“Fight the good fight of faith.”—I TIMOTHY vi. 12.
PAUL was desirous of having faithful soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ on the field of battle—men of valour, full of the Holy Spirit. As time went on this desire grew more intense in the bosom of Paul. Every battle won required fresh soldiers to minister to and provide for and protect the conquered; and the greater and more numerous the victories, the more the demands made upon Paul and his fellow-soldiers. Paul now saw that he must soon quit the field of battle, and he was all the more desirous of seeing warriors in great numbers engaged on the Lord’s side ere he himself laid down his armour. In Timothy he had a tried and trusted soldier, and to him he gave his last commands. Timothy was his own son in the faith, and where any intricate and delicate work had to be done, requiring wisdom and prudence, Paul delegated that work to Timothy. Paul was a rare soldier, a mighty man of valour, an experienced soldier. He had gone over many a battlefield and had gained many remarkable victories, and right nobly did he in every battle honour his Commander. He was thus one qualified to give advice. When he looked forward to the hour when he must needs lay down his life for the testimony of his Commander, he specially selected Timothy as one fitted to carry on the fight, and addressed him in these words: “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called.”
When the veterans of Christ’s army are removed from the scene of battle to their eternal rest of bliss above, and thick clouds are gathering, betokening coming storms, faithful and strong men are urgently required in the field. One of the many favours the Lord bestows upon a nation is that He raises up men equipped to occupy, with honour, the highest positions of trust in the land. It is a sign of God’s displeasure when the land lacks such men. The prestige of the British army was at stake at the beginning of the South African War. Battle after battle was lost, with enormous loss of life and weapons of war, and little gained. The officers, as far as I have seen from reports, did not publicly acknowledge before the army, Jehovah as the Supreme Ruler and Disposer of all events. “Good luck” and “bad luck” were the gods acknowledged by them. Matters were brought to a standstill. The nation for a time stood in the balance. But the ruling power at home, in its dilemma, cast its eye upon Earl Roberts, then Lord Roberts—a tested and trusted officer, who had to his account a very brilliant series of victories gained in Afghanistan—to take the chief command in South Africa. When this experienced and popular officer took command in South Africa he addressed the army, and there publicly acknowledged the Divine Being. We know how matters ended. “Good luck” and “bad luck”—the gods of men’s own perturbed imagination—do not deliver armies. There is but one God only—the living and the true God. No one but the God of the armies of Israel, lovingly and loyally adored and honoured, bestows a lasting boon and blessing alike upon armies and nations.
* The discourse is expanded more fully than when delivered.
I shall speak of this subject under these divisions:—I. The Commander; II. The soldiers; III. The enemy; IV. The fight; V. The armour; VI. The commissariat; VII. The Physician; VIII. The last enemy; IX. The reward; X. Conclusion.
I.—The Commander.—
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Commander of this army. No one but He Himself could undertake the command. No other was qualified for it. He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, the Prince of Peace. As Mediator He is exalted at the right hand of God on high, a Prince and a Saviour. He is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Captain of the Lord’s hosts. The government is upon His shoulders; and of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice. Ere the Lord Jesus Christ could become Commander He had to take a journey no other one could take. God foreknew and foresaw from all eternity that the man whom He would in time create would rebel against Him, and bring himself and all his posterity to ruin. In eternity God the Father covenanted with God the Son anent a people from Adam’s race, to redeem them from their lost and ruined state. The journey then that Jesus Christ took was from the eternal throne to the manger in Bethlehem’s stable, from the manger to the accursed tree, from the accursed tree to the grave, from the grave to His little flock, and from His little flock to the eternal throne. In order, then, to be a Leader and Commander He had to take bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, to give satisfaction to heaven for the dishonour heaped by the creature upon the Creator by defying His authority and transgressing His holy and just and good law. He had thus to reckon with the Judge of eternity for rebels. As the substitute for guilty sinners He appeared before God, and the sword of the eternal throne not only smote Him heavily, but awoke against Him. Yet it was soon seen that the sword gave its last stroke, for in the smitten One it got complete and eternal satisfaction, which it never got before. Here then was given perfect satisfaction for all the rebels whom the Saviour undertook to subdue and enlist in His army. Divine justice, dishonoured and outraged, was fully vindicated by Christ, and the law set at nought was not only obeyed in every detail, but magnified and made honourable. In this satisfaction there is glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill toward men. By His life of loving obedience unto death Christ Jesus opened up a way, consistent with all the divine perfections of Godhead, of deliverance from sin and guilt, and a way by which everlasting salvation is secured for all the heirs of eternal promise. Behold, then, the Commander of the army! God the Father says: “I have given him to be a leader and commander to the people”; “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Behold this great wonder—the God-man, Emmanuel, incarnate God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of His person, very God of very God, yet man—true man—in two distinct natures and one Person for ever! “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. iii. 16). When He became man He did not cease to be God. He is the Eternal, the I AM, the Christ of God; Christ the wisdom of God and the power of God. He is Jehovah Jesus. He died, the just in room of the unjust, that He might bring us to God. “For it became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. ii. 10). “In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared: though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. v. 7-9).
