Church Principles

Lecture given by Rev. D. MacLean, Glasgow, in St. Jude’s Hall, on 2nd January, 1967.
(Taken down by a hearer)

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” (2 Timothy, ch.1, v.8)

We know from this epistle that the Apostle Paul was coming near the end of his journey in the world. He was coming to that condition of soul in which he was looking forward to the end of his course, having “fought a good fight” and finished his course, and “kept the faith.” He said, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”1 Timothy, who was evidently converted under him and who was his “dearly beloved son” in the faith, was being left in the world along with others to carry on the testimony of the Lord, to carry on the work of the cause of Christ in the world. Paul is therefore writing to Timothy from this point of view. He was turning his back on the battlefield of time, and entering into the victory that Christ has promised to those who love Himself. “To him that overcometh,” He said, “will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.”2 Therefore we find brought before us, in connection with this epistle itself, the principle that is taught in the Word of God right from the very beginning of the history of the Church of God in the world, that is—the principle of passing on to the rising generation the testimony of the Lord, the principles, the doctrines, the worship, and the practice of the Church of God. That is the purpose of this lecture, and that is the spirit that is behind it, despite what is said by others that on such occasions as this we indulge in miscalling other churches and so on. That is a false charge like many other charges which are made against us, and a charge that has no foundation in fact. The principle of this lecture is the carrying down, the passing on to the rising generation of those principles and doctrines and practice which pertain to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.
1. 2 Timothy, ch. 4, v. 6.
2. Revelation, ch. 3, v. 21.

Now in connection with the words in this particular verse, you will notice that the Apostle Paul says to Timothy in speaking of the testimony of the Lord, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner.” That is to say, that the Apostle Paul here had the same testimony as the testimony of the Lord. The testimony of Christ and the testimony of Paul were one and the same thing. That is the claim that Paul himself makes here when he says to Timothy not to be “ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.” He also says “nor of me His prisoner.” His being in prison on this occasion for the sake of the cause of Christ is mentioned by him here as being a prisoner for the Lord’s sake, and a prisoner because of the testimony of the Lord. Now, it is fashionable in modern religious circles to endeavour to drive a wedge between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul; that is to say, that some are prepared to accept what they call the gospel preached by Christ, and to allege that that gospel is vitiated and spoiled by the views of Paul. We see from these words that Paul did not have that mind at all, and indeed it is a lie that cannot be sustained from the Word of God itself; but he declared with regard to himself that the testimony he had was also the testimony of the Lord. These two testimonies were not two different testimonies but they were the same testimony—a testimony that he had received from the Lord, and a testimony that he had held to during his course in this world, and a testimony in connection with which he expected to receive “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”1 So the attempt which is made nowadays to despise the Pauline epistles, to despise the teaching of Paul, as though it was in some way contrary to the teaching of Christ, is, of course, one of the many figments of the imaginations of those who like to call themselves modern scholars. There is no foundation for it whatsoever, and even in these circles there is a realising, a kind of feeling that this putting of a hiatus (as it is called) between Paul and Jesus will not really stand up to examination. But as we see here the testimony of the Lord and the testimony of Paul was one and the same thing. The testimony of Christ is the spirit of prophecy—the testimony of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets, Moses himself, David, and all the writers of the Word of God—they had the testimony of the Lord, and they were conscious that it was the testimony of the Lord that they did have.
1. 2 Timothy, ch. 4, v. 8.

We shall make a few remarks on that subject first of all, that is—”the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner.”

In the second place, we shall consider what is involved in the principle, set before us here by Paul, and set before us in the Word of God in every place, of passing down the testimony of the Lord to the generations to come.

In the third place, we will notice Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, that this was not to be an easy matter, that it was a matter in which he would meet with opposition of various kinds and descriptions, a matter in which he would be a “partaker of the afflictions of the gospel,” a matter in which he would be tempted to be ashamed, and in which he needed the exhortation, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord;” and the need he had of the power of God to sustain him in maintaining, in setting forth, in asserting the testimony of the Lord. He needed the power of God and that power described here as this: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”1 This was absolutely necessary in connection with meeting the afflictions of the gospel, in connection with not being ashamed. Paul himself declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”2 And “I am set” he said, “for the defence of the gospel,”3 and when he was set in that way, and Timothy is following his footsteps along these lines, he was to be dependent not upon the strength of man, not upon the wisdom of man, but upon the power of God—the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Power, and Who is the Spirit of Love, and Who is the Spirit Who gives a sound, healthy, well-informed understanding of the doctrines of the Word of God.
1. 2 Timothy, ch. 1, v. 7.
2. Romans, ch. 1, v. 16.
3. Philippians, ch. 1, v. 17.

