by Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale
“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” — Isaiah 1: 9.
We see that in the days when Isaiah prophesied the Cause of Christ was very low in Judah and Jerusalem. God lays to their charge that as far as stupidity was concerned they had fallen far below the level of the brute creation, for He says, “The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” verse 3. He then goes on to give a very vivid description of their low condition, and the only ray of hope to be found in it is in the words of our text where the Lord sets before us His own, for whose sake His judgments are not poured on the land as on Sodom and Gomorrah. From the words of our text I would seek, as enabled, to draw your attention to three things in particular.
I. The remnant spoken of.
II. How this remnant is distinguished from the rest of the world.
III. The blessing of having them in the world.
I. The remnant. — (1) This remnant is according to the election of grace. Men may cavil at the doctrine of election, but that will not alter, in the least degree, the fact that from all eternity God elected sinners in Christ and predestinated them to everlasting life. He who saw the end from the beginning, knew that Adam would not remain in that state of innocence in which he was created, but would break the Covenant of works. Instead of leaving the whole human race to be the victims of the fearful catastrophe which was to befall them, He made another Covenant which is known as the Covenant of Grace, on behalf of those whom He purposed to save, and instead of leaving the fulfilling of it to be carried out by a finite creature, for there were none such who could fulfil its terms. He laid help on One who is mighty, even upon the Second Person of the glorious and ever adorable Trinity. Thus we find that from all eternity, God Himself became the dwelling-place of His people. As Moses says, “Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” Psalm 90: 1.
(2) They are spoken of as “a very small remnant.” They are small in number. In every age of time they are in the minority. In the old world, immediately before the flood, Noah alone was found a preacher of righteousness, and with the exception of his family, the rest of the inhabitants of the world were drowned; Abraham was the only one in his generation who was called out of Ur of the Caldees, and the rest were
left in idolatry. In the days of Christ’s humiliation the many who professed religion would have none of Him, and those who composed His “little flock” were taken from among the poor fishermen of Galilee. In every age of time down to our own, it is the same; the vast majority see not their need of Christ and prefer to go their own ways, and let Christ go His way.
Again, they are small in the estimation of the world. The world treats them as the off-scouring of all things, and as creatures fit to be trampled on. They have no room for them in their schemes and calculations, and leave them at all times out of account, except in isolated cases where their influence in certain circles might come in useful in order to advance the designs of worldly men where certain schemes, through lack of merit would fail, and if they are to be pushed through they must have a majority. For instance, politicians who have no more respect for religion than an unconverted Hottentot, if they are afraid that they cannot carry a majority at a General Election, will court the favour of ministers, and desire their presence and support at their meetings, and the more respect a minister has among his congregation the more urgent these politicians will be in soliciting his support. Yea, they themselves will appear very religious and very orthodox on such occasions, but as soon as the excitement connected with these matters is over, they fall back into their old ways and count God’s remnant as poor and insignificant as before.
Further, this remnant is small in their own estimation. They find much with themselves to humble them before God. Sin in them, ready to draw them into outward sin, is always a cause why they should think very little of themselves. Their past life also is a cause why they should be far from having exalted views of themselves. This was the case with the apostle Paul when he viewed the grace given him to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, he referred to himself as “less than the least of all saints.” Eph. 3: 8. Again, he tells us that he was not meet to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God. The centurion had a very low estimation of himself when he told Jesus that he was not worthy that He should come under his roof. It is characteristic of all the Lord’s true people that this is the estimation they have of themselves, and this keeps them in the dust, always dependent on God in Christ to help them and do every thing for them. This, it may be said in passing, is to their eternal benefit, for “He raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.” Psalm 113: 7, 8.
(3) It is the Lord of hosts who has left them. He is the “Lord of Hosts”
because of the armies which He commands, the boundless resources at His disposal, and the infinite measure of His power. He commands armies, consisting of countless numbers of angels. “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.” Psalm 67: 17. A faint idea of the might of this army may be gathered from the fact that at Christ’s resurrection one angel came down and rolled the stone from the door of the sepulchre. “His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.” Matthew 28: 3, 4. The prophet Elisha in Dothan was surrounded with horses and chariots of fire ready to discomfit his enemies, which shows us that the angels who make up the armies of Jehovah are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Heb. 1: 14.