The Commander is none other than the Creator of heaven and earth, the upholder of all things by the word of His power. He is, from everlasting to everlasting, God. He has had no predecessor in charge of His army, and shall have no successor. He reigns from generation to generation. He is the Supreme King, before whose tribunal all kings and queens, and emperors and empresses, and all rulers and their subjects, must appear to give an account of their stewardship. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. His word shall never fail.
“His word at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.”
He is a kingly and princely Commander. Satan hates Christ, and at one time marshalled all his hosts against Him. Christ contended with him, and so completely vanquished him that he shall never regain that which he has lost. Of this victory of Christ there shall be an eternal remembrance. Christ then, having spoilt principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, is now enlisting soldiers for His army.
II.—The soldiers.—
Ere Timothy enlisted he cheerfully and heartily put his soul’s amen to all the terms laid down by the Commander. No one is admitted otherwise. All who enlist otherwise are only traitors, thieves, and robbers. All the soldiers in Christ’s army are conquered soldiers—conquered by Jesus Christ himself. When, with all the speed of time, they were marching to everlasting perdition, His gentle but powerful voice caused them to make a right-about-turn. They saw they were not only self-destroyed, but destroyers, rebels, and conspirators against the Heavens and against the laws of Heaven upon earth. They were caught red-handed in crime. The law arrested them; they could not extricate themselves. They were now convinced that they were born criminals, conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, and realized they were enemies in heart to God by wicked works. The law thundered forth its curses against them, and insulted justice threatened the execution of the sentence of death passed upon them. They now saw they were soldiers in Satan’s army—Satan’s willing dupes, captivated by him; fighting against the Most High, to whom alone they were indebted for not being long ago in the place of eternal woe. They then besought the Almighty for forgiveness and deliverance, but, when Jesus was revealed to them, they died to all that they had done, or could do, to save themselves. They took the penalty of the law as their portion, and the Lord Jesus Christ then manifested Himself to them in such a way as to win them over completely to Himself. They became His: they gave themselves willingly to Him, “Thy people shall be very willing in the day of Thy power.” The fact that they were very active soldiers in Satan’s army, wearing his uniform, that they could not free themselves from Satan, or strip themselves of his uniform, or release themselves from his army, or remove the enmity of their hearts against God, overwhelmed them. The discovery that they were all their life-time offering to the Most High the filthy rags of their own righteousness, while simultaneously refusing the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness, offered to them by God, appalled them. They saw this to be the climax of audacity and insult; and it was a marvel to them that God had at all spared them in life; but God, who is rich in mercy, made Christ Jesus the Lord over to them as their righteousness, and they were led to know Him as the end of the law for their righteousness. Were it not for this they were convinced in the depths of their souls that they would have been long ere then consigned to eternal woe, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
“I love the Lord, because my voice
And prayers he did hear.
I, while I live, will call on him,
Who bow’d to me his ear.
Of death the cords and sorrows did
About me compass round:
The pains of hell took hold on me,
I grief and trouble found.
