Preached by the Rev. E. MACQUEEN, at Glasgow,
22nd May, 1934.
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Is. lix. 19).
LET us consider very briefly seven things as they are brought before us here. (1) The enemy that is here spoken of, and you can see for yourself that he is pointed out to us as no other enemy is—the enemy. (2) What he is compared to here—a flood, and we all know some things that are true about a flood. (3) The progress of this enemy—he is pointed out to us here as coming in, and Oh! my dear friends if we were as spiritual as we are carnal, there would be none of us but would admit—how often have I felt him coming into myself like a flood. (4) The glorious Person that is here brought before us, who was to meet, and who is to meet this enemy—the Spirit of the Lord. And, dear friends, if we needed a Saviour to come into the world to work salvation for us, we are as needy of the Holy Ghost, in order that He might communicate to us the redemption purchased by Christ, otherwise we shall go unsaved to a lost eternity. (5) The standard which this glorious Person has—He had Him and He has Him still, and blessed be His Name, He will have Him as the standard throughout the Eternal Ages. (6) The lifting up of the standard—“The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (7) The blessed results or fruits of the Holy Ghost lifting up this glorious standard against this enemy—He shall put him to flight. Those of you who have Bibles with marginal references will see that that is what these words mean. He shall put him to flight, and put him down ultimately altogether, so that he will never trouble those who follow this standard throughout the eternal ages, however much he may trouble us in the world, and I assure you everyone who follows this standard will have their troubles and trials, as the Saviour said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation”—He does not say “may,” but you “shall” have it, and if you do not know tribulation yet in connection with your following this standard, you are not yet out of the wood. There is no Royal Road to Heaven, but “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This is the glorious promise—“He shall lift up a standard against him,” and blessed be the Lord for that!
(1) First of all then, the being that is here brought before us as the enemy—and I shall not take up much of your time in connection with that, for any person reading his Bible with a little care can see that it is the Devil—that great Serpent—the Devil and Satan.
Now, my friends, let me point out this about him, not only is he an enemy, but he is pure enmity. An enemy might be reconciled, but enmity—that can never be reconciled, never. The Devil will never be reconciled to God, and the Devil will never leave the people of God alone. He is the enemy—he is the enemy of the Eternal Father—of the Trinity in Unity. As far as we can see, it was his jealousy and enmity against God that put him out of Heaven. That is the opinion of all sound divines. First of all, he was an Angel of light, and as such his place was in Heaven, but as it is written, “How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning?” Let us be sure of this fact, that we have all need of the warning of the Holy Ghost through the Apostle Peter, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” and very often as the old divines used to put it: “It is not the worst horse in the stable that the Devil takes at all, but the best horse; and very often where one has gifts, the Devil will make use of such, for he has many emissaries.”
(2) What is he compared to?—A flood.
What is true of a flood? Well, there are many things, and there are many things true of our enemy. When the Saviour asked one man: “What is thy name?” the answer was, “my name is Legion, for we are many,” and that was one poor human being. The first thing that is true of this enemy, there are very many of them, and what is sad in the extreme is, that we have the emissaries of Satan in our breast, and if you are one who are taught of the Holy Ghost, you are conscious of the fact that you have one in your breast who will take the Devil by the hand, and take him into the secret recesses of your soul, for what is pride but an emissary of Satan. What are lusts? Emissaries of Satan. Again, in a flood, there is a multiplicity of drops. You go on a rainy day along Sauchiehall Street and you will see the gutters having more than enough to carry away on account of the flood that comes into them. Well, the age in which we live, is an age when the devils are let loose, you may say. Take the young, and the aged as well, and what do you find? It used to be said of Scotland that its people were a Bible-loving people. Do we deserve that name now? Verily no. About fifty years ago in Glasgow on Sabbath morning at worship time when I used to come along Parliamentary Road to Church, you would hear the singing of Psalms from almost every close. Is that so now? No. Why? Because the enemy has come in like a flood. Another thing that is true of it—a flood is very powerful. Take you the blessed Saviour Himself, He used the flood as an illustration. He said: “The floods came and the winds blew” and if it was not founded on a rock, what are we told? “it fell, and great was the fall of it,” and as you know the Devil is powerful, and alas! how many professing men and women the Devil took down in the flood. I was in the Institution above our own town of Inverness, and I met a man there, and I said: “Do you know me?” “Yes.” “Who am I?” “The Devil,” he said. “And what are you yourself? Take me as I am, and I am a man. And will you not permit me the privilege that you are taking for yourself—you call me a devil, and you are a man yourself?” Now, this is the way when the Devil will come in mightily—look how he unhinges the reason, and if there is nothing more than nature, everything is gone before him. As a flood is powerful—is not Satan powerful in the day in which we live? Look at him from the House of Parliament down to every city—in the city of Glasgow, and what have you? Aeroplanes flying