CORINTH was the chief city of Greece in the days of the Apostle Paul. It was renowned for its wealth and learning. It had a numerous population of Jews and Greeks. The Jews were religious after their manner, scrupulously observing the rites enjoined by Moses; but the Greeks were sunk in a kind of refined heathenism, and indulged in philosophical speculations. To the one, the preaching of Christ crucified was a stumbling-block; to the other, it was foolishness. Both sections of the community were strongly prejudiced against the Gospel that the Apostle brought to their ears. Jews and Greeks alike joined in the resistance offered to it. But the power of God prevailed, and from among both Jews and Greeks there were many converts to Christianity—Justus, Cripus, and Sosthenes being pre-eminent among them. It was thus in the face of much stubborn opposition that the Church of Corinth was planted.
Satan is ever on the alert to sow the seed of dissension among Christian brethren. He stirred up among the members of this Church the spirit of strife to such an extent that it presented a sad spectacle of internal division. There had arisen four, at least, opposing factions among its members. One was of Paul, another of Apollos, a third of Cephas, and a fourth of Christ. Those who called themselves by the name of Paul are supposed to have been, in the main, the Gentile converts. They were free from the influence of Jewish ideas. But some of them had degenerated into a pronounced type of Antinomianism. Those who made themselves partisans of Apollos, probably because of his eloquence, had degenerated in like manner. Scandalous sins had been committed. Abuses and irregularities were indulged in without rebuke. The arm of discipline was weak; and for the purification of the Church and the good of its members, Paul counsels that effective measures should be taken against offenders. With equal vehemence he takes up his weapons against the Judaising section in the Church. They went to the opposite extreme. They called themselves by the name of Peter. Those who were “of Christ” were closely associated with them. They claimed to have relation to Christ that they denied to others. The Judaisers were the most determined opponents of the Apostle. Their headquarters were in Jerusalem, and they sent their emissaries everywhere to disturb the peace of the Christian Church. They attempted to introduce into Corinth the observance of the Jewish law. Paul speaks of them as “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” They called in question his Apostleship, on the ground, it is supposed, that he was not of the original twelve. They sought a proof of Christ speaking in him. They looked upon him as a heretic. Both parties—the Antinomians and Judaisers—agreed in repudiating his authority. To prove the reality of his divine commission he had to appeal to the direct judgment of God. The faith and graces of the Corinthians themselves were a sufficient proof of it. The signs of an Apostle were wrought among them “in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” All opposition was ultimately quelled, and the whole Church of Corinth were constrained to confess that God was on the side of Paul. It was not by carnal weapons that he obtained his victory, but by weapons that are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
I consider the words suitable for our meditations on the present occasion, and I shall address you from them in the following order:—
- The people who war;
- Those against whom they war;
- What the weapons of their warfare are;
- The might that through God these weapons are said to have.
I.—The people who war;
Ever since the kingdom of God was set up in this world in opposition to the kingdom of darkness there has been a state of war. The interests of the one are to be defended against the malice and enmity of the other. They are the interests, not of an earthly king having rights to be defended in connection with his dominions, but of a king who exercises absolute authority over the most exalted potentates of this world. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As His interests are eternal, they are of infinitely greater value and importance than those that are merely temporal. They have respect to the honour of the name of the Lord and the everlasting salvation of the Church. He can vindicate His own interests as He sees fit. It has, however, pleased Him to raise up instruments, from time to time, for this end. In some generations, their number is increased; in others, their number is, as at present, very considerably diminished. They are the people called, by divine grace, to engage in the conflict implied in the words of our text. They are the people of the Lord, whatever their station in the world or their position in the visible church is. They are Christ’s witnesses. I shall make a few observations concerning them.
