Church of Christ Studies

Evolution of the Gospel

After the strenuous day of yesterday, followed by the sweet repose during the passing of the shadows, all of us have so many things for which to be grateful, not the least among which is the opportunity granted for further study and recognition of the Power Divine and of the destiny toward which we are rapidly and surely passing. I am so glad that you are interested in the study of the very simplest lessons that I can possibly get up, based upon what I believe to be the genuine facts and the real truth of God's word.

 

I want to present to you this morning a lesson that is the very embodiment of simplicity regarding things that are sometimes considered wonderfully mysterious and hard to understand. I presume a fitting subject for it would be "The Evolution of the Gospel." Sometimes people are scared at the mention of that first term; but, rightly applied, it is not dangerous, but really expressive in many respects of a great truth with which all ought to be acquainted.

 

As a basis of this morning's study, I call your attention to Mark 4: 26-29. Just after the Savior had taught the lesson regarding the parable of the sower he said: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come."

 

It was a peculiar phase of Christ's teaching to base the lesson upon things with which people were acquainted; and unless you and I can talk about the gospel in terms familiar to us, it is a matter simply of speculation, and even declarations without much profit.

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Now, Christ presumed that all of his hearers and subsequent readers would understand about the nature of vegetable life, and he said, "So is the kingdom of God"—that is, it is like this. Now, look what it is. You have a man who took seed and cast them into the ground. Well, I think I understand that much of it. After having cast the seed into the ground, then he sleeps and rises night and day. While thus he is doing, the seed springs up and grows, he doesn't know how; and that is also a fact, for the earth bringeth fruit of herself. Well, what is the order? First, the blade; second, the ear; after that, the full corn in the ear. When the fruit is brought forth, immediately we put in the sickle, because the harvest is ripe unto gathering.

 

That illustration was given for the express purpose of teaching the truth regarding the development and unfolding or the evolving of the gospel plan of salvation.

 

We are, just about this time of the year, ready to pitch our crops; and I want you to note the different stages in which a crop of con, for instance, exists. Every good farmer, and those that look after matters as they should, last fall, at gathering time, selected their seed corn. How came them to do it? They had in purpose the 1923 crop, and the seed selected has been kept in a state of purpose and preserved all during the winter months, sheltered and protected and guarded. But along about now, at least in a few more days, there is going to be a second state of the 1923 crop of corn. The seed will be taken out of the granary and put into the ground, committed to the kindly bosom of Mother Earth. And when the farmer does that, casts his seed into the ground, he does not sit up all night and watch it, but, just like the Savior says, he goes ahead, sleeping and rising, night after night, day after day; and while he is going ahead with his ordinary routine of life, that seed germinates, springs and grows up, and he does not understand exactly why it does it; neither does Professor Morgen up at the University of Tennessee; but it will do it all right enough, and then the earth brings forth fruit of herself.

 

Now, what is the first thing that is evidenced? Why, after that corn has been committed to the ground and there slumbers for a time, during the second stage, when about ten days or two weeks have passed, you go out, as some farmers do and some careless brethren on Sunday morning, and sight down the corn row and begin to prophesy regarding the kind of crops we are going to have. Why, there are blades coming up; the corn is a fine color; the leaves are broad; it is the finest prospect that we have had, at least during this year. Well, after that, what? There is the blade. Well, time rolls on. it begins to develop, gradually unfold; and away after a while it begins to silk and tassel, and the first thing you know the ear is beginning to form. Then laying-by time comes, and the farmer starts out and takes in all the big meetings of the country during July, August, and September. After a while, Jack Frost comes along and makes it brittle; and he decides again from examination some Sunday morning that the corn is just about ripe. He opens the shuck, and finds it filled out to the end of the cob. The next thing then is to gear up the mules, hook them to the wagon, and start out to gather in the crop. The process continues year after year along that line.

