The Two CovenantsSecond Lecture
INTRODUCTORY.
I call your attention tonight to the lesson of Scripture on the two covenants or the Old and New Testament Church organizations. The word covenant means, here, church organization, both that by Moses and that by Jesus Christ, the temporal and the Spiritual. I will read in the course of this lecture those Scriptures in which the carnal religious world had failed to understand the connection and the vitally important lessons on the two covenants. I am not here to advocate human theories and opinions, but to call your attention to the Word of God in its practical application to our times, and to the Christian church with reference to its unity, purity and God's plan of salvation. I hold in my hands a book called the Bible. I presume that all who are here tonight have read this book more or less, and yet I can say that it is one of the least known books in our advanced age. When Jesus Christ came he found many who were familiar with the letter of the Old Testament Scriptures, but who were ignorant of their teachings and of God and of his Son when he
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came. But every true Christian, who is born of the Spirit, is made savingly acquainted with the vital lessons of this Book and its God, and is in a condition to learn all Scripture application to the heart and life. I will read a part of Paul's epistle to the Galatians. I was indebted when I was a boy to the Book of Galatians for my deliverance from Judaism in respect to the Sabbath. I became acquainted with and heard the lectures of the Sabbatarians, who taught that Saturday was the clay for us to keep. I thought I could show them the change from Saturday to Sunday, but I made a failure. They had the advantage of me, and they impressed me by their Scripture quotations with the idea that I was breaking the moral law if I did, not keep Saturday if I performed secular labor on that day, and yet there were difficulties in my mind. I saw that if I was breaking the moral law by not keeping Saturday holy as a day of rest, I was as guilty as any other breaker of the Ten Commandments; and if I broke one, I was as guilty as a murderer or thief, and I saw that if the Sabbatarians were right I must henceforth preach Saturday instead of Christ! I saw there was a wrong somewhere.
I owe to the Book of Galatians my deliverance at that time. I saw it was Judaism which they taught,. but I did not see far enough to discover the whole difference between the old covenant and the new. From the old covenant church has come the chief causes of division in the religious world. The chief difficulty which the apostles encountered was Juda-
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ism. The epistle to the Galatians was written to counteract the fatal heresy of Judaism which had crept in among the Christians of Galatia. Paul used very strong language in condemning the Judaism which had seduced them. He says, "If I or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed." He also says, "0, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth. Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit are ye made perfect in the flesh?"
Yet a vast majority of the religious world now teach that those who have begun in the spirit must be made perfect by the flesh or rituals.
I will read, commencing at the 4th chapter of this epistle that which pertains directly to the lesson concerning the two covenants, beginning with verse 21:
"21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
"22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman.
"23 But he . who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise.
"24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
"25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
"26 But Jerusalem 'which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
"27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:73
for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband.
"28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
"29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
"30 Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.
"31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."Thus the earthly is set over against the spiritual church. 11'e are taught that the true Israel of God are not those who have the outward circumcision but who have it in their hearts. The true seed of Abraham are those who have the faith of Abraham, Gal. 3: 7. There are only two covenants or church organizations in the Bible. Circumcision was first given., to Abraham, and then the law given upon Mount Sinai for organizing the earthly church, typical of the New Testament church, the spiritual organism of which Jesus Christ is the only priest.
The outward law brings into bondage, the inward law brings us true liberty. See verses 25, 26.
Persecution has always come from the earthly against the spiritual religion. See 4: 29, 30,' 31 above Scripture.
The two religions cannot bee harmonized together the earthly will persecute the spiritual religion every time. The spiritual religion never persecutes.
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"1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
"2- Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
"3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
"4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
"5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
" 6 For in Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."If we are going to seek completeness in a fleshly rite it is a practical denial of Jesus Christ. The old covenant stood in ordinances imposed on them until the time of the reformation. The ceremonial's fleshly rites belonged to Judaism and not to Christ. See Hebrews 9: 1 and 10. Though God bears with human ignorance and has a people in bondage to earthly systems, all such are called out of Babylon and ought to know the liberty with which Christ makes us free.
If we are going to seek completeness by the law, then to be consistent we need to do the whole law, and then we will fail of salvation.
It is not outward conditions at all upon which our salvation depends, but entirely upon faith which God has made the ground of acceptance.
