1 Peter
1. After promising Mr. Chamberlain that I would come to your meeting to speak,
of course I began to wait upon God for a message and it was not untill the end
of last week that I felt any certainty as to what it should be and then it was
brought about by a notice of the meeting in Godalming to be held on Sunday, and
it described the Bible as the book with life’s answers, and I am in full
agreement with that but I am in direct opposition with what I read upon the back
of the small leaflet. I do not intend to attempt to show the error of it, but I
do intend by God’s help to answer three questions set forth on the first page.
They were these 1 What shall we believe? 2 What principles should govern our
relations with others? And 3 What does the future hold, and we have all the
answers in the chapter we have read together and they are these 1 The word of
the Lord which endureth forever [25] 2 See that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently [22] 3 An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that
fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. Now let us examine each one of
these separately. What ground have we for believing the Bible to be the Word of
God. There are many reasons for believing it. The Roman Catholics have done
their utmost to banish it from our own beloved land. Copies by the thousand
have been collected and burned and yet year-by-year the number printed grows,
and the translations into other languages increase annually. In this statement
cannot be made of any other book. And then there is what we call the harmony of
the book that must strengthen the faith of any unbiassed mind. About 40
different people were engaged in writing it in the work was spread over a
period of 1600 years[2]. Moses
began it amid the thunders of Sinai and John on the Isle of Patmos finished it
and he was called a “son of thunder”. Many of the writers had no knowledge of
what the others had written, and yet they verified it. And all these things go
to prove that there was a master mind behind it all and within its pages we
read that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Then it’s
accomplishments all go to prove its origin. It raises the standard of morality
wherever it is given its place in the nation’s life. It proves itself to be the
“word of God which liveth and abideth for ever”[3]. A young
man presented a gospel tract to a passerby and greatly angered him and in his
rage he tore it to pieces and threw it in the air saying “I was shew you what I
will do with your tracts”. A small piece of it blew back and landed on the
lapel of his coat with just one word on it JESUS he snatched it away in a rage
but it had sunk deeply into his heart. He could not forget it, and when he went
to bed he could not banish it from his mind, it kept him awake it reminded him
of a godly mother had packed the Bible in his box when he left home and
promised to read it. And in the middle of the night he felt compelled to get up
and get this Bible out and read it and before morning he had believed to the
saving of his soul and his mother’s prayers were answered. Yes the word of God
liveth and abideth forever.
Then let
us pass on to question two. What principles should govern our relations with
others. Let us read verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love
one another with a pure heart fervently. The book tells us of those who have
carried this out and who in the face of great persecution have gone forth to
preach the gospel to the needy. Here is a young man, a member of a wealthy
family of brewers, he is walking around the slums of London thinking of the
terrible poverty and squalor and witnessed this incident and it was one similar
to that which was happening every day during that period. A poor ill clad women
went up the steps of a public house and tried to persuade her husband to come
home and bring money for the support of his children and herself whom he
promised to love. He came to the door and with oaths & curses kicks her
down the steps where she fell at the feet of the young man and over that door
he saw his own name Charrington. What did he do to shew his love. Sacrificed
half a million and severed his connection from the brewing industry[4]. That is
the principle of love in operation and it comes about by the love of Christ
shed abroad in our hearts. Then what about our last question. What does the
future hold out? Will you please listen to this? I will read from 1 (or 15 22
& 23). For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But
every man in his own order. Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are
Christ’s at His coming. Then cometh the end. Then cometh the end every man in
his own order. What are [we] to understand by this All will be made alive and
this means all. But the order of our resurrection will be according to the life
we have lived down here. What shall we believe? What the Lord Jesus Christ said
John 5. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh when all that are in their
graves shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection and
they have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation. And we determine
which order we belong to by our acceptance or rejection of the Lord Jesus. The
story is told of a young man being dealt with by either Moody or CH Spurgeon
and he said this My trouble is that I cannot believe and he was asked this
question. Whom cannot you believe and he would not go so far as to say he could
not believe the Lord Jesus Christ, but repeated his first statement, only to be
pulled back to the same question. Can we suggest for one moment that the word
of the Almighty is unreliable. NO.
[1] To the east of Witley about 30 minutes bicycle ride. There is no record of a Baptist Church or brethren Hall in Hascombe so it was perhaps some kind of cottage meeting http://everything.explained.today/List_of_places_of_worship_in_Waverley_%28borough%29/#Ref-113 for a comprehensive list of churches and chapels in the area
[2] This is a common statement about the Bible but it is unclear where it originates from
[3] 1 Peter 1:23
[4] Frederick Nicholas Charrington. He founded the Tower Hamlets Mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Nicholas_Charrington