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THE . K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
July 1925
Laymen s Work: Past and Present An address by Albert Copley at First Baptist Church of Salem, Oregon on “daymen’s Sunday,” September 28, 1924. We are always glad to hear the voice of a loyal layman in these days of .apostasy and indifference. Mr. Copley lives the life, tells the truth and stresses in a strong and Scriptural manner the call which comes from God to the men of the church. We commend his message with all our heart.
HE laymen’s work in the Church of Christ has been a prominent feature of that body in all its activ ities and progress since its organization. Not only the Bible, but church history reveals that fact. So various is the scope of their activities that no part of the church’s work is precluded from them; and they can per form any function of the church, except such as has been especially delegated to the ordained clergy by civil law. If we go hack to the days of the apostles we will find that when persecution arose against the church at Jerusalem, they were “all scattered abroad throughout Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” So it was the laymen who were scattered abroad and not the apostles. Then we have this significant statement in the fourth verse of the eighth chapter of Acts: “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word.” The next four verses of that chapter tell us of the great work and marvel ous results that were accomplished by their preaching the Word. Thus the first missionary movement of the church was launched and carried out by the laymen of the church. Church history informs us that through the intervening years .down to the present time the same kind of work has been carried on, for the advancement of Christ’s cause, by the Christian laymen. Especially is this so in neglected places, where the Gospel is not regularly preached to the people. The Layman’s Obligation The Christian laymen feel that the obligation and the responsibility of the Great Commission rests as much upon them as it does upon the ordained clergy; and it is the sup port given by the laymen in carrying out this commission that has made possible the great missionary activities of the past century. In our present day, even with the multiplicity of ordained preachers, this responsibility has not decreased, but more and more the obligation is bearing down on the laymen that their work has not one whit diminished, but that they are the ones upon whom God has laid, in these last days, the task of giving the Gospel to the people, in its simplicity and purity, unadulterated by the rationalistic teaching of our schools of higher learning. The reason for this is obvious to all who have carefully considered the condition in these schools. It is a well- known fact that most of our theological schools have unfit ted their students, who have and are to become pastors in many of our churches, from being able to deliver the mes sage of salvation that wins souls to Christ, or to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints: for the simple reason that these schools, by their modernistic teachings, have shattered and robbed them of the' faith that was held so dear by their fathers and mothers, and has substituted in its place a message that is barren of all that the Gospel of Christ offers to a sin-stricken world. We thank-God for the faithful Christian ministers who have stood true to the whole teachings of the Bible, and have a message for those that hear, that can feed the hun gry soul, and meet the need of everyone who feels the need of a Saviour. We thank God for the minister of the Gospel who has a faith rooted and grounded in the teachings of the Great Teacher; but we abhor, to the depth of our soul, the person who clothes himself with the garb of a minister
of the Gospel and proclaims to the people any other mes sage, than that of a crucified and risen Christ, as God’s Way to lift men out of the whirlpool of sorrow, misery, sin and unbelief in which the world is engulfed. The Menace of Modernism The great danger that confronts the Church in the present time is the effect that will be produced on the minds of the people by the preaching of a large majority of pastors that come from our institutions of learning, who have been robbed of the message of salvation by the modernistic teachings of these institutions. Another menace confronts us that I sometimes think is even more dangerous. Many preachers who do proclaim the message of the cross, so blind the eyes of their hearers, by the unscriptural conditions they attach to it, that God’s plan of salvation for the lost is obscured, and the message be comes unfruitful. The world has never been more hungry for the Gospel than it is at the present time, and surely never more in need of it. The people outside the church are starving for it; but they, perhaps, do not feel the hunger as many on the inside do. I think if Christ was- to come to His workers today, His message to them would be “Feed my lambs and feed my sheep.” When Christ gave that command'to Peter I am sure He must have been thinking especially of those on the insidei It is no more a part of the Great Commis sion to make disciples of all nations than it is to “teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you” and yet some of the most simple teachings of the Gospel are unknown to many who have listened to the preaching from our pulpits for many y ea rs.. Is it any wonder that we have so few winners of souls today? Tell the Story Wlhat the laymen need more than anything else is to be able to tell the Gospel story of the Cross of Christ, so those that hear may see Jesus as the Saviour of the world, who bore their sins in His own body on the tree, and that they may realize that this is God’s way and His only plan of salvation. What is the use of having a motto “Each One Win One” unless we know how to give them the Gospel, which is God’s power to win them? Next, the layman should be able always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him. (1 Pet. 3 :15 ). How can a person teach others if he does not know for himself? Oh, I have heard people say: “It does not matter whether, we know these things, just so we live right.” I answer, How can We live right if we do not know tliem? The layman who cannot write out a state ment of his faith concerning each cardinal doctrine of the Christian religion as taught in the New Testament, should lose no time in preparing himself to do so. He can make no reasonable excuse to God for not being able to do so. A man cannot rely upon his own judgment, or even on conscience; God tried man under the rule of conscience, and man miserably failed. Then God gave man His Word as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path; but we cannot be guided by it unless we know it. The world is filled with sorrow and distress and perplexi ties and want is on every hand; and the worst part of it all
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