We continue our monthly series
of excerpts from Christian Standard,
circa 1909. The magazine devoted one issue each month that year to articles of
particular interest to our movement.
Today we feature a sermon by
Barton W. Stone, who allied with Alexander Campbell to form the Restoration
Movement (aka, the Stone-Campbell Movement). No date is attached to this
sermon, which we will prune some, as it is quite long. Here’s Barton W. Stone
(1772–1844):
_ _ _
God’s Love for a Lost World
A Sermon by Barton W. Stone
(Published April 10, 1909; p. 6)
The love of God is the spring,
or moving cause, of all the benefits of the gospel. His love to the fallen
world is absolute, and must be so declared to mankind. To say that God loved
us, on condition that we should love him, would destroy the very idea of the
gospel. “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And “herein is
love not that we loved God, but that he first loved us” (John 4:10).
The world, the whole world of
mankind, is the object of God’s love, and to which he has given his Son. But,
lest the light of this glaring truth should shine too brightly, some have
artfully cast a veil over it, asserting that it was the elect world that God
loved, and to whom alone he gave his Son. Of such a world the Scripture nowhere
speaks, but declares that the application of the term “world” to the elect is
highly improper. John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.” But that the whole world is the object
of God’s love, and that Christ is given to all, without exception, is evident
from the following arguments:
1. Because Christ is
constituted the Saviour of the world. John 3:17: “For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.”
John 12:47: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. [Stone
shared these additional Scriptures: John 6:32, 33; 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 John
4:14.] From these, and similar passages, we conclude that Jesus Christ is, by
office, the Saviour of the world; and therefore, as such, was given to the
world.
2. The truth is further
evident from the many invitations, calls and entreaties to all mankind to
believe on him, and come to him as their Saviour, and freely receive his
offered gifts. Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy lade, and I will give you rest.” [Also: Isaiah
53:1; Revelation 22:17; Luke 14:17.] Now, how can we account for these
invitations and offers made to all, if Christ be not given to all? How could we
reconcile the conduct of a prince or sovereign, who should propose terms of
pardon and peace to his rebellious subjects, when at the same time substantial
reasons existed why he could not accede to his own proposals? If Christ be not
given to the whole world, that part to which he is not given has no right to
anything in him more than the fallen angels, and can not be invited to receive
Christ or his benefits in truth and sincerity. Besides, how can their
punishment be aggravated for rejecting Christ, when he never was, nor can be,
offered to them in sincerity and truth?
3. But that Christ is given,
and can be sincerely offered to the world, is further evident, because “He died
for all.” “For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that
if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died
for them” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). “But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,
that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9).
[Also: 1 Timothy 2:6; 2 Peter 2:1; John 1:29.] Many glosses have been put upon
these and similar passages of Scripture; yet the light will beam forth. Many
veils have been drawn over them, yet candor will strip them off.
It is the truth that all
mankind are given to Christ, the mediator. [See Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22;
John 3:35; Psalm 2:8.]
4. That Christ died for all is
still further evident, because sinners who hear the gospel shall finally be
condemned for not believing and obeying it. “He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). “The Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire;
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ” [2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8]. [Also: John 12:48; James 2:12; 1 John 3:33.]
All to whom the gospel is preached are, therefore, required, on pain of
damnation, to believe in Christ for righteousness and salvation. But how can
this be required of those for whom Christ never died to procure salvation? If
such are required to believe, they are required to believe an untruth . . . ,
and can we think that the Judge of all the earth would condemn his creatures
for not believing a lie? God forbid! Therefore, as all to whom the gospel is
preached are required to believe in Christ on pain of damnation, it follows
that he died for all! . . .
Thus we see the general
proposition, that Christ is given to the whole world, sufficiently established.
And as Christ is given, so with him is all his fullness given, or all that is
in him. For we have no authority to believe that a partial Christ is given or
offered to any.