"7 Ye -did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
" 8 This persuasion cometh- not of him that calleth you.75
"9 A litle leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
"10 1 have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded : but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
"11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross ceased.
"12 I would that they were even cut off which trouble you.
"13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."The leaven of Judaism is corrupting in its nature. Everything carnal in religion defiles the soul. It leads us away from Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If Paul had preached circumcision he would have escaped persecution, and so would all the Christian martyrs if they had submitted to the ritualism which the priesthood prescribed for them.
The liberty we have in Christ is not liberty to do wrong or to follow the flesh, but it is the liberty, to do as we please because if we are pure in heart we please to do right. And that is the distinction between the saint and sinner, and the only perfect liberty of which we are capable. "Whom the Son makes free is free indeed."
"14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this ; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
"15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
"16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
"17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one76
to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
"18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
"19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
"20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
"21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
"23 Meekness, temperance : against such there is no law.
"24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
"25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
"26 Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.This accords with what Paul said in 1st Timothy, 1: 5, `,`The end of the commandment (all that is in the Bible) is charity (love) out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." If we have that state of heart, we have kept already every commandment in that Book. That is the new commandment which distinguishes us as Christ's disciples.
So then there is no law against those who are led. of the Spirit. Those in whose hearts the Holy Ghost takes up its abode are freed from bondage to any outward law.
Do not mistake the false liberty taught by An-
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tinomians. That freedom from the law which men secure by the teaching that the atonement covers all their sins, so that though we live in the practice of sin there is no condemnation makes the blood of Christ a license for sin, is the most fatal of all error. The liberty we have in Christ is not by his covering existing sin, but by its eradication from the heart as well as pardon for its guilt. Those only who have the inward law are freed from the outward law.
So faith` does not tolerate the hope of a sensualist, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. Let us pray.
PRAYER.Almighty God, our Father, we are thankful to Thee that we have the Holy Scriptures dictated by Thy Spirit, written by the holy Prophets and Apostles, and the Words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that we can come directly to the fountain head for knowledge of the truth, and are not dependent upon a human priesthood. We are thankful that thou hast said we shall all be taught of God. We bless Thee for the direct connection which exists between us and Jesus Christ Thy Son, who is head over all things to his church.
Now, as we have met in this place to hear thy Word, may we treasure it in our hearts, and not be
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mere hearers but doers of the truth ; that we may practice the lessons which come to our ears tonight.
Grant thy blessing on the people who have gathered in this place. Help us to realize that the one object of the gospel is salvation from sin, and that now is the day of salvation and that by the gospel we are fitted for the companionship of the pure and holy in heaven, and that holiness must be attained here or we shall be excluded from the abodes of purity in the world to come. 0 Spirit of truth, impress thy words on all hearts here tonight that we may have a true spiritual understanding of thy church, and the liberty with which Christ makes us free, delivering us from the galling yokes of bondage to earthly priesthoods, and the corrupting power of carnal religion and all systems of idolatry. So lead us into all truth, and we will give all the praise, honor and glory of our salvation to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
I call your attention further on the subject of the two covenants, to the prophecy of Jeremiah 31st chapter beginning with the 31st verse.
"31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
"32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
"33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the79
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall he my people.
"34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."Every earthly organization is held together by an outward law, and in that respect is distinguished from the organization which we have here described, the law of which is only in the heart, and hence is entirely spiritual.
The outward law is a failure to save. The Jewish church organization was only a temporary typical system, a kind of kindergarten of object lessons, simply to prepare the people for the truth when . Jesus Christ should come in his spiritual church and kingdom.
"I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts," hence no other law but holy love, or the inward principle of all virtue.
This, description of the Christian church, and the difference between the two covenants, we will find repeated almost word for word in the 8th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Hebrews, to which I will call your attention at another time.
In the 32d chapter of Jeremiah we have a similar prophecy. Jeremiah 32: 38: "And they shall be my people and I will be their God; And I will give them one heart and one way that they
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may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them; And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me."
These words repeat the same prophecy of the change from the earthy to the spiritual, from the type to the anti-type.
It is plain that this inward law effects the only possible unity for which Jesus Christ prayed in the 17th chapter of John. Christ says in the 10th chapter of John, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them will I also bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Such is the unity effected by the inward law. Now we see the difference between the two covenants or church organizations. The one had the law upon parchments, and tables of stone, and the other has the law written upon the heart as we find described in different passages of the New Testament, as in the epistle to the Galatians, the third, fourth and fifth chapters, the two epistles to Corinthians, the epistle to the Hebrews and other portions of the New Testament.