 

Now, the Savior said there is something in it that represents the kingdom of God. Well, in what way is an ear of corn, for instance, like the kingdom? An ear of corn has a shuck around it, but I do not expect the kingdom of God to be thus clothed. Well, there is another thing. Every ear of corn has either an even number of rows or an odd number. I have forgotten which, but it is a fact that it has one or the other. You can just put that down. I don't expect, my friends, for the kingdom of God to be like it in that respect. And so, passing many phases, I submit to you this: The point of comparison is in the progress made, in the development of the crop.

 

Now, first, that crop existed in purpose when the grain was back yonder in the crib, garnered up; and, second, it was committed to the soil, and there was a state when the crop was in promise—when the blade came up. Then there is the stage at which point we begin to predict, to forecast, and to prophesy. Then, when it begins to form the ear, there is the state called the "preparatory;" and after that has passed and all things have been conducive to its full fruition, the corn is full grown, fully ripe. Then is the time to go out and gather the harvest. There never was a crop of corn but that existed in five different stages; and, based upon that, all things else are similar thereto.

 

In West Tennessee, leading from Jackson down to Mobile, Ale., through the western part of the county in which I live, there is now a railroad. I want you to study its history with me just a moment, since I happen to know some things about it by virtue of close touch with the various stages in which that road has existed. First of all, there was one man, or a company of men, that began to think respecting the building of this road. Weighing all matters connected therewith in their mind, considering the feasibility and the practicability of the proposition, by and by there was firmly fixed with them a definite purpose for a railroad to be built. Now, there is the first state of it. We had at that particular time a railroad, but only in purpose, in the mind of those who were to project the same. Well, after they had fully settled upon that, they gave announcement regarding it, and they promised that district of country, rich in natural resources, that there would be a new trunk line connecting the North and the South; and hence the promise is that there will be a railroad. Now, that is the second state of it. it is no longer in purpose nor hidden from the people of our land, but now that purpose has been transmitted into a promise. The folks are promised a railroad. Well, you know what happened next. The very minute that the promise came, prophecies began to be heard on every hand. They talked about the wonderful development of the country—chat wonderful and superior advantages it will give us, how it will enhance our section of the country, and promote the interests of this part of the country in every economical and industrial way. So there were prophets galore and on every hand.

 

Now, there is a railroad that existed, first, in purpose; second, in promise; and now in prophecy. But there wasn't a lick of work done on it. Finally the engineer came along and blazed out the way; then teams of men and machinery came, and the work was actually begun, clearing the right of way, digging down the hills, filling up the valleys, hauling in the crossties, bringing the rails, and driving the spikes.  Now, there is a road in existence; but in what state? In a state of preparation. Why, there is not a train upon it. I could not send anything over it nor get anywhere, except by the two-cylinder machinery which all of us have been given. Now, there is a railroad that existed, first, in purpose; second, in promise; third, in prophecy; fourth, in preparation. And after the preparatory state of it, the last spike was driven. I happened to be close by when the first engine ran over it. When the firing was completed in the Are box of the engine, steam gotten up, and the train of care hooked on behind, and when the great iron horse began to move down the track, breathing out pure fire, there was a railroad completed and perfected for business. Then they said: "Come ahead now; put in the sickle; all things are ready; make a trip with us."

 

This railroad existed in all of these five states; and there is not an institution in the city of Nashville, nor a manufacturing establishment, but that passes through all of these five processes.

 

My friends, to that process of development the gospel is not an exception. Now, just as briefly as I can—because I talked too long respecting the first part-let me suggest to you that the time never was when the gospel of the Son of God was not in existence. Long, long ago, in the very morning of time and of creation, God purposed a great gospel scheme for humanity, and that is what Paul had in mind in Eph. 3:11, 12 : "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him." Verses 9, 10: "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and​ powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."

 

Note: "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Long, long ago the gospel which we preach to-day was in existence in the mind of God, in a state of purpose; but as yet no mortal man knew one single thing about it. There was the purpose, and then there was, perhaps, a faint promise when the first pair had sinned in Eden, when the Master said that he would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head and the serpent should bite the heel of the seed of the woman.

