The Unchangeable Gospel

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Galatians 1:6-7

I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel:…

I take it that the gospel cannot be a changeable, variable, shifting gospel, a sort of sliding-scale gospel, because —

1. It is certain that man has not changed. Just to-day man is what he was in the days of Christ and the apostles.

2. I think nobody would have the hardihood to deny it — that truth in the very essence of it must always be the same. A fact, though it happened ten thousand years ago, is as much a fact as if it happened yesterday. Truth must be always the same. "But there is a great advance made," says one. How? In the principles of things — in mathematical science, for instance. Certainly there are great masters of mathematics, and great advances have been made, but upon the principle that two and two are four, and twice three makes six, there has been no advance. A proposal for a new multiplication table would scarcely be entertained even in a board school. No; these fundamental principles stand the same, and so must the fundamental truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are to all good men's thinking what these tables, these fixed facts in mathematics, are in all calculations. Truth must be the same. It cannot be altered; it is impossible.

3. The gospel is the same, because it was, and is, sufficient for all the purposes for which God sent it. What I mean is this, we want to give the people the gospel more by itself. There is a good story told of Caesar Malan. I should never forget my vision of that grave, reverend man, whom many at thief platform still remember. He was a man of strong idiosyncrasies, and of somewhat singular habits. Going once from Boulogne to Paris, he got into a coach; and he was no sooner seated, than he began reading out a chapter from the Bible. A Frenchman opposite strongly objected, and I think with some reason, as persons in public conveyances should remember that there are other people there. Caesar Malan, however, did not think of that, and he continued to read the chapter, and the Frenchman continued to object. He said he did not believe in the authority of the Bible, and that it was offensive to him to hear it read. At last Caesar Malan's French deacon said, "I think, dear pastor, that I differ from you about your doing this: this gentleman does not believe in the authority of the book, and you ought to prove to him its authority and then read it." Said he, "If I was going out to fight and I bad my sword, and I met somebody on the other side, would you say, 'First prove that you have a sword before you fight?' No; I will prove it is a sword." So he went on reading. He and his deacon supped together, and the waiter came in, and asked whether they were going on the next morning in the coach to Paris, because, he said, that the French gentleman who had ridden with them on the previous day was anxious to ride with Mr. Malan again. He afterwards became a communicant at Caesar Malan's church, and was one of his best friends. It is the Word of God that does it — not our talking about God's Word; it is the Word itself. Quote plenty of Scripture; put plenty of Divine words in. It is God's Word, not man's comments on God's Word, that saves souls. Furthermore, dear friends, we want no improved gospel, because there is nothing that requires that the gospel should be amended.

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