February 14, 1897
The Science of
Salvation. - No. 2. A. T. Jones (Sunday Evening, Feb. 14, 1897.)
We stated in the
other lesson that it is not a misuse of the words "science" and
"scientific," to apply them to salvation.
Salvation is
science, it is scientific.
The working of the
Spirit of God upon the mind, transforming the mind and all the life into the
image of Jesus Christ, from sin unto righteousness-that is a scientific thing.
Therefore when you
study it, bear in mind that we are not in the least unscientific when we make
that the chief and the all in all of every subject, all the time. These
would-be scientists are unscientific in neglecting this, the chief of all
sciences.
There is another
thing that has been demonstrated; and it has been demonstrated in the three
nations that are the examples in the learning of the world. The record of the
Bible people, the Jewish people, God's people as in the Bible, is professedly
the example and source of study for all who propose to serve God. Greece and
Rome, with their philosophy, their literature, and their laws, are the examples
of many of those who profess to follow the Bible, and of all others.
Now we have seen
that amongst God's people there was a man who was a universal proverbialist, as
well as a universal poet, and a universal scientist. His songs were a thousand
and five, and his proverbs three thousand. There you see a master mind; and yet
the one who had such an understanding, such wisdom, in all these things,
demonstrated in his life that all such knowledge as that is absolutely impotent
for any good in a man or to a man, without the science of salvation being there
to control, and hold in righteousness the balance over all.
I called your
attention a while ago to the fact that God did not bring to us any of that
scientific teaching. Now I call your attention to the fact that he did bring to
us a record of that man's life when he turned away from God. He did bring to us
a record of the enormous failure that that man made in spite of all this
knowledge, when he forgot the science of salvation.
Why, then, did God
consider it more important for you and me to record all that man's life after
he turned from God, than to bring to us a record of all the scientific
instruction that he gave? In the minds of men, which is the more valuable to
mankind? The record of the failure, the enormous failure, made by Solomon is of
more value to mankind than would have been all of the scientific teaching that
Solomon ever spoke put in a book for mankind to-day; because in that failure it
was demonstrated to all the world how altogether vain and less than nothing, is
all knowledge of all things without the knowledge of the salvation of God.
Another great
example is seen in the Greeks. The natural mind never can attain to a higher,
closer, and more perfect thinking than the Greek mind did. In that is portrayed
the perfection of human thinking without God.
But what did it do
for them? That is the question. What did their literature do for them? What did
their philosophy do for them? What did their art do for them? What did their
religion do for them? Philosophy, philo sophia-the love of wisdom. What was that
wisdom?-It was absolute foolishness. God says so. What was their religion?-It
was mythology only. What was their art?-God says it was idolatry. Do you
remember the record?
The Word of God does
not say that as Paul walked among those statues and saw their art, he admired
their art. No, it says: "His spirit was stirred within him when he saw the
city wholly given to idolatry. Then what was it?-Idolatry.
Yet even to-day men,
women, and children take the remains of that which was only idolatry, and
worship it, and call it art, and copy it. Their minds dwell upon it, they
prepare books on it, and they teach and study it in the schools of the country.
But what can come from all this? What came of it amongst the Greeks themselves?
You know what it did for them. I need not repeat-literature, art, law,
philosophy, all these things. Rome copied her philosophy from Greece more than
it originated from herself, but the literature is there. And what did it do for
the Romans?-Some things it did for the others, only, if possible, it made them
worse than the others were. In all Greece, so far as my observation went, I saw
everywhere that the Greeks had respect enough for woman to drape properly every
figure of her they carved. A man, of course, is always naked; but when we get
to Italy that respect is gone, and all are without any drapery whatever. In
most cases the drapery is all gone; and by the way, the perfection of art
to-day that is worshiped by those who go to Rome, and study there in art, is
only the undraped female figures, and that is not art anyhow when it is done;
and yet it is come to the perfection of art, and is copied everywhere, and its
imperfections are copied every time.
I want to ask a
question. Who of you have ever seen a human pair of legs from the knees down?
As I stand here, the weight of my body is on my left foot. That balances
altogether the weight of my body. The right foot rests with the toes on the
floor. Will the muscles of my right leg be conformed exactly to those of the
left?-No. But that is the wonderful piece of art. There is just that
difference. The two legs are exactly alike, and we cannot discover a hair's
breadth of difference. And so we see it is not art anyhow. There is much to say
about that, but I am not giving a lecture on art to-night. I am talking about
what is the value of salvation, and what is the good of all things without it.
What good did Rome have without it?-Her iniquities sunk her. What good did
Greece have without it?-Her iniquities sunk her.
So, then, when the
fact stands thus demonstrated in threefold measure before the world, of the
absolute impotence of every effort of the human mind in its perfection to
attain to any good when the heart is turned from God, what can the Lord do for
the world if these three world-lessons will not teach the people?
