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“SET FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL”
S H Tow
Text: Philippians 1:12-17
On this day of holy
Convocation, the twenty-sixth, convened for the conferment of letters, may
all honour, praise, and thanksgiving be unto our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To our graduating students, during your time at this
College, your teachers have equipped you with the necessary tools for the
unfinished task, the furtherance and defence of the Gospel. May you go
forth into your respective mission fields not by might of man, nor by
power of intellect, but by the Spirit of God, to win precious souls for
God’s everlasting Kingdom.
For your example and
encouragement, I have chosen the writer of the Epistle to the Philippians.
From his Roman prison cell he declares his unflinching resolve to press on
with the Gospel work, committed to him by the Lord himself on the road to
Damascus, to bear His name before Gentiles and kings and to suffer great
things for His name’s sake (Acts 9:15-16).
The Apostle was no stranger
to suffering and persecution. His arrest and imprisonment was a
discouragement to the church, but not to Paul. He reckoned that the things
which happened had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel
(Phil 1:12). To the bondservant of Jesus Christ, only one thing mattered:
the Gospel. Recall that Paul had come to Rome by way of Jerusalem, gripped
by an unshakeable resolve: “But none of these things move me, neither
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with
joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
Now in prison he wrote, with
joyful confidence “… in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain” (Phil 1:20-21).
From the day that the Lord
appeared to him, and called him, he was enrolled in the school of the Holy
Spirit to be thoroughly instructed, and equipped for the task ahead. In
the Spirit he learnt new truths and eternal values, and to appreciate the
everlasting worth of the Gospel, and the inspired, inerrant, invincible
Word of God. Henceforth he would serve the ever living Author of that Word
for the rest of this earthly life without reserve. Having the Lord, he had
found his all in all. Hence he could write: “But what things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ” (Phil 3:7-8).
Toward the end of his
ministry, he wrote “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing” (2 Tim 4:6-8). Death was an ever looming prospect, drawing
nearer by the day. But to Paul – and to every fully committed servant of
the Gospel – to be “absent from the body,” is to be “present with the
Lord” (2 Cor 5:8), a glorious and welcome prospect. Shortly after, Paul’s
earthly life was snuffed out by Nero’s sword, but his letters remain and
the light of the Gospel burnt on. Even through the thousand years of the
Dark Ages, it was not altogether extinguished.
John Wycliffe
A thousand and three hundred
years after Paul, God raised another man of faith, John Wycliffe of Oxford
University, England. He was the Morning Star of the Reformation.
England was in darkness
without the Word. People were at the mercy of a corrupt priesthood. John
Wycliffe caught the vision: his people needed the light of God’s Word. He
set himself to translate the Bible from Latin into English so that
ordinary men and women could read God’s Word for themselves. Without the
Word of life, souls would forever be lost.
Those were the days before
printing was discovered. It took one man 10 months to make a copy of the
Bible. Wycliffe gathered young men, fired them with the same zeal for
souls. Then he taught them four things:
(1) He taught them how to
live honestly, humbly and honourably, to work hard and never to beg or
become a parasite.
(2) He taught them the Word,
the Gospel message, and how to refute the priests and their false
teachings.
(3) He taught them to
reproduce, to commit the Word to faithful men who would be able to teach
others and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Tim
2:2-3).
(4) Finally, he taught them
how to die. Imagine hundreds of young men converted by the preaching of
John Wycliffe, who willingly offered themselves for training, being told
that the end result of that training was the prospect of death – being
bound to the stake and burnt alive, for the Word of God and the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
In the years following,
hundreds of Lollard preacher boys endured the flames, with Wycliffe Bibles
hung from their necks. But the glory of the Gospel was stronger than the
fire of Rome. Wycliffe’s teaching and his English Bible spread throughout
England, and even up to Switzerland and Prague, where Lollard preachers
became a thorn in the side of Rome. His influence was such that it was
felt for over 100 years after his death!