Upon the name of God the Lord
Then did I call, and say,
Deliver thou my soul, O Lord,
I do thee humbly pray.
God merciful and righteous is,
Yea, gracious is our Lord.
God saves the meek: I was brought low,
He did me help afford.”
None but those conquered by grace are soldiers of Jesus Christ. The soldiers know their Commander, and confide in Him. Here is what a young soldier once said: (1) “Three Persons in the Godhead: God the Father made and preserved me; (2) God the Son came into the world and died for sinners; (3) God the Holy Ghost came into my heart, and made me love God and hate sin.” Now, all the soldiers are sin-haters, and lovers of holiness. “The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
It is essential that the soldier be mighty in the word of the Lord. If he is to be saved from worry and annoyance he must know the plan of the enemy, and be able to distinguish between friend and foe. This knowledge is highly beneficial, while ignorance of it leads to bitter disappointment. David had a sad experience in the case of Ahithophel. We all need the spirit of wisdom, of knowledge, of love, and of sound mind. An unfortunate encounter is reported to have occurred in the South African War. The British were ordered to take possession of an hill supposed to have been occupied by Boers, but, when the heights were gained, it was found they had been attacking friendly Basutos instead of Boers. This occasioned much grief to both parties, especially to the British.
III.—The Enemy.
I. Inward foes.—
(1) The flesh.—
The enemies are powerful, they are legion. The conquered by grace are called upon to conquer themselves, for they are now conscious of enemies within. The flesh, with all that it embraces, must be crucified. “Crucify the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and put on the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.” “If ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but, if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof.” “As strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul.” Believers are commanded to hate the garment spotted by the flesh; and to keep the garment of their profession unspotted. Paul, who delighted in the law of God after the inward man, saw another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin and death in his members. The conflict was so tenacious and so protracted that the apostle exclaimed, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But he was not long in receiving an answer from the Lord, for, in almost the same breath, he said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, but a promise was given to him that by the grace and strength of God he would overcome this messenger; yea, he rejoiced in the glorious fact that the conflict would end on the side of Divine grace and strength. “Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” “The carnal mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God nor can it be.” It is lawlessness run riot. But the Commander subdues it, and gives grace to the humble soldier to keep it in subjection. “To be carnally minded is death.” “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Carnality, in the visible Church of God, is a source of division: but the new creature in Christ has a spiritual mind. “To be spiritually minded is life and peace:” and the duty of Christ’s soldiers is to study the things that make for peace—peace founded upon eternal righteousness: peace obtained and maintained in following the Lord fully. The new creature in Christ delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates thereon day and night. The true soldier of Jesus has a pure mind, and should exercise it in that which tends to keep it from the impurity of the old nature: “to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” The soldier is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ dwells in him. The old nature being in the regenerate soldier he is in danger of being taken aside by it, and should therefore watch against the encroachments of the flesh. “Be sober, and watch unto prayer.” “Fight the good fight of faith.”
(2) Self.—
Self is the fly in the ointment. It seeks a place in man’s bosom. It is a very intrusive enemy. Christ, and not self, must be extolled if we are to be prosperous and successful and faithful soldiers of Jesus. Self makes a great noise, but it is not the stir nor the life proceeding from a meek and quiet and humble soldier. A youthful soldier was once heard praying, “Take myself out of my heart.” Christ enthroned in the heart, and revered there, will keep self in subjection. The proud Pharisee made a great blustering prayer: he was so much intoxicated with his great conception of himself, and with “the exuberance of his own verbosity,” that he looked, with the utmost contempt, upon any one coming to God beseeching mercy.
(3) Unbelief.—
This is a cruel enemy; an enemy that usurps the place that belongs to God and His truth. A soldier of Jesus is in danger of listening to the voice of unbelief and pitting it against the truth. Unbelief is the crowning evil, for it rejects the Christ of God. The prayer of every soldier of Jesus should be: “Lord, increase my faith. Enable me to fight against unbelief in its various forms.”
