Notes of a Sermon

BY THE LATE REV. ARCHIBALD COOK, DAVIOT.

PREACHED IN DUKE STREET FREE CHURCH, GLASGOW, 5TH JUNE, 1855.

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”—LUKE xii. 32.

THERE are very few of the hearers of the gospel but are desirous of hearing something about heaven or hell, yet very few seek for evidences of a change in themselves. The greater part are content without God. When they come to die they shall be greatly disappointed. But the little flock will not be content with hearing about heaven without some evidences that heaven belongs to them. In this chapter the Saviour was speaking to His disciples. We read in another place that they left all and followed Christ. They had no worldly prospects before them, and so it was no wonder though they would have some spiritual difficulties as to how they would get through the world. Christ is now encouraging them. At the 24th verse He says, “Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?” At last He leads them to eternity. One thought of eternity will put all worldly concerns out of their mind. “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Whatever difficulties they might meet in the world, this would sweeten their troubles. These words belong to the elect people of God. I will endeavour to show :—

I.—The Saviour has a little flock in the world.

II.—Something of the character of this little flock.

III.—As to how it is the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom.

I.—The Saviour has a little flock. I would observe here:—

1. That the Saviour has a little flock as He is the Creator of all. Every creature depends upon Him, and all must render account to Him. He speaks here to the Church as the Saviour or living head of the Church. In the covenant of grace creatures are spoken of as belonging to the Godhead in the Father. It is the prerogative of the Godhead to elect sinners. Election is a mystery above our comprehension. We all lost our right to the favour of God by sin. We lost our character. We left God at liberty to save us or put us to hell. Election is an act of God in which He sheweth His own sovereignty. We were before His eye from eternity lying in our blood. Those whom God passed by cannot impute injustice to God. He left them in the state they brought themselves into, and those whom He saves get what they do not deserve. If you were going to glory and asking the redeemed why they were taken there, they would only say, “It was of God’s will.” They were given to the second person of the Godhead as a little flock to whom He may say, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It is in this way that their names are said to be engraven on His heart and on the palms of His hands. This was a part of the joy set before Him when He endured the cross.

2. The Son has a little flock as surety. He became their surety to the Father. The Father did not lose His interest in the little flock when He committed them to the Mediator. He once committed the human race to a man but the man failed, and He would not commit one soul now to all the angels in glory. For He knows the value of the soul. Christ became surety as Judah said to his father regarding Benjamin. “I will be surety for him: of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.”—(Gen. xliii. 9.) Christ will present the Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It is to the surety the father looks, not to them. The security of the soul stands in the living Head. “If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” But what follows? “Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”

3. The Saviour has a little flock as Redeemer. He required to redeem them. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.” When the Saviour delivers a soul from the devil, it is not for nothing. Everything He obtains is represented as a

purchased possession. This work of redemption required to be wrought out in the human nature. (1) It was for this cause that the Saviour stooped so low as to take the human nature into a personal union. He did it for the glory of His Father and the good of His creatures. No wonder then that the angels sing with the heavenly host, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” It was for this end the Son of God was revealed that He might destroy the works of the devil. (2) The Law looked for satisfaction for transgressions. The authority of God is to be seen in the punishment of sin. Sinners will have to do with God yet. This is their day, but His day is coming. The Saviour was made under the law to give satisfaction to its demands. In human nature He gave this obedience which reconciled the glory of God and the salvation of the little flock. Here is a mystery in which the little flock will swim through eternity. It was by His death He was in a particular way to purchase their redemption. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” He delivered them from the curse of the law being made a curse for them. “He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” His sacrifice was not only without spot, but also a sweet smelling saviour unto God. The saviour of sin ascended to heaven and brought down the curse of God, but this saviour sets the little flock at liberty. (3) It was as a substitute in covenant He died and set them at liberty. “As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water.” In this view they were to get their life for His death. They were to be saved from the wrath of God through His drinking that wrath. “Ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” (4) They were so ordered from eternity that they were to get everything as the fruit of His intercession. They would have a new right to things on this earth as well as to spiritual blessings. “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” His throne was to be their throne. I often wonder what makes the redeemed in heaven so happy when they think of believers on earth. It is this: they see the Mediator has each one’s case in His hand, and will make everything work together for their good. He is the friend of the broken-hearted and the tempted, and He will plead their cause.

II.—Something of the character of the little flock.

1. The Saviour’s flock may be said to be little on account of their fewness. Many are concerned if they go for one night a few miles from home, where they will sleep or how they will be, and never were concerned where they will spend eternity. They were but a little flock when He was in the world, and not all genuine. One of them was a devil. But when He makes up His jewels there will be a multitude that no man can number.

2. They are counted little by the world. The world says they

are of weak minds. We like very well to see people have a little religion, but we do not like too much of it. You never hear them say, “We have too much of the world.”

