Fathers and Brethren, shall we begin our time together singing to His praise from Psalm 90 verses 1 through 7, which is printed out on the bulletin that has been circulated, Psalm 90 verses 1 through 7. And let us stand as we sing these words to God's praise. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, mm. Thou hast been our dwelling place in generations all, Before thou ever hast brought forth the mountains great or small. Wherever thou hast formed the earth and all the world abroad, be thou from everlasting art to everlasting God. Thou dost undo destruction, and that is mortal turn. And unto them Thou say'st again, Ye sons of men, return. because a thousand years appear no more before thy sight than yesterday when it is past, or than a watch by night. As with an overflowing flood, Thou cariest them away. They, like a sea-bar, like the grass That grows at morn, are they. At morn it flourishes and grows, cut down at e'en the fade. For by thine anger we're consumed, thy wrath makes us afraid. Please remain standing, brethren, as we go to the throne of grace. Our Heavenly Father, we are most unworthy that we should come into Thy glorious and exalted presence all the more, O God, because we are sinners, alienated by wicked works in our minds and rebels against all that is good and holy. And yet, Lord, you are in Christ, reconciling the world to yourself, not imputing our trespasses unto us. Oh God, we have been drawn near, and we are now no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Lord, why, why should we be the recipients of such boundless favor? And yet it is because of the man of thy right hand, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come now, grateful that we may assemble and give our attention to the things that are heavenly and eternal in character. Forgive us our many sins and bless us abundantly. Lord in heaven, we ask now that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart may be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. You may be seated. We'll read from Holy Scripture from Paul's letter to the Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Holy Spirit says unto the churches. Paul, an apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia, Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. but I certify or assure you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation or conduct in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals and my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Either went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now, the things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me. Amen. A man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Fathers and brothers, first of all, before we get into the marrow of the message this evening, You'll notice in the information that has been provided that this message is actually from a brother, Reverend Douglas Gebby, who many of you know personally. He has been here many times. And he would have wished to be here himself, but his wife has ALS, and she is in the very final stages of that. that terrible disease, and consequently, in our closing prayer, we'll remember him and his dear wife and family at the throne of grace. Consequently, I am reading his paper in his behalf. So if you appreciate it, by all means, let me know. But if not, please don't shoot the messenger. Finally, having read through this in preparation, I think it's fair to say that it is a paper in more than one sense. Over these two evenings, perhaps as you know, we are highlighting Professor John Murray of Westminster Seminary, who was very instrumental in forming and influencing our small denomination. We have various writings of his that are outside, which you can pick up. We'd especially encourage you to get this newer volume if you haven't already. More recent sermons that he preached in our congregations back in the 1950s, as well as some free materials as well. So make sure to stop by if you haven't already. So this address, then, is going to have some more of a historical and theological character to it, with attention to Professor Murray's thought. But I trust that you'll find it not only informative, but edifying, as well as Christ-exalting. Row unto me, if I preach not the gospel. In our text, the apostle is under a constraint to preach the gospel. From our reading, it is clear that the gospel of Christ and no other gospel which he is constrained to preach. Professor Murray's relationship with the congregations which would later make up the Presbyterian Reformed Church was of one who was constrained to preach the gospel, and it was the gospel of Christ which he desired to make known. Murray came to the United States as a divinity student of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to study at Princeton. At that time, there was a Free Presbyterian, sometimes shorthand FP, congregation in southwestern Ontario with the Reverend William Matheson as its minister. And several FP families were associated with the Bloor Street Congregation in Toronto. During his vacations, Murray got to know these people. Murray's friendship with Matheson was what led to his separation from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, but that is a story for another day. On February the 19th, 1952, John Murray addressed the alumni of Westminster Theological Seminary at the annual homecoming on the subject of some necessary emphases in preaching. It is recorded for us in volume one of his collected writings. At the outset of his message, he disclaims any expertise in the subject of preaching, yet we have ample evidence to disagree with him. We know the content of his sermons from those in his collected writings and the volume recently published by Westminster Seminary. We can hear his voice and delivery from the recordings, high and with a strong East Sutherland accent. We have an idea of his posture from anecdote. He was inclined to move about the pulpit as he preached and to bend his knees in rhythm with his voice as he drove home a point. The man could preach. In that address, Murray identifies four emphases. the ministry of judgment, the free offer of the gospel, self-examination, and the high demands of Christian calling. Although he speaks of these emphases in the context of his hearers at Westminster that day in 1952, they were not on the cutting edge of new academic breakthrough. These were the staples of the preaching and Christian conversation which he had known all his life. Hearing them in his own dialect, in the language of Zion, is what led him to Chesley, Lahalsh, and Toronto. For the sake of time, we shall focus on his second emphasis, the free offer of the gospel. For Murray, the free offer of the gospel can be muted by a fear of giving sanction