SUNDAY MORNING No. 38.
Signs And Traditions
The work of the apostles in the first century. -- The position of
believers then. -- The same now in essence. -- The signs of the times a mere
accessory. -- Mere prophetic politicianism an abomination. -- True discipleship
independent of signs though interested in them. -- The characteristics of this
discipleship. - No sensationalism or politic-mongering. -- The joys and
contemplations of the Spirit. -- The right place for the "signs." -- Popular
conceptions of well doing misleading. -- God's requirements the only standard.
-- Scriptural principles never recognized. -- The only safe rule, yet a peculiar
danger, in its application. -- Making void the commandments by nullifying
interpretations. -- Sophistries of the enlightened traditionists. --
Illustrations. -- Resist not evil. -- Relieve the distressed. -- Stand apart
from the world. -- Apologists for disobedience. -- The test of obedience. --
Its object in probation. -- The time short. -- The end glorious.
IT is profitable to remember that the basis of our meeting this morning, and of
all the meetings we hold, and the basis of our hope concerning the future, is
the work of the apostles in the first century. Keeping this distinctly in view,
we are able to judge our position scripturally, and to conform it to the right
model in points where it may lack. As an ecclesia, or assembly of the called, we
are acceptable to God through Christ, only in so far as we are what Paul
laboured to make the ecclesias in his day.
He gives clear expression to his aim in this matter in the words found in 2 Cor.
11:2: "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to
one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
Let us try to imagine ourselves members of the community to which Paul addressed
these words, and it will help us to realize our true position as brethren and
sisters of the Lord Jesus. There was no drying Euphrates in those days; there
was no Eastern Question engaging the universal thoughts of men, and stirring
actively the hopes of those looking for Christ. The hope of Christ's appearing
was before the minds of the brethren, but not as a matter of imminent
expectation. Paul told them plainly, in writing to the Thessalonians (2 Thess.
2:2), that that day would not come until the development and manifestation of
the man-of-sin power, symbolized by the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast.
They had therefore none of the excitements that belong to the hope of Christ's
speedy reappearing. Their position was one of fidelity to Christ, based upon
deeper and more lasting considerations.
The question we must address to ourselves is: Do we participate in their
standing in this respect? Is our Position one of "repentance towards God, and
faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," without reference to the sensationalism of
public events? It is to be feared that in some cases, at all events, the true
answer would not be a satisfactory one. The nature of the times we live in
exposes men more or less to the liability of being absorbed in the signs of the
times from a merely political point of view, to the sacrifice of the real and
lasting claims of the truth on their affections. There are, doubtless, cases in
which the withdrawal of the political aspect of latter-day expectations,
connected with Christ's appearing, would leave the mind destitute of all
interest in the purpose of God. It is for us seriously to examine ourselves on
this point. Mere prophetic politicianism would be no qualification for
association with Christ in the day of his appearing. The preparation of the
bride for union with her Lord consists of something much higher than
acquaintance with the political symptoms of his approach. This acquaintance is,
of course, a characteristic of true disciples living in our period of the
world's history; but it is outside the essence of true discipleship. True
discipleship existed vigorously in the days of the apostles, when as yet the
signs of the times, in some of their details, had not been revealed. It is to
this class of discipleship that we must conform, if the advent of Christ is to
be of any advantage to us. This discipleship, while greatly interested in the
signs of the times, is independent of them for its existence. Its life is drawn
from sources deep and lasting as the universe itself. It depends not for its
warmth and activity upon the transient phases of God's political work among the
sinners of the earth. The basis of its vitality and its love is broad as the
whole work of God, from the day that Adam left the garden in sorrow. It Is
substantial and deep as the history of Israel spread over the centuries to our
own day. It is lively and real, as the power and wisdom of the God of Israel.
And true and permanent as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only abiding fact in
human history, though men see him not yet.
There is a present life in true discipleship which contrasts strikingly with the
state of mind which lives only on the sensations of expectation. We see the
features of this life reflected in all the writings of Paul and David by the
Spirit. God is an every-day fact in such a life. To thank Him and praise Him and
trust Him are its every-day exercises and luxuries. Christ is a reality in such
a life, as the priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and who is
able to save to the uttermost all those who come unto God by him. His mastership
is recognized every moment, and wisdom sought in doing his commandments. Joy is
experienced in the contemplation of his excellence, and sobriety and
purification acquired in the realization of his holiness. Prayer and meditation
in solitude are the natural reliefs of a life based on these foundations; and
the benefit of others in temporal ministration and the work of the truth, its
congenial expression. All pleasure following, and politician-mongering are alike
foreign to its vital bent. It finds adequate sphere in the jog-trot monotony of
everyday life, enduring as seeing Him who is invisible, and "choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season."
The signs of the times, to a mind modelled thus after the image of the new man
in Christ, afford gratification, but do not supply motive. The motive exists
independently of them. It is drawn from the fact of God's proprietorship of all
things, and His purpose disclosed in the Gospel, to glorify His name on the
earth and abolish all curse by Christ. Indications of the near approach of the
fulfilment of this purpose are reviving and stimulating to those who are the
subjects of this motive; but they are not essential to its life or continuance.
Abraham and all the prophets walked acceptably before God under its power, while
seeing the day afar off; consequently, their true children are everywhere
characterized by a patient and warm-hearted continuance in well-doing, without
respect to the tokens in the political sky.
