III. The encouragement
Well, the encouragement now; and what is the encouragement? I mentioned before that it is according to the need that the Lord speaks in comforting. It was to those who needed it that Christ Jesus said — “Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Every part, then, of the encouragement is to meet every part of the discouragement. What is the first part? First, “Be strong, for I am with you.” What does that mean? What is that intended to remove? O, it is this: there were many against them. Sanballat was against them, the people and their governor were against them, so God says — “Courage, for I am with you.” They might then say with Paul, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Here it is — there are many against the Jews, trying to oppose them in the work of the Lord, but God comes forward now when they are found in the path of duty, and not when they are neglecting the work of God. Be not depressed: “Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.” What are all people in the world, what are men and what are devils, what are all enemies whatever if God be for us? And God is true, God is for His people, He is with them and He is with them especially when they are found in the path of duty doing His work. When they are neglecting that duty He rebukes them, as He sent His word to rebuke the Jews by the prophet Haggai: “Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?” Here is a word of rebuke; God does not deal always in the same way with His people. No, but He comforts them in a time of need, when they are faint and sorrowful when their hearts are cast down. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” said the psalmist, “what should discourage thee?” It is when their soul is cast down within them, it is then the Lord will come forward, and He suits the promise to their very case. “If men are against you,” He says, “I am with you.” Now, my friends, every time the church, the work of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is being built up, there are men who are against those engaged in the work of the Lord. I do not mean to dwell upon this; I simply draw your attention to it in order that you may not be discouraged. When we, as a church, took a stand in defence of the truth of God — for the benefit not only of our own souls and the present generation, but also of future generations — men rose up against us, and they used the same means to weaken our hands and to discourage our hearts as the Samaritans of old did. If we wanted a house to worship God in, such as the public school, there were letters in the newspapers not to give it. Every effort was made to put a stop to the glorious work; to what may be called, on a small scale at least, the building up of the cause of God in Scotland. Ah, this work in which we are engaged is the building up of that cause, and it may be needful that I should mention what a great and godly man, who is still living, said about it — a man whom some of you may know. Before any made a stand against error in the way in which we did, he was looking with a sorrowful heart on the state of God’s cause in Scotland. He was seeing almost all the churches departing from the principles and doctrines of the church of God, and he was seeing that the judgment of God was coming fast after this declension. Then his heart was cast down. But when he heard that there was a stand made he took courage, and said, “The judgment will not yet come, but mark this,” he said. “and some of you may see it, this is the last call to Scotland, the last call to Scotland, and if Scotland will not hearken to the call of God then the judgment will not be delayed any longer and some of you may see the judgment.” We are encouraged, my friends, that there are some who have made a stand for the truth of God, whatever that may have cost them — even although it should have cost them what it cost others, the laying down of their lives. If lives are laid down for the cause of Christ, these lives will have a glorious resurrection. Ah! yes. Well, my friends, this is the encouragement, then, that God speaks to your hearts who are interested in the cause of God. It is a suitable message to deliver to you, this last day of the feast, in the city of Glasgow — “Be strong, for I am with you.” They had been rebuked, and this also led Him to say “Be strong.” The rebuke of the Lord had weakened them, and it ought to have had that effect, and it is a bad sign on any heart that is not weakened when the Lord rebukes. The psalmist says that they “perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.” “My flesh cleaves to my skin.” And we may feel assured that there was great need for the encouragement, “Be strong,” for it is said when God sent His word of rebuke to the people, for delaying the work of the Lord so long while attending to their own worldly matters, that they feared the Lord. He now says — “Be strong.” There was a third thing in the encouragement: and what was it? Well, it was something to meet the discouragement which they had from comparing the small effort they were now making with that which had been made in former days from comparing the littleness of the house of God which they were endeavouring to build with the glorious temple of Solomon. “Is it not,” God says — and He brings out what they think themselves — “in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” What is the meaning of this? You see, the temple of Solomon was made glorious outwardly with such as silver and gold, almost everything was covered with silver and gold. It was a beautiful sight to the natural eye to behold the temple of Solomon, on every side to which one could turn covered with silver and gold. But now the Jews could not make this temple so great and glorious, so beautiful with silver and gold, and they were discouraged. If they had silver and gold they would naturally make up the second temple as beautiful as the first. And what does God say? “Mine is the silver and mine is the gold.” What does He mean by that? Well, what I once thought of it was that, as they needed silver and gold to build the temple, the Lord was encouraging them to look