What can he do for
men if they will follow in that way, in spite of these three examples of solemn
warning?
God has recorded
these three instances to teach us the importance of the highest effort of the
mind in all branches of science, art, and literature, to do men any good, to
keep them back from sin, to lead them toward any good of any kind whatever,
when they forget the salvation of God and the science of salvation, which he
has given to the hearts of men.
I ask therefore: Are
we to copy the foolishness of Greek and Roman? Are we to be charmed by their
idolatry, and to think it is art? Are we to be interested in their religion,
when it is altogether enormity? It is not enough to say it is mythology; it is enormity.
But someone will
say, Is not their literature invaluable? Let us see what God thought it was
worth. At the time when through the Greek language he was introducing the
science of salvation throughout the world, the Lord had the whole world of
Greek literature before him, and the Roman, too, for that matter. Yet he found
only three short sentences in the whole realm that were worth picking up and
putting in this treatise on the science of salvation. I will give you them. One
of them is in the seventeenth chapter of Acts. It is quoted from a Greek writer
by the name of Aratus, and is this. I read from the twenty-eighth verse. Paul
is speaking, and says:-
"Certain also
of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." A Greek
writer said that man is the offspring of God. The Lord picked that up, and
said, That is true.
Another one is in
the fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians, and the thirty-third verse. The
first part of the verse is, "Be not deceived." These are the Lord's
words. The rest of the verse is quoted from a Greek writer named Menander:
"Evil communications, corrupt good manners."
The other one is in
Titus, the first chapter and the twelfth verse, and is from Epimenides, as
follows: "The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."
Those three passages
were all that the Lord was able to find in the whole realm of Greek literature
that were worth taking up and putting his endorsement upon.
Well, then, I do not
say that this is all that anybody can use to profit. There are historical facts
in the Greek language that are of value. But God is teaching the things that
are most valuable to all mankind; he is teaching the principles of right and
truth, not simply bringing before the world an array of facts. And all that he
could find in the whole field of Greek literature that could be used in the
interests of truth or righteousness as principles to guide man, was just these
three statements: "We are also His offspring;" "Evil
communications corrupt good manners;" and "the Cretians are alway
liars." Who else can find any more than that, that will do him any good in
the way of righteousness and truth, purity and integrity?
Now do not forget.
The Greeks and Romans were not low down, degraded, ragged, ignorant heathen;
they were aristocratic, cultivated, and most highly educated. How could it be
otherwise when the things which they knew and taught are the pinnacle to which
teachers of to-day aspire? Julius Caesar was one of the most accomplished men
that ever lived-in courtliness, etiquette, Êsthetics, and manners generally.
But what was his character? The most guarded description of it, to be anywise
full or fair, would be unfit to print.
When the Lord has
shown how absolutely vain is all science, all learning of all kinds without his
salvation, then I say again, What can he do for men if these things which he
has set before the world will not instruct them that that is not the way to take?
If men will not be instructed by these things to take the right way, to allow
that God's science is the chief, and that what he knows is the best, then how
can mankind hope to escape the evil that has come upon all these that have gone
before?
The science of God's
salvation is the one thing for men to know, first of all; and to have that lead
us, guide us, balance us, to hold us everywhere in all things, and against all
things evil. And it will do all this. That is the blessed truth. I read last
night, and read again:-
Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Eph. 3:8, 9.
What is that mystery
of God?-"Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ the power of God,
and the wisdom of God, the gospel, the power of God unto salvation-that is the
mystery of God; that is the science of salvation. That is the scientific truth,
around which all other sciences center. That power of God unto salvation every
man must have to hold him back from the evil that is in him. The evil that is
born in every man will carry him to perdition, in spite of all science, all
literature, all art, all religion, everything the world can furnish, or that it
ever could furnish, unless he lays hold upon the power of God unto salvation,
which comes to a man by faith of Jesus Christ.
Without that power
in the heart, even the science which God taught-to say nothing of the
literature, the art, the religion, and all that the heathen taught-is impotent
to hold back man from sinning. Without that, every vestige of evil that is in a
man will show itself, in spite of all these other things. That is why it is the
power of God unto salvation: it saves man against every evil.
The mystery of God,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; Christ the power of God, and the
wisdom of God; Christ and him crucified; that alone, that all in all, that over
all, in all, through all, now and through eternity,-that is the science of salvation,
the chief of all sciences; that which leads all sciences, takes precedence of
all, and guides in the study of all. Let it be so with all forever.
Then let the Lord by
his Spirit so draw us to himself; let the heart be so opened to that power, to
the fellowship of that mystery, to the Spirit of God, that he may implant there
Jesus Christ, his grace and his virtue. And as we hold our hearts open to him
always, and to none but him, as a flower to the sun, we obtain in all its
fulness, his righteousness, his power, his salvation, his mercy, his truth, his
joy, his gladness, his peace-O, and his eternal life!
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