The first thing we notice with regard to “the testimony of our Lord” and of His prisoner, Paul, as I mentioned already, is that it is the testimony set before us in the Word of God. It is a testimony of this nature, that it concerns God’s revelation of Himself to the children of men. It is the nature of a testimony, in this sense of the term, that it claims to be the only revelation that God has given of Himself to the children of men suitable to their condition, as lost, guilty, hell-deserving, sinners who are enemies to God through wicked works; that this testimony of the revelation of God is to be found nowhere else but in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”1 That is an essential part of the Christian religion. The Christian religion is exclusive in the sense that it excludes any other form of religion; that it sets aside Mohammedanism, that it condemns Buddhism, that it condemns Hinduism, that it condemns the other forms of idolatry with which the world is filled, and that it declares that “the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth,”2 and shines in the face, in the person, and in the work of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This testimony is of this nature, and it is sad indeed to see how men have departed from this simple, elementary principle of Christianity. I have mentioned already how at the Commonwealth act of worship which took place in June, 1966 to which the Queen, I regret to say went, there was an act of worship involving the members of the Commonwealth, and the different religions that belong to them. That act which took place in this country, and in which the Queen of this land was involved, was an absolute denial of the testimony of Christ. It was a complete denial of this fact—that Christ is the Way, that Christ is the Truth, and that Christ is the Life, and that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. It is an absolutely essential part of the testimony of the Lord, part of the testimony of Paul, and part of the testimony of the Church of God that Christ is the One in Whom the Father has made Himself known, and that “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”3
1. John, ch. 14, v. 6.
2. John, ch. 2, v. 8.
3. John, ch. 1, v. 18.

The testimony of the Lord also involves, as I mentioned, the Lord’s revealing Himself in a way that was suitable to the condition in which man is. It is abundantly plain from the Scripture that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”4 It is abundantly plain from the Scripture that we are born in sin and “shapen in iniquity.” It is abundantly plain from the Scripture that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,” neither indeed can he, “because they are spiritually discerned.” Man is spiritually dead, man is spiritually blind, man is spiritually deaf, and man is incapable of understanding “the things of the Spirit of God” as he is by nature. Therefore, the revelation in Christ, and the revelation that meets the condition in which man finds himself to be, and in which the Scripture testifies he is, is a revelation of a Saviour. “Verily,” we read in one part of the Word of God, “Thou art . . . the Saviour.” “A just God and a Saviour.” “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself,” says the prophet, “O God of Israel, the Saviour.”1 This revelation that we have mentioned by Paul here is of Him “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”2 The testimony of the Lord embraces a revelation of the love of God, and a revelation of the love of God as a love that had a purpose. Now I think that it is very necessary for us to get a clear grasp of this particular point. There was purpose in the love of God, and purpose in the grace of God, and purpose in the loving grace of God “before the world began.” We read in connection with Jeremiah, that he says with regard to the Lord, “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”3 The love of God is everlasting love, and it has as its purpose the salvation of a number that no man can number of the human family. It is abundantly plain from the Word of God that there are those who are loved with this love—not the general benevolent love of God whereby He causes the sun to rise upon the just and the unjust, and the rain to fall upon the good and the evil, and showers the blessings of His providence upon the children of men.
4. Romans, ch. 3, v. 23.
1. Isaiah, ch. 45, v. 15.
2. Timothy, ch. 1, v. 9.
3. Jeremiah, ch. 31, v. 3.

This is the purpose of the saving love of God: it is extended to a number that no man can number of the human family who are in the election of grace, and the rest of mankind have been passed by. Now this is evident, not only because the Word of God teaches it, but it is evident that as one generation goes, and another comes, as generation follows generation, all are not saved. It is evident that all are not saved, and to say that it was in the purpose of God to save all, yet all are not saved, is to deny that God carries out His purposes, and that is a piece of blasphemy. Those who hold the view that God loved all, and that Christ died for all, are holding a view that is completely unscriptural, although it is a view common in our day and generation. But it is not part of the testimony of Christ, nor is it part of the testimony of Paul, nor is it part of the testimony of Jeremiah, nor is it part of the testimony of any of the people of God who are brought before us in the Word of God. The love of God going out to the election of grace is of this very nature—it passes by the rest of mankind and leaves them to carry on in their sins. On this particular point, when we speak about God’s passing by sinners, it does not make their condition any worse than it was before. It does not indeed, affect them at all. Those who live where the Gospel is, obtain many blessings in connection with the Gospel. They have the blessing of the Word of God and the teachings of God’s Word, but what is denied them is saving grace, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and being eventually glorified at death, and their bodies being raised being made like unto the body of Christ on the morning of the resurrection. This is denied them. They are passed by. This saving grace, regenerating grace, is withheld from them and they are left to carry on their sins, and in their iniquities, and consequently they add sin to sin, and treasure up “wrath against the day of wrath,” as the Scriptures teach.