(4) Sin.—
Sin in all circumstances, at all times, and in all places, must be crucified if we are to enjoy the favour of the Captain of our salvation. “If I regard sin in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” Crucifixion is a slow death; and the crucifying of sin in one’s members is a slow process—a lingering death. Sin asserts itself again and again. There is no way of keeping it under, and of being kept from yielding to it, but by following strictly in the spirit of love and new obedience, all the injunctions of our beloved Commander.
“By what means shall a young man learn
His way to purify,
If he, according to Thy word,
Thereto attentive be?”
Here is an illustration fitted to comfort struggling believers, faint yet pursuing. Sin in the redeemed soul is compared to an evil company in the soul popping up their heads now and again, enticing the soul to embrace them. If the soul embraces them the soul is guilty, but, if it resists all these enticements, then it is no sin to the soul. Yielding to temptation is sin, but resisting sin is noble work—the work of Christ’s soldiers: “Fight the good fight of faith.”
(5) The Old Heart.—
This heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” That evil heart, the fountain of corruption, and the filthy streams therefrom, were revealed to the soul by the Holy Spirit through the truth, and not by Satan. All this was in the soul formerly, but the soul was dead, and the dead spiritual are blind to their own real character as depicted in the truth by the Holy Spirit. The soul lived formerly in carnal security, but when the Spirit of God opened the blind eyes matters became entirely different. From the day of his enlistment the soldier is engaged in deadly conflict with these mighty forces of evil in which he was formerly sleeping the sleep of death. Now with him it is often war to the knife.
The Commander has given to every soldier a new heart, a right spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, an heart to know Jehovah Himself. “And I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah xxiv. 7). Those who have this heart are characterised by the Commander as “the pure in heart,” and a promise is given that they shall see God. It is an heart upon which the law of the Commander is written. Christ’s soldiers are His living epistles; and are enjoined to keep their heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
(6) Pride.—
This is an ugly sin, and yet even a soldier of Jesus is in danger of its finding a place within him. Pride and self-confidence are twin brothers. Pride does not spring from grace, but from one’s corrupt and rebellious nature. It is so much of the spirit of Satan revealed in the creature. There may be in one pride of grace, pride of one’s own gifts, pride of one’s own success; but in whatsoever form it manifests itself it is dishonouring to God, and it is injurious to one’s best interests. It takes one to very slippery ground, and leads one far from the paths of peace and righteousness. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” In view of all this we need to petition the Commander:—”Search me, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me: and lead me in the way everlasting.”
2. Outward Foes.—
(1) Satan:
The arch-enemy; the murderer of souls and bodies; the prince of the power of the air; the prince of this world; the god of this world; the roaring lion; the cunning fox; the father of lies; the instigator of all the crimes in the universe. Satan traffics in the destruction of souls. He does all he can to harass and annoy the soldiers of Jesus Christ. He envies their liberties: he grudges them their joys, especially the joys of victory. He is ever in the alert to entrap them; and he always maintains in the field an army against God and His cause in the world. He savagely attacked Job; but the grace of God is seen in exercise in Job when passing through his great afflictions, bereavements, and hard trials. It ended by Job being delivered by the wisdom and power of the Commander; and Job was more blessed in his latter days than at the beginning. God, as the God of peace, will soon bruise Satan under the feet of His saints. Satan desires to have the saints to sift them as wheat. He got Peter into his sieve. Peter could not extricate himself, but Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, by reminding him of the warning given to him, and by looking upon him, set him free from his entanglements; and he went out and wept bitterly. Satan was again foiled by the skill of the Commander. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me” (Micah vii. 8). “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth; lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him” (Proverbs xxiv. 17, 18). By bitter experience some, at least, of the Lord’s people get to know the wiles of Satan. We are not ignorant of his devices. Experience teaches wise men; and the falls of the soldiers of Jesus are overruled for their good. The restored backslider has his revenge upon Satan. This is one of the blessed effects of godly sorrow. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge” (2 Cor. vii. 10, 11). Peter, after his restoration, had his revenge upon Satan. One points out that for the three times he denied his Lord, he was the means, on the day of Pentecost, of taking about 3,000 out of the kingdom of Satan—1,000 for every time he disowned all knowledge of Jesus. The falls of the soldiers lead them to observe more closely the tactics of Satan. The soldiers are thus more on their guard against the wiles of Satan, and thereby they escape many of Satan’s onslaughts.
