Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

essential."eyes."side."mark"run!"all whom He will, and we must see Him and seeHim above all and see Him first."But, we need to see also that the task of thechurch is not purely evangelistic, but to grow alsointo a body worthy of the Head. It isn't enough justto be born, but we must "grow up into Him in allthings which is the Head, even Christ." "Oh, but,"someone says, "so much of the church teaching is notJust what is esssential? Well, "the essential thing is to get a man born again and get himon the way to heaven. The purpose of the church isto win souls and get men to heaven." Is that so? Ina physicalway, is being alive the only essentialthing. What are the essential things? Is hair essential? There may be some question about that, butthose of you that have it wouldn't trade places withthose of us who don't have so much. I know membersof this Synod who are said to have one third of astomach. Is a stomach essential? There are members of this Synod who have short fingers shorthands. Is a long finger essential? These membersseem to be very well alive without it. Still if somebody offered my son $25,000 for the little finger ofhis baby son, I would fairly disown him if he tookthe money. Is an appendix essential ? Then why doesGod make everybody with one? The fact is that sofar as being alive goes, these things are not essential,but no man can attain perfection in all things physical unless he has them. The church is to grow up intoHim in "all things."The doctrines of our church are not motions thatwere passed on the last day of some long Synod.They are truths that are a part of growing up intoperfection in all things. They are sober teachings ofthe Bible, either by direct statement or by properinference, and they help us to grow into all things.But it isn't enough to have the body only. Itmust be a bodyon the march, going forward, andso we have our great active program. Here we arein a multi-million dollar institution of the Covenanterchurch. Here is our great program for the reliefof the aged and those who are retired. Here is ourmission program, in Japan, where they are so fewamong millions ; in Syria, where there is such fiercenationalism; in Cyprus, where there is an ancientand stagnated church; in the Indian and Southernand Kentucky fields, where people are in need of astrong sound Bible culture. Here is our work forthe young people, of girding for long Christian livesand active service, and here is also our reach intothe nation for an acknowledgement of the LordJesus Christ. We need to see that on our side is theLord Jesus Christ accepted personally and that He isthe rock on which our church is built. We need tosee that on our side is a church growing up intoHim in all things, that on our side is a reaching outthrough workers and means into all parts of theworld and into every realm of activity.How then shall we increase our vision? Howshall we be aware of these things ?"Lord,"First of all, we must start with Elisha's prayer,he said. When the servant was so disturbedabout matters, he said, "my master, what shall wedo?"When Elisha began, he said, "Lord"! And wecan only begin to enlarge our vision by a deeperconsecration and a deeper belonging to the LordJesus Christ, by acknowledging Him, andbeing an-September 14, 1955chored to Him completely. Where there isn't anycontact to Christ, the least we can say is that weare blind. Then, there was the petition, "open hiseyes, open hisHere was a man wonderingabout an army that was right at the city gates,andhis master seemed to be saying, "oh there are plentyof people on our "Well if there were people onhis side, why did the Lord let the army get aroundthe city ? Why should there be about two against tenthousand?"If it was so easy for Elisha to know,why didn't the Lord wake Elisha up first instead ofthe servant ? The servant was scared, why not wakethe brave first ?And so we come asking questions like why isour church declining? Why has the Christian amendment been rejected in congress everyyear for thelast eight years ? Why don't we have a new congregation every year? Why was it necessary to findwater two feet under the best looking church sitein the Poughkeepsie area of N. Y. ? We need to askthe Lord to open our eyes to see the might and powerof the church of Christ as he shows it to us, notto others, but to us !The strength and power of the church of Christin every heart, in every representative, in every organization, working out into all the world. Somepeople are willing to take a little squint at this, somefolks are willing to open one eye on it, but thatisn't enough. We must approach our church, hermembership, her doctrinal basis, her far reachingprogram, with eyes wide open because of our intimate touch with Him, because we come every timeand begin "Lord I" We'll see much better if we makea conscious advance toward these ends. Sometimeswe get ourselves into a little shell, and of course can'tsee from there. We get into our special interestsand into our local communities, and into our littlepet peeves, into our ancient historical backgroundand we just don't see.I remember being in something of a shell onetime. It was the cabin of an ocean liner the firstday out to sea. What did the sea look like? Wellthere was a porthole. You could stand up against itand press your nose against the glass and you couldsee the ocean. It reached out as far as the portholewould let you see, but that wasn't the place to seethe ocean. No, leave the cabin, go up on deck, openthe door, step out in the open. There she lay, thegreat, wide, deep expanse of blue. Paul was standing"out on deck" when he saw that great cloud of witnesses and said, "Lay aside every weight, andHe was on deck when he said, "I forget those thingswhich are behind, and press toward thewitha great vision, not only with open eyes, but advancingtoward it.A third thought is here. "Where do we stand ?"Elisha was speaking to his servant. Elisha was God'sman. Every member of the Covenanter Synod standsin Elisha's place in relation to his congregation andhis people. Every minister has been ordained by hisPresbytery, every elder has been ordained by theSession, and every member of the Synod stands as acommissioned representative of the Lord of Hostsbefore his people. Many of our people if you askthem will say, "I think I'm a Christian," but theydon't know whether or not they are. There are those(Continued on page 169)165