Further, we read, as we have brought before us here, that the revelation of the God of salvation is in the person and in the work of this One Whose name shall be called Jesus “for He shall save His people from their sins.”1 Christ came in the fulness of time as the eternal Son of God and became Man, and in the human nature He wrought out salvation for His people. He is “the Good Shepherd” and “the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”2 He died, having in design the salvation of the elect. The death required was that His blood would be shed, and that He would endure the sufferings and death that Divine Justice required the Son of God to endure, in order to atone for the sins of God’s people and to satisfy the claims of Divine Justice. Also, the testimony of Jesus embraces effectual calling—”called us with an holy calling.” As Christ said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”3 This revelation of the necessity of the regenerating work of the Holy Ghost, of the heavenly calling, is part of the testimony of Jesus; whereby, through the Spirit of God, the blessing of the life that shall never end, is imparted to the soul, so that he is made conscious of his sinnership, and brought by faith to embrace Christ and to follow Him through good and evil report.
1. Matthew, ch. 1, v. 21.
2. John, ch. 10, v. 11.
3. John, ch. 3, v. 3.

This involves the setting forth of this revelation, and brings me to this aspect of the “testimony of our Lord,” and of Paul, and of Isaiah and Jeremiah and all those other “holy men of God” who wrote the Word of God. We find this revelation as it was revealed to Moses, as it was revealed to the Children of Israel, as it was revealed to David, to Samuel, to Jeremiah, and right down through the Old Testament now recorded in words. Then when Christ Himself came, in Whom the full revelation was given, this revelation was recorded. It was set down in words, so that when the Apostle writing to the Hebrews says, as you remember, that God, “at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” he also says, “hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”1 Christ declared that his Apostles were to be given the Holy Spirit to lead them “into all truth,” so that from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation we have the inspired Word of God, described by the Apostle in these words: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”2 As I have pointed out again and again, this word “inspired” is apt in its English form (because it came through the French) to give the impression that by “inspired” we mean that God breathed into the Scripture, or that we mean that God breathed into the men who wrote the Scriptures. Now the Greek word which is translated “inspiration” here, is not of that nature at all—it does not teach that. It is true that God did breathe into the men who wrote the Scriptures, but that is not the meaning of “inspiration” in this part of the Word of God. What the word means is “God-breathed.” And what it teaches is no less than this: that the Breath of God is the Author of Scripture, that is, that the Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture. You remember that Christ breathed upon his disciples, and said to them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,”3 and the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, is often referred to as “the Breath of God.” Now this point cannot be made too clear, nor can it be emphasised too often: that by “inspiration” we mean that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. In writing the Word of God, He used pen-men like Moses, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and so on—”holy men of God spake” and wrote, “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”4 By a special act of the Holy Spirit, they were so guided and led, that they wrote the Word of God without error and without human wisdom. They “were moved by the Holy Ghost;” they were borne along by the Holy Ghost; they were under the complete control of the Holy Ghost so that they were preserved from error when they wrote the Word of God. That is what we mean when we say that the Scripture is inerrant, and when we say that the Scripture is infallible. We mean that its Author is God. If there are lies in the Word of God, the men who are saying that are charging God with being a liar. They are charging Christ with being a liar. They are charging the Apostle Paul with being a liar. When Christ said, “The Scripture cannot be broken,” He said that about the Old Testament. He made it perfectly plain that “the Scripture cannot be broken,”1 and if there are lies in the Old Testament, then Christ is a false witness. But when you read the lives and the writings of the men who take upon themselves to say that Christ or Paul were not telling the truth, that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were not telling the truth, that Isaiah was not telling the truth when he was prophesying, and so on—when we look at the lives and conduct of these men and what they did for the cause of Christ, and compare what Paul did, what Matthew did, what Isaiah did, what Jeremiah did for the cause of Christ, you, my dear friends, who have any common sense at all, are going to know who to choose to believe. But there is a far higher level than that and it is this—the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God; they claim that inspiration, and that revelation belongs to them; so that we have in the testimony of Jesus, and in the testimony of Paul, and in the testimony of the Word of God, this revelation complete. All is complete, and there is no need for any other revelation.
1. Hebrews, ch. 1, vv. 1, 2.
2. 2 Timothy, ch. 3, v. 16.
3. John, ch. 20, v. 12.
4. 2 Peter, ch. 1, v. 21.
1 I. John, ch. 10, v. 35.

