he mentions his independence in not eating “any man’s bread,” but “wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.” He gives his reason for this by saying, “Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.” (II. Thess. iii. 9). Truly the example of the Apostles, in their walk and conversation, was worthy of being followed, and, as it was so, Paul was not ashamed to recommend the followers of Christ, whether they were the “apostles of the churches” or those who occupied a less public position in the Church, to follow it in their walk. “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” (I. Thess. ii. 10). As they must continue in the Apostles’ fellowship they must, in doing so, countenance no other doctrine but that which the Apostles taught. We have seen already what that doctrine is, and as it was in the days of the Apostles so it is in our day, that the doctrine which they taught is denied. The Fall of man, the electing love of God, the substitutionary work of the Redeemer, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the doctrine of everlasting punishment are all denied, but those who are the apostles of the churches have no right to deny these doctrines for they find them in the Scriptures, and must treat those who deny these doctrines as emissaries of Satan and open enemies of the Cross of Christ. It is also necessary in continuing in the Apostles’ fellowship, they should continue in the Apostles’ Church. To do so is given in Scripture as a mark by which those who are approved are known. “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” My mind was recently led very much to the two marks which John Calvin gives of the true Church, that is, there must be the preaching of the gospel in its purity, and along with it, the Sacraments as they were instituted by Christ Himself. I may point out, in connection with this, that the reason why we, as a Church, stand separate from other churches is, that a day came upon the Church in Scotland when one of these marks was lost, that is, the preaching of the gospel in its purity. Men brought into the Creed and Constitution of the once-glorious Free Church of Scotland some things that were the very antithesis of the letter and spirit of the gospel, and in order to have a Church which had these two distinctive marks our fathers had to separate, and for their doing so we have no reason to hang our heads. We have a church with a testimony, and a testimony of which we have no reason to be ashamed, and we have no right to unite with any church in Scotland until they return to that which they forsook, and express profound regret for having forsaken the truth. We have, as a Church, these two marks to-day as we had when a separate position was taken up and, woe betide, the man or woman who will depart from such a church as that. They lay themselves open to the charge of gross and uncalled-for schism. Those who are the apostles of the churches must also have the same end in view as the Apostles of our Lord, that is, the glory of God and the good of souls. They must be at one with Paul when he says, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. ‘In all things Christ must have the pre-eminence. As the Cross of Christ alone affords a reason for glorying to every saved sinner, so the ambassadors of the Cross must be diligent in setting forth, before perishing sinners, the glorious news that because of Christ’s death on the Cross, reconciliation is preached to them. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (II. Cor. v. 20).
2. They are the glory of Christ.
(1) They are the glory of Christ as they testify to His power.
They are privileged to set forth before a perishing world a Saviour who is able “to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” In doing so they can fall back on many Scripture instances, such as the notable ones of Manasseh, who made the streets of Jerusalem run red with the blood of the saints, the thief on the cross, who reviled his Saviour even after the pangs of death had already laid hold on him, and of Saul of Tarsus who felt the arresting power of his Saviour on that never-to-be forgotten day when he was on the way to Damascus and “exceedingly mad” against those who followed Christ. In doing so they testify, to His glory, His exceeding great power in coming over all obstacles in order to procure the liberty of His people; yea, vanquishing death itself, overcoming the power of the grave and spoiling principalities and powers and making a show of them openly. They are the glory of Christ when they testify to His power, by saying with His heritage, “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.” (Ps. lxxviii. 20.)
(2) They are the glory of Christ when they testify to His grace in themselves.
They are called freely by His grace, justified freely by His grace. His grace is sufficient for them, they have forgiveness according to the riches of His grace, and they have a good hope through grace. Paul showed forth the glory of Christ when, from the dust of self-abasement, he wrote, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephes. iii. 8). Thus we see him seeking, through that grace, to show forth the glory of Christ, “that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”
(3) Their life, their dependence on Him, their zeal and their faithfulness all redound to the glory of Christ.
As we see again in Paul, for he could truly say, “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” It is this humble spirit, so characteristic of all true apostles of the churches, which makes them the glory of Christ. They have a low estimation of their own abilities and attainments, and count anything they have done themselves as nothing. This forcibly reminds me of a visit I paid to the late Miss Morton, Glasgow, whom some here to-night knew very well. On this particular occasion she was after coming back from the North, and, in course of conversation she mentioned that she was present one evening in the manse in Dingwall at family worship. It was the last summer that the late Rev. D. MacFarlane was in this world, and in his concluding prayer she noted the following petition, “Lord, wilt Thou not give us to do something for Thy Cause before Thou wilt take us away.” When one remembers what Mr MacFarlane was privileged to do, directly and indirectly, not only in Scotland, but wherever the testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church has been raised, one is struck with his conformity to our Lord’s advice, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke xvii. 10). Truly, in his very humility in these matters, where he showed the greatest consistency, dependence on God, zeal and faithfulness, he was the glory of Christ, and reminds one of the exclamation of the Holy Spirit, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” (Rom. x. 15).
(To be continued.)