1. They are Christ’s chosen people.
Every kingdom has its army, and an earthly sovereign has a right to choose those whom he calls to fight in defence of his kingdom. So Christ has chosen His own witnesses. They were chosen by Him before the foundation of the world “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” His foundation stands sure. It is the counsel of His will, having the seal, “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” The Lord’s purpose of mercy towards them lay hid in His own bosom until the time had come, “when it pleased God, who separated them from their mother’s womb, and called them by His grace, to reveal His Son in them,” that they might shew forth His praise. They were by nature unmindful of God. They had no interest in His cause or kingdom. Their interest centred in what satisfied the flesh and promoted their worldly happiness. The rooted enmity of their heart to God revealed itself in many forms. They dishonoured His great name and wronged their own souls. Not only were they in open revolt against His authority, but many of them, like Saul, used their weapons of rebellion under the mask of a lifeless form of religion, entertaining cruel and unjust prejudices against the people of the Lord. They were indeed and in reality the captives of Satan, whom they too long and too faithfully served. They were unwilling to acknowledge the Lord’s sovereignty over them; and when, by word or providence, He asserted His rightful claims, the spirit evinced by Pharaoh was proved to be in them also, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” Notwithstanding, they are, as was said of the writer of this Epistle, chosen vessels to bear, each in his own sphere, the Lord’s name before their fellow-sinners and to witness for Him.
2. They willingly enter into Christ’s service.
No earthly sovereign takes any into his service except those who are willing to serve him. When Christ completed the stupendous work undertaken by Him, and sat down at the right hand of God, He received the promise, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” He redeemed them by price, but they needed to be redeemed also by power. The atonement made for them was essential to their being made a people willing in a day of power. The atonement forms the ground of the Holy Spirit’s saving work in them. The Spirit’s work in them is based on Christ’s work for them, and He is thus represented as a “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The allusion to the Lamb undoubtedly means that the Holy Spirit comes forth in the channel of the atoning death of Christ. This promise was to be fulfilled to Christ through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost Who, as Christ had a commandment from the Father about laying down His life and taking it again, has a commission to so work in the heart of Christ’s purchased people as that they might be made a willing people in a day of power, to take Christ’s yoke upon them and cheerfully enter into His service. The day of power alluded to implies an exercise of power. It is experienced in the act of quickening. The dead hear the voice of the Son of God. The voice of words from Mount Sinai was terrible in the experience of those who heard it; and so, this quickening is accompanied with a sight of the majesty of God, as a righteous Judge, and of sins committed and also duties omitted. The quickened sinner’s slavish fear of God, and of the penal consequences of his sins, stirs him up to the performance of duties, in the hope that he may make up for his former delinquencies, and merit the favour of an offended God on the ground of a righteousness that he spins out of his own breast. But the demands of the law are too exacting to be long under this hallucination; and consistently with the verdict given by that law, conscience judges him worthy of eternal death. It is thus, law-condemned and self-condemned, and confronted with the stern demands of inflexible justice which he can never satisfy, that a ray of hope in the mercy of God breaks in, it may be, through the words, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” A view is given of the glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who poured out His soul unto death, exhausted the law’s curse, quenched the flames of infinite wrath, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, with such remarkable results, that the sinner is enabled to commit himself, wholly and unreservedly, to Him, as all his salvation and all his desire. It is an act of faith to receive Christ, as revealed in the Gospel, and to rest upon Him alone for salvation. It is the faith that is of the operation of God and that comes by hearing of the Word of God. The language of it is, “Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou Son of Jesse.” The fruit of it is self-denial and throwing in one’s lot, like Moses, with Christ and His people. The Holy Spirit works in them both to will and to do; and it is thus that all true believers willingly engage for service to Christ in a God-dishonouring world. Tasting in their souls that the Lord is gracious, they are under many obligations to Him; and they, with a willing heart, enlist under the banner of the Captain of their salvation to contend for the honour of His name, and for His truth and cause.
