Church of Christ Studies

The Church: It's Work

I want to congratulate this splendid audience and also to thank you for the very fine rendition of these most excellent songs, singing, as I believe you do, with the spirit and the understanding. I am certain that God lends a listening ear and an approving smile upon such fervent and melodious praise. I cannot help but think, in viewing the audience, of how finely favored we are as a people, with no marks of God's displeasure resting upon us, with no special distress nor unusual disappointments disturbing us and that so many of us can gather together, prompted, I am sure, by the same spirit to learn more and more of his will toward us.

 

I want to talk to you tonight about a matter that perhaps shall not be so interesting as some other things might have been, and yet, coming in the line of study, I am sure is web worthy of our consideration. I refer to the work ordained by God for the church of Christ to accomplish upon the earth. Perhaps a very fitting text would be what the Savior said in Mark 13:34: "For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch." I would not be true to those of you whom I invite to respond to the invitation if I should try to deceive you by suggesting that your coming into the church of God meant a place of inactivity; and so in advance of many of you having accepted the truth, I submit to you that the man who enters into the service of God blinded and deluded with the thought that it is a place of inactivity and passivity ought to have the sympathy and the most earnest teaching and exhortation on the part of all his friends. The church of God is a place of work. All the illustrations in the Bible demonstrate that fact.

 

Life is pictured to us as if it were a great race track, in which we are bidden to lay aside every weight, all the hindrances, the sin that so easily besets us, and to run the race that is set before us. It is pictured to us as a great contest. Hence, Paul said (2 Tim.2:5) that every man that strives for the mastery is not crowned except he strive lawfully. "Fight the good fight of faith" (1 Tim. 6:12) suggests the fact that in the service of God we are to buckle on the armor, raise aloft the banner, unsheathe the sword of the Spirit, and march out actively and aggressively in the service of Him under whom we propose to fight.

 

Christ himself set the example when he said (John 9:4) : r mast work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work" Peter tells us (1 Pet.2:21) that Christ left as an example, and in his steps we should follow.

 

I think there is an old song that, perhaps, is deceptive. The name of it is, "The Old Ship of Zion," which has landed many thousands and can land as many more. I doubt, brethren and friends, that that represents correctly the church of God. While I have never had a trip on the ship, I have an idea that after paying your fare you can walk in, sit down, fold your arms, be taken across the mighty deep, and then simply walk into the haven that lies beyond. A better illustration of the church of God than an old ship would be an ordinary little rowboat in which there are two oars, one of them designated as "faith" and the other one characterized as "works;" and if you expect to stem the tide and cross the current it means that yoU must seize the oars, one in each hand, and in concerted action pull for the further shore.

 

I do not think the church is like a great Pullman car, whereon, after paying the price, yon can He down and again with folded arms be conducted safely across the planet and at last step out into the great depot at the end of your journey; but rather that the church of God is like unto an old-fashioned hand car, on which you may get and then by taking hold and bending your back and straining your muscles you can finally reach the end in view.

 

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not re in my presence only, but now much more in my absence wort out your own salvation with fear and trembling."(Phil. 2:12.) "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6) ; and that is the only hope and the only security that you and I may possibly have. And, again, Paul said: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Cor. 15:58.) The final reward at the last great day will be according to the service rendered and to the work done, for it is said: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according [mark it] to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." (2 Cor. 5:10.)

 

Paul says (Rom. 2:6),"Who [God] will render to every man according to his deeds," or to his works; hence, the text says, "to every man his respective place and his work." I suggest to you, friends, that the peace and the happiness, the success and the prosperity, of any church on earth are proportionate to the activity and to the working characteristics of the membership. A working church has no time for a great many things peculiar to others.

 

When Nehemiah was building the walls of Jerusalem, old Sanballat and Tobiah on dye different occasions tried to get him to stop the work and to come down into the plain of One, into one of the cities thereof, and discuss the matter. Nehemiah said: "I am doing a great work here. Should the work cease while I come down to consult with you?"

 

A working church would eliminate all quarreling, all strife, all backbiting, and all jealousy and envy, which, I am sorry to say, is characteristic of so much of human dispositions evidenced in the family of God and in the church of the first-born. But there is a great deal of worry to-day by preachers and elders especially over the worldliness that belongs to the membership of the church. Let me submit to you, friends, that if you and I could be influential enough and diplomatic enough to engage every member of the church of God in some kind of activity proportionate to his ability, it would settle the question about the dance hall, it would settle the question regarding card parties and all other matters of questionable propriety. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop;" and let any man on earth get out of a job, have nothing to do but to pace the streets, and just as certain as the night follows the day he is going to get into something he ought not. He will be a talebearer, a meddler, a busybody, speaking things that he ought not, and, therefore, be an occasion of stumbling to others.