about and perhaps you cannot hear your own voice preaching on the Lord’s Day. What is that? The flood has come in. Again, look at our Prime Minister and his Committees. Sabbath is the day they have for holding their meetings, and which he has for flying from 10 Downing Street to Lossiemouth. What does that imply? Just my text—the flood has come in. The fourth thing that is true of it, it is in continual motion. I assure you if you are caught in a flood, you cannot stop to think where you are going at all. Look at the young in our day. Does the Devil give them time to think? People will say of the young—Oh! give them scope. Scope for what? To destroy themselves for an endless eternity? As the Devil is the enemy of God, he is the enemy of all righteousness, and he is the enemy of all human beings, and wants to bring them to destruction like himself. People say: “There are great changes now—this is an age of progress.” Aye, if you are become an apologist for the Devil, surely you are one of his “bairns.” The flood is in continual motion—”Away with the old Scottish Sabbath. Away with these old fogies that are for it.” Don’t you feel the devil in continual motion even in his temptations with yourself? On Saturday night you may be saying: “If I could get a moment’s peace;—if I could think for half-an-hour?” But can you do it? I am very much astonished if you can. You are a wonderful Christian if you have not the Devil in motion against you. Again, let me notice this—a flood is impure, or dirty—always dirty, and even although you had a spring well if the flood will come near it, I assure you you will find the clean water of the well contaminated, and you will be for days that you will not get the same taste of the water from it. Look round about you. Are not the doctrines of God’s Word contaminated in our day? The very mention of regeneration to the most of preachers to-day—why, you would think that the man that mentions it, should be ashamed of himself. You should have been alive before the flood, they say. Why? Because the flood has come in, and it has come in to such an extent, that it is a shame to mention Hell. Many ministers, and you have some of them in Theological Chairs, and what is true of them? oh, it is not polite and not moral to mention Hell, and the man that mentions Hell is not educated. Why? The enemy has come in like a flood. That is very evident.
(3) The progress of the enemy, and it is said here, he shall come in.
There is no doubt about it. It is not, he “may” come in, but the Holy Ghost says, and that very emphatically, he “shall” come in like a flood. Let me notice how far does he come? You can see very clearly here that the Spirit of the Lord is pointing out how far the enemy had come in in the state of the Jews politically. They were a theocratic people, and as that was the case with them, see how the enemy came in when it was here recorded, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear you.” Where did he come in?—Into the state of the Jews. You can see clearly that this was predicted of the coming of the Messiah, and you can see that the poor Jews because they had forsaken the Lord, the Lord threw them off. Look at the condition of our own state or government at the present moment, and God knows it is with grief of heart I look on both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and I watch in the papers, the speeches of our Lords, and the speeches in the House of Commons, and unless they take up the Word of God to ridicule it, they seldom take it up to make good use of it, and as for the Sabbath Day, it is very likely most of the members of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords are Sabbath breakers themselves. Why? The enemy has come in like a flood, and you are a friend and helper of the Devil unless that gives you concern of spirit. Sir Stafford Cripps has given out the programme the Socialists have to follow out at the next Election and I assure you that it is a dishonest programme—an anti-Christian programme. They are to lay hands on all monies—banks are to be nationalised. We will become a dishonest nation—the Government can do everything. Can the Government become dishonest without being brought to book for their dishonesty like other people? Come along again to our Members of Parliament—look for instance at the Minister of Transport, and what is true of him? He gives license to other three men to ride over the consciences of men in the Highlands of Scotland. Are you here and saying, “It is as well to let them go?” If that is your frame of mind, let me tell you, it is the enemy who is here spoken of, who has taken possession of your heart to say these words. It is time to waken up out of this folding of ourselves like little cockerels when they get a little warmth—“I am warm enough myself and what do I care for others?” What does that show when we are in that frame of mind? It means that we do not care what is to become of the cause of Christ in the future generations. I know I shall soon be off the platform of time but as I have a congregation and family to watch over, and as I got a Sabbath from God myself, I would like to hand down the Sabbath of God as I got it, and it is my duty to do so to the best of my ability. Not only is he coming in in that way, but he is coming into the pulpits of Scotland. Oh don’t say a word about what is done in other churches! Aye, the gospel is to be defended as well as preached. From the pulpits of Scotland, what is true? Is it the Word of God that comes ringing from the pulpits? No, but quotations from Robert Burns, and the philosophy of Aristotle and Socrates. From others you hear that God is in Hell trying to win over his incorrigible children to Himself. Is the Devil not coming in as a flood? The Church of Scotland calls him an educated man—look at his letters in the “Scotsman” and so on, and he has D.D. and what not. Oh you prefer fleshly titles to the glory of the Triune God! That is where the sad thing comes in in the Highlands to-day, that both laity and professing people, agree that if the minister said it, it is all right.