Sections of the British army, stationed at certain posts in South Africa, were much harassed by parties of Boers firing from the mountains. At first there was considerable loss of life on the British side, but once they were able to locate the enemy and knew their tactics, they were the more prepared to deal with them and also to escape their bullets. Satan and his hosts are most dangerous when they appear as friends. Satan at times offers his services to nurse Christ’s soldiers, but all he has in view is to stab them to the heart. Satan can approach Christ’s soldiers in the garb of a saint; but in whatsoever form he may appear he is Satan all the time, and there is not a spark of love in him to anything holy or to any warrior of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the South African War the Boers stripped the British dead and the British prisoners of war of their uniform and weapons of war. They donned the British uniform, and companies of them approached the British as comrades, but when they came to close quarters they showed they had nothing in view but murder and slaughter. They rushed upon the British, who were off their guard, and played havoc with them. But these incidents put the British more on the alert, for they got to know more of the wiles and deceit of the enemy they had to encounter. So God’s children resist Satan when he appears in the garb of an angel of light, and they appeal to the Captain of their salvation for deliverance, and they don’t appeal to Him in vain.
(2) Evil passions.—
“The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” It is necessary, if in all things we are to adorn the profession of our Lord and Saviour, to rule our own spirits well, that our whole inner man be brought into loving subjection and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Prov. xvi. 32). “The discretion (or prudence) of a man deferreth his anger.” “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls” (Prov. xxv. 28). “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly” (Prov. xiv. 29). “He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly” (Prov. xiv. 17). A meek and quiet spirit in God’s sight is of great price. The command issued to the army is to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, and as new-born babes to desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby. (1 Peter ii. 1, 2.) “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephes. iv. 29, 32).
The tongue gets a very bad character in God’s Word. The sins of tongue indicate that the inner man has got out of control. Hence the greater need of the Lord garrisoning our souls continually. “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs xv. 4). A well-known minister of the Gospel said:—”Bad temper is an ugly venomous sin. It is a sin against the central cardinal grace of love. Look at the mischief that is done in a congregation by a hurtful tongue of censoriousness, that embroils a neighbourhood, and poisons the reputation of fellow-members of Christ’s flock. Envy is often counted a small sin. So is a pistol ball, but, if lodged in a human brain, it is deadly. Anger, malice, and uncharitableness kill the spirit of devotion.” Christ is meek and lowly in heart, and the more Christ-like the soldier is the more will he reflect of Christ, his Divine Commander. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew xi. 29). When the disciples showed any spirit alien to the Gospel, Christ lovingly reproved them, and enjoined upon them the necessity of always cherishing a spirit becoming their profession of attachment to Him.
(3) The World.—
The wicked world; the ungodly world; the world that knows not God; men of the world have nothing in common with Christ. The ungodly world hates Christ and His soldiers. The more the soldiers resemble their Commander, the more does the world hate them. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John xv. 18, 19). “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James iv. 4). Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. This world and the fashion of it passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth ever.
The mission of the soldiers of Christ, the ambassadors of Heaven, commissioned by the courts of glory, is to declare the whole counsel of God, to speak the truth in love and faithfulness; to walk in the truth themselves, and thus commend to others, by their walk and conversation, that which they declare by word of mouth. They declare to rebels their ruin by the Fall, and propose to them terms of peace. Their message, and their terms of peace, are from the Commander, and they cannot alter one iota of what He has committed to them. To tamper with the credentials of Heaven is an act of high treason. The terms of peace do not alter with the times. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” No other terms will ever be propounded by the Most High than those laid down by Him in His blessed Book. The command is to tell the wicked that it shall be ill with him, and the righteous that it shall be well with him: to declare that there is mercy in God for every prodigal who returns to Him by the Mediator. Nothing stands between lost sinners and Christ but their unbelief. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John iii. 36).
