By REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock.*
(Luke xi, 21, 22.)
“WHEN a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him,
* This discourse was first delivered by the writer some 35 years ago while assisting the late Rev. D. MacFarlane at Moy. Mr. MacFarlane made me promise to send it to the “Free Presbyterian Magazine.” After serious thoughts I finally decided to write it out, as near as possible to the original. If I had not promised the saintly man that I would try to do what I could it would probably have remained in the silence of my own mind. I did promise, and that promise has followed me through the years, so now at long last I venture to send it to the Editor of our Magazine for publication, and may the divine blessing follow anything in it that may be a comfort to the weakest of the flock of God: and if so to the Head of the Church be the glory for ever.— J. M.
he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” The above is quoted by Luke and Matthew and Mark. John is silent on this subject. Not because John did not hear it, but the Holy Spirit, who is the guide of them all, saw proper to bring forward the three witnesses to this event. Let us not forget that the Holy Spirit directed the writers to state exactly what is written; and not one sentence more. The difference is how they state the facts, no difference in the subject matter. The Holy Spirit directed them to write, each in his own style and method, but He directed them. There is no tautology or confusion in what the Holy Spirit dictates. Some give the impression that the Holy Spirit had no hand or supervision and directive authority over the writers, as if Paul wrote what he liked. This way of criticism is to rob the Holy Spirit of His adorable prerogative. The writers wrote as they were led by the Holy Spirit. Moses wrote as he was led by the Holy Spirit. If this is called in question the Bible will be like any other historical record of past events. The destructive critics who call in question the fact that the writers were moved and guided by the Holy Spirit must definitely, and logically, conclude that the Bible is not better, higher, or more authentic than any other human record! That is the quagmire the sons of Voltaire plunged the people into when they tore the Bible into shreds.
The Pope took the Bible from the people. The destructive critics left it in the hands of the people as a useless book. Dr. Rainy produced a new way of “approach” and called it “The Declaratory Act!” We must be careful not to lay emphasis on the writers. If so, we are in danger of forgetting the Author who took such marvellous care of the Scriptures, and kept all the books intact in the midst of all the changes and persecutions that the Bible suffered. We must give the Holy Spirit all the praise, honour, and glory that is due to Him for His infinite love and mercy towards us! Yet we do not forget the blessed writers the Holy Spirit made use of through the ages till the Canon of Scripture was graciously finished and sealed. And let us not forget that the Holy Spirit is now in charge of the Word of God for the good and sanctification of the elect of God to the end of time. In the hand of the blessed Spirit it will subdue and convince kings and generations of mankind. See Ps. xxii. 28-31. It will cast out Satan, crucify lusts, expose idolatry, convert atheists, change pagans, comfort the tried soul; console the widow and orphan, and guide the poor and needy into unsearchable riches: the guilty conscience to peace with God through the blood of the Lamb of God—this is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
We must therefore look to the Bible from Genesis to Revelation as the Word of God, infallible, inspired, unerring, and complete. If we lose sight of this, we have no Bible, or any light, to lead us in the right way to eternity. We will be like a ship at sea without compass,
chart, or rudder. The work of men and devils is to destroy the authority of the Word of God: first, in parts, then in doubts, finally casting it away altogether. This is what happened in our own day. Men rose in the Church who began to question the truth and accuracy of the Bible. These doubts came in gradually, so that finally the Book of God was not better than any other book. Men could believe what any Pagan or heathen wrote without question or doubt but not the Bible. This was the work of the devil. The Lord Jesus who preached and taught the people out of the sacred Scripture from Genesis to Malachi found no errors in it. Paul, Peter, John, James, Jude and the writer to the Hebrews found no errors in the Bible. The critics say, “But there were no scholars in those days. The writers were not learned in modern science.” Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. They did not belong, of course, to the modern sceptical atheistical scientists of the twentieth century of the Christian era! The Holy Spirit warns us against them. In writing to Timothy, Paul says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (I Tim. vi. 20-21).
So we see from the Word of God that there can be most excellent Christian Scientists and most wicked unbelieving scientists. As one eminent scientist once said, “That scientists never discovered anything that could or would contradict one sentence of the Bible” (Sir Ambrose Fleming). Oh! how true! “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.”
First, we shall consider the strong man armed, his palace, his goods, his peace.
Second, The stronger than he . . . overcomes him . . . taketh his armour from him wherein he trusted.
Third, He divideth the spoils.
First, We shall consider the strong man armed, his palace, his goods, his peace.
When Satan came to our first parents in the garden of Eden it was in the form of a serpent. Man fell to his lies and machinations. It is not necessary for Satan to come in the form of an irrational animal—he can come in the form of men and angels—in the form of bad men, good men, good and bad angels. His choice of means, methods, and agents is many, and no doubt he uses irrational animals and inanimate objects as well. He is long on the field of battle. Satan is a Hebrew name which means adversary or accuser. This evil Spirit has many names in Scripture. He is called the devil. This may be taken as the destroyer, an implacable enemy of the human race, and
a malicious foe to God’s people (I Peter v. 8). “He is called Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek, which means destroyer. He is called the angel of the bottomless pit”; “Prince of the world” (John xii. 31). The Prince of Darkness, a roaring lion, dragon, liar, leviathan, tormentor, the god of this world, a dog (Ps. xxii. 16), wolf, adder, Diabolos—he is also called Belial (an Hebrew word) which means good for nothing. Beelzebub means that he is the head of other wicked spirits which do what he directs—the prince of the devils (see Matt. xii. 24). Sometimes wicked men are called devils, as for instance, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil” (John vi. 70). We read of the synagogue of Satan. The kingdom of Satan. That this is “the strong man” of our text is plain from the foregoing and from other passages of the Scriptures. From the context the inference is also plain from Matthew xii. 22-29; Mark iii. 23-29.