 

What is the remedy for all of that? Activity—something to be done; and be it remembered that the parable of the talents shows that there is something for me to do proportionate and in harmony with whatever capacity or ability or talent I may have. For the encouragement of most of us, let me suggest that the man who had but two talents and used them aright received the same recognition at the hand of God Almighty as did the man who handled the five. If the one-talent man had used his talent rather than hiding it away, I doubt not but that there would have been that proportionate joy and commendation of the sharing as was characteristic of the others.

 

Friends, in fairer fields and in brighter dimes there are hundreds of persons now whose names are obscure, who never received any publicity, but by self-sacrifice they have gone about in the name of the Lord doing what they could. The prominence and glory that shall be theirs to share will be an astonishment unto possibly the universe gathered in the great by and by. Every man, therefore, proportionate to his talents, according to his work.

 

But I want to ask you tonight: What is the work of the church of God? What is the field of its activity and the import and intention thereof? I submit to you, first of all, that charity begins at home; and as I come to study and outline the subject, I would put down as the first work of the church that of self-edification. I know that people are born into God's family. There is no other way of becoming a member of the family of God except by being born into it, for the Savior said: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." As newborn babes, we are weak and frail and largely helpless. The first duty, therefore, resting upon the membership is to build up, strengthen, and establish the respective members of the family. If in any of our homes there are children born, we want to see than start out in growth and development. We hate to see them dwarfed and delicate and fail to make the proper development. When that is the case, one of two things is always the trouble—either the food is not adapted and the exercise is unsatisfactory, or else there is disease somewhere in the anatomy and personality of that child. it has our deepest sympathy, and upon it we bestow the most help and the greatest anxiety. To what intent? That we may seek and find out the cause, that we may find food properly adapted, that we may give it just such environment such an atmosphere as will be conducive to its growth and development. Then we seek to remove the cause and to surround it with more favorable conditions. Why? That it may grow into a normal state and become stalwart and gigantic in body and in mind; and we ought to incorporate in it spirit as web.

 

Now, God has the sane anxiety regarding his children. All the members of the church of God to-night ought to be on the upward path of growth and development, be gaining strength, until when the great Captain calls upon ns for any service, Like a great band of soldiers, we ought to march out one hundred per cent, ready to take our place and fill our position. But sometimes, in looking around over a congregation, we find about half of the army are on the sick list, and about twenty-five per cent of the remainder have to care for them. What is the result? Perhaps ten, fifteen, or twenty-five per cent at most, are carrying on the work, bearing the load, fighting the battles, and making things go. What is the matter? There is a lack somewhere in administering the right kind of food, and others, perhaps, not taking the proper exercise. There is an Improper atmosphere. What about the others? There is disease somewhere lurking around the various members, and hence there is a weakened status that prevails. Work in God's service tends to build us up spiritually, just as physical work builds us up physically, as mental work develops the mind. Just so spiritual work will develop the spirituality, and put it down in capitals that there is no other way by which it can or may be done.

 

Man may legislate all he pleases, substitute any food that he thinks best, and yet his efforts will be weighed in the balances and found wanting, because God's word is the food on which to build. Exercise in his vineyard is that which will bring strength and spiritual development. These things can come only from close contact and touch with the service of God and with the King himself.

 

Paul rather reproved the Corinthians when he said (1 Cor. 14:12): "As ye are zealous [note the term] of spiritual gifts." O, you are very anxious to have something given to you! We are in a receptive mood, and, like Hambone said, if you will allow me to repeat it: "De parson say it is bettah to give dan to receibe, but receibing is good 'nough fuh me."' Numbers of us feel the same way about it. Now, Paul said: "Brethren, I know that you are exceedingly zealous of spiritual gifts but let me tell you: instead of that, brethren, seek to excel." In what, Paul? "In edifying the church of God." What does that term mean? It means to strengthen and build up, to support and make stalwart and strong in its nature. Hence, it ought to be the ambition of every Christian and of every member of the church not simply to get the most coming to him, but to be able to give the most; and there is one thing about it, both in teaching in the schoolroom and in the service of God: the more you can give the other fellow, the more benefit you derive therefrom.  So Paul said: "Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church."

