BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
Preached to his Congregation in the Free Presbyterian Church there, on Sabbath, 22nd March, 1908.
(Taken down by a Hearer.)
“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow into it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”—MICAH iv. 1, 2.
THE preceding chapter closes with a gloomy view of the Church. Zion was to be plowed as a field; Jerusalem was to become heaps; and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. There was to be a desolation; and the prophet tells the procuring cause of this desolation, namely, the sins of the people, and the sin of idolatry in particular. The priests and the princes—the leaders of the people—led them astray and made them to err. It is observable that in every time of declension in the Church, the evil begins with the teachers, whether they be prophets or priests. And as a rule the practice of the people will be according to the teaching they receive; and here the teaching and the practice were sinful. But the Lord threatened the people for their sins, and He threatened in particular the leaders of the people. The people were to be deprived of seers or prophets. “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision: and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine: and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer of God.”
The leaders of the people professed to build up Zion, but it was in the wrong way—it was by blood, by persecuting to death those who would not comply with their own corrupt teaching. This is always the case when there is a great forsaking of the faith, and those persecuted are God’s people. Such are persecuted because they will not turn from the truth to believe a lie. It is no new thing. History repeats itself. It was the case in the days of Micah, and for the sake of these false teachers Zion was to be plowed, Jerusalem to become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
But is not God to have a Church in the world? Is it to become extinct? No. Although He punishes people for their sins, and although the Church is brought low because of them, yet the Lord will have a Church on the earth. He destroyed the old world, and swept off from the face of the earth the workers of iniquity—almost all that generation except eight persons—but He provided for His Church; He raised up Zion again. The chapter in which we have our text begins with a “But,” indicating that better things were to take place. In endeavouring to speak from these words, as the Lord may enable me, I shall direct your attention to three things:—
I.—The Church as it is spoken of here—as the mountain of the house of the Lord.
You know it was on a mountain that the temple was built by Solomon—Mount Zion; and not only that, the Old Testament Church is sometimes called in Scripture a mountain. The New Testament Church is also so called, as you find the Apostle Paul saying in Hebrews xii. 18, “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, . . . but ye are come unto Mount Zion.” Now this term “mountain,” as applied to the Church of God, is suggestive of several things.
It suggests, first, to our mind the idea of creation.
A mountain is the work of God. Man can do many things, but he cannot create a mountain. He cannot create even the least atom of matter. When you see a house, you know that it was built by man; but when you see a mountain you say instinctively, within yourself, “This is the work of God,” though there are indeed many who deny God Himself; and when they see a mountain, never think of it as the work of God. Well, as a mountain is part of the creation of God, so is the Church, whether we take the Church to mean the members of the Church or the outward organization thereof, the means of grace, and the ordinances of God’s house. We find believers themselves acknowledging this: “We are his workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Believers, then, who are true members of the Church, are created by God, who created the whole world. Man cannot change himself in a saving way: that is the work of God. And God creates them anew in Christ Jesus by the effectual working of His Spirit through the Word. Christ taught the necessity of this change to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” As a mountain is the creation of God, so are the means of grace and the ordinances of His house. They are not the invention of man, but they have been divinely appointed, and they are, we may say, His creation, for before He instituted them they had no existence. God gave existence to them, and set them up in His Church, and such things as have no divine authority—the inventions of men—do not belong to the Church of God at all. People are better without them, and they should have no place in the worship of God.
The second idea suggested by a mountain is stability and durability.
A mountain is a stable, firm, and lasting thing, and so we read of “the everlasting hills.” Not that any hills are, in the absolute sense, everlasting, but, relatively, they stand firm and sure from the creation till this earth shall be destroyed. In the midst of all the changes that have taken place during past ages, there is no change on the mountains. Many generations have passed from time to eternity, but the present generation looks at the very same mountains and hills that the first generation in the world saw. The Church, however, is more stable than the “everlasting hills;” for “the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed,” but the Church built on the Rock Christ shall not be overthrown or removed. The foundation of the Church was laid in the divine purpose before the foundation of the world, and it is more durable than the mountains. Notwithstanding all the efforts made by enemies to throw it off its foundation, the Church is still in the world, and that is a great wonder; but all the works of God are works of wonder. Satan and all his hosts are unable to overthrow the Church of God: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” No man ever thought of going to Ben Wyvis with the intention of throwing it off its foundations; it would be madness to think of such a thing, for it is impossible; and yet many try to put their shoulders to the Church of God to overthrow it, but even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. This is an encouragement to God’s people in all ages: the Church cannot be overthrown by the power of enemies, however strong and however numerous they may be. Greater is he that is with the Church than all they that be against it. This is as true to-day as it was in the past, and we ought to derive comfort from it, if we take upon ourselves the burden of Christ’s cause, and we cannot but take that burden upon us, because God laid it on our shoulders and we dare not throw it off till He takes it off Himself, and that may not be long in the case of some. If saved, it would be better to be taken away from this burden in an evil age. I was at one time so concerned about the declension of the Church, and the evils that were coming in upon her, that I was desirous, if prepared, that God would take me home; but I was rebuked for that, and I was made to see that such a desire was selfish, and arose from a desire for self-preservation, and not from a desire for His glory; and from that day I have been endeavouring to say, “Thy will be done.” I would not like to go from the midst of trouble to the rest of heaven merely to escape my share of the afflictions of the Church.