(4) The glorious Person that is here spoken of—”The Spirit of the Lord,”
and although it is our duty to speak and to disclose what we see to be true of the enemy of the glory of God, God knows that we find it much more comfortable to our own souls, to be thinking and speaking of the other side. Let me notice who is the Person here spoken of. Most people deny the personality of this Person—they hold that He is only an influence. They are in pulpits and they declare that He is only an influence and not a person at all. Consider this, when the Saviour led us to understand about this Person, that He is one with the Father and one with Himself in power and in glory. Long ago in our Sabbath School we learned that question in the Shorter Catechism, “How many persons are there in the Godhead?”—”There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” So, my friends, the Person that is here spoken of is equal in power and in glory, with the Father and the Son. You will see that He is first of all brought before us as a Reprover. The Saviour said, “When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin . . .” We may preach until we are weary yet neither old nor young will be reproved in their consciences, but let the Holy Spirit begin, and the sinner will find himself reproved to his very inmost being. “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” He is brought before us also as a Remembrancer. In Scotland there used to be The King’s Remembrancer for Scotland; I don’t know who he is now, but the late Sir Kenneth MacKenzie of Gairloch used to be the King’s Remembrancer. The Holy Ghost is the Remembrancer of the Eternal Father and of the Son of God, as He said Himself, “He shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have spoken unto you.” Don’t you find, if you are taught of God, that perhaps next day or week, or even perhaps 20 years after, the very text that you heard and did not give much heed to comes back to your mind and works on you far more than when you were listening. Why? Because of God’s Remembrancer—”He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” He is also called an “Advocate,” and a blessed Advocate He is. Will you be feeling your need of Him? We are on the brink of the grave and we feel that we never felt our need of Christ more than we need the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and as we are sure that unless Christ suffered and died, we were lost for eternity, we are sure that if the Holy Ghost will not come and apply the redemption purchased by Christ, we shall never be partakers of it.
(5) He speaks about this glorious Person having a standard.
Every great person has a standard. Men of renown used to have standards, and every family in Israel had their standard. Benjamin had his standard—Judah had his. What is the standard that the Holy Ghost has? The Lord Jesus Christ. That is the standard. You will find Him called “an Ensign to the people.” What is a standard? It is first of all a sign of battle. You know when the Children of Israel were going against the Amalekites, the standard went before them, and, my friends, Christ is the Standard of God to fight the Devil, as it is written, He spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in His Cross. However many devils and emissaries were about the Cross of Calvary and who can say how many there were, but we know there were thousands of Jews, and likely hundreds of Roman soldiers, and what was their one cry? “Away with Him, crucify Him, crucify Him,” yet they were not able to conquer Him. It is very clear that when they were crucifying the Lord of Glory, they thought they got rid of Him, and people think in our day that they are getting rid of the old fashioned Christianity, and bringing in a modern era altogether, and people are to go to Heaven without being born again at all. Let that teaching perish!—it deserves to perish. We have not so learned Christ that we should set up the like of that. He says here, “The Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him.” What again? Well, not only is it a call to battle, but my friends, if we have enlisted under Christ as the standard, surely we should do something. I remember meeting a young man who came home from South America, and here he was with his sleeves rolled up and looked very busy. “You are busy,” I said. “I want to show why I am in existence,” he replied. Now, should we not show why we are in existence as professing people? “Oh,” says one, “there is too much of the fighter in you. You are in danger of lowering the Cause that way.” Let that language go by the board. It is not worth answering at all. The Apostle said, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Would the Apostle Paul, because he was called a babbler, be quiet? Verily no. Well, I feel like that, as long as the Lord will keep breath in me—let me be called by every name that you may have in the English dictionary—my desire is to be found following this standard. Again, a standard is the signal of peace. You know very well when the Germans saw the day was going against them that they put up the White Flag, and what did that imply? That those who did so were for being at peace with their enemies, and Christ is the signal of peace to every enemy that will submit and believe in Him, as it is written, “He is our peace.” Is it not the case that the moment that the child of God is enabled to believe in Him, he feels his soul filled with peace? “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, a standard is the sign for going forward. When the Children of Israel came to the brink of Jordan, what was true? First of all the Priests with the standard went before, and is not Christ the signal for us to go forward to the heavenly Canaan? Is He not calling upon us and asking us to follow Him, saying, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you . . .” and “Gather unto me my saints”? How many followed this glorious Standard even from this congregation since I came here over 40 years ago. Although many left it that were not known to me, yet I knew scores here that followed that Standard—Christ in the everlasting gospel.