If man had never fallen, if his heart had been pure and possessed of perfect virtue, he would never have needed any outward law. There would have been developed from his heart a perfect life, and mankind would have had an experience of a genuine millennium; sin could not have cursed our world. If man's heart is pure his life will be pure. I have
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heard socialists contend, some of the leading socialists, that all men's hearts are pure and they only need good government, they need favorable surroundings. But the truth is if men's hearts were pure there would be no need of civil government, or prisons or standing armies. But this is not the condition of humanity. Man is in a fallen state, and needs the outward law. But the church of the new
consists, as we see from its description in the New Testament, of all those who have the inward law, and no man can enter Christ the only door without becoming a new creature, without having God's love shed abroad in his heart, without having a spiritual circumcision and constantly exhibiting in the outward life the fruits of holiness. From the passage which I have read-the Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual birth. .Their hearts have been changed, and hence they have become qualified to learn the things of God's kingdom, and the great business of God's ministry is the education of the church.
"He gave some apostles, some prophets, and evangelists for the perfecting of saints." Eph. 4: 11-16.
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The great business of God's ministry is to preach to the church, and yet it is a sad fact, in the zeal to build up human systems of religion and to secure the finances the effort is only to gather converts, and after they are gathered in, they are neglected, the faithful application of God's word for their perfection and unity, the faithful reproof of church sin and sanctifying truth applied to the church as it was applied by Jesus, prophets, apostles and martyrs is now positively forbidden by the money power which controls the church organizations. It is. utterly impossible to harmonize financial interests of man's church organizations with the preaching of the pure gospel or fidelity which is needful for the perfection of believers in Jesus Christ. Christ prayed that his disciples might be sanctified through the truth. If the word is attended by the Holy Spirit it results in the spiritual birth or the planting within of that law which distinguishes God's people from the unsaved world. And when the sinner is converted he has many things yet to learn, and many things to unlearn. His old habits which were formed while he was under the dominion of sin have to be corrected. And for this business the ministry is to continually apply God's word. No one ever had holiness except by the Word, and the word which sanctifies the unsaved is only begun at conversion.
It is of first importance to understand the nature of the spiritual church which exists only by the inward law; that its life and growth depend on the
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Word which gave it birth. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
RELIGIOUSNESS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE
THAT INWARD LAW.Because people are religious does not prove that they are in Christ's spiritual church. None could be more religious than the Pharisees who crucified Jesus, or the idolators who danced around the golden calf. None are so much offended by the word of God today as the carnal sectarians of every religious denomination.
"He that turneth his ear away from hearing the law his prayer shall be abomination." Man has a religious nature, but false religion has just as great a power for evil as pure religion has for good. The cruelest wars of history have been religious wars. The worst crimes have been instigated by false religion. The popular supposition is that religion is a good thing. That depends altogether upon what kind of religion we have. Only the pure and undefiled is approved of God. There can be no greater sin than false religion, which is idolatry. Any religion that does not constrain to righteousness and virtue, is a false religion. All true worshippers of God in their hearts and lives are in harmony with God. True religion is distinguished from the false religion by its fruits. The84
church ' is the school of those whose hearts are prepared for religious instruction and whose delight is in the truth, and who love its faithful application and feed upon the word as the hungry feed upon literal bread for life and growth.
THE OUTWARD LAW COULD NOT SAVE.
This is the essential difference between the two covenants. Its design was simply as an educator; a school master to bring the Jews to Christ and his truth.
Saints and sinners could join the Jewish church by conforming to the outward law. There were those who were true saints of God among the circumcised, also those who were unsaved. That young man who came to Jesus seeking eternal life had kept all the commandments of the outward law, but when he was told to go and sell all he had and give to the poor, was unable to exercise saving faith. He could not believe to the extent of giving up his property. But in the Jewish church outward conformity to the law was the only condition of membership. A man might be a saint outside the Jewish church, for God had a people in all the world who did not belong. Peter saw that at the house of Cornelius. But no one could be a member of the Jewish church without circumcision; all must submit to the rituals and the ministration of the priesthood. And this whole outward church and priesthood was only a type of the
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spiritual in the new covenant which has only the inward law and Christ for its priest. Since there is nothing but the inward law belonging to the church of the New Testament it is impossible that there should be any rituals. Ordinances are those forms which are by special commandment.
