Chapter 1
God's Purpose for His Church
The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was
organised for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the
world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church
shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The
members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His
marvellous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the
repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church
will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and
powers in heavenly places," the final and full display of the love
of God. Ephesians 3:10.
Many and wonderful are the promises recorded in the Scriptures
regarding the church. "Mine house shall be called an house of
prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:7. "I will make them and the
places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to
come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."
"And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be
no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the
heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with
them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are My people, saith the
Lord God. And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am
your God, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel 34:26, 29-31.
"Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have
chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He:
before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I,
even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared,
and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among
you: therefore ye are My witnesses." "I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to
open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and
them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah
43:10-12; 42:6, 7.
"In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of
salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee
for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to
inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed
in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall
not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for
He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of
water shall He guide them. And I will make all My mountains a way, and
My highways shall be exalted. . . .
"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will
have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me,
and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me." Isaiah
49:8-16.
The church is God's fortress. His city of refuge, which He holds in a
revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has
bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the
beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every
age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony
to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message
of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armour, others
took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation
with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He
has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of
hell have not been able to prevail against His people.
Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has
sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not
prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work,
that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has
not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations
what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to
foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His
law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it.
Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all
opposition.
During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a
city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the
pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders.
Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object
upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the
theatre of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to
transform hearts.
"Whereunto," asked Christ, "shall we liken the kingdom
of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?" Mark 4:30. He
could not employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society
He found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the
ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ's kingdom every carnal
weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished. This kingdom is to
uplift and ennoble humanity. God's church is the court of Holy life,
filled with varied gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit. The members
are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and
bless.
Wonderful is the work which the Lord designs to accomplish through
His church, that His name may be glorified. A picture of this work is
given in Ezekiel's vision of the river of healing: "These waters
issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go
into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall
be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which
moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: . . . and by
the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall
grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the
fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to
his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and
the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for
medicine." Ezekiel 47:8-12.
From the beginning God has wrought through His people to bring
blessing to the world. To the ancient Egyptian nation God made Joseph a
fountain of life. Through the integrity of Joseph the life of that whole
people was preserved. Through Daniel God saved the life of all the wise
men of Babylon. And these deliverances are as object lessons; they
illustrate the spiritual blessings offered to the world through
connection with the God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped. Everyone in
whose heart Christ abides, everyone who will show forth His love to the
world, is a worker together with God for the blessing of humanity. As he
receives from the Saviour grace to impart to others, from his whole
being flows forth the tide of spiritual life.
God chose Israel to reveal His character to men. He desired them to
be as wells of salvation in the world. To them were committed the
oracles of heaven, the revelation of God's will. In the early days of
Israel the nations of the world, through corrupt practices, had lost the
knowledge of God. They had once known Him; but because "they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in
their imaginations, . . . their foolish heart was darkened." Romans
1:21. Yet in His mercy God did not blot them out of existence. He
purposed to give them an opportunity of again becoming acquainted with
Him through His chosen people. Through the teachings of the sacrificial
service, Christ was to be uplifted before all nations, and all who would
look to Him should live. Christ was the foundation of the Jewish
economy. The whole system of types and symbols was a compacted prophecy
of the gospel, a presentation in which were bound up the promises of
redemption.
But the people of Israel lost sight of their high privileges as God's
representatives. They forgot God and failed to fulfil their holy
mission. The blessings they received brought no blessing to the world.
All their advantages they appropriated for their own glorification. They
shut themselves away from the world in order to escape temptation. The
restrictions that God had placed upon their association with idolaters
as a means of preventing them from conforming to the practices of the
heathen, they used to build up a wall of separation between themselves
and all other nations. They robbed God of the service He required of
them, and they robbed their fellow men of religious guidance and a holy
example.
Priests and rulers became fixed in a rut of ceremonialism. They were
satisfied with a legal religion, and it was impossible for them to give
to others the living truths of heaven. They thought their own
righteousness all-sufficient, and did not desire that a new element
should be brought into their religion. The good will of God to men they
did not accept as something apart from themselves, but connected it with
their own merit because of their good works. The faith that works by
love and purifies the soul could find no place for union with the
religion of the Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the injunctions of
men.
Of Israel God declared: "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly
a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a
strange vine unto Me?" Jeremiah 2:21. "Israel is an empty
vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself." Hosea 10:1. "And
now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My
vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
"And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I
will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break
down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it
waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain
upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgement,
but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." Isaiah
5:3-7. "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye
healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was
broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away,
neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with
cruelty have ye ruled them." Ezekiel 34:4.
The Jewish leaders thought themselves too wise to need instruction,
too righteous to need salvation, too highly honoured to need the honour
that comes from Christ. The Saviour turned from them to entrust to
others the privileges they had abused and the work they had slighted.
God's glory must be revealed, His word established. Christ's kingdom
must be set up in the world. The salvation of God must be made known in
the cities of the wilderness; and the disciples were called to do the
work that the Jewish leaders had failed to do. |