Again, the very elements of nature are the hosts of the Lord, and are used to defend His own. It was by a strong east wind that the Lord caused the Red Sea to go back so that the children of Israel went into the sea on dry ground,” and it was the same sea which came again upon the Egyptians so that Pharoah’s “six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt” were but a very small thing in the midst of it. Many instances of the same kind could be brought forward from the history of the church of God in every age of time, and in all nations. You will remember reading of when King Philip of Spain purposed to exterminate Protestantism in these islands. The Spanish Armada, in 1588, left that country in all its power and glory, blessed by the Pope of Rome, and probably, in accordance with the trumpery of the Papacy, with plenty of holy water sprinkled on its sails. All that ever reached our shores of these mighty galleons went in fragments on the rocks, or sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Was it the might of England’s Navy, the skill of her Admirals, and the prowess of her sailors which caused this fearful devastation? No. It was the Lord of Hosts who commanded His “stormy wind” to blow upon them, and thus they were scattered. “Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” Psalm 48: 7, 8. In the two World wars much could be told of how He who has command over the elements of nature, used these elements to defeat the forces of evil, and sometimes turned their weapons upon those who used them.
He, who is the Lord of Hosts, is the Almighty, and is in no way dependent upon these hosts to bring about His purposes, though He has been pleased to use them as instruments in His hand. It is He who works and who shall prevent it. “Who would set the briers and thorns against me
in the battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.” Isaiah 27: 4. “Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: for he bringeth down them that dwell on high: the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground: he bringeth it even to the dust.” Isaiah 26: 4.
By leaving this small remnant among us, God manifests His interest in the world. While they are there He visits them, and often answers their prayers on behalf of poor sinners and on behalf of the kingdom, so that when any of them are taken away from a place, so much of Christ is taken away from that place, and if there are none raised to take their place, Christ has no further occasion to visit where they used to be. “Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought?” Isaiah 52: 5. It is, therefore, a good sign when some of the Lord’s people are still left among us.
II. I come now to notice how this small remnant is distinguished from the rest of the world.
In our day they can be distinguished from others by the fact that they are preserved from the general apostasy that has overtaken the generation, and no matter how churches and individuals have drifted from the old moorings, these are where God’s people in every age of time have been found.
They keep to God’s Word. It has become fashionable to look upon the Bible as a book that is “behind the times”, and those who accept it as a people who should have lived in the old world, away back in the days of Noah. In the name of scholarship, its inspiration and veracity have been attacked, and such is the enmity manifested towards it that evidences which would be held as competent to establish the authenticity of any other book, is, by critics, disallowed in the case of the Bible. Those who are of this small remnant cannot, however, treat the Bible in this way. It is to them the Book of books, and they see nothing in it for which they should discard it. Instead of it being contradictory, as is affirmed by many, they see that though it was written by different people of diverse temperaments, at different periods of the world’s history, yet, as a book, it presents one complete, harmonious whole, having as its aim the glory of God and the good of never-dying souls. Thus they can come to no other conclusion but that it is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible work of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, they keep to it as to the only rule to direct them how they may glorify God and enjoy Him.
Those who are preserved from this general apostasy accept God’s Word as their guide. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my
path.” Psalm 119: 105. They have realised, sometimes by a bitter experience, that “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10: 23. They find how true it is that “the wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies,” and that it is a much easier thing to walk in the broad way that leads to destruction, than in the narrow way that leads to life. The path of least resistance to sin is much more palatable to fallen nature than the way in which the flesh, with its affections and lusts, is crucified. They have also learned that in those vital matters which concern their never-dying souls they are not to take counsel with flesh and blood, and that what they need is an infallible guide. This sends them to God’s Word with the question, What saith the Lord? This was the way with the Psalmist when he says, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” Psalm 85: 8.
This desire to have God’s Word as their guide causes them to search it. Christ Himself sent the Jews to their own Scriptures when He said, “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.” John 5: 39. Where there is a real searching of the Bible it is the result of a consciousness of having a needy soul. They are faced with the all-important question, What is it that saves a soul? and they can find no answer to that question outside the Bible. Thus, searching the Scriptures is a very serious matter with them. There is a knowledge of their danger and of their need, a sense of their unfitness, a consciousness of how utterly futile it is to trust in the works of the law, and a real dread of coming short of the great salvation. Oh! what alternations of hope and fear find a place in the hearts of such! They open the Bible at times in the hope that it will speak comfortably to their souls, and they find that it condemns them; they read on and there is a ray of hope kindled, which encourages them to follow on. They get something which they feel that they cannot let go, and in fact that which they get is so appropriate to their own condition that they must accept it as their own. It is in this way that the Holy Spirit applies to the poor sinner Christ’s salvation, and it is no wonder that from henceforth that individual would love in his soul to search God’s Word.