So we have the words "hand writing of ordinances." Col. 2: 14. Ordinances depend on written law. The spirit leads to all righteousness but to no ceremonies. So rituals under the new covenant or inward law are an impossibility. Only saving faith and heart experience is necessary to membership of the New Testament church. Thus we enter the fold through Christ the only door, by his atoning blood and Spirit baptism.
THE WORLD CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE.
Sinners can see that motives are everything in moral character. They will not credit a man for right doing if he does it for money, or any other motive but love of the right. If he does it for fear of the law or any outward constraint or selfish motive he is a hypocrite in any pretense to virtue. This is just what Jesus teaches. He says : "Blessed are the pure in heart." Those who have no mixture of motives are pure in heart. A mixture of motives makes a hypocrite in his outward virtue. This is the difference between the two covenants. The New Testament church is simply all those who by the grace of God are the pure in heart.
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Those who are kept in duty or from sin by man's organizations, in respect to christian virtue are just like the thief who is kept from stealing by fear of the jail. The outward law and organizations are necessary only to keep those who are not christians. Christ's church consists only of those whose hearts are pure and need no outward law to keep them.
But it is a fact that nearly the whole religious world depends on outward organizations to keep them to duty and to the unity of the professed church. This shows the prevalence of hypocrisy.
THE OUTWARD LAW NECESSARY.
It is only because man is in a fallen state outward laws and organizations are necessary. Whatever men's .theology may be human depravity is believed by compulsion of facts for self preservation. Only mental derangement or fanaticism talks of human virtue which can dispense with outward law. Restraining force becomes necessary because reason and moral suasion are a failure to protect society against the evils of sin which curse our world.All classes of sinners who are not fanatics or fools see the necessity of outward law and organization., On this knowledge of facts all the societies, secret or open, for protection to life and property are based. Oath-bound organizations of every kind exist on this account. We cannot blame sinners of the world who know of no inward law of virtue, for putting
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each other under horrid oaths and pledges for security since sin has destroyed man's confidence in man. So civil governments are a necessity. W e cannot sell a piece of real estate without giving a warrantee deed, and likewise securities for every trust for worldly interest. This is because man is fallen and cannot be trusted, and none but fools and fanatics talk of social reforms which can change man's moral condition in this world except by the gospel remedy for sin and the church of Jesus Christ.
The Anarchist is insane who teaches that man without a new birth can exist unprotected by the sword of civil power. I have heard Socialists say that man's heart is pure and that he only needs improved political conditions. My friends, if man's heart was pure he would not need any government. Just as surely as the bloom of the rose comes from the nature of the root, so the bloom of virtue in the outward life with all its fragrance and beauty comes from heart purity. Jails and penitentiaries, wars, and standing armies with all the crimes which curse society, would vanish from earth as the darkness and mists before the rising sun. Men are fools to imagine any genuine moral reforms outside the church of Christ. All other remedies for evil only affect the surface. Civil law can only check the torrent of human depravity temporarily until the accumulated back water sweeps the dam away. Or if the crater of Vesuvius could be stopped, the pent up fires would soon open another mouth. All human
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remedies for the tremendous evils of sin only tempt greater disasters by ignoring God's plan of salvation.
Education is proposed by the wisdom of this world. It would take the rough sinner and cultivate in him the graces of the spirit which he does not possess. The more you cultivate an evil tree, the more evil fruit it will bear. Jesus Christ gives us the only remedy for sin when he teaches to make the tree good that its fruit may be good; to make clean the inside of the cup and platter that the outside may be clean. This is precisely the new covenant law which God writes on the heart of the believer. And this is the New Testament church organization, God’s spiritual house which he builds, and not man.
It has always been the most difficult of all mysteries for the carnal mind to understand how a church or kingdom can exist without an earthly organization and a visible head or government. God's spiritual house cannot be comprehended. Men must see a steeple, and church book and forms and ceremonies or else they cannot believe there is any church. So God's free people are called No Churchites. Jesus confirms this mystery and explains the invisible church which is the light of the world in his word to Nicodemus. John 3: 8.
