My Reasons for not being free to engage in Inter-Denominational Services

by the late W. Trew

(This is a copy of an address given in Shield’s Road, Motherwell in 1954)
(Submitted by J. D. McColl, Australia)

PART 1

Read — Matt.28.16-20; Acts 20.17-38; 1Cor.9.1-23

The saints who have gathered here today to hear this statement of my reasons for not being free before the Lord to serve inter-denominationally, will believe me when I say that I have not lightly undertaken this responsibility (as I conceive it to be).

As most of you know, I have been seeking to serve the Lord for nearly 30 years, and in that time I have travelled in many parts of the British Isles. I have come into contact with many assemblies and have watched their development through the course of the years. I have taken careful note of changes and have sought to analyse the causes and have become increasingly convinced that one of the main causes of the destruction of the character of many assemblies, and the alarming inroads of worldliness and lack of spiritual growth amongst our young people generally, has been the modern spirit of inter-denominationalism. It has the appeal of the appearance of large-heartedness and charity. Indeed many of those who urge this line of things today, do so on the plea that love to our fellow-believers demands inter-denominational activity. A reference to 1Jn.5.2 will assure us that our love to our fellow-believers can only be shown by our obedience to the commands of God. If I love my fellow-saints truly, I shall desire to influence them to walk in the ways of God, knowing that this alone will serve their richest blessing and truest happiness. But it is evident that I can influence them to so walk only as my own life is an example of obedience. To compromise the truth of God is no evidence of love.

Recently I have been serving a group of assemblies whose spiritual poverty has been a great grief. It cannot be denied that spiritual poverty is the direct result of years of inter-denominational activity. It seems to me that such poverty is inevitable, for it is manifestly impossible to work inter-denominationally and, at the same time, build an assembly for God upon solid foundations. We have seen this demonstrated again and again.

I think it to be fundamental in every phase of spiritual experience and Christian service, to ask our hearts a question and arrive at a decision in respect of it in the Presence of God. The question is a simple one, but the whole character of our life and service depends upon the answer. It is this: "What is to be my guide in life?" Long ago I decided that my sole guide must be the Word of God. Dr. Moule says that "A bishopric in the present day sense of the word has nothing in common with the bishopric of the New Testament." We therefore ask, "Where then is the authority for a bishopric in the present day sense of the word?" The answer given to that inquiry is, "Such a bishopric as we have today appeared practically everywhere in the church at the close of the second century." So that it would appear that church history may legitimately set aside the authority of the inspired Scriptures. I confess that I cannot take that ground. I receive the Word of God as alone authoritative to be my guide in every step of life.

It has been urged that the manifest blessing of God upon our service is a sure and certain evidence of the approval of God. I have a friend who is a lady evangelist. Faced many times with the fact that the Word of God condemns the course she takes and will not allow her the place she assumes, she justifies her disobedience by the fact that a large number of men and women have been saved at her meetings. The Scriptures make clear that apparent blessings are no proof of God’s approval of our ways. Are we willing that the Word of God should settle every difficulty, determine every association, control every step, guide in every iota of service? The answer to these questions is fundamental to my present statement.

With that matter settled for me personally, here are the terms of the commission from the Lord, and no servant of Christ has any other. I ask you to note the recurrence of the word "All."

1. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR MASTER

"All authority is given unto Me." Rejected and slain by man, He is now enthroned at God’s right hand and made "both Lord and Christ," invested with absolute authority in every sphere. How will He use that authority? He will use it in sovereign grace for the blessing of the nations. Therefore He gathered His servants around Him and gave them their marching orders.

2. THE SCOPE OF THEIR MINISTRY

"Make disciples of all the nations." His grace, because it is sovereign, leaps over the narrow confines of Israel, and the message of His blessing for man is carried to the nations and broadcast among the Gentiles. With what object in view? That sinners might be saved from Hell? Emphatically, "Yes!" Yet that is not what the Lord said.

"Make disciples" is His Word. He has in mind, and, by the terms of their commission, His servants also must have in mind as they carry the Gospel to the nations, that all who receive the message are thus brought to His feet, to be taught by Him, to imbibe His doctrine, to own Him Lord of their lives and to obey His will no matter where it leads or what it costs. The true servant of Christ, as he preaches the Gospel, must have nothing less than that before him as his object. Anything less will not fulfil the terms of his commission.

3. THE SUBJECT OF OUR MESSAGE

"Baptizing them … teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

First place was given to baptism in the commission, and every New Testament servant of Christ acted upon these instructions, so that, in the New Testament it is not supposed that any believer would not be baptized. For, in that act of obedience, there is on the part of the disciple of the Lord Jesus, the public severance of every moral tie that bound them to the world life, the sin life and the self life, and a solemn surrender of themselves to the absolute authority of their sovereign Lord and Master, henceforth, to live for His pleasure and if needs be, to die in His cause. As they rise out of the baptismal waters, the path that stretches out before them through life is one in which they are prepared to "Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

— to be continued (D.V.)