Again, these feed upon God’s Word. In the day of regeneration they got a faith view of Christ and the benefits of the Covenant of Grace, and by that faith they were able to appropriate Him and these benefits. It was through the Word of God, though perhaps by no particular passage of it but simply by the substance of it, that they came to this, so that they must always be going to that Word for a diet for their souls as long as they are in this world. As they search on, the Holy Spirit reveals more
and more to them of the majesty and glory of the Person of Christ, of His suitableness as a Mediator, of how glorious He is in His three offices, the efficacy of His sufferings, and death, and the victory of which His resurrection is the proof, so that this is their meat and drink, yea, the more they search the Scriptures the more they partake of that “feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Isaiah 25: 6. In the enjoyment of this, they enter into the feelings of David when he said, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.” Psalm 63: 5.
(2) Further, this small remnant is known by the way in which they are given to prayer. As the breath in the body indicates that the person is living, so prayer as the breath of the soul, indicates a quickened soul.
In their distress, these pray to God. Their troubles are often too great for human help, so that neither they themselves nor a fellow-creature can do anything for them. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” Psalm 49: 7. They often have affliction of mind or body, sometimes a crook in their lot, and also they have troubles in connection with bearing the burden of Christ’s Cause in the world. This sends them to their knees in secret to plead with God for relief or for grace to bear the burden. They do so with a consciousness of the fact that they cannot go to another. “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” John 6: 68. In their afflictions they learn that it is good for them to draw near to God, and the help which they got in former times encourages them to come again to a Throne of Grace.
They also pray when they are in prosperity. Many think that there is no real need of praying in prosperity. Everything is going smoothly, they have all that their hearts could wish, their future is assured as far as temporal things are concerned, and they think of nothing else. A child of God may be so far left to himself, at times, that he will be more taken up with these things than with higher things, but he will soon be brought to see the folly of this. There is nothing that is more liable to stupify the soul than worldly riches. He was a wise man who prayed, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” Proverbs 30: 8, 9. Thus, they cannot do without earnest prayer when there are outward appearances of prosperity.
Those who must pray in all circumstances are much given to secret
prayer. The Pharisees loved to pray in public places, that they might be seen of men, and the Saviour tells us that “they have their reward.” The poor child of God must betake himself to secret, there to pour out his soul to God. Public confession of sins must, at best, be more or less a general confession. It is in secret that one is enabled to confess before God sins that could not be confessed in public, and it is there that the quickened soul is enabled to approach God with a holy boldness, which is a direct result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
(3) Again, these are known by their desire to hold communion with God and with one another in Christ. It is characteristic of the Lord’s people that they cannot live without holding communion with Him who is the Head. This is one of the main objects of their prayers, meditations, and attendance on the public and private means of grace. They desire to have what the Apostle John had when he was saying, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” I John 1: 3. They cannot live without Christ in this world, and they are seeking to have their conversation in heaven. They got moments of that communion in the public and private means, and in the fellowship of the Lord’s people, and these moments are precious to them as foretastes of that communion which they hope to have with Christ in glory.
They keep a jealous eye on everything which would mar that fellowship and communion. A great part of the Christian’s duty is to watch over his own desperately wicked and deceitful heart, for he is commanded in the Word to do this. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4: 23. There is folly bound up in the heart of a child of God, and, therefore, it is so liable to wander into forbidden fields, and dwell on things which are injurious to grace. The Psalmist knew well what would mar communion with God for we find him saying, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66: 18. Also the world is so ready to draw one away. All the senses of the body are as open gates to receive the allurements of the world, and thus become instruments for helping on a backsliding spirit, and marring that sweet communion which His people hold with God. A consideration of these things will often send the Lord’s true people to a Throne of Grace, to pray that God would deliver them from their sins, and that He would show them the evil of their own hearts. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139: 23, 24.
Their walk and conversation in the world show them to be of this very small remnant.
It can be seen in their dealings with others. As they seek to have respect to the first table of the Moral Law, so also they seek to have respect to the second table, and the great cause of their sorrow is that they have not the respect to either table which they would love to have. Their neighbours have to acknowledge that they are good neighbours, and that they will never allow others to have loss as far as they are able to prevent it, but they do not stop at that. They will endeavour not to lose an opportunity of speaking to them about their soul’s concern, manifesting that they would like their neighbours to be partakers of the like precious faith with themselves. Paul’s declaration before King Agrippa was, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” Acts 26: 29. They also manifest their love towards their neighbours when they set a good example before them, by walking according to their profession, and thus they are living epistles “known and read of all men.”