Christ is not divided. “He
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). In him is fullness of
salvation, pardon, eternal life, grace, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption, the fullness of the Spirit: in a word, all the benefits he
procured by his death, and which he afterwards received as gifts for men, even
for the rebellious, when he ascended in triumph to his Father (Psalm 68:18).
God sits upon the mercy-seat
to dispense grace and mercy to a lost race. None but sinners need mercy;
therefore, none but sinners have any business at the mercy-seat, and no other
character does God receive there. The rich he sends empty away—Christ came not
to call the righteous, but sinners, the poor, the maimed, . . . the blind, the
chief of sinners. If Christ receiveth sinners only, then every attempt of the
sinner to make his condition better before he comes to Christ, is an attempt to
throw himself out of the reach of Christ and of mercy. As long as he remains
out of Christ, he remains out of the way, the truth and the life. . . .
. . . The gospel is the means
of regeneration. This truth is abundantly manifest from the following
Scriptures: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). The word
of God is the seed of regeneration, called incorruptible seed. “Of his own will
begat he us, with the word of truth” (James 1:18). [Also: Romans 8:2; 1
Corinthians 4:15; John 15:3; John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; 2 Peter 1:4;
John 8:32; Psalm 119:50, 130; James 1:21.]
From these and similar
passages it is evident that the word of truth is the means of enlightening,
quickening, regenerating, and sanctifying the soul. But how does the gospel
effect these mighty works? We answer, through faith. The gospel or “word of God
is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). It is
living and abiding—it endureth forever (1 Peter 1:23). It is spirit and it is
life (John 6:63). These are essential properties of the gospel. To an
unbeliever, the gospel is weak and produces no effect. No means whatever will
produce its effect without application. So God never appointed that the gospel
should regenerate the human heart without application. Faith is applying the
means or admitting the truth into the heart. When the sinner believes it, he is
quickened, renewed and sanctified. When it is received, it is like the seed
sown in good ground, which sprang up and brought forth fruit (Matthew 13:23).
It is that which breaks up the fallow ground of the heart. For “it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). [Also: Romans
1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Thessalonians 2:13.] Here we find the word of God
worketh effectually in believers; but it can not work in unbelievers, because
of unbelief. For the word preached does not profit when not mixed with faith in
them that hear it (Hebrews 4:2). It may remain in the Bible till the day of our
death; unless we believe, it will no more effect a change in our hearts, than
seed will grow while it lies dry in the garner. God does not operate upon us as
upon dead matter. . . . He deals with
man as a rational creature. The strongest motives are presented to our
understandings; but they can not move, excite or influence us unless we
believe; in other words, that are no motives at all without faith.
God has revealed himself to us
in his word; but he is invisible; he can not be seen with mortal eyes; nor can
we have any true knowledge of him until by faith we receive the testimony he
has given of himself in his word. Then we have evidence that God is always
present with us; in him we live and move and have our being—that he is
infinitely holy—that he hates every sin—that he searches the hearts and tries
the reins of the children of men—that he is gracious and merciful—that he is
unchangeable: what he has spoken once, he speaks always. His word is his power
to salvation. By it he spoke all things into being, and by it he upholds all
things. It is the voice of his Spirit, now and always, addressing us. It is as
a fire and hammer; and the sinners who receives it feels its powerful efficacy.
It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The testimony of
God being now admitted as true, the sinner discovers how unlike he is to God;
the more he sees of God, the more he abhors himself. His fears may be awakened
by the thunders of Mount Sinai; but it is only a view of the holiness,
goodness, love, and the free, unmerited grace and mercy of God, which produces
true conviction and true repentance, and which humbles the soul, slays the
enmity of the heart, and makes him willing to depart from all iniquity. He
adores the riches of divine grace, which is extended to such a poor, polluted
work of the dust. He hates sin, and laments over it, because he sees it is
committed against a God of infinite holiness, condescension and love. He
devotes himself to God, to be for him, and not for another. But all these
effects are produced by the belief of divine truth, or by the evidence of
things not seen, received through faith.
_ _ _
Jim
Nieman, managing editor, Christian
Standard
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