Another idea suggested by the term mountain, is visibility.
The Church is a visible institution. Many lesser objects may escape your view when travelling through the country, but you cannot avoid seeing a mountain, if you have eyes to see. The Church is like a mountain that rises high and must be seen; and so Christ says to His disciples that they are like a city built upon a hill that cannot be hid. The Church means both God’s people and those institutions which he has set up in it. There is a Church that claims visibility, but it is not like a city set upon a hill, for they do most of their work in secret, and that is a bad sign. There is nothing in the Church of God that requires to be hid. Everything in it stands the light of day; and everything in a Church that cannot stand the light of day belongs to the works of darkness. Remember this, my friends. For instance, in the Ritualistic section of the Protestant Church of England there are seven secret societies, and they try to hide everything they do from the sight of the world, and especially from Protestants. Why is that? Ah, my friends, it is because they do not belong to the visible Church of God. The true Church of God can stand the gaze of enemies as well as of friends; it can stand the light of day; it has nothing to hide: but a church that has many things to hide belongs rather to the kingdom of darkness than to the true Church of God.
But although a mountain is visible, as a rule, yet sometimes it is made invisible by mist, and under that cloud of mist it is out of sight for a time, so that no creature can see it. And so it has sometimes been with the Church. It has sometimes been covered from view by the mist of error, and error has its degrees in the Church just as natural mist has its degrees. Sometimes only the top of the mountain is covered with mist, while the rest of it is quite visible. At other times the mist may descend half-way down the mountain. But occasionally you find the entire mountain covered with mist from top to base, so that it is entirely hid from view. So it is with the Church. For more than one thousand years before the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century the Church was covered from the very top to the bottom with the mist of error, and no mist is so injurious and so dangerous as the mist of error. You may walk many miles in a natural mist and be nothing the worse for it, but not so in the mist of error. It is hurtful and destructive to a high degree, and many have lost their souls in it. During that long period the light of the Bible was not seen. There was no such thing as family worship, or reading the Bible, at least in the Church. What, then? Fables and traditions of the elders, with superstitions of the heathen and Jewish ceremonies, made up all the teaching given during that long period to immortal souls. When the Reformers began to teach the people from the Bible the priests denounced them as heretics, and charged them with introducing innovations into the Church. What do you think of such false teachers of the people? Yet to-day we see foolish people going with the stream—the stream that is flowing towards the dark ages again—and there are very few to warn them. Paul says “Preach the word,” and if we do not preach the Scriptures to the people, we have nothing else to give them; but these priests said that it was the devil’s work to teach the people from the Scriptures, and instead of preaching Christ and His atoning sacrifice and forgiveness through His blood, they sent agents through the different countries of Europe with indulgences and promises to the people that, if they paid so much, all their sins would be forgiven—not only their past sins but their future sins—and they were promised God would not punish them! Was it not a fearful thing to be selling such things? Well, instead of this the gospel began to be preached; and as when the wind blows, the mist covering the mountains is dispelled, so when the Holy Spirit blew upon the Church, through His own Word, the mist of error vanished away. Ah, my friends, what a blessing came to the countries of Europe at the Reformation when that mist was dispelled! There is nothing that can dispel the lie but the truth. Though the mist covered the Church for so many years, yet the Church was not extinct. There still was a remnant in France, in Switzerland, and in other parts of the world. There was a witness for God left on the earth. When the mist vanishes, the same old mountain appears again, and so when the mist of error was dispelled the Church reappeared in all its beauty.