 

In the infantile stats of the church the record says (Eph. 4:8) that Jesus Christ, after he had descended also ascended far above all the heavens; and he gave some, apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists ; and some, teachers. Now, note: what for? "For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God: * * * that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine."

 

In that primary or babyhood state of the church God administered to Christianity supernatural helps and powers; but after the church had grown and developed and been built up in the faith, then those things that were childish were done away. Paul illustrates that by saying, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things"—suggestive of the idea that, while the church was in its childhood state, these helps and supports were round about it; but God's purpose and intent was and is that the church be built up in the most holy faith and become strong enough to stand alone and take care of itself.

 

Paul (Gal. 2:6, 7) says: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: [now note] rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith." That is what ought to be characteristic of every child of God on earth.

 

There are too many people who have to be carried like a baby in the preacher's arms, that are not able to stand alone, and have to have support and help, and require all sorts of assistance to make them more efficient in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said: "Brethren, first be rooted and grounded, and then be built up and established."

 

When you take a young plant—a young apple tree, for instance—and set it out, it does not commence bearing the very first thing. 0, no; that is not nature's law. But, first of all, the growth is downward and outward. What is it doing? it is taking hold and fastening itself in the solid, kindly bosom of Mother Earth. it is sending out a rootlet here, fastening itself there, and another over there, and another yonder, and another back here, establishing itself so that it may not be driven hither and thither and teased by every wind. After it has grown downward and has gotten firmly fixed, what then? Then it grows upward and outward, and finally begins to bear fruit, firmly fixed, genuinely planted, definitely established. There are many people as yet but babes in Christ, immediately after birth, that want to begin and bear great fruit and do big things. Friends, that is not the principle. First of all, let the membership of the church of God be rooted and grounded in the faith, so that they may not be moved away from the hope which the gospel of the Son of God gladly proffers to every one who embraces it.

 

Wherever I have opportunity to go, I love to establish the brethren and those who contemplate becoming such, root them and ground them, indoctrinate them, if you please, in the gospel of the Son of God; so that when the fine philosophy and the sleight of men and cunning doctrines sweep over the land, they are not caught on the breezes and wafted away from their moorings. So, then, the first work obligatory upon the church of God is to build up and make the membership thereof one hundred per cent efficient and ready for service.

 

But there is another field of activity for the church of God—namely, the work of benevolence-its duty to the world about it in rendering physical and temporal service and help. Paul said to the Ephesians (Eph. 4:28): "Let him that stole steal no more." Fine advice. "But rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." Friends, that scripture does not need any comment. If I have been guilty of stealing, what is my duty? Steal no more, but go to work with my own hands instead of sitting back and wearing good clothes and afraid to take hold and do things. Paul says: "Hardeman [and all the rest of His servants], do not be afraid to take hold. Whatsoever your hand Ands to do, do it." There is not a piece of work honorable on earth but that a Christian ought to be glad to engage in it. I rejoice to tell you that I would no more hesitate to hook up a team of mules and haul a load of coal down the streets of Nashville or anywhere else than I would to stand in your midst and try to preach the gospel of the Son of God.

 

"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good." Why, Paul? "That he may have to give to him that needeth" "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." (Gal. 6:10.) "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister [that is, to serve], and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28.)

 

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, [watch it], to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27.) But that is not all. That is a duty obligatory not only upon individual Christians, but upon the church as well, as shown by apostolic example in Acts 11:27. Certain prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem, who stood up and predicted that in the days of Claudius Caesar there should be a great famine throughout the land of Judea and the whole world. Then what? Then the disciples, as a body, at Antioch determined to send relief unto the saints in Judea; and that they did. Note how: "Every man according to his ability." They sent it by the hands of Barnabas and Paul unto the elders of the church—not to some receiver, or to some treasurer, or to some board; but they sent it unto the officials of the church of God by the hands of Barnabas and Paul.

 

That is not all. Paul (Rom 15:25, 26) says it ''pleased" the saints in Macedonia and Achaia to send unto the poor at Jerusalem, and it "pleased" them also to be debtors unto them; for if the Gentiles be partakers of spiritual things, it is but right that they administer unto their carnal needs; for the Jews had carried the glad tidings of the gospel, of spiritual matters, unto the Gentile world over in Achaia and in Macedonia. So Paul said that it is right, according to the law of reciprocity, that the Gentiles administer unto the Jews in their carnal needs. "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things;" for you shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, neither shall you rob the priests of that which is their share in the service; and so it is therefore, ordained of God that those who preach the gospel should live thereby and they are entitled to a remuneration for a service of that kind.

