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C o n t r i b u t e d A r t i c l e s
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Pulpit, Pew and Company Rev. Mark Matthews, D. D., Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington
There has crept into the body of the church a false notion. There are those who have thought that God did not insist upon organizing the new converts. Jesus Christ enjoins upon those who are to form the corporation that they shall evangelize and indoctrinate and organize. It is wrong, and a violation of the command for Christian men and women to be brought into existence as such and left unorganized. Responsibilities and Duties There is another thing: The responsibilities and duties of this corporation are to be shared jointly. No member escapes. - The duties and responsibilities must be shared jointly or, in part, separately. There are some common duties. First, we must all go. We must all go; there is not a member who can refuse. There is no possible way by which you can make the gospel static.. There is no power vested in you to make stationary the gospel of Jesus Christ. I fear people have tried to localize the gospel and, when they have tried to do, so they have suffered or have de stroyed the power of the gospel. It is the only thing in all the realm of the activities ©f the Christian that cannot be localized, because you cannot bring the people to you. Certainly, you cannot bring all the people to you. Then you must go to the people. There was never a period when that emphasis should be made with greater force. There was never a time in the history of the church which needed the emphasis on the command to go as much as it is needed today. If I were trying to analyze the condition of the church, I would say frankly that the church is suffering because she is standing in her place trying to beckon the people to her. That is the re verse order of the command. It is the unscriptural way to do it. You have no warrant for that practice. You shall not make the gospel static. You cannot bring the people to you; therefore go to them with the gospel. All must go. It is not just one or two of us, just the preacher, who must go. All must go. There are no ex ceptions. You will say there are two or three ways of going, and there are. You may go personally, or you may be just as responsive by sending what God has intrusted to you. You cannot escape the responsibility. We must go; we must all go; we must go to all the people. Racial Prejudices Now, if you have never seen the people, have never vis ited them in any way, that sentence is meaningless to you. It is meaningless because there is not a person who is free from racial prejudices. God makes it impossible for racial prejudice to control your actions. This country is doing herself an irreparable injury because she is permitting the false note to be preached by rationalists and people who are antagonistic to God and the government, and, in conse quence, is being controlled by a spirit that is destroying her Christian character and program.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—Mat. 28:18-20. “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuifering and teach ing.”—2 Tim. 4:2. “ ej , «¡UL.PIT, Pew and Company” is a supernaturally m formed corporation. It is of supernatural ori- jSajggjaja gin. Its power is supernatural, its program is supernatural, and everything about it is super natural. When Jesus, in two or three words, delivered the most powerful utterance that' ever fell from His lips, saying ^All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” He stated a fact which is not fully comprehended; namely, that the absolute power of heaven- and earth and of the Godhead was vested in Him. There was no reserve power left in God. Jesus spoke of the complete power of the Triune God. He never misused a word; He never used a useless word; He never used a meaningless word, and when He said “All” He meant the complete power of the God head. “All power is vested in me,” said Christ. Therefore, being vested with the complete power of the Godhead, He formed this corporation and commanded us to go. “All power is vested in me,” and, when He said that, He brought into existence the corporation I am to discuss. He said another thing: That it is the only corporation, the only corporate entity, in the universe that can claim the divine right to existence. When we think of it in such terms we see what it means to be able to say we exist by divine right. An Indissoluble Union Then He stated another great fact: It is an indissoluble union. It is impossible to dissolve it by any human power. God has made no provision for its dissolution because it is in an unbreakable-body. There is no power in this universe by which His body can be broken. You cannot break the body of Christ. He made it impossible when He said “I will build the church, and the gates of hell shall be in capacitated and helpless; powerless to prevail against it, to destroy, or in any way to make an indentation upon my body, namely, My Church.” It Is Perpetual This corporation, is continuous, or rather, it is perpetual; perpetual in the infinite meaning of the term. So far as this age is concerned it is a perpetual corporation. ? The business of the corporation is serious. It has three parts: (1) to evangelize the world; (2) to organize; (3) to indoc trinate. The business of this corporation is the evangeliza tion of the world, the indoctrinating and the organizing of the regenerated.
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