3. An earthly sovereign has a right to assign positions to each individual member of his army as he sees fit.
There are the rank and file who are generally not so well known. There are those who are appointed to more responsible positions, and who in virtue of the positions of trust assigned to them, are all the more accountable to him who appoints them. But whatever their position is, they all wear the badge of their sovereign’s authority. It is thus Christ acts. He calls some of His people to more public and responsible service: others, to more private service; but they all wear His livery that distinguishes them from the world that lies in sin and wickedness. It is evident that those whom the Apostle comprehends under the term “we” in the 3rd verse particularly mean those who, in a pre-eminent manner, are called to bear public witness. “He gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,” etc. They are not the most influential in the world’s view, for it is “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,” God calls. He called the fishermen of Galilee to remarkable service in His cause, who, like their master, were despised by the rulers of the world, and especially by the rulers of the church, because they carried out the will of their Lord. They served Him loyally and faithfully, and loved not their lives unto death. When Timothy was called to witness publicly for Christ, the Apostle enjoins Him to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He was to be careful about pleasing Him Who had chosen him to be a soldier. He was not to entangle himself with concerns that had no importance in comparison with the interests of Christ’s truth. Nothing must enter into competition with these interests. This is the position that, in the providence of God, and I hope, by the grace of God we hold; and may the Lord grant that we all may be faithful in the discharge of the responsible trust committed to us! From the beginning the Lord has had His public witnesses, although we have reason to fear that they are comparatively very few in our generation.
II.—Christ’s witnesses war against enemies.
He accounts their enemies to be His own enemies. He is with them and for them in all their conflicts, and it is on this account that their final triumph is assured. I shall briefly mention a few of the enemies they war against.
1. They war against Satan.
Like the children of Israel delivered from the hands of a cruel oppressor, they had no idea of the forces that they were to contend against. The Amalekites soon presented themselves for battle, and they unexpectedly found themselves in the thick of the fray. This is the experience of the people of the Lord. Wrested from the hand of Satan, they are molested by him throughout their whole course. He knows that he will not regain possession of them, but he is bent upon troubling and harassing them in every possible way. He is a powerful foe, with well organised forces, called “principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places.” He is an invisible foe, well skilled in flying about his deadly arrows day and night. He is an insidious and watchful foe, carefully waiting his opportunities for attack. Too often he finds the objects of his malice off their guard, with disastrous results to themselves. He smites their life down to the ground, and makes them to dwell in darkness. He tempts them to cast away their confidence. He fills their mind with many distressing fears. He influences them to doubt the validity of the promise, and they find themselves sadly entangled in the meshes of unbelief. It is owing to the intercession of Christ that their whole ground is not lost, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Peter experienced the comfort of His intercession. He had experience of severe encounters with the prince of darkness, and he felt the necessity of stirring up others to constant watchfulness. “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
2. They war against the flesh.
The flesh is that corrupt principle that universally permeates human nature. It expresses the sinfulness of human nature. It is indwelling sin; and the Lord’s people are called to wage war against sin in all its forms. Their experience of the flesh is that it is a powerful and subtle foe. They are in themselves absolutely helpless before the forces that it calls up against them; and they need the arm of omnipotence to deliver them from becoming its miserable captives. Too often they are overcome, for the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. How often does it combine its forces in spiritual pride, self-seeking and vain glory; in vain, atheistical, and blasphemous thoughts; and in its many vile and degrading lusts! It reveals itself in its innate hatred to holiness. The less lively grace is in exercise the more it is set on edge, and the more fitting are its opportunities to pierce the soul with its envenomed shafts. It is a life-long conflict between “the spirit and the flesh,” growing as the years roll on in intensity, and evoking the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
3. They war against the world.
(1) They war against the world in themselves.
Their experience of the world is similar to their experience of sin. They are dead to sin, but sin is not dead in them. So they are dead to the world, but they find that the world is not dead in them. Its roots are too deeply planted in their affections. It assails them when engaged in most solemn exercises. How often when in the exercise of prayer, reading the Word of God, at the public means of grace, yea, when, it may be, at the Lord’s Table, does it fiercely assail them! They dread the love of it. They dread its allurements. They dread the offers of ease and comfort it presents when set in competition with the claims of Christ in His truth and cause. The world can boast of its trophies of victory. It dragged into its net Ananias, Sapphira, Demas, and many others. Let us seek grace to contend against a spirit of worldliness. The Lord knows that we and our families have, like others, need of the necessaries of this life; but let us first honestly seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us. It is extremely sad to contemplate the deluge of worldliness in which the churches of the present day are sunk.
(2) They war against the world in respect of its sinful practices.