1. They may be called little because they are little in their own eyes. Their faith is little, their hope is little, their repentance is little, their obedience is little. Why? Because God has become great in their eyes. The world is so big in the eyes of the unrenewed that God is little to them. Every unregenerate person is a god in his own eyes. The soul becomes little in its own eyes by the Spirit’s teaching. The Spirit begets by the Word faith in the being of Jehovah. This is the beginning of the work in the soul that will cause it to shine through an endless eternity. This preserves alive spiritual concern in the soul. You may be on your knees at the day of judgment and after all be as hard as a stone. It is a sense of the sweetness and loveliness of the Divine Being springing up in their souls that brings them to say, “I am more brutish than any man.” “I am a beast before thee.” If this is brought alive in your souls, it will make you little enough.

2. The little flock feel the weakness of their spiritual desires after the revelation of the glory of the Godhead. One may have as much of God as will carry him through the world, but this is not what the gracious soul wants. It wants something that will transform it into the image of God.

3. They feel the need of God’s assistance in the means of grace. Some glimpses of the infinite majesty of God make duty become as a mountain. Many will see in eternity that they were not praying to God, that they had neither God, Christ, nor the Spirit in their prayers. Glimpses of the Divine Majesty make reading the Bible, asking a blessing on food become a mountain. Some new grace is needed by the soul from the fountain.

4. It is in the promise by faith that they have all, like Abraham. He had not anything but in the promise. The new heart is in the promise. Is there any poor creature here who goes to pray depending on the promise?

5. The spiritual difficulties that meet them. We read of Jacob, a worm, thrashing the mountains. Wonderful, when he was a worm he thrashed the mountains, but when he became a mountain, the worm thrashed him. When the sinner looks to the Lord he sees nothing in himself. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” When it is said, “Fear not,” this shows they have fears, and they must be removed by the great Advocate. The first ray of light that enters a soul, the creature begins to leave himself at Christ’s feet for safety. He breaks Himself to them. The world speak of a whole Saviour, but He never break Himself to them. The people of God see in Christ all that will meet their wants, and they feel that they can go to eternity depending on Him. They look to Him for everything. “As poor, having nothing, yet possessing all things.” No love in them possessing love in Him. The Spirit of God opens the fountain so that they look out of

themselves. The poor carnal world are content to hear of Christ, though He never opened His bosom to them. Did you know till then the sweetness of prayer, of singing a psalm, of going to the Lord’s table, of the fellowship of God’s people? A living soul will move, a dead soul will not move. The people of the world are as righteous on Monday as on Sabbath. It is a dead soul that never thinks of that state in which he will have life as long as God has a being. The people of God have fears, so that the Saviour has to speak to them. It is no wonder though people who are from hand to mouth are afraid they will come to poverty. It is no wonder though the poor widow with whom Elijah lived was afraid every time she went to the barrel of meal and cruse of oil, thinking they might be done when she went. So in like manner there is always something needed from the white throne to the poor soul. If the Lord pardons a creature’s sins, He will put them before his eyes, so that he will be praying for them till the day of his death, or there will be some cross that will keep his wounds bleeding. When the psalmist was in old age, we hear him saying, “Remember not the sins of my youth.” Something from the white throne is needed. “Fear not little flock.” Let them see one drop of the infinite purity of God, of Christ, of the angels, they will be brought to say, “Can I ever be made fit for the enjoyment of such?” Yet nothing lower will satisfy them. The world call the people of God deranged and gloomy; they did not like the Saviour: He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. They have their fears of Jordan. It is not a little thing to look to eternity. Look above, you see eternity, below, you see eternity, before, you see eternity, and behind, you see eternity. No wonder then, those who have this fear are trembling creatures, and need something from the white throne. The Lord sits on the floods.

III.—As to how it is the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom. They are the fruit of the Saviour’s death on the cross. The soul of God turned to the fruit of Christ’s death. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, said the Lord of hosts; smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.” They are infinitely precious in His sight. You that love Christ love God, for He is the first object of the Father’s love out of Himself. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give such the kingdom.

Conclusion.—As for election, it is true, but let it not keep any from the Saviour. While you have a soul and body together, come to the Saviour; you are invited. “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Can you go to your bed without Him, can you go to your work without Him, can you go to eternity without Him? To those who trust in Christ for salvation, He will give their souls at the great day, and they will say, He is a worthy Saviour, and will put the crown on His head. To you

who did not give Him your souls, He will say, “Find your own souls, you would not trust them to me.” “It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief.” Oh, that precious jewel that heaven and earth cannot fill, but God who made it. You poor little flock to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the kingdom, you will in a few days shine as the stars through endless eternity.

Extracts from Letters by the late Rev. Archibald Cook.