 

Then God gave to Abraham (Gen. 12) the promise regarding the literal seed and a land inheritance; and finally, transcending things temporal, he made the declaration that in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. Now, there is the gospel, if you please, not only in purpose, but now in promise. Hence, Paul, commenting upon that (Gal. 3: 8), said this: "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."

 

What kind of a gospel, what stage of the gospel, was preached in Abraham's day? A gospel of promise, not in completeness or perfection, but in promise, saying: "In thee shall all nations be blessed."

 

After that from the hilltops of Israel prophets stood with the index finger pointing down the line to Him and made numerous, divers, and sundry predictions regarding the coming of the Christ and the glorious gospel which shall by and by burst in its fullness and grandeur upon the earth. Isaiah (40: 3) predicted the coming of the Christ, preceded by John the Baptist, when there should be the cry, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God"-make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Hence, in due time, after the third or prophetic phase, there came John the Baptist, Jesus in his personal ministry, the twelve and the seventy, laying the rails, putting down the ties, driving the spikes, getting all things ready and in shape, until at last the Christ died on the tree of the cross, arose triumphant from the dead, the Spirit came to fire up the machinery; and then, with Jesus Christ set upon the throne of God, the Father, the steam, so to speak, was turned on, all things having transpired, and there came the glad gospel of the Son of God in perfection, in completeness, as announced unto us on the day of Pentecost.

 

So, then, the gospel of God's Son, or the church of God, if you please, has existed in all ages, but in different phases; and the contention that exists among so many people is due to the fact that they fail to appreciate, perhaps, the respective stages or conditions in which a thing may exist. Before the morning of time began God had the gospel in mind, in purpose. To Abraham he committed it in promise, hence the blade; then came the time when the prophets made predictions regarding the final fruitage. After that, in the days of John, there came the formation of the ear upon the stalk; and by and by, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, under the law, that he might consummate the great objective of God's everlasting purpose. When the Savior thus bowed his head upon an aching heart and said on the tree of the cross, "It is finished," there was the sealing of the glad purpose of God, of the splendid promises, and of the prophecies and of the preparatory stage by the blood of Christ in his death. It was only after he came forth from the tomb that he said to Peter, James, John, and all the apostles: "Harness up the teams; the fruit is ready to be gathered in; put in the old Jerusalem sickle; and go out from Jerusalem throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, unto the uttermost parts of the earth, and gather in the grain, because the fullness thereof is come."

 

The gospel, friends, as we have learned, in a state of purpose might embrace the death of Christ for our sins, his burial and his triumphant resurrection, all according to the scriptures; the gospel in its fullness could not have existed, therefore, previous to the facts therein having transpired.

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After Christ arose, after the Spirit descended, there has been no new fact added, there has been no new commandment given, there has been no new promise of facts. It was in all of its fullness, its grandeur and glory; and hence after the sad scenes in Calvary—glad to us, however-Peter stood oil Pentecost and proclaimed for the first time in all the ages salvation—absolute and genuine remission and forgiveness of sine in the blood of Christ; a completed, perfected, and finished product, developed in God's own good time and "according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

 

In harmony, therefore, with these splendid commandments, appealing, trying to allure and attract human beings, God wants you and me, friends, to believe that gospel that is developed. He wants us from all of our sins to turn away. He would have us stand before our fellows and acknowledge the Christ as our Leader, Prophet, Priest, and King. Then, throughout the remnant of our days, he would have us to trust him for the promise, lean upon his everlasting arms, assured of the fact that though we pass through the valley of the shadow and the charnel house of death itself, he will initiate us on the other shore, into scenes sublime, incorruptible, and glorious, which shall burst upon our vision over there.

 

Is there one, are there two, are there any in this company this morning who have the consent of sour minds that you no longer desire to travel in rejection of God's will, but have the courage and that magnanimity of purpose, that fixedness of resolution that will rise in the strength of Israel's God and flee to the outstretched arms of the Son of God Divine, relying and resting upon him, trusting him for the fulfilling of every promise, until by and by he sees fit to call you home?