In our conceptions of well-doing we must beware of being guided by popular
standards, whether in religious or secular circles. Polite society embodies the
mind of the flesh in its precepts and practices; and religious society where it
is to be found, is, as a rule, but the organic manifestation of superstition,
originating in the long established apostasy from apostolic principles, which
occurred in the first century. We must draw our inspiration from one source
only. There is no safety outside the oracles of God. The well-doing that is
acceptable to God consists of the doing of those things He has required, and we
cannot in our age learn what these things are otherwise than by the study of the
book where they are recorded. We cannot learn them from the common talk and the
current thoughts of society. Men have long since gone away from the Bible in
this matter. In fact, the world at large never have at any time received and
practised Scripture principles. The beginning of things was barbarism, and the
present situation of things is but the adaptation of barbarism to the new
circumstances created by the State adoption of a form of Christianity. Some
Bible principles are to be found in contemporary recognition; but these are only
such as are common, more or less, to all forms of civilization. Not to steal and
not to lie, are maxims which even the Pagans delighted to honour. True Bible
principles go much higher and deeper than the so-called morality of popular
discourse. They are scattered thickly all over the surface of Bible composition,
and many of them are such as the most cultivated morality of the natural mind
cannot receive. The keeping of the commandments of God, because they are His
commandments, is a rule of action out of the reach of the natural man: yet it is
the simplest rule in the household of God -- one of the first of first
principles. There is no safety for any of us apart from the adoption and
practice of this simple principle.
There is, however, one peculiar danger which has to be guarded against in the
matter. It is illustrated in what has been read this morning from the words of
Christ to Israel after the flesh. He told them they had made void the
commandments of God through their tradition. He makes his meaning plain by
giving an illustration. Moses had enjoined the reverence and support of father
and mother. To this the Jewish Rabbis had not a word of objection. They boasted
in the law, and therefore in all parts of the law. They did not dare to say
parents were not to be honoured and maintained by their children. Nevertheless,
they took the pith out of the precept by adding to it a notion of their own on
the subject. They taught that a man by a large gift to the Temple, might redeem
himself from the obligation to maintain his parents, and thus they made void the
commandment through their tradition.
This is the danger to which we in another form are exposed. Jesus has said, "Ye
are my friends if ye keep my commandments," and he gives us to understand that
by these commandments he means those delivered by his apostles as well as those
spoken by himself. Now there is not much danger of our objecting to any of the
commandments of Christ in a direct and formal way. We may, as the Scribes and
Pharisees did with Moses, make a boast of Christ and our submission to him; at
the same time like them we may make void the commandments we confess by the
traditions we invent. This is not an imaginary supposition. Christ has forbidden
us to resist evil, or recover again the goods that may be taken away from us
(Luke 6:30). To this the traditionists do not object directly; but they say duty
to society requires the prosecution of the thief. The application of this
doctrine makes it impossible that there can ever come a time for Christ's
commandment to be obeyed. Consequently, it is a tradition making void his
commandment. Christ has commanded the relief of all need that may come under our
notice, and the Samaritan-like interesting of ourselves in the distress of those
who have no claim on us. The traditionists say, "Very good, a noble precept";
but in practice they hold that it is encouraging pauperism to entertain the cry
of the needy, and that "every place should maintain its own poor." Consequently,
when the opportunities arise for obeying the commandments of Christ, their
tradition comes in to make it void, and they shut up the bowels of their
compassion, and shutting their ear to the cry of the poor, depart to their
inglorious comfort forgetting to fear the time that will come, when it may be
said to them: "Thou in thy lifetime hadst thy good things, and thy brother his
evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." Again, Christ has
forbidden the encouragement of friendship with the world, and declared the
impossibility of retaining the friendship of God and the friendship of the world
at the same time. The traditionist who loves the present world, comes in with a
tradition to the effect that too much isolation of society narrows a man's
opportunities of serving the truth, and that if the world can see that we are
good fellows, they will be more likely to listen to what we have to say for
Christ. The obedience of this tradition draws a man into association with the
lovers of pleasure, and a participation in their pursuits, with the result of a
friendship which takes away all meaning from the words of Christ, making void
his commandment.
Illustrations might be multiplied, but these must suffice on the present
occasion. No form of disobedience is so dangerous as that which is proposed
under the plea of doing good. It is an old doctrine, "Let us do evil that good
may come." Paul himself had to oppose it in his day, and his verdict on its
advocates is vigorous and unmistakable: "Whose damnation is just." Such
apologists for disobedience are far more dangerous than those who oppose Christ
out and out; for they may beguile the unwary to their destruction. A knowledge
of Christ, and a profession of subjection to him will be of no ultimate value to
us, if it turn out that through the power of our traditions we are living in
daily disobedience of his commandments.
The course of obedience may be trying to the flesh and blood. It is intended to
be so. No test of our faith could be more complete or beneficial than the
command to do things contrary to our natural inclinations, and which there is no
reason for doing but the simple one that they are commanded: but if the trial is
heavy, the prize of victory is beyond our power to estimate. And our trial is
only short at the longest. It will soon be over, even if we live the full age of
man. A human lifetime is not even a tick on the clock of eternity, and when
past, it is past never to return. Well therefore may we accept whatever portion
of the suffering of Christ comes to us through the obedience of his
commandments. Well may we say with him, "The cup which my Father has given me to
drink, shall I not drink it?" If we suffer with him we shall reign. Our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory.