For additional information about Rev. Donald W. Cheek and the dedication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Irving, Illinois click below:
Rev. D. W. Cheek of Jadwin, Mo., passed away at his home at 11:15 p.m., Aug. 15, 1935.
He was ill only two days and passed without a struggle.
Two of his children, Mrs. Geo. Wheeler of Kokomo, Ind., and Mrs. Earl L. Howell of South Bend, Ind., and three of his grandchildren, Furnley [sic: Fernly] Wheeler and Helen and Conley Montgomery were at his side, besides his wife.
Funeral services at New Hope Church Sunday, Aug. 18.--Mrs. D. W. Cheek.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, August 22, 1935, page 12]
Rev. D. W. Cheek, Jadwin, Mo.
(Rev. D. W. Cheek sends to this paper extracts from a sermon he preached 47 years ago. He was appointed by the Ozark Presbytery to prepare and deliver a sermon on "Justification."--Editor.)
I treated the subject under the following general divisions: (1) What Justification Implies; (2) What it Includes; (3) The Medium or Grounds; (4) The Exercise of Mind by Which we Become United to Christ. Space forbids that I attempt to develop these divisions as I developed them in my sermon 47 years ago.
What is implied in justification? I answer: First, pardon of sin. It is obvious that the bestowment of pardon, mercy, salvation on men must, if they are sinners, involve, or embrace, the doctrine of pardon of sin. In ordinary forensic transactions, however, such an idea is not involved. In courts of law, when a man is justified, he is justified because he is, on examination, found "not guilty." The court acquits, justifies the prisoner on the grounds of innocence, because the evidence is not sufficient to warrant it in doing otherwise. If the prisoner is found guilty as charged, the law makes no provision for his pardon in the ordinary operations of society. Law requires obedience and denounces the penalty of disobedience. The law knows no mercy and cannot pardon the transgression. If the power of pardon or reprieve is ever granted it is granted to the executive to be exercised in those cases in which the regular operations of law would be oppressive--cases which may often occur from the imperfections of all human governments. There can, however, be no case analogous to the above in the Divine government since "The law of the Lord is perfect."
The doctrine taught by Paul in Gal. 3: 10-12 is, as I understand it, that according to the primitive principles of the government of God, obedience on the part of man is expected, and provisions are made for nothing else except the infliction of the penalty, i.e., the curse visited upon the disobedient.
At the same time the doctrine is universal in the Scriptures that penitent, returning sinners shall obrain mercy (Isa. 55: 7). Pardon of sin implies the remission of the penalty, which would otherwise be visited upon the transgressor. A sinner pardoned, justified, is no longer under the curse. Not that he is made holy but declared to be so. The rendering of a verdict of guilty in our civil courts does not make the prisoner guilty. It simply declares him in that state. Justification does not make the person justified righteous, but declares him righteous only on account of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. Justification does not impart holiness but proclaims it. It is an act, not of the creature but of the Creator.
The grounds of justification. The Divine being can acquit or justify no one without a complete righteousness, justification being a judicial act. If, therefore, a person were justified without righteousness, the judgment would not be according to truth--would be a false and unrighteous sentence. The righteousness must be equal to the demands of the law over which the judge presides and to which the person is amenable.
We are told that faith is the condition of justification. This is not true. There is only one condition of justification, and that is a perfect righteousness. All have sinned, are guilty in the sight of God. Personal merit cannot and does not constitute the condition on which we are justified. The Bible nowhere teaches that faith is the meritorious cause of justification. While I admit that we are justified by faith, the proof that we are justified for faith is lacking.
Faith is the instrument, not the cause, of our justification. Faith is our own act. Then justification would be the result of our work, and not an "act of God." If, then, we cannot be justified by our own inherent merit. nor by works, not even by faith itself, where can we find a safe and sufficient foundation on which to build? (Read I Cor. 1: 30; Jer. 23: 5, 6; Rom. 3: 24-26; II Cor. 5: 21; Phil. 3:9).
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, August 22, 1935, page 15]
West Plains Presbytery--D. W. Cheek died in Jadwin, Mo., July, 1935. Retired.
[Source: Minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1936, page 79]