to Arminian language and methodology. It can also be blunted by failing to understand the response which the message demands. Unfortunately, some of Murray's own work has added to that fear, whether it be the committee report itself or the pamphlet which came from it. And some of the response to that work has certainly muted the gospel offer. while little attention is paid to Murray's latter article on the atonement and the free offer of the gospel, found in volume one of his collected writings, where he reworks many of the passages cited in the report. Into this situation come the words of our text, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. The question has been asked where the PRC stands on this issue. On the one hand, there is the connection with Murray, and on the other there is Dr. William Young, who was for years our most senior minister. Regarding Young, he had a long relationship with Murray starting in the 1940s. Through Murray, he was introduced to Matheson and Chesley LaHulche. and to Rondra Campbell, a ruling elder in Bloor Street, Toronto. Campbell wrote Israel and the New Covenant, recently reprinted by PNR. He is the maternal grandfather of Sandy Finlayson of Westminster Theological Seminary. From this group, Young entered into an environment where the four emphases mentioned by Murray marked out the preached piety of the people. These emphases are found in Young's preaching and writing. However, the gospel which Young was constrained to preach was these emphases and their interconnectedness. He presented God, sovereign in his justice and grace. His was an expository ministry with his applicatory work done in the manner of David Dixon and Samuel Rutherford. And if one emphasis did stand out, it was the need for self-examination. Indeed, Young often told the story of one of the first times he preached at a communion season in Toronto. He took up the theme of let a man examine himself and so let him eat. Roddy Campbell took him aside afterward and said that his message was good insofar as it went, but that he should have gotten them to examine themselves as to whether they were in the faith or not, to make their calling and election sure. William Young was still heeding that advice over 60 years later and encouraging younger preachers to heed it too. A reviewer of Reformed Thought, which is a compilation of Young's writings, made two rather tongue-in-cheek comments. Having known Bill, as he called him, for decades, he noted first that a number of the papers in the collection had begun as family conference addresses. This caused him to marvel at the intellectual prodigies the PRC had for children. Second, he pointed out that there was not much room for spontaneity in the Young's theory and practice of gospel preaching. That lack of spontaneity has fed into the speculation regarding Young's views on the subject of the free offer of the gospel. This is strange because he set them out quite clearly in his minority report at the time. in the OPC. He was committed to the scriptural and confessional doctrine of the free offer of the gospel. He had no problem with the use of anthropomorphic language. He did have a problem with whether the term desire is employed after the manner of man or whether it is to be understood literally as implying an emotion in God. He had a question regarding whether God desires the repentance and salvation of the reprobate sinner qua reprobate, or whether God's desire refers to the connection between the repentance and the salvation of sinners qua sinners. And it troubled him greatly that God's desires might be viewed as standing unreconciled with his decrees. He did not have a problem with the doctrine itself, but with what might be said to be behind the doctrine. In this, William Young was not unlike free church theologian William Cunningham. In Cunningham's day, the question was the relation of the atonement to the free offer of the gospel. The first question which Cunningham addresses is whether an unlimited atonement is necessary in order to offer to men, without exception, pardon and acceptance, and to invite them to come to Christ. He answers this by pointing out that at no time does scripture, either by precept or example, present the gospel in terms of a universal atonement, yet by precept and example, we are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature, unless, says Cunningham, we should venture to act upon the principle of refusing to obey God's commands until we understand all the reasons and grounds for them. Our first caveat, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel, for if I preach not the gospel, I disobey the clear commission of Christ. The second question which Cunningham addresses is that of the conduct of God in having salvation offered indiscriminately to all without having made provision for the salvation of all, either actually or hypothetically. He says, quote, the position of our opponents is in substance this, that it was not possible for God, because not consistent with integrity and uprightness, to address such offers and invitations to men indiscriminately, unless an atonement, which is indispensable to salvation, had been presented and accepted on behalf of all men of each individual of the human race. This position bears very manifestly the character of unwarranted presumption and assumes our capacity of fully comprehending and estimating the eternal purposes of the divine mind, the inmost grounds and reasons of the divine procedure. It cannot be proved because there is really not any clear and certain medium of probation or testing that God, by offering to men indiscriminately, without distinction or exception through Christ, pardon and acceptance, contradicts the doctrine which he has revealed to us in his own word as to a limitation. not in the intrinsic sufficiency, but in the intended destination of the atonement. And, unless this can be clearly and conclusively proved, we are bound to believe that they are consistent with each other, though we may not be able to perceive and develop this consistency, and of course, to reject the argument of our opponents as untenable. When we carefully analyze all that is really implied in what God says and does, or authorizes and requires us to say and do in this matter, we can find much that is fitted to show positively that God does not, in offering pardon to men indiscriminately, act inconsistently or deceptively, though it is not true that the atonement was universal. and it is easy to prove that he does no injustice to anyone. Since all who believe what he has revealed to them and who do what he has given them sufficient motives or reasons for doing will certainly obtain salvation." End quote. To illustrate this point, Roger Nicole takes up the idea of