Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

people,"Christ Is Greater Than the Covenanter Church"If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father,and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be mydisciple."Luke 14:26.These are stern words. Few of us today findthat fathers or mothers stand between us and theservice of Jesus Christ, but the principle that Jesusenunciates here still holds. We must always be willing to put Jesus Christ first in our lives, and all relationships in life must be governed by our desire toput Jesus Christ first.We will therefore hate that which might separateus from a wholehearted service of Jesus Christ.Sometimes we as Covenanters become overlyconcerned about our church. We would like it if ourpeople had a greater love for, and a greater devotionto it. However, I do not feel that we would be profited because our people loved the Covenanter Churchmore, we need to love Jesus Christ more and ourchurch less. The moment we stoop to chart our actions to that which would seem to further the interests of our church, we are in grave danger. Thereare those who out of their love for our church, tellus that the thing for us to do is to give up the principles that keep us small. Because Jesus Christ isgreater than our denomination or any denomination,the important thing, the only thing that matters, isthat Christ is honored by the work of my church.I.Because this is true I would like to ask severalquestions concerning our church. The first questionis this, Is the Covenanter church a tool that God canuse to His glory? In answer to that question we maysay that God can use all things to His glory, and thatis true ; but I am not satisfied with that kind of ananswer. That is not what Christ has a right to expect of the Covenanter Church ; He has a right to expect that we will be a tool sharp and polished readyfor His use.If we are to be a church that He can use, wemust not be pre-occupied with the best methods ofkeeping ourselves alive. The Covenanters of Scotlandwrote some glorious chapters of history, not because they were thinking about their church, but because they were being faithful to Jesus Christ. Theywere faithful when it seemed that the price of thatfaithfulness would be that their church would bedestroyed by persecution. What happened to them asa church was unimportant, but it was important thatthey should uphold the truth and not compromise.The glory of anychurch is not the bigness of achurch in numbers,nor its popularity in the eyes ofmen. There is only one way that we as a part of theChurch of Jesus Christ can be big and that is in consecration to the service of Jesus Christ. We aretempted to be ashamed of our church because it issmall in numbers but we need to remember thatthere are other ways that a church may be small ; itmay be small in vision, and in loyalty, and in courage, and that kind of smallness is something ofwhich we should rightfully be ashamed.It is very important that we as a church shouldbe a tool that God can use, and because this is truewe should objectively study our church and see thatJuly 13, 1955Rev. R. W. Caskeyshe is wholly consecrated to the glory of JesusChrist.II.The second question that I would like to askis, Are we doing the work of our Lord Jesus Christ?No church is unimportant nor small that is doingthat. The church should present to the world theclaims of Jesus Christ. In our own power we will notbe able to make the world accept them, but we shouldpresent them clearly enough that the world willknow that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a tremendousthing, enormous in its assertions and staggering inits implications.We are in danger of forgetting that the truthswhich we hold must be the truths of Jesus Christ.When we talk about distinctive principles we mustremember that the purpose of distinctive principlesis not to make us "a peculiar but to enableus to be truly loyal to Jesus Christ. We do not needprinciples that make us different from other denominations, but when following Christ means that wego where others are not going, we need not be afraidto be different.A few years ago I read in The Pulpit this characterization of our churches; I am afraid that it istoo true. "We no longer believe in a great God whoin His mighty power holds the issues of life anddeath and marches across history with iron shoes,destroying kingdoms and empires, overruling untilHis will be done. In His place we have set a littleold man who doesn't seem to care what happens orwhat we do, who only makes sporadic and ineffectualattempts to control us."We no longer believe in a great Christ, whofought the power of the devil right up to the cross,who burst the bonds of death to rise in mighty power, who formed a new humanity, who rules over akingdom that shall have no end; instead, we havea nice Jesus who said some lovely things and diedtragically, for having said them."We no longer believe in a great Church foundgiven the power to bind and loose,ed upon a rock,able to carry the battle against the very gates ofhell and overcome them, moving confidently towardits final and inevitable triumph. In its place we havea much more human church as comfortable as an oldshoe, we go to it when we want to, and stay homewhen we want to. Why not ? is it not our church andcan we not do with it as we please ?"Maybe we have become so preoccupied with theCovenanter Church and have loved it so much thatwe have forgotten that we are the Heraldsof a mighty God, the Ambassadors of a greatSaviour who sent us to make the way of Hissalvation known. The truths of Jesus Christwe are the Heralds of a mighty God, the Ambassadors of a great Saviour who sent us to make the wayof His salvation known. The truths of Jesus Christare the same no matter what happens to the Covenanter Church. We may fail to do what we should do,and God will find others to carry on the Truth. Inorder that that day shall not come, let us think notof ourselves as a church that has certain beliefs, but(Continued on page 25)23