The soul of man retained its spiritual substance and will retain it forever. The soul is verily indestructible. Sin cannot destroy the substance of the soul. Sin destroyed the original functions of the soul. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. ii. 16-17). When Adam sinned against God, he immediately died spiritually, and his soul became a receptacle of Satan. The noble palace became “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit” (Jer. v. 27). See again Rev. xviii. 2 and Jer. xvii. 9. Oh! the lost state of man! “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job xiv. 4). When Satan entered into the soul of man all was confusion, rebellion, death, corruption, and enmity to God.
Satan (the strong man) was fully armed with the armoury of malice, hatred and death. The peace of death reigned in the soul. Man the slave of Satan. The servant must obey his lord. Cain must murder his brother Abel! Eve’s first child a murderer! Adam must be an eye-witness to his own crime. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. vi. 5-8). We have in the above passages a clear description of the strength and work of Satan as he began to operate from the soul of man. He was well armed in his acquired palace. His goods are in peace. All quiet, peace, and harmony reigning in the death of the soul. The foolish virgin and proud Pharisee could sleep on. The “strong man” would not allow anyone to come near his domains!
Here is part of the armoury of the “strong man”: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Gal. v. 19-21). “His goods are in peace.” What one holds as his own he claims them as his goods. That was the way with Satan. He claims man as his property. We have another clear description in Romans iii of how Satan claims his property, verse 10: “As it is written there is none righteous, no not one.” And from v. 11-18. Again from Chapter 1st from vs. 17-32. This is the devil’s armour! Ezekiel, chapter xvi. throughout! David in Psalms li. says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Mankind fell in Adam! The power of sin is simply terrific. The more this awful subject is studied the more solemn and gruesome the abominable work of Satan appears. It goes to the root of our being. The soul, spirit, and person of man is saturated with original sin. “For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh” (Ps. xxxviii. 7). Sin and death is the armour of the “strong man.” “None of them can by any means redeem his brother; nor give God a ransom for him” (Ps. xlix. 7).
The will, the understanding, the affections, judgment, conscience, memory, desires, are the servants of unrighteousness, as well as the members of the body obedient to the desires of the sinful soul. It is original sin that oozes out through the members in the sinful and corrupt actions. The eye, the ear, the tongue are active agents in the service of the devil. The carnal mind is extremely devilish, “enmity against God.” We are poisoned to death. Through death, corruption, lusts, enmity to God, hatred and murder, and Oh! the “creeping things” that cannot be mentioned. The strong man holds his palace and his goods are in peace. Once noble man is now the devil’s beast of burden. “The chief end of man’s creation is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.” From the day man fell his chief end is to obey Satan, satisfy the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the eye.
“The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (Ps. xciv. 2): “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. xv. 19). No doubt false religions have been and are the strongest weapons in the hands of Satan. The Papal religion; the Mohammedan religion; the Hindoo religion; the Arminian religion (which includes the Scottish Declaratory Act and the Episcopal religion), and the various false religions of the United States, Canada, Germany, Holland, France, Russia, India, China, Japan, South America, and the numerous religions of Africa. That is one of the strongest weapons Satan has in his armoury—false religion.
Where man appears, corruption, falsehood, and treachery dwells. In studying the nature and entrance of sin, with all its subsequent
results in human history, we are bound by conscience, and by every fibre of our being to conclude on Scriptural grounds that those who framed the Declaratory Act did not believe or understand the lostness of man as fallen in Adam! Impossible! As long as Satan holds his palace (the soul) in the peace of death, all is quiet. The conscience dead (and no dead conscience can serve the living God) may be “speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” We conclude this part of the present discourse by pointing out according to the Word of God that mankind is under the power of darkness and under the dominion of sin. It is the spirit of the devil that rules in us by nature, state, and practice whatever may be the external restraints by birth, education, privileges, traditions, and training. We are all in the category of “O, generation of vipers.” The seed of evil-doers. The children of a fallen man!
Second, “But when a stronger than he comes upon him, and overcomes him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” We have given a brief account above of the power of Satan over mankind. We must not forget although man lost his original righteousness and lost his soul, he did not lose his ability to sin, neither did he lose his responsibility and his accountability. Man is still accountable to God. Adam was called to account immediately after his sinning against God. Cain was called to account after he murdered his brother Abel. All must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. Every knee must bow and every tongue must confess, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Rom. xiv. 11). The law of God demands of man perfect obedience in thought, word, and action. The moral law of God did not change or can it change for ever. The obedience required of Adam in a state of innocence never altered when he sinned against God! “And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him” (Isa. lix. 16). “I, even I, am the Lord: and beside me there is no Saviour” (Isa. xliii. 11; Isa. lxiv. 4; Isa. lxiii. 8).
There was no Saviour to be found among the sons of men. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Who then can it be who is stronger than the strong man armed but Christ Himself? “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. iii. 8). That this was the first revelation and intimation to fallen man of a Mediator cannot be called in question by those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was (Pro. viii. 23). “Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth: and my delights were with the sons of men” (Pro. viii. 31). We could multiply passages from the Word of God to show and prove who revealed Himself in the garden of Eden to our first parents in
“the cool of the day.” That fallen and sinful man could not see or meet God in the absolute sense is also plain from the Word of God: “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. xii. 29).
(To be continued.)