a newspaper advertisement. Say an advert appears in a newspaper stating that for a specified period, a certain department store will sell the model of washing machine described in both photograph and text for 70% off the manufacturer's recommended retail price. First, if there are 300,000 copies of the newspaper printed, how many washing machines must the store have in its warehouse for this to be a sincere offer? Second, is the offer insincere if some readers do not have the money to buy the washing machine, even at the reduced price, or will not be in town during the specified period? Surely, for the offer to be sincere, all that is required is that anyone who comes to the store during the specified period with the correct payment and asks for that model of washing machine receives one in exchange for the payment. Our second caveat. Whether it be Arminian, Emeraldian, Calvinistic, or Hyper-Calvinistic, woe to anyone who obscures Christ behind a display of their own supposed orthodoxy. Free Church Alexander Stewart of Cromartie enters a third caveat. Quote, beware of confounding promises and invitations, two very distinct things, and addressed to different classes. Invitations are to sinners, the promises to saints only. He is, of course, referring to the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, where it defines the covenant of grace in these terms. Quote, Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, that is the covenant of works, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace. wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe." Alexander Henderson put it this way in 1638, the promises of the gospel, the new covenant are twofold. there are conditional promises. Quote, if we believe and repent, we shall have salvation. Quote, there are also absolute promises, and it is only that makes the evangelical promises to be so far beyond the legal, that he shall infuse these conditions of faith and repentance in us. End quote. Gospel offers or invitations take the form of a conditional promise, which is a general call. Gospel promises are absolute, unconditional promises which are kept in effectual calling. So, we return to our text, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. That is a simple, unconfounded gospel. To sinners, we present the conditional promise. To professing believers, we ask, do you have those things absolutely promised to God's own? So we return to Murray's four emphases. First, the preaching of judgment with a clear statement of the glory of God. Second, the free offer of the gospel. Third, self-examination, the call to which is found in the epistles of Peter, Paul, and John. Fourth, there are the high demands of Christian vocation. Here, Murray takes up two points. The first is that we follow the thou shalt nots of God, not those of men. He writes more on the subject of liberty of conscience in his commentary on Romans and in volume four of his collected writings. The second is that there is more to the Christian life than thou shalt not. He speaks of an expulsive power which replaces the negated behavior with positive virtue. Crossway has recently put out an edition of Thomas Chalmers' The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, which expands upon that theme. Our fourth caveat, woe unto me if I preach less than this life-transforming gospel. Finally, Murray speaks of the faith to which this preaching is the required response. He says, quote, what is the primary act of faith? It is not the acceptance of certain propositions, although it cannot exist apart from the belief of the propositions of the gospel. Faith is essentially an entrustment to Christ as Lord and Savior. It is self-commitment to Him. It is not the belief that we have been saved, not even the belief that Christ died for us, but the commitment of ourselves to Christ as unsaved, lost, helpless, and undone, in order that we might be saved." End quote. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. Amen. Well, let us respond, fathers and brethren, singing from Psalm 102, the second version, verses 11 to 15, on the back of your bulletins. My days are like a shade all way. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta and I am withered away, much like unto the fading grass. But thou, O Lord, shalt still endure From change and all mutation free, And to all generations sure, Shall thy remembrance ever be. Thou shalt arise and mercy yet, Thou to Mount Zion shalt extend. Her time for favor which was set, Behold, it's now come to an end. Thy saints take pleasure in her stones, her very dust to them Let us close in prayer. Please remain standing. Oh God, we wonder and are in awe at the mystery of the Gospel, that Christ has been openly crucified, as it were, before us, that He has been lifted up from the earth and draws all men unto Him. Lord, we wonder that such a gracious welcome to rebels should be offered, that whosoever believes should not perish, but have everlasting life. We know, O God, that thou art the potter, and we are the clay, and it is pleased thee, God, to make of the same lump one a vessel unto glory, and the other unto wrath and judgment. Even as the ancient word was proclaimed, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So Lord, we bow down before the high mystery of the decree of election and predestination, thanking Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. But we also rejoice that it has pleased you by the promiscuous preaching of the gospel to bring in each and every one who have been predestined to everlasting life. God, may that burden be upon each and every one of us who have been solemnly called and set apart into the holy office of the gospel, that we would preach the gospel. that we would set it forth to wretched sinners to command them and to reason and to plead with them to come to Christ and to repent and to take Him as their own and to give comfort unto those, Lord, who have by faith laid hold of the promises Gracious one, please also remember our dear brother, Douglas Gebby, and his dear wife, Karen, this saint who is drawing near to everlasting glory. Please come near her bedside, we pray. Be unto her a little sanctuary. Grant, O God, that much peace may be given to Douglas and to his family. And that, Lord, that you would manifest the beauty and the glory of Christ's cross and resurrection in them and through them. And we pray, O God, that we all would rejoice in the hope of everlasting life and minister the same comfort to those who are heavy of heart and yet place their faith in Christ. Remember us now, O God, and send us with your blessing, and we pray that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be lifted high. Heavenly Father, for his sake we pray these things. Amen. You are dismissed.