When God first called you and the message of the gospel really came home to you, and broke through into your heart so that you repented of your sin and yielded to him; at that time you made a vow that you would be his forever. Many gifts have strings attached, which the giver hides at first. We have to be wise in these matters. Maybe we can accept gifts at times, but huge gifts with life changing consequences need to be handled with great care. Our testimony to a lost world is partly to show that God provides for us even in earthly matters. We should certainly not be depending on the world in spiritual matters.
As churches, we are pledged before the Lord not to take anything from the world, not to seek their help, their support in our work lest the world should say, ‘We funded that church; we are responsible for that.’ There was an international evangelist fifty or more years ago, and he would go around Europe and America in particular holding mass evangelistic crusades and rallies. In order that these could get bigger and bigger, he said to himself, I need to cooperate with the Roman Catholic Church. I need to get their bishops on my platform, and promise to send them some of my supposed converts. I need their money and their buses and their support. But Abram said, ‘I have taken an oath. I will not take any assistance, finance, help, or anything for the cause of God, lest they should say, we are responsible for that. It will be evident that all blessing is from the Lord.’ We depend only on the word of God and the Holy Spirit.
I have known believers, who are ministers in the Church of England. In the Church of England the majority of clergy are not believers in the word of God, in the atoning death of Christ; just a tiny minority are. But these men say, ‘Well, I am in the Church of England. I can preach the gospel. This is the best fishing boat. We get lots of advantages by being here.’ But you see as far back as the book of Genesis, Abram is called out of compromise. He is called out to separate. You should never belong to a doctrinally mixed denomination. It is quite unbiblical to do that on the grounds that it gives you certain supposed social advantages. This is all about the pledge of Abram to walk by faith, to trust the Lord, to take nothing in the service of Christ and the gospel from anybody who is not the Lord's.
It was always wrong that the early church gave way to Constantine and valued the authority of the Roman Empire, and allowed the states a great influence in their affairs. It was a great mistake at the time of the Reformation. It is easy for us to say this; the forces of Henry VIII are not outside with their swords drawn. So we are not criticizing the reformers. But it was certainly a mistake that the Reformation in England bought into the state church and compromised itself, so that for centuries we have had the farce of a secular prime minister choosing the chief clergy. How absurd!