 

But, friends, I think I have observed this tendency, and it speaks no good thing for professed Christianity: In modern times the church as taught by various sects, has been reduced purely to a charitable institution, dispensing its goodness on the right hand and on the left; and in the cities and other places supposedly occupying a more prominent place there are modern terms that enter into the church work and church life of which I never heard in the years gone by. What is characteristic of it now? There are those who have built this or that and suggest that they are doing a great church work. What are you doing? "We are engaged in social uplift, in social betterment; we are organized as a committee of the church to look after the tenement section of the city." Hence, they fix up in fine attire and, prompted sometimes merely by curiosity, they go out slumming through certain districts and parts of the city. I have noticed that the President's sister (and I say it without any reflection whatever), when she landed recently back in the States, in one of our Eastern cities, had a great desire to form a company and go slumming. I hardly know what that means, because I have never been; but I know one thing—that the Bible is as silent as the stars about any kind of slumming work characteristic of the church of God. There was the city of Jerusalem, with its thousands of people, in the valleys of the Tyropean section, also the valley of Jehoshaphat, the vale of Hinnom, in dirt and filth and thickly settled districts, living in unsanitary surroundings; and yet neither Paul nor any of the apostles were ever engaged primarily in work of that sort. The city of Corinth, with its four hundred thousand people, contained its poor; and yet no apostle ever left the word of God and became engaged in slumming or "social uplift." Why, the church to-day in the eyes of the populace is reduced to about a parallel with the Red Gross. I have nothing unkind to say of the Red Gross but its function is administering purely to men's temporal and temporary necessities. All ought to be interested in lifting man's burdens and making life more pleasant; but the "Good Fellows," even the best fellows' organization, is about on a parallel with the idea that many people have of the church; and hence it is reduced to a kind of social organization for social betterment and for temporal advancement.

 

Now, mark you, the church of God, if it functions correctly and does its duty, will look after these conditions, will go to the homes of those in distress and administer unto their necessities; in that field of benevolent activity it will clothe the naked and feed the hungry and make life happier and better from a physical standpoint; but the man or the woman claiming to be a member of the church of God that makes that his primary work is deceived and blinded and wonderfully deluded. But I come, friends, to the third division, and the last for tonight. The function and the work of the church of God is not primarily for the furnishing of temporal help or assistance, but the paramount work of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to spread the gospel from the center to the circumference of this old earth. As I said some days or nights ago, you may go to the man who is hungry and feed him, you may go to the man naked and clothe him, you may go to the man dwelling in a hut and lift him up, move him into a palace, and relieve and make better his social and physical surroundings; but if you do not give unto him the gospel, God's power to save, that man, though clad in fine attire and dwelling under the finest possible circumstances, will at last die and, like the rich man, lift up his eyes in torment. Why? Because you administered not unto him the one hope of life and light and immortality known to the world. I want to build up the membership of the church of God wherever it may be; I want to see the members thereof strengthened until they stand out like a stone wall, immovable, impregnable, steering clear of every doctrine of men and from cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive; I want to see my brethren, members of the church of God, benevolent in character, touched with sympathy for the human beings around about; I want to see them practicing the principles of pure and undefiled religion; I want them to live the principles of that religion not only during the big-meeting season, but when frosts come; I want to see them during Christmas time ready to follow in the footprints of Jesus as he went about doing good. But, in addition to all that, I would like to see every member of the church of God to-night filled with a burning desire to spread the gospel to earth's remotest parts. I would love to see them filled with such an anxiety in regard to this that they would become a great agency for the spread of the gospel, for the widening of the borders of Zion upon the face of the earth.

 

But, mark it, there is but one institution known to God's book by and through which this dissemination and scattering of the truth is to be done. Paul said to Timothy (1 Tim. 3:15): "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." When he said (Eph. 3:10) that the manifold wisdom of God was to be made known through the church, he expressed a principle to which there is no exception. Man's wisdom is evidenced throughout man's institutions. God's wisdom is revealed through God's institution, and the church of the Bible is his great missionary organization. If you want to call it so, it is God's great missionary society; and the man who adds another is treading upon dangerous ground and taking steps for which there is no "Thus saith the Lord." In God's church is the place and the field for the carrying abroad unto earth's remotest boundaries the sweetest story ever told. The church at Jerusalem had that spirit and was possessed of that disposition for work; so when they were all scattered abroad, save the apostles, they went everywhere preaching the word.

