May - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

Declarin/; all the Counsel of God. 3
and whose light they reflected for the instruction and salvation of
men.
2. Let us notice, secondly, the fact that the apostle declared
"all" the divine counsel. He did not preach a partial gospel or
keep back any part of the truth that was profitable for his hearers.
He preached the whole truth, whether pleasing to men or not.
Taking the Epistle to the Ephesians as an example, we see that
he spake much concerning redemption as originating in the
sovereign will and love of God the Father, as purchased by the
blood of Jesus Christ the Son, and as applied by the quickening
power of the Holy Ghost. He declared the complete fall of men
as sinners, dead in trespass'es and sins, and salvation as not of
works, but of grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. Be also
strongly inculcated holiness of life and conversation on the part of
believers, and the concluding part of this Epistle dwells largely on
the precepts of practical godliness and of devotedness to Christ
and his service. The apostle was an all-round preacher of the
truth as it is in Jesus. He declared law and gospel, precepts and
promises, the divine order and relations of Church and State, the
first things of grace and godliness here,. and the last things of death,
resurrection, and final judgment hereafter. He preached all the
counsel of God for the destruction of Satan's kingdom, and the
upbuilding and extension of Christ's kingdom in the hearts of
Jews and Gentiles throughout the world. He omitted no truth
that the Lord commissioned him to declare; and the terms of our
commission to-day are in this respect the same as his.
3. The third point we observe is his assertion that he "shunned
not" to perform the important task of declaring" all the counsel
-of God."
The apostle here clearly implies that there were temp~ations
to shun the declaration of the whole counsel. These temptations
chiefly arose from the opposition of men, as we may gather from
the opening sentences of his address. There he states, " I have
been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of
mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by
the lying-in-wait of the Jews." The Jews were the most determined
enemies of the gospel of Christ, and they pursued Paul
with relentless hatred and opposition in almost every city where he
preacheq the gospel. He loved them as his brethren according
to the flesh, and sought their salvation with intense earnestness,
Thus their opposition was a great and constant trial to his faith.
He would, no doubt, be strongly tempted at times to shun the
odeclaration of those truths that were most unpalatable unto them,
but he was enabled by the grace of God, as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ, to resist this temptation and to preach the whole.
truth, whether they would hear or forbear, orpursue him to death.
The apostle knew also that the doctrines which he preached were
not pleasant to the carnal mind in the Gentiles as well as the
Jews. The Gentiles, no more than others, naturally appreciated