"8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou Nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
We cannot see the wind, but we can hear it and see the effects of it, such is the organization of the
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Christian church. The power which gives it existence is in the hearts of its members. We cannot see the writing of the law on the hearts of believers, but we can see the effects of it and hear it in the joyful voices of those who testify to its experience and show the fruits of the spirit in their lives.
I call your attention to the fact which sinners and all can see that man's church books and ordinances do not separate any body from the world or show any visible moral difference. If I ask a worldly merchant to trust a man because he is baptized and joined man's church, every time he will say: "No! that is no proof. The world can see that man's churches are not visible bodies of Christ. They are not born again nor show any difference from the world's sinners. But here comes a man, not baptized with water nor named on a church book, but he has got the law inside. His family and neighbors know he is converted and born again, and that he would sooner die than tell a lie. His life shows it; he lives every day for God and righteousness. Here is a man every sinner will trust. The world cannot see the law inside of him, but they see it in his life, that he belongs to God's church and needs no steeple or earthly book to prove his membership. This is the visible church of the New Testament
ORGANIZATION WALLS.
What is going to keep the church together without organization ? This is a question by all the blind
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fools of modern sectarian christendom. Isaiah says 26: 1:
"1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks."
In the early centuries, monasticism began among the Christians who were afraid God could not keep them holy after conversion while surrounded by and exposed to this wicked world. So they left the cities and sinful society and made their abodes in the deserts and caves to get away from sin and satan. This idea has come down to us through the centuries in modern convents and monasteries. In the seclusion of cloisters monks and nuns have sought to live holiest lives. They trusted to brick and stone walls to shut sin and the devil out. But history has shown that that very unbelief in Christ which trusted brick walls, shut the devil and sin inside instead of outside. And Protestants who laugh at the Catholics, have paper wall of human organizations which have proved by precisely the same unbelief of Christ, that sin and the devil is shut in and not shut out of their carnal organization walls. If material walls are any advantage, the Catholics have the advantage of thicker walls ! But in the confusion and corruption of sectarian Babylon we see the whole system of man-made churches, bound like Judaism by an outward law, has become the strong hold of satan and his evil work, and instead of being the light of the
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world and salt of the earth has become the corrupter of the world by its carnal and idolatrous religion
Those Christians who need an outward law to keep them together prove they need to be converted. They do not belong to Christ's church which has only the inward law. The very unity which is effected by an outward organism is hypocrisy in its pretense to Christ, since it comes not from the heart, but by an outward law and has no more virtue than a man who is kept from stealing by fear of civil law.
The Church of Jesus Christ differs from all the corporations and organizations of this world in that it has only the inward law, and it is God's plan when the love of Christ dies out in the hearts of Christians that they will go back to the world where they belong. But the design of the money power in religion is to surround the church with an organization so that after the members are all backslidden they will bold the property. Just like all corporations of this world. The appearance of a church will be kept up and the finances perpetuated by man's organizations after all are backslidden.
But it is God's plan that when love dies out of the hearts of the people the church will cease to exist. God doesn't want any church that is a sham ; 'he wants those men and women who have the law in their hearts. But organizations are designed by hirelings who dare not trust God or a spiritual church, to make finances sure when the church is dead. I will read 'a part of the 3d chapter of II. Corinthians,
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which is a description of the differences between the two covenants.
"2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men
"3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart."These words show how the church at Corinth was made by the law inside through the gospel Paul preached.
It does not need a church book to show the existence of the church. Christians themselves are living epistles, according to this Book. Such was the church at Corinth.
"4 And such trust have we through Christ to Godward
"5 Not that we are sufficient to ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
"6 Who also bath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.Paul gives God the credit for his instrumentality in the existence of the Church at Corinth.
"7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance ; which glory was to be done away:
" 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
"9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.93
"10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
"11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
"12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:"
"13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished."The law on tables of stone could not save. It was the ministration of death.
Compare the outward law with the spiritual law of Christ and his church. It was more glorious than the law on the tables of stone. The rich young man who had kept the outward law failed when tested by Christ's law, and was unwilling to sell out for the inward law.
The outward law could only bring into condemnation-it could not save, and hence is abolished for Christians. The law is only for sinners, for murderers, and all evil workers. See I. Timothy 1: 9, 10. All the Old Testament is useful for our instruction in righteousness, but not that we are under its organization yoke.
We see that the inward law takes the place of the outward law. Those who are led of the Spirit- are not under the law, because they have a better law inside.
"14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
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"15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
"16 Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away."
But even in this day when the law is read, some have the vail of Moses on their hearts. They cannot understand the church of Christ-the church which is the light of the world, the pillar and ground of truth. The earthly church cannot understand the spiritual. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the veil shall be taken away.
"17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
"18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. even as by the Spirit of the Lord.""Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." Liberty from what? From bondage to an outward law. If we look into the law of liberty and behold the face of Christ we are changed into that same image from glory to glory.
VISIBILITY OF THE CHANGE.
I call your attention to the change from the old covenant to the new. Under the preaching of the Apostle Peter on the clay of Pentecost we read, the multitude were pricked in their hearts and cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter was a95
very different man under the power of the Holy Spirit from what he was before when he denied his Master. Now he could boldly preach Christ, just as every one who is filled with the Holy Spirit-all guilty fear is taken away. The martyrs exhibited boldness in reproving the sin of the church, which cost them their lives. So Peter applied the Word of God to those who had been guilty of crucifying Jesus. They cried out in their distress, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said : "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus," and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And this gift or Spirit baptism was the beginning of the New Testament church? They could not be members of the church until they had complied with the law requiring water baptism. For all were still in subjection to the law of Moses. No one was baptized on the day of Pentecost but Jews and proselytes. So that the Holy Spirit could not come to them until they had complied with the requirements of the law for the remission of sin. Not that there is any saving virtue in water, but it was a sign under Moses's law which pointed to that baptism which does save, which in the New Testament is contrasted. six times with water baptism of the ' -law. In the last words of Christ we have the great commission. Jesus says "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost" ; and this should be read which was spoken at the same time, Acts 1: 5
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"5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
So that at the very time Jesus Christ gave the great commission, he gave them to understand that his baptism, which was yet to come, was the baptism which would save. This commission was literally the beginning of the New Testament church. They fulfilled within the thirty-one years, the time in which we have the first instruction given to Jew and Gentile believers to go outside the camp of Christ. Hebrews 13: 13, 14.
So, then, under the preaching of Peter at Pentecost when they obeyed, and lived up to all that was required at this time, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spoke with tongues, and we are informed this was for all who should believe, down to the end of time. Acts 2 : 39.
And what change do we see take place when the law for the first time was written in the hearts of the believers? Did Peter have to preach a begging sermon and tell the people that it was going to cost a great deal to carry the gospel to the nations of the world, and be sure to bring in their tithes? Did he say anything on finances? Not a word. When they believed they were filled with the joy of salvation. And what do we see? As many as had houses and lands sold their possessions and laid them at the feet of the apostles. Having the law inside, they were not under the outward law. The outward
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law only required one-tenth, but they brought all. Such was the manifestation of the inward law.
Peter did not need to preach giving or any other duty; because they were in possession of the inward law they went beyond the outward law. The only proof, or manifestation of virtue is that it proceeds entirely and purely from within, and such is the Christian church as it began with the gospel dispensation. They needed no outward law to restrain them, or prompt to good works. And if all the people of West Virginia, had the same experience they had on the day of Pentecost, had the love of, God in their hearts, there would be no danger of crime or strife between labor and capital, you could tear down your jails and penitentiaries, there would be no need of such a court house as this. Because heaven would be commenced right here on earth. But this is not the condition of our race at present.
We are not yet in this millennial state. The world is getting no better very fast. Even the infidel Scientist Huxley says there is no prospect of any moral betterment, and the best for God to do is to send along some comet to strike the world out of existence."
What is wanted now is the Bible truth trumpeted to all the religious world that Christ has no church on earth aside from the scattered flock of humble men and women who have the law inside, organized by God alone, and that all other churches are stupendous frauds organized by Satan, controlled by
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money, the fallen bride of the New Testament, the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit and cage of every unclean and hateful bird. And God says:
"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
And that these fraudulent churches, houses of soul merchandise, where Jesus himself is made the stock in trade, are corrupting the whole earth and peopling hell with her deceived millions who are made drunk with the wine of false religion, robbed of their hard earned money which goes to enrich a corrupt priesthood who thrive on human superstitions just as the saloon keepers thrive on the depraved appetite of his enslaved victim of alcohol.