There is no need for people to come telling us that they have received a special revelation from Heaven. We have this revelation in the Word of God, and it is no use for the Mormons telling us that Joseph Smith received a special revelation from Heaven, and all that kind of thing. These are only deceptions and delusions by men who are the sad victims of the Devil. We have in the Word of God “the testimony of our Lord.” We have in the Word of God the testimony of Jesus. We have in the Word of God the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, and every man and woman who is a Christian believes that. I am going to come to that now. You see there is a distinction between the Word of God being inspired, and the Word of God becoming the Word of God to you and to me in our spiritual experience.

The Word of God is inspired although there would not be a Christian (although that would be impossible) on the face of the earth. But the fact remains that before a sinner can come spiritually, livingly, savingly, and truly to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, he must be renewed by the Spirit of God. I mention this again and again on Sabbath nights, especially for the sake of young people who are in colleges, and, from what I hear, some of the things that they are taught in colleges and by so-called ministers giving religious instruction, are shocking in the extreme. But one of the things that young people ought to remember, and we all ought to remember this: that when a man rejects the Bible he does not reject it because he is a scientist; he does not reject it because he is a philosopher; he does not reject it because he is a learned man; he does not reject it because of any capacities of intellect that he may have. He rejects it because he is a sinner, and because he is an enemy to God, and because he is full of the carnal mind which “is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”1 Not only does the intellectual world reject it, but the fisherman, and the ploughman, and those who never had the advantages of education, reject it just as well. They reject it not because they are not educated, not because they have not got systems of philosophy, not because they don’t know about the mathematics or the dynamics of the atomic bomb and atomic energy and so on, but they reject the Word of God for exactly the same reason—because they are sinners; because they are rebels against God, and because they will not submit to God’s Word. But the fact remains that wherever the Holy Spirit does a saving work, and the soul is regenerated by the power of the Spirit of God, that soul receives God’s Word. As Paul said to the Thessalonians, and he said it in the clearest possible way, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,” and the Author of the power—”and in the Holy Ghost,” and the nature of the power—”in much assurance;” that is to say, assurance that this is the Word of God, and that it is the testimony of the Lord, and that this is the One in Whom salvation alone can be found. So that as far as the doctrine of God’s Word is concerned, and the testimony of the Lord in connection with that, it is to be found in the Word of God, and in the Word of God alone. That which will not stand the scrutiny of God’s Word is to be rejected. Nothing is to be received as doctrine but that which is founded upon “the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.”2
1. Romans, ch. 8, v. 7.
2. 1 Peter, ch. 1, v. 23.

The testimony of the Lord also embraces this: it embraces the worship of God. The Word of God that we have, and the revelation that God has given us, is in order that He may be worshipped. As we were pointing out not long ago, when Noah came out of the ark, and came on to the earth which had been cleansed of that generation by the judgment of the flood, the first thing he did was to set up an altar to God. That worship, and I mention this so often that it will not be necessary for me to elaborate on it, consists first of all of certain acts. I was mentioning last Sabbath the form of worship taken over by the New Testament Church, in which we live, and which is “a kingdom which cannot be moved.”1 You see the Old Testament Church, for all its apparent stability, for all the thunders in Sinai, for all the building of the temple at Jerusalem, for all the activities of the Jews in connection with that, was a dispensation that was to pass away. And it did pass away. But with regard to the New Testament dispensation, and with regard to the New Testament Church, we read in the Word of God these words, “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved.” The New Testament Church is “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” It is not to be altered, and it is not to be changed in its essential doctrines, neither is it to be altered or changed in its worship. Therefore we find that the apostolic church took over the worship of the synagogue, not the worship of the temple. The worship of the temple was a worship that came to an end.
1. Hebrews, ch. 12, v. 28.