“They loved not their lives
unto the death.” (Rev 12:11)
William Tyndale
A hundred and forty years
after Wycliffe, God raised William Tyndale of Cambridge and Oxford
Universities, a genius of language. With consuming love of the Word, he
gave his life to the translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew and
Greek into his native English. By 1525, 18,000 copies of the New Testament
had come off the press. England was aflame with the Word of life.
But the long arm of the
Church caught up with him and Tyndale was burnt at the stake near Brussels
in 1536. But by then he had translated the bulk of the Old Testament. Our
King James Bible (1611) is “80 per cent Tyndale.” How great a debt do we
owe to Tyndale!
Heroes of the faith like the
Apostle Paul, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale (and John Rogers who took
up the work after Tyndale, to suffer the same fate at the stake in 1555)
leave us a legacy: the Gospel is worth more than life itself. The pain of
death by fire did not quench the flame of love of the truth which burnt on
in the hearts of God’s people. By the lives and deaths of these and
thousands more who willingly went to their deaths, we have an
indestructible heritage.
The same Roman power which
condemned unnumbered thousands of men and women to “fire, dungeon, and
sword” has now extended beyond the boundaries of Europe to the ends of the
earth. Its message might send a chill down the spine of those who hold
fast to the Word of God. Consider these words from the Pope’s Twelfth
Encyclical Letter:
(1) “… the Catholic Church
affirms that the office of the Bishop of Rome corresponds to the will of
Christ …”
(2) “… leaving useless
controversies behind, we could listen to one another keeping before us
only the will of Christ …”
(3) “The Catholic Church …
holds that the communion of the particular Churches with the Church of
Rome … is – in God’s plan – an essential requisite of full and visible
communion.”
(4) “ … lack of unity among
Christians contradicts the truth which Christians have the mission to
spread and, consequently, it gravely damages their witness.”
(5) “A Christian Community …
full and visible unity … is … an imperative which admits of no exception …
Ecumenism is … for all humanity; to stand in the way … is an offence
against … his plan to gather all people in Christ.” (Excerpts from Ut
Unum Sint, 12th Encyclical Letter by the Supreme Pontiff
John Paul II in Catholic International 6/8 [1995]: 394-395. See
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/
hf_jp-ii_enc_25051995_ut-unum-sint_en.html).
The same power which sent
preachers of the Gospel to their death – the Apostle Paul, John Wycliffe’s
Lollards, William Tyndale, John Rogers, and countless other martyrs of the
Reformation and Inquisition has declared: all Churches must return to
the Roman fold. Not to do so is to oppose “God’s plan” and the “will of
Christ.” The imperative to return to “full and visible unity is an
imperative which admits of no exception.”
The instruments for judicial
enforcement are in place: in the EU Parliament, the UN and the
International Court.
Truly the perilous times
spoken by Paul (2 Tim 3:1) are upon us. But the Comforter of promise, the
One who sustained Paul and enabled him to say, “ … none of these things
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,” and from his prison
cell to declare, “I am set for the defence of the gospel” – He is with us
and abides in us for ever.
Are we troubled? Alarmed?
Dismayed? Can we press on and persevere in the gospel work, to fight the
good fight, to finish our course, and to keep the faith, come what may?
This question you must ask yourself. God help us.
May the Apostle’s words
bolster our spirits: “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work,
and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever
and ever. Amen” (2 Tim 4:18). Also, the words of John: “Ye are of God,
little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in
you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Finally, may our Lord’s
words from heaven allay any anxious thoughts: “Fear not; I am the first
and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive
for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev 1:17-18).
All power is with our Lord Jesus, not with any man. Amen. And we are set
for the defence of the gospel till He comes.
Dr S H Tow is senior pastor of Calvary
Bible-Presbyterian Church. The above message was delivered at the 26th
Graduation Service of the Far Eastern Bible College, May 13, 2001.
- Published in
The Burning Bush,
Volume 7 Number
2 (July 2001)
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