Every earthly organization is kept by an outward law. Earthly things require securities of the same nature. Spiritual things cannot be protected by walls which men build nor can carnal things be protected by spiritual walls.
The Church of Rome, so called, is kept by the iron band of the worst of all bondage, an outward law which destroys liberty of thought and of conscience. Its law says: "If the Church says white is black or black is white we must believe it." No member durst think differently from the mandate of the pope and the priest. No civil law can be above the fiat of the priest. No conscience can fear God above the pope and his clergy.
Every religious, organization has the same anti-
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Christ supremacy in some degree. So every such organism is in conflict with Christ who forbids our having any master but himself. He is the direct head of every member of his body, and we cannot sing, "All hail the power of Jesus' name, crown him Lord of all," if we are members of any sect, since it subjects us to other beads besides Christ, and to other laws besides that which constitutes the New Testament Church.
When Paul addressed the elders of the Church of Ephesus lie did not say:
"I commend you." to the organization rules I have made, but-"to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Acts 20: 32.
The lesson which Jesus preached to the woman at Jacob's well is a full exposition of God's word on the new covenant Church.
"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
And he said further:
"The hour cometh and now is when neither in. this mountain nor at Jerusalem shall men worship him in spirit and truth."
Here we have the new covenant Church as not dependent on outward conditions but upon the law within, the waters, life, and spiritual worship, "neither in. this mountain nor in Jerusalem."
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Again in Jeremiah 2: 12, 13:
"Be astonished, 0 ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate saith the Lord. For mypeople have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
Here we have a full application of the same word of God, the horrible sin of forsaking God, the fountain of living water, the inward law for broken cisterns of idolatry which can hold no waters of life, exactly the organizations men make to-day, and which all the religious world praise for the world's salvation! Every testimony in religious assemblies praises the denominational Church man has made for their salvation and for the great work of evangelization and conversion of millions. Whereas the truth is, no denominational organization by man ever saved one soul, but has damned millions by corrupting sects and divisions which make infidels and destroy the credit of Christ's religion. Just as credit was given the golden calf for Israel's deliverance, so now these broken cisterns are praised for man's salvation. While the truth is, that no one was ever saved from sin by any modern invention or any different means but what saved souls in Bible times.
I admit that God has had a people, a true Church, entrapped in these human organizations, but God said to his people in Babylon, "Come out of her, my people." God bears with ignorance before the light comes. I fellowship a child of God wherever I find him. It is not my business to draw the lines, but to
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preach the word and that operates as a fan to separate the chaff from the wheat. And it must prove to all who hear, a savor of life or of death according to the treatment it receives.
I am often surrounded by Roman Catholics, and sometimes they seek the Christ I am preaching, and I cannot say but what in the midst of fearful corruption and hypocrisy there may be some like diamonds buried in filth. God knows his own, but it is the business of the gospel to save such and rescue them from systems of idolatry as Moses rescued Israel from the worship of the golden calf. I am glad for a gospel that is applicable to all. If you are a sinner you don't need to go out of this house to obtain salvation. Right here it is possible to see souls saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Just as in the household of Cornelius, Jesus will save you and give you the joy of salvation when you yield your heart to his gospel. I have stood by the bedside of the dying and seen them depart in the triumphs of saving faith without changing their position. I bless God that he has brought salvation within the reach of all and that the same faith that saved the dying thief will enable us to have the assurance he had of being with Christ in paradise.
In regard to human organizations I have often heard the Church man has made compared to a perfect steam engine, and yet without steam it is worthless. So they pray for the Holy Ghost to run the machinery man has made! But what blasphemy is
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this assumption that man can make the machinery for the Holy Ghost to run! 0 what vaulting pride of anti-Christ which assumes to subject God to machinery man's wisdom invents!
No, God makes his own machinery and runs his own meetings, and conducts his own reformations by such instruments as he can use and it is for the Church, led alone by his Spirit and governed by the inward law, to let God work in his own way by instruments of his own choosing exercising the gifts which he has bestowed upon every member of Christ's body.
It is for Christians to test all things by God's word and to conform to his spiritual organism and his inward law of love.
God has children entrapped in human systems but I do not despise a victim of such crafts. I love them no less for their peril, but seek their deliverance.
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