Alas, that in our own day the mist should be coming down heavily upon the mountain of the house of the Lord. I am not going to say much upon this, but is the mist not coming down when in the Protestant Church of England there are 9,600 “priests” celebrating mass, hearing confession, and teaching all manner of Romish doctrines? Again, Mr. Walter Walsh, author of “The Secret History of the Oxford Movement,” who searched into the matter, assures us that of the 300 clergymen in the Scottish Episcopal Church, no fewer than 250* are Romanisers; and the way he came to know this was that he found their names as members of Romanising secret societies! The late Bishop of Argyle and the Isles, who lived at Ballachulish, was a member of a Romanising society, and yet he pretended to be a Protestant. The way in which these Ritualists introduce the mass (they do not call it mass) is a very cunning one. They changed the hour of the communion from the evening to the morning, as they knew people would not be fasting in the evening—and mass must be celebrated fasting. I have seen myself, in passing through the country, and even in the Highlands, a placard, “Holy Communion at 8 o’clock a.m.,” placed outside the doors of Scottish Episcopal Churches. Whenever I see that, I say to myself, “That is suspicious: I suspect that Church is a Roman Catholic Church:” and I judge from the way they are going on in England. That is how they introduced the mass into the English Church. In the mass they profess to offer up Christ as a sacrifice, not only for the living, but also for the dead; that is, they profess to bring the dead out of purgatory—but, as there is no such place, they must mean hell, and they cannot take them out of hell. Now, I wish to impress this upon you, as I may not have the opportunity of warning you much longer. The intention of the Ritualists is to have the Protestant Churches united with the Romish Church, and so to bring these under the Papacy again. That is the aim. Take warning, my friends, the day may come, and little children here to-day may see it, if they live to be 40 years of age, or even less, when people will be put to death if they refuse to burn their Bibles, or if they refuse to kneel down before the image of the Virgin Mary to worship her. We are fast hurrying on to this. The King on the throne encourages it, and the Queen is an idolatress. She has, we are told, images of the Virgin Mary and other saints in her room, and once a year, at least, she goes to make confession to a priest. Ah, my friends, that is what it has come to. Ah! take warning.
Another idea suggested by a mountain, is height.
The mountain is the highest part of the earth. God, in His infinite wisdom, saw it proper, in creating the world, that all the earth should not be of the same level. He ordained that some parts of the earth should be higher than other parts, and so He made hillocks and hills higher than the plains, and mountains the highest of all. The Church, then, is the highest and most glorious institution that God has set up in the world. He has set up kingdoms and other powers, but the Church is above them all. I do not mean that in civil matters the Church is not to obey the civil magistrate, but in religious matters the Church is the highest institution in the world. The Church and the State have co-ordinate jurisdictions; the one is not to encroach on the other. The Roman Catholic Church, so far as they can carry that out, say that they are not subject to the law of the kingdom; that is, if a priest commits any crime, he claims the right of exemption from punishment. Is not that extraordinary? Well, that is not the view we Protestants take of it. If a minister breaks the law of the kingdom, he is to be dealt with according to the law of the kingdom, and to be punished. We keep to the rule of God’s Word, while those who claim to be the only true Church do not accept God’s Word as their rule at all.
Well, from the top of the mountain a more extensive view can be had than from the other parts of the earth. We see yearly a large number of people visiting the Highlands, who climb the high hills to get a more extensive view. What views, then, are to be had from the top of the mountain of the house of the Lord? You can see upwards, downwards, and around you.
Looking upwards you can see to the third heaven;
you can see within the vail; you can see God; you can see on His right hand Christ the Mediator, ever living to make intercession for His people; you can see the holy angels; you can see the spirits of just men made perfect. You can see all these from the top of this mountain; you cannot see them from the plain ground where the unconverted are.
Looking downwards, how far can you see?
You can see to the lowest hell. You can see the old enemy, Satan, there; you can see fallen angels there; and you can see there the spirits of wicked men that died. You can see them there in hell. John Bunyan had a sight of hell, but you also may have a sight of hell if you come to the top of the mountain of the house of the Lord.
Then, looking around you, what do you see?
You see the state of the human race in their sinful and lost condition; “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” It is only in the Church you can see this—in the Church where God has given us the revelation of His Word. You remember that David was tempted on a certain occasion to envy the wicked because of their prosperity, but when he entered the sanctuary—or, in other words, when he ascended this mountain—he saw that their end was destruction, and then he ceased to envy them.
These ideas, then, are suggested to us by the term “mountain,” but as it would keep you too long to take up the other heads, we must leave them till the evening or some future occasion, if the Lord will. May God bless His Word!
(To be Continued.)