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