We find these principles brought before us in connection with the worship of God: the principle of prayer—calling upon the name of the Lord, and the principle of reading the Word of God—that is an act of worship. Reading the Word of God is an act of worship. I mentioned before in the hearing of some of you with regard to Mr MacLeod who is in Ullapool, an old minister of 94 years. He was telling me on one occasion, that, before our Church came into separate existence, when he was working in a shop in Portree as a very young lad, that he went into the Free Church there, and the minister, Mr Reid, was reading the Word of God, and when he came to the words, as he read the chapter, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life,” the Holy Spirit blessed these words to this young lad for the first time in his spiritual experience—the reading of the Word of God. The preaching of the Word of God is another principle of worship. True preaching is an exposition of the Word of God. It has got nothing to do with pleasing people, nothing to do with saying what people would like you to say, nothing to do with pleasing certain people, even although they would be spiritually minded people. There are some spiritually minded people who are not very keen on hearing some doctrines of God’s Word, and that is not to their credit, nor does it say very much for their spiritual mindedness. The essence of preaching is an exposition of the Word of God with exhortations and warnings based upon that exposition, as an exposition which is according to the mind of the Spirit of God. Preaching is not hanging a sermon on a text, or working out a sermon according to one’s own mind, and then finding a text to hang it on. That is not preaching the gospel at all. It may pass for it. Preaching the gospel is getting a portion of Truth on one’s mind, the Holy Spirit opening up that portion of Truth as a true exposition of that part of the Word of God, and then based on that exposition the exhortations, the warnings and the invitations bound up with that. That is part of the worship of God. Now you would think according to what we hear nowadays among those who only preach, as you know, for ten minutes, (and probably that ten minutes is a waste of time at any rate), that the worship of God should be filled with praise and singing of hymns, and organs booming, and that the sermon should not take up too long, as though the sermon was not an act of worship. Yet the preaching of the Word of God is the effectual means used most often by the Holy Spirit for the conversion of sinners, for the building up of God’s people in their most holy faith, and it is under the preaching of the Word of God that their souls truly get into the frame and spirit of worship. Then, of course, there is the singing of God’s praises. That is a part in which the congregation all join together, and that is one of the most precious parts of the worship of God. An occasion when the congregation join together to sing the praises of God. Now, as you know, and we believe this to be the testimony of Jesus and the testimony of Paul, the manual of praise to be used in the New Testament worship is the Book of Psalms, and that is a principle in our Church. We do not hold to that just because we are Scots Presbyterians, (as people say), or Free Presbyterians. We do not hold to that as a tradition. Other churches may hold to that as tradition. We hold to the Book of Psalms being the manual of praise because it was inspired by God the Holy Ghost, given to the Old Testament Church, and passed over into the New Testament Church. The expression. “psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs” used by the Apostle Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians, just embraces three types in the Book of Psalms—the three-fold division of the Book of Psalms. It has got nothing whatsoever to do with hymns of human composition. Hymns of human composition were not heard in Scotland since the days of the Reformation until the last century, and then they were brought in in a subtle way. Every congregation was left to do as they pleased—whether they would use hymns or not, instead of excluding from the worship of God hymns of human composition. We have now got to the position where the present Church of Scotland is wanting to make a new hymnal, and from that new hymnal they are going to put out even those hymns which are evangelical and Scriptural, and to put in hymns which are very far from such a spirit. All this arises from the fact that they have forsaken the Book of Psalms as the manual of praise. Then again we believe that in praise, the mouth is the true instrument of praise in public worship. We believe this to be the testimony of Jesus. We do not believe it just because we are Scots Presbyterians. We believe it because it is according to the Word of God that the mouth solely would be used in the praise of God. Instrumental music, which belonged to the worship of the temple, was typical like all the worship of the temple. The sacrifices, the shedding of blood, the sprinkling of blood, the priesthood, all that pertained to the Old Testament economy was typical. It was setting forth the glory of the kingdom, of which Christ was to be the Head, by type and shadow, and instrumental music only had to do with showing forth the praise of God by type and shadow. Therefore you find the Apostle Paul when he is describing the fulfilment of the Old Testament dispensation in his epistle to the Hebrews, where he is speaking about the priesthood, the sacrifices, the shedding of blood, now all being fulfilled in Christ, tells us how the praise of the temple is to be fulfilled in the New Testament Church. “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.”1 Those who have introduced instrumental music into the church are two thousand years out of date, although they would like us to believe, if we were so naive and simple, that they are modern, and that they are catering for modern taste and so on. They are back in the childhood of the Church. Praising God, then, is part of the testimony of Jesus.
1. Hebrews, ch. 13, v. 15.

(To be continued)