BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE.
Preached in Dingwall Free Presbyterian Church on Sabbath
Evening, 8th September, 1907.
(Continued from page 248.)
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name : that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”—PHIL. ii. 9-11.
WE have already spoken something on the first head, viz., the exaltation of Christ, and we now proceed to consider
II.—The purpose or end for which God hath highly exalted Him. The purpose is mentioned here : “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This purpose shall be fully realised in due time, for God is not like man. Man may purpose and may not be able to accomplish ; but when God purposes there is nothing to hinder His bringing to pass that purpose, and His purpose here is that every knee—all creatures, men and angels—should bow the knee to Christ, or render obedience to Him.
By “things” here we are to understand reasonable creatures, for so God speaks of us under the name of a thing or things ; as when Christ said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” that thing which was lost. We know that He came to seek and to save sinners of the human race, so “that which was lost” means sinners of the human race—men who have sinned against God. It is in this sense we are to understand “things” here. There are three classes of reasonable creatures spoken of, and the first class is the holy angels. These are spoken of as “things in heaven.” There were, no doubt, men in heaven at the time. There were two there with their bodies as well as with their souls, and there were many of the spirits of just men made perfect there, but these are not meant by “things in heaven,” because they were born in this world and died in this world ; they belonged to the earth—they belonged to time.
By “things in heaven,” then, we are to understand the holy angels, whose place is heaven ; angels who kept their first estate in which God created them. Now, it may be said that the holy angels obeyed the Lord Jesus before. Yes, they rendered perfect obedience to Him as their Creator, but in connection with the scheme of redemption there was a new relationship formed
between holy angels and the Church of redeemed men and their Head, Christ; so that the angels were now to render to Jesus Christ a new obedience. When Adam and all his posterity fell, angels did not know that any of the human race would be saved. Angels are creatures; they are not omniscient, though some people are so foolish as to ascribe to them attributes which belong to God only. The purpose of saving sinners of the human race was from all eternity hid in the bosom of God Himself till it pleased Him to reveal it in time. When He revealed to the holy angels that He purposed to save sinners of the human race, while He passed by the fallen angels, He also made known to them that they were brought into a new relationship to the Church on earth, and that they, in common with the Church on earth, were to have Christ as their Head. He is the Head of the Church, as we read in the Epistle to the Colossians (i. 18). He is the Head of the angels—Head of elect men and Head of “elect angels.” There are elect angels—those that kept their first estate—and they were under the Headship of Christ in the purpose of God from eternity; but this was hid from creatures. Afterwards, we believe, it was made known to the holy angels that they were indebted to Christ for standing and not falling away, like the others. That is a very solemn thing!
“Who made thee to differ?” the apostle asks. What hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou receivedst it, why dost thou boast? Who made thee to differ? Who hath made thee, who art taken out of a state of nature, to differ from thy neighbour, who is still in a state of sin and misery? If God’s people thought of this, there would be no room for boasting. Boasting would be cast out, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith. “He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.” If angels stood, let them glory in God; if some sinners are saved, while others perish, let them glory in the Lord. Ah! if we thought of this, my friends, we would be far from being high-minded; we would lie low in the dust at the footstool of God’s sovereignty. We would be thankful to be allowed to cry, like another, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Ah! if poor sinners thought of this, they would not think so much of their own goodness and good works. They would seek, like Paul, “to be found in Christ, not having their own righteousness, which is of the law” (though Paul did more good works than any in our day). We believe that all who are savingly taught of God are of this mind; that they will flee from their own righteousness, from their own good works, to Christ and to His good work which He finished upon the Cross. That is the only good work that will stand us.
Because of the new relationship formed between the holy angels and the church of redeemed men, God appointed the holy angels to be ministering spirits to the Church on earth, and when the purpose to save sinners of the human race was made known to them, they began with eager eyes and earnest minds to look into
the mystery of this great thing, and they desired with vehement desire to look into the scheme of redemption. And although they do not need it themselves they put us to shame, who are in such need of salvation. Many of us never desired to look into this mystery. Ah! it may not be too late, poor sinner, for you to begin now while mercy can be had; you are where God opens the eyes of the blind. Begin even now—this Sabbath evening—to look into the mystery of redemption. Join the holy angels in this becoming work.
The angels were sent into this world by God the Son. He had work for them in connection with His Church. He made them ministering spirits to them that are heirs of salvation, and they were very willing to undertake that work. If you will read the Old Testament, you will find very early in its history Christ sending angels to the patriarchs. He sent an angel again and again to Abraham, and to others, to reveal unto them the mind of God. And in New Testament times also we believe that Christ still continues to use the holy angels as ministering spirits to His Church on earth, although they cannot be seen with the bodily eye. There is not a Sabbath passing, or a time when the Gospel is preached, but the holy angels are present to carry back the news to heaven whatever it may be, and so we read that there is joy in heaven among the angels when one sinner is brought to repentance. Now, if this be so—as we believe it is—holy angels are present in our Church from time to time. What news have they to carry back this evening? Have they to take the sad news back to creatures in heaven:—“We have seen this person and that person for years hearing the Gospel, and they have not yet given their hearts to Christ?” Sometimes they carry different news:—“There is a sinner there brought to repentance—brought to Jesus. Let us begin to sing praises to God for it!”