In the next place, the lifting up of the standard—how does He do it?
The gospel is the pole whereon the Holy Ghost lifts up the standard. When Peter, as the mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, declared to thousands that they had been the murderers and betrayers of the Lord, what happened? Three thousand were immediately pricked in their hearts, and had to cry out, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” They were pricked in their hearts. The Holy Ghost followed the Word of God to their consciences. At conversion, look how in a passage of the Word of God the Holy Ghost will come and lift up the standard although the poor sinner should be on the brink of despair, as the Psalmist said, “I looked on my right hand and viewed, but none to know me were; all refuge failed me, no man did for my soul take care.” What then? “I cried to thee; I said, thou art my refuge Lord alone.” There is the standard lifted up in the soul of that man of God. Look again at the Apostles as the means in the hands of the Holy Ghost, and what were they lifting up? Some say of us, Oh! you have no philosophy in your preaching. Much philosophy the fishermen of Galilee had. And I believe they would say of it, “Throw away that stuff.” “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” If you have the habit of bringing philosophy into your preaching, the sooner you give it up the better. Gifts are not to be despised—no, but it is not our gifts God lifts up, but the standard—His own Son, and, therefore, let us throw from us all that kind of ideas that we can raise up Christ by philosophy and vain deceit. Look in the days of Luther, and in the days of Calvin and John Knox, and I assure you men of much higher powers than any of us are almost spitting at John Knox for being so bare. “I don’t like to hear my own hairns greet, much less the skirling of women” was what he said, and what was he doing? Lifting up Christ and telling Queen Mary that her Church was the harlot of Rome. He did not go round the bush in the matter, and the Lord honoured him, and He honoured all those who were the means of lifting up Christ, the Standard, against all gainsaying and all who would like to put it down. Again, when you come to the brink of Death, what do you think will encourage you? Dr. MacDonald said of his own father on his death-bed (I will put it in Gaelic and then translate it as best I can):—
O shall one so vile as I, and of a nature so impure,
Ever attain unto His presence, that is holy, bright, and pure,
But the blood of the Saviour shall wash away all my stains,
And then shall I get to that house where is an overflowing
sea of love.
Oh! would not this be glorious for those who follow the Lamb, when their souls part with their bodies—the Holy Ghost raising up the Standard, Christ, before the eyes of their soul.
One word on the fruits.
It is said here that this is the standard that will put the enemy to flight. Do you think that civilisation will put the Devil away? or education? Never! What then? Just what is brought before us in my text, “The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him,” and if you are a child of God what did you find at the beginning of your career? Did you not find as though the Devil had complete possession of every faculty of your soul and body? Some of us thought for a period of our lives, that we were in Hell although we were in the world—that the Devil had as complete possession as though we were there already, but the day the Holy Ghost came with a passage of His own Word, such as, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” Oh! what a deliverance. Is not that passage glorious? Look again at the many doubts and fears the Lord’s people have in the world. If I may bring that before you, it is written of the Disciples that after the resurrection of Christ, they worshipped Him, but some doubted. Did you ever think of that? Are you without your doubts as you worship the Lord? No, as long as you are here. What will do away with them? The Holy Ghost when He will lift up Christ, the Standard, against our own depravity, and against the Devil and his emissaries in the world. We are living in a day when the Sabbath is trampled under foot, and the gospel ridiculed, and when men think that pleasure is the god of this world, and we have now Sabbath Schools starting in England and over Britain—anti-God Sabbath Schools, and I feel sad that some think that those are their friends. How can he be your friend who is against God and His Son Jesus Christ? How for time, death, and an endless eternity? How the Devil dupes this poor generation! My young friends, keep clear of the Socialists. They show clearly that although they pretend to be the friends of the poor, they are not, but the friends of the Devil. You are always against the poor, some may say. How can I be when I was born of poor parents and am a poor man myself? That is the man I consider your friend, the man who warns you against the anti-God campaign that is being carried on in Britain to-day, and if you are not against them, you are not as you should be, and may God grant that you would be up and doing whilst it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work, and may I be endeavouring to lift up Christ against the floods of ungodliness and unsound doctrine. I warn men who take upon themselves to be the friends of Christ. My friends, show your friendship not at all by making a profession without anything in it but a mere profession—show your friendship by your deeds, for deeds are fruits, words are only leaves.