The world still claims as its own those who have not separated themselves from its sinful habits, whatever their outward profession of religion may be. Christ called His people out of the world, and they are henceforth to set themselves in opposition to its maxims. The time past of their life suffices them to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. Christ and the world are sharply opposed, and he is not worthy of the name of a Christian minister who does not, in the spirit of the Gospel, faithfully rebuke sin. The false prophets were blind watchmen. They were compared to dumb dogs that could not bark: “they slept, lay down, and loved to slumber.” Why is it that so many sins are openly committed? Why is it that so much Sabbath-walking, Sabbath-visiting, Sabbath-travelling, and Sabbath-work abound? Why is it that places of amusement are so largely resorted to, and that so many lead a dishonest life? Because, it may be said, of the sinfulness of human nature. True; but these indulgences are largely accounted for from the fact that they are not faithfully rebuked from many of the many pulpits of this land.
4. They war against false teachers.
(1) They war against their corrupt doctrines.
This is the kind of warfare the Apostle specially alludes to, and Christ’s witnesses are, in all ages, called to engage in it. It began at the setting up of Christ’s Church in the world, and it shall be carried on to the end. The prophets of the Lord under the Old Testament dispensation had all through to contend against the perverse teaching of the false prophets. When our Lord came to the world He found scarcely any but false teachers in the Church, upon whom He multiplied His woes as blind leaders of the blind. His Apostles were compelled to engage in sharp conflict with false teachers, who craftily introduced “damnable heresies”; and, as already stated, the contention that Paul had with Judaizing teachers for their corrupt doctrines was a bitter drop in the cup of his afflictions. This same experience of warfare continued throughout the succeeding ages on to the present moment, so that we ourselves, as a Church, can claim apostolical succession in this respect. Are not the Pelagianism, Socinianism, Arminianism, Rationalism, and Romanism, that formerly infested the Christian Church, boldly confronting us, and threatening to bury out of sight the doctrines in the defence of which many of our ancestors shed the last drop of their heart’s blood? The existence of our Church is a standing testimony against these corrupt systems. Light has no communion with darkness. Truth can have no communion with error. We have the truth, and the whole truth. Let us, therefore, persevere, in the strength of the Lord, to war in its defence and against error.
(2) Christ’s witnesses war against the corrupt practices of false teachers.
The Apostle was grieved at the corruptions in practice that had entered into the Church at Corinth. These necessarily follow corruptions in doctrine. If the doctrine be not pure, the practice will not be pure. The Judaisers in Corinth insisted upon Jewish modes of worship, and the Antinomians thought that they might break the law with impunity. Against the practice of both, the Apostle used his weapons of warfare. And so must we. How many false teachers there are who set the example of Sabbath-walking before their people! How many set the example of going to the place of sinful mirth, such as the concert, etc.! Is it not lamentable that so many professedly Christian ministers, almost all over the land, should be reported as giving countenance to these practices? And when we turn to the sanctuary, do we not see there something substantially the same in the social meeting and soiree? Yea, when we think of acts that are professed to be more immediately acts of divine worship, are we not told that the practice of Christ and His Apostles does not suit the imagined enlightenment of the present day? Carnal and sensuous forms of worship are introduced. Uninspired hymns and instrumental music have their part assigned to them. Ritualism of an advanced type is welcomed. Romish practices are encouraged. And all this to the great dishonour of Him Who, as King of His Church, fixed a mode of worship for the New Testament Church which He commands her to observe unaltered until He shall appear the second time in His glory. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Let us, then, act as Christ would have us act, and war against all these corrupt practices.
III.—”The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.”
The Church is a spiritual kingdom, and it is not by carnal weapons its interests are to be defended. Peter went out of his way when he smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear with the sword. For this act his Lord sharply rebuked him. Notwithstanding, the Church of Rome has always followed this method of warfare. It is one of her fundamental articles that heretics are to be exterminated with the sword; and, if she now had the power, she would have her sword weltering in the blood of saints, as of yore. The civil magistrate, as a power ordained of God, is alone invested with authority to bear the sword for the protection of those who do that which is good, and for the punishment of those that do evil. But to the Church the Lord has appointed other weapons, some of which I shall briefly enumerate.