The second class mentioned is “things in earth.” What are the creatures on earth that are to bow the knee at the name of Jesus and to confess with the tongue that He is Lord? They are creatures of the human race. Christ was exalted that the human race, all of them, without exception, should bow the knee to Him, or obey Him, willingly or unwillingly, and to confess, whether they would or not, that He is Lord. Now, there are two kinds of men in this class: there are the good men and the bad. All are by nature evil—“there is none righteous, no, not one.” When sin entered into this world, none escaped its ruin, but grace made a difference. By nature there is none good. There is in man, no doubt, as a reasonable creature, what we call moral goodness, which God bestows upon us as a check on our evil nature: were it not for this restraining grace we would be like the very devils. Any civility, any kindness, that is to be found in the natural man is a gift from God, which shall be taken from him at death, unless he is born again and made a new creation in Christ. At the time of the crucifixion of Christ, God
withdrew this preventive grace and gave full liberty to men to do their utmost to show forth their enmity to Christ, and the consequence was that they behaved like wild beasts, as they are called in Scripture, “bulls” and “dogs.” “Many bulls have compassed me:” “For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”—Ps. xxii., 12 and 16. They were as if they were mad, and let loose from hell. Those nearest the Lord Jesus smote Him on the face with their hands, and others spat upon the Lord of Glory, while those again on the outskirts, who could not get near enough to smite or spit upon Him, cried aloud, “Away with Him: away with Him: crucify Him: crucify Him.” That was what happened when God withdrew His restraining grace. But there is a difference between restraining grace and saving grace. Of the two classes of people who must bow the knee to Christ, His own people do it willingly, and those who are not of His people must do it whether they will or not. The first time when His own people begin to bow the knee to Him is when He comes to call them effectually by the Holy Spirit, and to make them willing in the day of His power, as we have been reading and singing, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”
Have you begun to bow the knee at the name of Jesus? His people in every age have begun to bow the knee at His name: they received Him not only as their Saviour, but also as their Lord; yea, they received Him as the Lord Jesus Christ, just as He is revealed in His Word, as the jailor at Philippi was directed by the Apostle when he asked “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” If you are saved you will (I need not say, you must) willingly receive Christ as your Saviour, and also as your Lord to rule over you. You remember in the days of His flesh, there were those who at first seemed to receive Him as their Lord, and then they repented (and their repentance was a very bad repentance), for they sent a messenger after him, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” But His own people receive Him, not only as their Saviour, but also as their King, to rule over them.
The other class on earth who are to bow the knee at His name are those who, in every generation of the human race, persist in impenitence and in unbelief, and who continue to reject Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. Are those not to answer the end for which God exalted Christ? Ah! yes, they are. However disobedient they may now be, there is a time coming when they shall be seen to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. There are many now who say, like Pharaoh of old, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” There are many infidels and atheists in this age. This is an evil age. There are many giving open defiance to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ: they mock at His great name. Wait you till the day of judgment comes, when He sends forth the summons to cite all the human
race to appear before His throne. Will there be any disobedient then? Ah! no. You cannot then distinguish the atheist from any other person in an unconverted state. They all respond, however much against their will, to the call of Christ, for there is a “must” here. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” There is no escape. No one can be disobedient that day, and, seeing that such will be the case, we may here say that the end for which Christ has been exalted by the Father shall be realized, not only by those who willingly submit to Him in time, but also by His very enemies on earth, who must bow the knee at His name, and confess with the tongue that He is Lord.
The third class that shall bow the knee to Christ are “things under the earth.” Interpreters of Scripture differ on some points, and on this point some are of the opinion that what is meant by things under the earth, are the bodies of men that are buried in the grave, and that they shall bow the knee to Christ when they obey His voice on the day of the resurrection: but I do not think that that is the meaning, because the bodies in the graves belong to the second class, and though now under the earth, they were once on the earth; and while it is quite true that the dead shall hear his voice, and obey it, still I think that by “things under the earth” we are to understand the evil spirits—Satan with his innumerable hosts of fallen angels. These are spoken of as being “under the earth.”