“I understand you have found — more comfortable and profitable than you expected. Though the Saviour is the same in all places and His ordinances the same, yet there are places in which the means of grace are purer, more spiritual and agreeable to His mind. In such places His spiritual presence may in a special manner be expected by the broken in spirit, and such places should be highly valued by the people of God. Power in the means is precious making one and keeping one a sinner, his wounds opened, sensible of his coming short of the spiritual demands of the law; and not only sensible of this, but of his sinful lusts and desires, so as to be a sinner. Thus broken, humbled and losing boldness in the presence of the infinite Majesty, infinite grace, condescension, mercy, and fellow-feeling appear in every glimpse of His presence to such sinners, raising the poor from the dust and the beggar from the dunghill. Warm affections are very dangerous without something of this accompanying them. Instead of the Lord becoming more precious as the unchangeable source of his eternal rest and blessedness, the creature rests in a shadow. Instead of going out of himself and living by faith on what is in Christ, he lives on his own warm feelings. Instead of the soul dying to self and pride, and living to God, he will cherish self and pride, and at last turn to the creature and the vanities of the world. Hence how many poor, barren professors we see and meet with; and even ourselves, how often do these warm affections deceive us. How often do we make them the foundation of our hopes! When we have our feelings melted and warmed, we think that Christ will receive us. When we are cold, dead, hard, barren in our feelings, then we think there is no mercy. Thus we often make them the foundation of our hopes, contrary to our head knowledge. What a mercy that when we are hard, dark, full of wicked and sinful thoughts, and desires, yea of blasphemy, we are as welcome, as though our hearts were full of love and holiness. If ever the Saviour spoke a word of comfort to a soul, it was at the time when he thought himself a castaway, bound over in chains of eternal

misery. What then gives a right to a sinner? The free offer of the gospel, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” This coming is in the heart; it consists of desires arising from a principle implanted by the Spirit of God. Be you thankful for every discovery of your sinfulness, of the preciousness of Christ, and of the free offer of Him to sinners, and especially for finding your own soul joined to Him as your own Saviour, with a desire accompanying to be made holy. Such moments may be sweetly remembered on a death-bed. They are not forgotten in heaven.”

“The people of God will in eternity see in many ways His infinite condescension in answering their prayers. While here this was not so visible; yea often providence and experience working contrary to their desires and requests. But where grace is, it is the desire of that soul to be made holy, that the love and power of sin be destroyed. The people of God expect that this will be done by immediate gracious communications from the fountain of life, and the light of His countenance; but the Lord often takes another way with them. Perhaps He lets corruption loose, so that they are ready to faint; lets Satan loose; takes idols from them; strips them of worldly comforts, so as to have no refuge but Himself; reveals some sins to them as the cause of all, so as to create repentance; turns the desires of their souls in that repentance to Himself, as the only refuge, and gives them tastings of His love through the promises and means. In this way He creates and cherishes hungering after holiness, and thus they have the answer to their prayers.”

Brief Remarks from Sermons

BY THE REV. FINLAY COOK, REAY.

12TH JANUARY, OLD NEW-YEAR’S DAY, 1841.

“Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.—Amen.”
EPHESIANS vi. 24.

YOU are not worth a straw if you love not the Lord Jesus Christ; hell is good enough for you. When you will not give a moment of your love to Christ, how will you go to eternity to meet brimstone, fire, fury, and devils in hell? Believer, you are in your enemy’s country. You must fight with the flesh, the devil and the world. If you are a true believer, you shall be more than conqueror. You must bear the cross. If you are without a cross you are in danger of falling. You need a new cross and the grace

of patience with it. When one trouble is over, grace goes home and says, “I have finished my work,” and then a new cross and new grace comes. Make friends of mammon, but do not serve mammon. Pray, but be not thyself found in prayer. Read, but be not thyself in reading. Preach, but be not thyself in preaching. Forbear, as lambs among wolves. Lazarus heard the voice of the Lord in the voice. If you will hear a voice in the voice, your soul will be a soul unto you, sin will be sin to you, hell will be hell to you, heaven will be heaven to you, God will be a God to you. The old year says to all the people of God, “Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.—Amen.”

18TH JANUARY, 1841.

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”—JOHN xvii. 16, 17.

Daniel was in Babylon, but he was not of the Babylonians. Joseph was in Egypt, but he was not of the Egyptians. They were in the world, but not of the world.

“Sanctify them through thy truth.” Abel was found in this prayer, but Cain was out of it. David was found in this prayer, but Saul was out of it. Peter was found in it, but Judas was out of it. Paul was found in it, but Demas was out of it. Every unsanctified father is bringing up children for the devil. Every unsanctified minister and teacher is strengthening the kingdom of Satan. The love of the world will make friendship to-day and forsake to-morrow. If you would get one drop of the love of Christ it would make you wise unto salvation: you would give up following your own heart, you would follow Christ. When the strong man rules the house, the mouth is a chimney for hell, and the tongue that was created for glorifying God is ring bell in the hand of Satan. It would be good for those that are given to tattling and lies that they would learn David’s prayer, “Create in me a clean heart.” I saw a woman and she would make a saint in church, an angel in the street, and a devil in the house. I would not like that woman for a neighbour. I would rather Satan for a neighbour. He would flee from the Word of God, but she would not. Christ’s prayer is now, “Sanctify them through thy truth; they are entering upon a new year.”

“THE force of what we deliver from the pulpit is often lost by a starched, and what is often called, a correct style, and especially by adding meretricious ornaments. I called upon a lady who had been robbed, and she gave me a striking account of the fact; but had she put it in heroics I should neither so well have understood her, nor been so well convinced that she was robbed.”—John Newton.