The Apostle exhorts the Ephesians to take unto them the whole armour of God. He speaks of armour for defence and offence. There is what is fitted to protect the heart, head, and feet, such as the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the preparation of the gospel of peace. Weapons are provided that the hand alone can use, for the double purpose of warding off an enemy’s blow and of driving one home. There is the shield of faith; there is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
1. Faith, trust, or confidence in God is a weapon needed by the Church in all her conflicts.
It is not the case that those who fight under a general have always confidence in him, but the Church may ever trust her General, the Captain of her salvation. “Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” Faith does war after the flesh. It looks in suffering not at things seen and temporal, but at things unseen and eternal. It views God in His character of a covenant-keeping God, who will not suffer His faithfulness to fail. It was thus David went forth against the proud Philistine and slew him. Saul, who could make use of carnal weapons only, would have him clad in his coat of mail and girt with his sword and spear. When we find ourselves beset with a bewitching world, have we not need of faith in the power of God to deliver us? “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” When we find ourselves encompassed with strong contingents of alien armies combined against the truth, have we not need of faith in the God of truth, Who can enable one to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to flight? It was thus that Jehosaphat conducted his warfare against the combined armies of the aliens: “We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” Faith in God looks undismayed at the den of lions and the fiery furnace. It compasses the strongly-fortified walls of error, blowing the trumpets of rams’ horns, and believing that the Lord will pull them down. It is thus by faith in her divine Head that the Church is terrible as an army with banners.
2. Prayer to God is a weapon that the Church must at all times use.
The example is given her by her adorable Head, Who in the days of His flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto God. On every occasion of trouble and stress she has recourse to this weapon. The greater the trial is, the greater is the value set upon it. Jacob was afraid of the approach of his brother Esau. It was with no carnal weapon that he fortified himself, but with the weapon of prayer. “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.” With this weapon he prevailed. The Prophets, the Apostles, and the people of God, in all ages, could record signal deliverances from trouble in answer to prayer. Have we not many such on record in covenanting times in Scotland? The Reformers were pre-eminent for their use of the weapon of prayer. Many of them spent hours daily in secret prayer. Each of us must confess how sadly remiss we are in this duty. There is a loud call to it at the present moment. There is an organised plan, a plot in which professed Protestants and avowed Romanists are involved, to break down the remaining bulwarks of our Protestant Constitution. Rome, ever alive, to every opportunity to advance her interests, is, with characteristic activity, mustering her forces in the hope that she may win back the supremacy lost several centuries ago and demolish the work of the Reformation in our land. Her army of Jesuits is skilfully disposed; and it looks as if our legislators are to be given up to judicial blindness. Her designs were before frustrated, and, like our godly forefathers, let us earnestly take up the weapon of prayer. These circumstances, and the condition of the cause generally, loudly call for it.
3. Another weapon is the faithful presentation of the Word of God in all its aspects.
It is not a part of it that is to be set forth; it is not a one-sided statement of it that is to be made; but the whole counsel of God is to be declared. As it used to be said, ruin by Adam, redemption by Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit must ever be faithfully preached. Divine sovereignty is not to be emphasized at the expense of human responsibility, nor human responsibility at the expense of divine sovereignty. Both must ever be equally held forth in a faithful presentation of truth. Law and gospel, death and life, the curse and the blessing, the word of threatening and the word of promise, the sufficiency of the atonement, justification by faith, forgiveness through the blood of Christ, and sanctification by the Spirit are topics that must be constantly dwelt upon. The Scriptures, which are all given by inspiration of God, are thus the armoury that supplies us with the weapons of our warfare. On it “there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. It is by it alone, effectually applied, that we can successfully resist Satan, unbelief, the world, and the flesh. This is the sword by which the Head repelled every temptation of of Satan—”It is written.” When we reprove sin we must lay the grounds of our reproof upon the authority of the Word of God. It is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” It is, by weapons furnished from the magazine of infallible truth that error and heresies are to be refuted. The Word of God is “powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.” It was by Scripture testimonies our Lord refuted the errors of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It was from the Scriptures that Paul convinced the Jews, and proved that Jesus was the Christ, the true Messiah. It was by arguments from Scripture that he effectually silenced the errorists in Corinth. Thus the Scriptures are weapons supplied to Christ’s witnesses to contend for purity of doctrine, of worship, and of practice.
