SIMPLICITY is a valuable characteristic of the Church of Christ when it follows upon Biblical and apostolic practice as the divinely given guide and example, relating to its several activities, such as Worship, the ministry of the Gospel and government. Simplicity is the quality of being simple, that is, without complication, possessing clearness, freedom from unnecessary and excessive adornment, plainness and sincerity. And this quality we claim, should indeed be outstanding with respect to the gospel which in the promulgation thereof, is the most prominent part of the activities of Christ’s Church.
The gospel, for a sinful, lost world, is described in the Words of the Angel to the shepherds thus: “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in this city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke ii, 10, 11). Of course these glad tidings to sinners of all nations concerning a Saviour, derive their doctrine, substance and glory, not only from the birth or Incarnation of the Son of God, as Emmanuel God with us; but from the great transactions involved in His substitutionary and sacrificial death, wherein sin was put away and eternal life procured for multitudes of our fallen race; and also from the glorious resurrection of the Saviour and His prevailing intercession in heaven: “… by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrew, ix. 12).
When and where the truths and tidings of the Gospel of Christ are declared to lost sinners, thereby there is commended the love of God to the ungodly: “But God commended his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans v. 8). And so the Gospel speaks plainly of God, of the reality of His Sovereign, unmerited and amazing love as exercised toward sinners, and of this love being manifested essentially through the sufferings and Cross of Emmanuel.
The clear design of the Gospel is (in part), that it be instrumental in bringing sinners to repentance towards God and to believe the testimony that God gives therein concerning His Son Jesus Christ, and that in believing sinners might have everlasting life through His name: “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John xx. 31). Nothing plainer is written in the Bible from whence Gospel doctrine is derived; although at the same time, we do not forget that all divine truth is profound, but it is not here complicated in its terms. Thus the Gospel, instrumentality, has in view the salvation of undone, lost men.
Now, the Saviour himself has commanded that the Gospel be preached in all the world, and to every creature; and doubtless, as he may guide and assist His Church to apply itself to this task. As He said: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” This is a clear command which requires His Church to concentrate upon, and restrict itself very considerably, to the preaching of the Gospel, as to its activities which have in view the salvation of precious souls. There is, of course, the reading of the Word, the Sacraments, the godly counsel and example of believers, Scriptural writings, and prayer, and so on. But the simple ordinance of the preaching of the truths of the Gospel, is especially enjoined.
Further, we find that when Paul deals with “the preaching of the Cross” in I. Corinthians, chapter I, he asserts that “… it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (verse 21). Charles Hodge, D.D., observes that this means “the preaching of foolishness in the estimation of men. The doctrine of the Cross was foolishness in the estimation of men. God thus put to shame all human wisdom by making a doctrine which the wise of the world regarded as absurd, the means of salvation.” Dr. Charles Hodge further states in this connection the very point we had in mind to emphasise strongly, viz., “This passage clearly teaches … that it is the preaching or public proclamation of that doctrine which is the great means of salvation.” Of course this preaching may be to few or many, in a building or on the hill-side. Jesus preached to and taught the woman of Samaria, to her salvation. Peter preached the Gospel of his Master to multitudes on the day of Pentecost, and many were saved and added to the living Church. Philip went up into the chariot with the Ethiopian eunuch, and preached Jesus to this man from the fiftythird chapter of Isaiah. The eunuch was brought to believe that day, that Jesus was the Son of God, and went on his way rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. How simple, unadorned and wonderfully plain the means used by the divine Master and through just the preaching of divine and Gospel truth!
But the success of the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ in the salvation of lost men on the brink of hell, is always and alone secured by God, in the sending forth of the almighty power and energy of His Holy Spirit, to make the ordinance of the preaching, quick, powerful, convincing and converting in the experience of those “ordained unto eternal life.” And so the Apostle writes: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (I. Cor. iii. 6). And so let us ever seek, as preachers and hearers, to have a deeper and clearer view of the fact, the vital fact, the divinely revealed fact that the blessed and glorious Spirit of God operates effectively and savingly in the souls of sinners, through the plain, clear, uncomplicated instrument of the preaching of the Gospel.
And so, when the Holy Spirit comes, according to the purpose of heaven, to bring sin benighted sinners to the knowledge of Christ, He will not own for example, the intricate blasphemy of the Mass, wax candles, confessional boxes, silver crosses, and so on. He does not require for His purpose the invented offices of Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, to further the work of the Gospel. All these are at variance with the Gospel itself and the simplicity thereof. And all the costly buildings with their appeal to the aesthetic tastes of men, built for religious purposes, have really nothing in common with the simplicity of the Gospel, and contribute nothing to the salvation of men. And ecclesiastical government apart, what have curates, vicars, deans, archdeacons, Canons and Bishops, etc., in such as the Church of England, to contribute to the simplicity of the Gospel, as to their varied offices? Nothing at all! And as to another aspect of religious activities the massed choirs, the solo singers, the costly organs and enquiry rooms—such are not to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read of Christ’s pure Gospel preached with the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and Christ honoured by multitudes being brought to believe on His precious name.
It is quite apparent to us that a multiplicity of religious activities, organisations, ceremonies, schemes, and such like, apart from the means, inherent in the simplicity of the Gospel for the conversion of sinners, are being used, and so to speak, tried out upon the people of this land as a substitute, not only for the doctrines and authority of the Gospel, but for the power which is most evidently lacking to bring men and women, young and old, to have even a superficial respect for and attachment to, the professed Christian Church, not to speak of conversion.
Amid all our sins, backslidings and imperfections as a people, there are those “who cry and sigh for the abominations done in the land.” Such do pray earnestly for the coming of the Holy Spirit, being deeply sensible of His absence from the church today. And such being truly godfearing among us, realize that the Holy Spirit is sovereign, as well as almighty, in regard to His visitations to the Church of Christ, to a people or to a land. And in the spiritual understanding of this solemn fact, they continue to cleave to the simplicity of the Gospel, with deep affection; knowing in their hearts and by the clear light of Scripture, that the outstanding means appointed by God, for the salvation of sinners and the edification of believers, is the preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus. And thus they reject and disown all human contrivances, which are calculated to undermine the ordinance of preaching the Gospel and the simplicity which ought to characterise it. Their spiritual exercise, amid all the signs of spiritual death in the Church and the world, includes a waiting upon God, and a pleading with Him, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to send forth, in His unmerited grace, the power of the Holy Ghost whose office and work it is to convince men of sin and to reveal Christ to their immortal souls, and to thus glorify Christ. And when He will come, He will ignore such as religious films and nativity plays and all the unwarranted products of carnal men and wisdom, and recognise and use the reading and especially the preaching of the Word as the instruments for His saving work.