(3) Mockers.—
There are those who make sport of the threatenings of God against sinners. They trifle with the most momentous issues at stake in the world: trifling on the brink of eternal woe with the things that belong to one’s eternal well-being. When Lot warned his sons-in-law, they made light of all his warnings. In their eyes he was only befooling them: but, when the storm of fire came, they believed. They believed when it was too late for them to escape. It is sad that in Presbyterian Scotland eternal punishment is treated lightly if not scorned at. “The bands of mockers shall be made strong.” Elisha visited Bethel, and little children in large numbers mocked him, and said, “Go up, thou bald head! go up, thou bald head!” Elisha’s life and teaching were a witness against the ungodliness of the cities and country districts, and these children wished that Elisha would get out of the way, and follow Elijah to heaven, so that they might go on in their own career of evil, without let or hindrance. What happened to these young mockers of God’s faithful servant? Forty-two of them were slain by two she-bears. These youthful mockers may have been instigated by their ungodly parents to mock this eminent servant of the Lord. Israel and Judah forgot Jehovah: they adopted the idolatry of the heathen around them. The Lord sent His messengers to reprove them and to call them to repentance; but they made light of the warnings given, and of the mercy offered to them. Those who despise God’s warnings will, at last, feel the sting of the fiery lash of God’s law in their own conscience. “All the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending: because he had compassion on His people, and on, His dwelling-place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people till there was no remedy” (2 Chron. xxxvi. 14-16). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. vi. 7).
Mockers of law and gospel are warned, and, at the peril of their souls, they refuse the warning. “Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil” (Prov. i. 25, 26, 29, 31, 33). The blessed Commander Himself was reviled, set at nought in the days of His humiliation. When Emmanuel was thus treated, His faithful servants, who deliver His message in the love of the Spirit, may expect that they shall meet with some who despise them and their message. Transgressors of the Divine law do not often listen, with pleasure, to sound doctrine. The whole counsel of God is repugnant to their unclean nature. Pleasure-going and pleasure-seeking sinners think that some of Christ’s messengers are too strict, and they repel their earnestness in warning them to flee from the wrath to come, and to embrace Jesus as the only Saviour for lost undone sinners.
The Truth declares that in the last days scoffers shall come, walking after their own lusts, saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter iii. 3). Yea, we are told that the time cometh when the people will not endure sound doctrine, will walk after their own lusts, and shall, after their own lusts, heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears, and that they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Tim. iv. 3, 4.) What, then, are the soldiers of Jesus to do in these circumstances? Preach the Word; be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine; watch in all things, endure afflictions, and make full proof of their ministry.
These mockers, scorners, scoffers are indebted to the Jehovah whom they insult, and the Gospel which they despise, for being allowed to tread this earth. To Jesus we owe our common mercies—even to the drop of cold water. To Him we owe our civil and religious liberties. Do away with God’s Word and you establish anarchy. An English earl once said to a Fijian chief, “It is really a pity you have been so foolish as to listen to these missionaries. No one now-a-days believes in the Bible.” The chief’s eyes flashed as he said, “Do you see that stone? There we killed our victims. Do you see that oven? There we roasted their bodies for our feasts. If it had not been for the missionaries and the Bible you would have met the same fate.”
(4) Ritualism and Idolatry.—
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Idolatry is setting up rivals to the Most High. Idolatry brought Israel and Judah very low. It brought upon them famine, pestilence, wars, banishment, and desolation. The nations whose idolatrous practises Israel and Judah adopted became in the end their scourge and ruin. A warning to Britain and its Protestant churches. Coquet with idolaters and idolatry and you court disaster.
