PCA HISTORICAL CENTER
|
||||||||||||
Harold Samuel Laird |
||||||||||||
Sermon : "Called Out and Cast Out"
I confess that whenever I have preached on this text before, I have seen it only as a message spoken by the Holy Spirit through the apostle to the individual Christian. I am as much convinced as ever that God does speak this message to every man and woman who names the name of Christ, but I am now persuaded that in the text before us God is directing this call to separation not to the individual Christian so much as to all truly born again believers in Christ as a body. Of course this particular letter was in the first instance directed by the Holy Spirit through the apostle to that part of the whole body of true believers then residing in the city of Corinth. However, by reason of the very existence of this letter as a part of the whole canon of Scripture today, I am equally persuaded that now in this our day, God is directing this call to separation to the whole body of true believers in Christ in the world at this present moment. That this particular call is addressed to the whole body of believers rather than to the individual believer is clear from the context, and especially from the verse immediately preceding the text, verse sixteen: “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God.” Now it is quite clear that the Scripture does refer to the individual believers as temples of God, in the sense that their very bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Thus the apostle speaks in I Corinthians 6:19: “What know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you?” I realize that we are accustomed to read it thus: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” So it reads in the King James Version, but in the original we have not the definite, but rather the indefinite article, “a,” not “the” temple, even as it is in the Revised Version, as well as in the margin of the Scofield edition, indicating that as individual believers we are each one of many in whose bodies the Holy Spirit dwells. Hence my body is a temple of the Holy Ghost and so is yours. But when the whole body of believers is referred to collectively, it is spoken of as “the” temple. Even so Paul speaks of the whole body in I Corinthians 3:16, 17: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are,” i.e., which temple all of you together are. How do men defile this temple? Men defile the temples of their bodies by physical uncleanness. It is to such defilement that the apostle is referring in I Corinthians 6:18: “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” If he be a true Christian, born again, his body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, in defiling his body, he defiles this particular temple. But in so doing he is not destroyed. No, the Word does not say that one who defiles a “temple of God, him shall God destroy,” but it does say, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” How do men defile the temple of God? They defile it by leading it into a life of unfaithfulness to Him whose Bride and Body it is. God have mercy on the man who by his teaching and example leads any body of true believers into a position of unfaithfulness to Him who bought them with His own blood. That man shall God destroy. He may continue to live now and preach and draw a large salary, but one day God will deal with his soul. The message of our text, however, is not one of warning to those who would defile the temple, but it is a message directed to the temple itself, in the form of a call to separation from those who would defile her, lest she be defiled. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate.” The “them” from whom we are called to separate ourselves are those who have “crept in unawares,” who as professed Christians appear to be what they are not, namely, a part of the true temple, or Body of Christ. Our Lord Jesus himself, when here upon earth, called attention to this defilement in His message to the first disciples in Matthew 16: 6: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sadduccees.” And again in Mark 8:15: “Beware . . . of the leaven of Herod.” He further predicted the defilement of the temple in the parable of the leaven in Matthew 13:33: “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” We know that the leaven of the Herodians was worldliness, that the leaven of the Pharisees was formalism, and that the leaven of the Sadduccees was unbelief and skepticism as to the supernatural. It is interesting to note in the history of the Christian Church that these are the things that have defiled it through the years, and with each time of defilement, when it appeared that the whole lump was leavened, a remnant in the church heard the call of the text and came out. I. The first defilement from which the church is called to separate herself is that of the leaven of the Herodians, namely, WORLDLINESS. It is interesting to note that this was the first defilement with which the Christian Church had to deal. It came with the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the year 313, when he made Christianity the state religion. Prior to that it cost men much to accept Christ and publicly confess Him. In many instances it meant the loss of all things—but a great change took place. It cost nothing to confess Christ, but rather secured popular favor, and consequently many professed themselves Christians who were not Christians at all. The result was that the church became very largely a worldly institution, rich in the things of this world and steeped in the pleasures of the world. Then it was that a remnant heard the call of God in the text, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” And history tells the story of the cost at which they came out, and the relentless persecution they endured at the hands of those who stayed in. But the witness of the church was preserved. Thank God today for the Protestant Reformation! Even the Roman Catholic Church is thankful for this movement which stemmed the tide of a downward swing which, if permitted to go unchecked, would have destroyed that church, too. But because this leaven of the Herodians—worldliness—is ever present in the church, God is ever calling upon His people to come out from among them. The pull of the world upon the church is felt always, and God wants us to cut loose from those who yield to its pull. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” The world and the things of the world may become idols in the church in the sense that the church worships things instead of God. II. The second defilement from which the church is called to separate herself is that of the leaven of the Pharisees, namely, EXTERNALISM, or mere form in religion. This was the second defilement with which the Christian Church had to deal. It followed soon upon the Reformation and was especially prevalent in the Church of England, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” Then again a remnant heard the call of the text, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” Among those who came out was that sturdy group who later came to bear the name of “Puritans,” and they paid the price. Banished from England by the “powers that be” in the Church of England, they sought refuge on the continent and later in America. This body, more than any other, influenced for good the life of the new republic later to be brought forth on this continent. III. The third defilement from which the church is called to separate herself is that of the leaven of the Sadduccees, which is SKEPTICISM AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL, AND THE SCRIPTURES as the infallible Word of God. Today we call it MODERNISM. While it is by no means new, it is quite evident from the warning of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 16:6 that there was skepticism in His day, yet in a sense it is well named “Modernism,” for now as never before has this leaven permeated the whole church, so much so that we may well believe we are now in the time of which the Lord spake in the parable of the leaven, when He said that the time would come when the whole should be leavened. But once again a remnant has heard the call to “come out from among them,” so that this morning all over the land there are groups like ourselves who in many instances have at great sacrifice come out from an apostate church, a church so permeated with Modernism that reform within has been proved to be absolutely impossible. We here for the most part have come out of an apostate Presbyterian Church, but that denomination is by no means the only one that is permeated with the leaven of unbelief. You can scarcely name one among the larger denominations that is not permeated with it. And today God is calling those who are truly born again to “come out from among them, and be separate.” Many are coming out, but many also who are true believers have not come out. With some the cost is too great. It does cost something to come out. To be called out is likely to result in being cast out. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, the One who calls us out: “I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.” This is what it has cost some right here before me this morning for heeding this call to separation. But is it all cost? Is there no compensation in coming out? Much every way! Let us hear the words of God immediately following the text: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. . . . and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” Recall the story of the man born blind, whose eyes Jesus opened. You will remember how, because of his bold confession of Christ, he was cast out of the synagogue. And the record says, “Jesus . . . found him.” Someone commenting on this writes: “Christ had learned of the punishment and sought him out. Cut off from the visible church, he was numbered among those who are united in fellowship with Him, who promotes the abiding interests of men. And such is ever the reward of those who make sacrifices for Christ, who lose employment or friends by too boldly confessing their indebtedness to Him. They will themselves tell you that Christ makes up to them for their losses by imparting clearer knowledge of Himself, by making them conscious that they are remembered by Him, and by giving them a conscience void of offence, and a spirit superior to worldly misfortunes. His presence makes the desert a Paradise, the dungeon a palace.” Is a man lost because he does not “come out”? No, for our relationship to God is not dependent upon our connection with a visible church organization, but wholly and simply upon our connection with the true Church, that body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. One may stay in an apostate organization without impairing his relationship to Christ, but he certainly cannot stay in, in view of the clear call of God to come out, without affecting his fellowship with Christ. If to obey the call to separation and come out means His peculiar presence and blessing, then certainly to refuse to obey this call to separation and stay in means the forfeiture of this presence and blessing. Yes, called out and cast out! “HE CALLED ME OUT, the man with garments dyed. “It cast me out—this world, when once it found “And so we are ‘without the camp’—my Lord and I. [excerpted from The Christian Beacon 2.4 (4 March 1937): 3.]
|
||||||||||||