Think, then, for a moment, of the three classes spoken of. The holy angels in heaven, men on earth, and the evil spirits in hell—the human race being, as it were, in a middle state, the only middle state in existence; you are not yet in heaven, and not yet in hell. While you are on earth there is hope for you; you are in the middle state from which Christ saves sinners. In heaven are the redeemed, in hell are the lost, where there is no hope. You are yet on earth, in the land of the living, but if you die refusing Christ, remember you must go to the third place—to the place below—”under the earth,” that is, hell.
The things under the earth, then, Satan, the prince of Darkness, and all his innumerable hosts of fallen angels that apostatized with him from God, are the great enemies of Christ; they oppose Him in every possible way, but it is said here that Christ was exalted that those under the earth might bow the knee at His name, and confess with the tongue that He is Lord. When will that be? They will continue in their enmity and rebellion against Jesus Christ as long as they can. They have no doubt but that they must obey his voice, as you can see in the case of the poor man possessed of a legion of devils. When Christ commanded them to come forth, they obeyed at once, and had to ask His permission to enter the swine, although some people in this age cast doubts upon and deny this portion of Scripture. But it is at the day of judgment that the devils shall be seen to answer the end for which Christ was exalted. For fallen angels have a kind of liberty (if
liberty it may be called) till the Church of Christ is gathered out of every nation and every tongue under heaven, until the end of time. There are some condemned prisoners to whom a kind of liberty is granted till a certain time, and so we find that Satan and the other fallen angels are not yet shut up in the prison of hell, as they shall yet be—first, during the millennium; second, at the last day. Satan himself is said to be going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: and you remember when, in the days of Job, God asked Satan, “Whence comest thou?” he answered, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”—Job i., 7. As holy angels are ministering spirits to the Church of God, so these evil spirits are busy every day and night in this world helping men to ruin themselves eternally: and we may say that although there is enough evil in the heart of man to make him sin, it is true that Satan tempts the sinner to commit sin. As in the first sin, he still tempts sinners to do evil. He works in the children of disobedience. You ask the help of the devil before you commit sin, and whether you ask it or not, he will incite you to it, he will tempt you, he will urge you on: so that every sin committed in this world is committed not by evil men alone, but by evil men and the devil combined. But there is a day coming when the evil spirits must bow the knee to Christ, when He calls them to judgment and assigns to them their eternal state in the place of torment. And as such of the human race who die without Christ shall be punished, not only on account of their sinfulness by nature, but also because they were by actual transgression heaping up wrath against the day of wrath; so also the fallen angels, although they were condemned after their first apostasy, must be brought to account again for every evil they have done since then. The first evil they committed after their apostasy was their tempting the human race to forsake God, and besides many other evils, you see what wickedness the prince of darkness did in connection with the sufferings of Christ—how he tempted Him in the wilderness, and again at the time of His crucifixion, how the hosts of hell were set in array to terrify the human nature of Christ, and to make Him tremble before the awful cup of wrath which the Father set before Him. Christ took upon Him our infirmities, and it is very likely that the fallen angels surrounded Him to frighten Him, as they try to frighten you and me when we have difficulties before us: so that Christ in His human nature trembled and said “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;” but He was not to shrink from the undertaking; His human nature was strengthened; His Godhead supported Him, and He said “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.” On this account, and for all their persecution of the Church of Christ, the evil spirits shall be brought before the judgment seat, when they, with the prince of darkness at their head, shall bow the knee before Him.
Who shall be before the judgment-seat of Christ? All the human race shall be there; the good on the right, the bad on the left; and then all the holy angels will, we believe, be at the right hand with God’s people, while on the left will be all the unconverted who died without Christ, together with all the evil spirits. There shall be but two classes at the day of judgment. All reasonable creatures will be present there, and it will be—it must be—a very solemn gathering. We shall be there too, and we ought to seek preparation for it.
Now, when Jesus says to those on His left hand—unconverted men and evil spirits—“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” is there any that does not bow the knee to Him? None. They must all obey, they must all depart at His command. It is then that Satan and his innumerable hosts of fallen angels, and all men that they have deceived, shall be cast into the bottomless pit; and it is then that Christ shall take the key and lock the door, and it shall never be opened. They shall never come out of that place of woe. Now is the time to consider these things. The day of judgment will be too late. Even the day of death may be too late. “Prepare to meet thy God.”
III.—The third thing we are to consider is that the exaltation of Christ shall be to the glory of God the Father.” The first Adam by sin (and his sin is our sin) robbed God of the glory due to Him from the human race. Common robbery is a sin, but robbing God is an awful sin; and robbing Him of His precious crown—His glory—is such a fearful sin that it is a wonder there should be forgiveness for it. But all sins shall be forgiven to those that believe in Christ. “We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We all have robbed God of the glory He had in view when He created man. “What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.” It is remarkable that in the New Catechism which has recently been published this question is entirely omitted. Its compilers go wrong at the very outset of their endeavour to make a new Catechism. Little children may now be taught that man was created in order to please himself, or for any purpose but God’s glory, and it would appear that the framers of the New Catechism intentionally ignored this important question. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.”