It is very deplorable that the Churches in Britain have departed so much from the teaching of God’s Word, which is the teaching of the Reformers—teaching that delivered this land from the awful tyranny of the Papacy. The land seems to be drifting fast into the cruel darkness from which the Word of God delivered us. The Church of England is, to a large extent, turned into a nursery for Rome. There is in England a society called the “English Church Union”—a Romanising Union. It has succeeded well in Romanising the Church of England. This Society has at present 32 bishops of the Church of England and 4,130 clerical members of that Church, all bent on driving Romewards, and of driving the Church of England into the Church of Rome. There is another Ritualistic Society, which exists practically for the same purpose. It is called “The Alcium Club”; and the present Dean of Chester is a member. It advocates (1) The introduction of the Mass in Latin; (2) Burning Incense; (3) Elevation of the Host, and (4) Lights burning in front of the Sacrament. The Society prayed for the Pope as its “Father,” and blessed “Pontiff.” In the English Church there is auricular confession, candle-burning in daylight, worship of Mary, etc. The Mass is undoubtedly idolatry. Christ’s soldiers in this and other lands gave up their lives rather than yield to the imposition of the Mass. It is in the 13th century that the consecrated wafer is said to have been turned into the flesh of Jesus, moist with blood, and to have been adored even by beasts. “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to these words, it is because there is no light in them.”
The Church of Scotland, sad to say, is, slowly but steadily, following in the wake of the Church of England. Ritualism is in a number of its congregations for many years. The popish altar in Crathie Church, and the popish baptismal font in St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, have received the protecting wing of the General Assembly of 1912. The Assembly, by its majority, has given its benediction to this Romeward movement. It is extremely sad when the language of expediency, instead of “Thus saith the Lord,” was heard from so many apologists on the floor of the Assembly in favour of retaining idolatrous articles in the Church that spewed out all such at the Reformation. It was an offence to the same Assembly to say that the Church of Rome is guilty of creature worship. Did the minority in that Church realise the gravity of the situation, and the awful dishonour cast upon the Supreme Being, the sole object of worship, they would not rest until all the popish altars and fonts, and all the paraphernalia of Rome would be cast out, and the pure doctrines of the Word of God alone proclaimed from every pulpit. The state of matters in Presbyterian Scotland causes much grief to every true and faithful soldier of Jesus Christ. What is to be done when the “rowers” in Church and State have led the land into deep waters? To stand up for Christ’s prerogative to rule in His own House, and to put forward afresh the claims of the Word of God alone as the final arbiter in every question.
Pastor Chiniquy was a Roman Catholic priest in Canada. He had charge of a large colony. At that period he was brought to a saving knowledge of the Saviour. He at once began to preach Christ as the only Saviour. His labours were signally acknowledged. His large congregation came under the power of the truth; and, as the truth was taking possession of them, image after image, statue after statue, was cast out of the building: not one was left. Chiniquy did not ask them to remove the images. Of their own accord, as the truth was having effect, they put away all these images. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ were so faithfully and purely and lovingly declared from all our pulpits we might confidently look for similar results. When Rome took steps to depose Chiniquy, and re-assert its own authority in the colony, the language of that vast assembly was, “We want nothing here but the Bible,” and the representatives of Rome had to quit the place. May the Most High grant that the day may come upon this nation when its one voice will be, “We shall have nothing here, as our infallible Guide Book, but the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; and we shall own no master but the Triune Jehovah.”
The Church that does not strictly adhere to the command of her Divine Lord is not faithful to Him. The Commander’s order is, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”; whereas the command of the innovators in the visible Church is, “teaching them to observe all things which I have not forbidden you.” Those who have thus changed the command of the Commander are guilty of no small crime. The change made in the word of command is responsible for many of the divisions in our Protestant Churches. If the Protestant Churches of the land were faithful to the glorious Head of the Church there would be no popish altars, popish baptismal fonts, images, or creature worship known within the gates of Zion. Unless we repent, a storm is ahead of us. Faithfulness to the Commander is to do what He prescribes to us in His Word. Thy Word is to my feet a lamp and to my path a light.
(To be continued.)
A Wise Decision.—Eliza Ambert, a young Parisian lady, resolutely discarded a gentleman to whom she was to have been married, because he ridiculed religion. He remarked, “that a man of the world could not be so old fashioned as to regard God and religion.” Eliza started, and said, “From this moment, sir, I cease to be yours. He who does not honour God, can never love his wife constantly and sincerely.”