 

The church at Antioch, up in Syria, three hundred miles to the north, likewise became a great missionary center. From there Paul, Barnabas, and Mark started on the first missionary journey; and from there Paul and Silas started on the second and third missionary journeys. The church at Rome likewise became a radiating center; so that they sent out unto all the earth, unto the uttermost parts of the world in a period of thirty years from the time the church was organized and the machinery set in motion on Pentecost, the gospel spread through the simplicity of the church of God, unto every nation and to every person under heaven; for Paul said (Col. 1:23): "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister."

 

But, brethren, friends, for the carrying out of this work there is the money question; and because more of us are idolaters than we think and characterized by the spirit of covetousness, therefore we are inactive and inoperative. We are closed-fisted, penurious, contemptibly stingy; and as a result all through this fair Southland of ours there are people almost within the sound of our whistles and who see the spires of our buildings who have never heard the gospel of the Son of God. Who is responsible therefor? There are those here on the earth that have never seen anything in the great commission except baptism. Poor, deluded souls! There are some that never saw anything but the faith or the repentance. God, introducing it by that sublime imperative, "Go and carry the glad tidings unto earth's remotest parts," laid upon as the duty of preaching the gospel to the lost; and if there be some to-night who are ready to go, it is our duty, as Christians, to support and sustain them by our moral influence and every other way.

 

I have no objection to sending the missionary into India or into Japan, but I can go inside the borders of our own beloved Tennessee, that boasts to-night of the great number of Christians after the primitive order, and find work for ten years for every gospel preacher in the state. Until we wake up, until the strings of our purses open up, our hearts be ready to give and to support and to send the men out, we will not have done our duty as obligatory upon us by the God of heaven.

 

You expect preachers to go well dressed; you will poke fun at them if they look seedy and shiny; and unless they know how to handle the mother tongue you give them discouragement; but yet, in order for them to accomplish these thinga, there must be preparation. it takes money to buy a fine suit of clothes like mine [laughter]; it takes money to go to school to learn how to apeak the English language so that your friends will not be ashamed of yen. There would be hundreds of capable, efflcient young men to-night who would gladly enter the service of God Almighty as preachers of the gospel if the outlook were at all inviting and if the brethren who have been sharing the benefits of their labors and hoarding up would loose their purse strings and stand by them; but when we fail to do that, some business man says to the prospective preacher: "Here is a job for you, one hundred dollars a month." When the young man looks upon his helpless wife, maybe a child or two, he says: "I would love to preach the gospel; it would be the very height of my ambition; but I cannot go upon an uncertain basis." In God we trust—those of us who preach—not so much in the charity or the Christianity of the brotherhood around us.

 

Let me say to you, friends, in the language of the great business statistician, Mr. Roger W. Babson, of Massachusetts, that "business men have got to put more money in religion, for the foundation of all our success is spiritual and not material." He points out very clearly how just a small number of struggling preachers over the land, unsupported and handicapped, are keeping up the spirituality of the country In the face of all the forces of evil.

 

My friends, time forbids the furtherance of this study. I could not ask of you who favor me so kindly with your presence, with your spell-bound attention characteristic of our assemblies, to listen longer to-night; but I would love to persuade you to enter into the service of God; I would love for you to put behind you all sham, all selfishness, and all the indifference and the stinginess perhaps characteristic of some of you; I would love to see you come in as a stalwart character and, first of all, grow downward, root and ground and fasten yourself in the soil peculiar to God's church; then I would love to see you build upward and grow outward and begin to develop some sort of fruit that will bring a rich reward in fairer fields and in brighter climes. I want you, therefore, those who have not as yet done so, to accept Christ as your Leader; I want you to be glad to put your hand in the wounded palm of the Savior and say, "Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I will follow where he goes;" I want you, my friends, if you subscribe to human creeds, to human names, or are members of organizations concerning which the Bible is silent—I am not ashamed, but I am glad to ask you, for the sake of unity, to turn aside from these, let the Bible be your sole creed, let the church that you read about in the Bible be your home and your place of activity, then press onward to the everlasting joys until heaven at last shall be your ultimate and your glad triumphal home.

 

To all who in any sense whatsoever consider themselves subjects of the gospel call, I bid you come to-night. If you have wandered away and become tired of that state of affairs, won't you confess your faults, renew your pledge, renew your allegiance unto Prince Emmanuel, and join under the marching orders of the Captain of our salvation?

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