You may learn from the history of creation that man was the crown of creation. Man alone of all creatures was created with a reasonable soul, whose end was to glorify God, and all other parts of God’s creation were to glorify God through man. Consider, then, that when man fell, he dragged down with him all other parts of creation, and they also ceased to answer the end for which they were created. We could give you many instances of this. Take the heavenly bodies—the sun, moon, and stars—all created for the glory of God, but man—fallen man—makes them cease to
answer the end of their creation by commencing to worship them instead of the Creator. Take the brute creation—the horse and the cow; how frequently do men use them to dishonour God. Take, again, food and drink; how man, instead of giving glory to God by eating and drinking, simply uses these to rob God of His glory. But by the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, the glory taken from God was to be restored. God is not to lose the least of the glory due to Him from reasonable creatures, for the exaltation of Christ, the apostle tells us, is to be “to the glory of God the Father.”
How, then, is the exaltation of Christ to bring about the glory of God the Father? Well, He will have the glory of His grace in connection with the redeemed, and in connection with each individual of them, and that because of the way in which Christ magnified the law and made it honourable by finishing the work He gave Him to do. He said, “I have glorified thee upon earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” There is encouragement here for you, poor sinner, if you are grieved for the dishonour done to God by your sins. You may say, “If I have robbed God of His glory, Christ, my surety, has rendered glory to God with full interest. Ah! that is what meets my case as a sinner that dishonoured God. Christ has not only paid the debt in full, but He has paid it with great interest, and this is the only balm I find for my own conscience and for that of my fellow-sinners.” There is your remedy. It is but a delusion to seek comfort in anything else. You may say, “I will try to do better.” Ah! my friend, you cannot do it perfectly. You cannot rest on that. Flee, then, to Him that glorified God. He is spoken of as “an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest,” and He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour. Not only will He have the glory of His grace from the redeemed, through Christ who glorified Him, but He shall also have the glory without break throughout eternity from themselves personally, when they are made perfect in holiness and shall immediately pass into glory. There is now nothing against them. Christ made up the breach, and they will continue, like the holy angels, to render glory to God not only as their Creator but also as their Redeemer. We believe that although the joy of the holy angels is perfect, and that their vessel cannot contain any more, yet the vessel of redeemed men shall be larger; and so it would require to be, in order to express their thankfulness—their unspeakable thankfulness—to Him who redeemed them with His own blood.
We now come to the glory of His justice. He shall have this from “things on earth,” that is, from men who die in an unconverted state. You may lose your soul, but God will not lose the glory that is His in connection with you as a reasonable creature whom He created. Your punishment shall be to the glory of God’s justice. There are some who deny the doctrine of eternal punishment. From whom did they learn this? Who was
the first to advance the heresy of no future punishment? It was Satan. Satan came to the woman and said, “Surely ye shall not die.” Read for yourself in the third chapter of Genesis how the father of lies first brought forward this lie, and it is in the school of Satan that this doctrine is learned. Ask any who hold this belief who their professor was, and, if they answer truthfully, they must say it was the devil. He has many students in every age, and in our generation many so-called ministers of the gospel and professors in colleges have had their education in the school of Satan. And if the devil began first to teach, when man was in a state of innocence, and prevailed in making man believe this lie, how much more easily can he teach it to man in a state of sin and misery, and beguile his posterity to believe it?
Christ’s exaltation succeeded His humiliation, and in like manner, His church in the world shall have her humiliation also, but not for the same end. Christ’s humiliation was to make atonement for sin, to lay the foundation of salvation for His church, but their humiliation is to prepare them for “the inheritance of the saints in light.” The apostle says “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” God’s people are living stones, but the stones must be dressed and polished before they are put into the building above. You know that hewers of stones use sharp instruments, and sometimes I am inclined to think that Satan is one of the hewers, and his instruments are very sharp, but he brings about not what he himself intends but what God purposes; viz., the dressing and polishing and preparing of the spiritual stones for the building above.
Think then of Christ, for His people remember that the Head is highly exalted. Let sinners remember that He is exalted to the end that they shall, whether they will or not, bow the knee to Him, and confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Now, carry with you God’s Word, and pray over it. I also will endeavour to carry it with me, and to pray over it, and to ask of God that it may be blessed to my own soul and to your souls, for the glory of His grace, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
How Donald Cargill Preached and Prayed.—”Ever since I bowed a knee in good earnest to pray,” said Donald Cargill, “I never durst pray and preach with my gifts; and where my heart is not affected, and comes not up with my mouth, I always thought it time for me to quit it. What comes not from my heart, I have little hope that it will go to the heart of others.”—Patrick Walker’s Life and Death of Mr. Daniel Cargill.