4. The last weapon I shall mention is the weapon of Church discipline.
In the civil sphere, offenders are firmly dealt with and punished according to the degree of their offence; otherwise, a state of anarchy would prevail. It cannot be expected that the Church in this world will be free from conditions that will not call forth its exercise of discipline. Christ delivered the keys of His kingdom to the disciples for the administration of its affairs, so that what they would bind on earth, in accordance with the Word of God, was to be bound in heaven: and what they would loose on earth was to be loosed in heaven. Paul was invested with this authority, and he used it as a weapon for the correction of offences in Corinth. He asks, “Shall I come unto you with a rod?” He means the rod of discipline. It is a power vested in the Church by her Head to the end of time. It is a weapon put into her hand by Christ—a weapon that she is to use as occasion arises, in the spirit of love, and for edification.
IV.—The weapons of the Church’s warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
In themselves they are ineffectual. They have all their might, power, and effect from God. Through Him they are so powerful as to pull down strongholds.
Strongholds are usually built on elevated ground. They are positions that are strengthened and fortified with all possible ingenuity that they may effectually resist attack and secure those who entrench themselves within them. Satan has his strongholds. They are strongly fortified and widely distributed.
1. He has his stronghold in the heart of every man and woman.
He entrenches himself there and strengthens his position by the heart’s enmity to God, by spiritual pride, lofty imaginations, and carnal reasonings that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, that is, the gospel of Christ. He strengthens his position by spiritual darkness, unbelief, hardness of heart, and unwillingness; and by a false estimate of one’s own imagined goodness and holiness. With these bulwarks Satan fancies his position amply buttressed; but there is a stronger than he, Who is able to deprive him of the weapons in which he trusts. Christ puts forth His irresistible power through the weapons that He puts into the hand of His delivered people; and bringing every thought into captivity to render obedience to Himself, He snatches the soul from the enemy’s hand. He thus pulls down the strongholds of Satan, never to be put up again, and He enthrones Himself in the heart. “The fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.”
2. He has his strongholds in the visible Church.
He has them in the public creed of many of the Churches throughout Christendom. A public creed is high ground on which Satan succeeds to rear his strongholds. They are fortified by legislation, and the Churches concerned give them the support of all the influence and authority that they can command. It is only in error that Satan can have his strongholds; and when error makes its way into the public creed of a Church, there he entrenches himself. Think of the strongholds that he has in the Church of Rome, and he is rapidly gaining positions in the Church of England as well as in several of the Scottish Churches. Think of the desperate efforts that he is now putting forth through so many willing agents to get the Church of Rome to be the State Church in this land, so that he may have his strongholds in both Church and State. We are in extreme danger. It is, however, with the weapons that the Gospel supplies that Christ will yet, through His mighty power, pull them all down. He shall consume the man of sin “with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming.” He shall yet completely demolish the strongholds of error that are spread all over Christendom in the present day.
3. He has his strongholds in the world.
He has them in the organised forms of evil set up in Gospel lands; he has them in the long-established forms of idolatry in heathen lands. Much has recently been spoken and written about the heathen; but the weapons of carnal wisdom and carnal contrivance, that discard the absolute integrity of the Scriptures, are not the weapons that will pull down the strongholds of heathenism at home or abroad. The weapons furnished in the Gospel alone will do it, through the forth-putting of the almighty power of God. When His time comes, the light of the Gospel will flash throughout all lands. In spite of all opposition, Christ will have the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.
In conclusion, we have reason to bewail many shortcomings. We see little of the Lord’s work anywhere in our land. The Holy Spirit is grieved. There is a general falling away from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There is a process of retrogression persistently going on from purity of doctrine and practice. There is a growing indifference to true religion and undefiled. There is a wide-spread apathy to the inroads of the Papacy that aims at depriving us of our civil and religious liberties. There is a false charity that is more careful of not offending the protagonists of error and falsehood than the God of truth and righteousness. Our duty, however, is clear. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. His truth is the same. Let us, therefore, value more and more the weapons that are mightily through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and unflaggingly conduct the warfare to which the Lord has called us, in the strength of His grace, and with a single eye to His glory.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Amen.