They are known in private for they are controlled by a conscience into which the light of God has shined. They are not Christians merely before the public eye; they are Christians in their own homes, so that even their brute beasts experience the benefits of the change that has come over them “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.” Prov. 12: 10. Their consciences will not allow them to do what they formerly did. At the same time we must guard against the idea that the conscience alone controls their actions. It is noteworthy that the conscience alone is not a fit guide for one, for on the one hand it might neglect to warn one concerning certain sins because of insufficient light, while on the other hand it might go to extremes which, ultimately, would mar one’s usefulness to the Cause of Christ. However, it is the Word of God that is a light in the consciences of the Lord’s people, and that Word, when taken as a whole, will lead one aright in his dealings with God and with his fellow-creatures.
III. The third thing which I purposed to speak of was, the blessing of having this small remnant in the world. We are told that without them in our midst, “we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”
(1) We should have been like unto Sodom and Gomorrah as regards privileges. Where the Lord’s true people are not, the privileges of the Gospel are not. The Lord has left some of the nations of the world for centuries without the means of grace, and that was a clear proof that none of His elect people were among them; while, again, when He is sending His Gospel to a place, it as clearly proves, that He has a work to do there in awakening sinners and leading them to Christ. Sodom had none of the
Lord’s true people in it except Lot, and He took him out on the day that He destroyed that city with fire from Heaven. One could go through the length and breadth of Sodom and not find a congregation there, publicly worshipping God. Oh! how different in poor Scotland, great as our declensions have been, and still are. There are Bibles, and there are congregations publicly assembled where the whole counsel of God is declared to poor sinners, and where Christ and Him crucified is set forth as God’s only remedy to meet with the lost and ruined condition of man.
(2) We should have been as Sodom as to sin. It is written of others that “they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” Isaiah 3: 9. That, in a large measure is true of us as a nation. Sabbath-breaking, immorality, love of vanities, despising of the means of grace, are sins which walk abroad among us without shame, yea, those who commit such sins among us lift up their heads in pride, and deny that such things are sin, reminding one of the adulterous woman of whom Solomon speaks, “She eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.” Prov. 30: 20. Those who are high up in the social scale have set a bad example, as also have our rulers done. They have made the procuring of divorce between married persons easy, and that in order to enter into marriage again, forgetting that whatever legislation they may devise and pass into Acts of Parliament, that any marriage, after a divorce, which is not sanctioned by the Word of God, is adultery. When such conditions prevail among the upper classes we can only expect a fulfilment of the truth which says, “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.” Psalm 12: 8. This gross immorality has, almost wholly, covered our land, but the fact that it has not wholly overwhelmed us puts a difference between us and Sodom and Gomorrah. There is “a very small remnant” who have not been carried away and for their sakes the Lord is still sparing us.
(3) Again, were it not for this very small remnant we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah with respect to our ignorance of God. There was a day when Scotsmen were known for their knowledge of, and reverence for the Bible, and it could thus be said that in Scotland, as in Judah’s land, God was well known, but today it is otherwise. One has only to mention a parable or a portion of the historical part of the Bible, and ask the average person where it is to be found, and at once their ignorance of God’s Book will be very apparent. When such conditions prevail with respect to a literal knowledge of the Bible no one need expect to find a saving knowledge of its truths. Yet there are some and the gospel came to them not “in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” I Thess. 1: 5. These are the “very small rem-
nant” which keep us, as a nation, from being like Sodom and Gomorrah. They are partakers of the blessings of the Gospel, for “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.” Psalm 89: 15.
(4) In conclusion; we should have been as Sodom and Gomorrah with respect to punishment. God heard the cry of the cities of the plain for it had ascended up to Heaven, and “The Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done now altogether according to the cry of it, which is come up unto me; and if not, I will know.” Genesis 18: 20, 21. God has set up His Judgement Seat to judge the cities of the plain; He investigated their condition, weighed them in His balances and found them great sinners, who were continually provoking Him to His face. There was no reason why He should spare them any longer. His elect people were not found among them except Lot, and it was His purpose to bring him out to a place of safety; none of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were to be the means of bringing any of His elect people into the world, or to be of any use to His Church on earth therefore, there was nothing in God’s purpose for which they should be spared. The end of all flesh, in these cities, had come before the Lord, and He rained upon them fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them. We are sinners equally as great as they were, but the presence of this very small remnant among us, is the cause of our preservation. We deserve to be destroyed, but in His mercy He is sparing us. May His long-suffering be blessed to us, and may we be brought humbly to His footstool to plead for mercy for the sake of Christ, and may we improve our privileges, realise the brevity of our life here, and benefit by the exercise of His sparing mercy.
May He bless anything said consistent with the mind of the Spirit. Amen.