to Himself for these things; but I changed my mind, and I think I saw that this was not the meaning at all, and that the meaning was — “I am as wealthy now as I was in the days of Solomon. The earth belongs unto the Lord, and all that it contains. Do you think I could not afford to give you as much silver and gold as I gave to Solomon? Mine is the silver and mine is the gold, but I withhold it on purpose, as I intend to make the second temple more glorious than the first.” And so, He says, “The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts: in this place shall I give peace.” Now, my friends, you see this is the way He took to encourage them. They were discouraged because they could not make the second temple so beautiful with silver and gold as the first. But God said as much as: “I am not at all become poor since the says of Solomon, but I withhold silver and gold which I gave liberally to Solomon from you on purpose, and my reason for withholding it is this, that I intend to make the second house more glorious with another gold, with the gold tried in the fire.” “The glory of the latter house shall be greater.” Jesus Christ, who is the brightness of His Father’s glory and the express image of His person, was to come into the world and to assume human nature; He was to come into the world before the destruction of that second temple. We read, indeed, that there was a place in Solomon’s temple where the presence and the glory of God were so much revealed that the ministers doing the service of God could not proceed with the weight of the glory of it. Even that, my friends, was only a manifestation of the glory of God, but here is God Himself, God manifest in the flesh, He who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, He came to the temple. This was the way, then, He took to encourage them, in renewing the promise of Him who was promised early in the history of the world, Jesus Christ. Now, my friends, the glory of any church is this — not silver and gold and wealth, but that Jesus Christ should come to that church. It was said at one time — “The glory is departed,” and the glory is departed from any church where the Son of God is not, where His presence is not, where the Gospel in purity is not preached, where the doctrines concerning Jesus Christ and the salvation He wrought out are not held forth. That church has lost its glory. Oh! let us seek, my friends, to embellish and beautify our church, not with outward pomp and glory, but with Christ. Let us seek that Jesus Christ may be with us. Let us look to Him, let us cry to Him, and, when He does come, let us pray with the disciples who met Him on the way — “Abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.” The presence of Christ is the glory of any soul, the glory of any church, the glory of any community, the glory of any kingdom. “And His glory shall fill the whole earth.” There is another thing that is the glory of a church (I mentioned it incidentally already), the truth of God. “The glory of the latter house shall be greater,” because Jesus Himself was to come there. Well, the glory of any church is this, that the truth of God be in that church. That is the glory of a church. Oh! let us seek, then, that our church may be beautified. The Lord says to us — “Mine is the silver and mine is the gold,” and, although we cannot show any such splendour as the temple of Solomon or the Free Church of old, we can, my friends, oh, we can be content if our church is beautified with the presence of Him who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and with His truth. I may mention in connection with this that the Free Church of old, like the old temple built by Solomon, was beautified outwardly with silver and gold. The Free Church grew very rich, and she was not the better of that. We, for our part, do not regret that Sir William Mackinnon did not leave us thousands of pounds to carry on the work of the Lord, though it seemed a loss that he was taken away so suddenly before he cast in his lot with us, which he promised to do had he lived. But I thought it was a providence, arranged by the wisdom of Him who is infinite in wisdom, that he did not leave us a single penny. Had he left us thousands of pounds, another disruption would have been necessary in a few years. Why? Because we would have many ministers following us, not for the sake of principle. We went forth and said, with the great Master to the man who would follow Him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” “Will you follow me now?” Ah! no. It was a blessing from Him whose cause we have at heart, it was a blessing from the Lord that not a penny was left us by that worthy man, or, as I said before, in the course of a few years we would require to have another disruption. Here is the way that the Lord deals with us. It is a time of trial, and we must follow the Lord simply because He is worthy of being followed. We must stand up for the truth’s sake, not from any worldly motives nor for any worldly profit. The truth is a great treasure, and those who will not defend the truth for the truth’s sake are not worth being named Christians at all. Oh! how miserable we would be, my friends, if we had not the truth, or if we had the truth of God mixed with errors, as almost all other churches have. Could we have true happiness? What is the value of anything unless we enjoy happiness in connection with the cause of God in the world, unless we acquit ourselves like those who have to render an account and who wish to render that account with joy? We, my friends, profess to be the servants of the Lord, and what is the worth of a servant unless he is faithful to his master? If a man in this city of Glasgow had a large warehouse and employed servants, and if any of these servants allowed robbers and thieves to come in and steal his goods, was that servant faithful to his master? I say, No. And is a minister of Christ not to be more faithful than a servant in a warehouse? We must render an account, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” to render our account. If you seek happiness of soul, peace of soul, in passing through this world, seek not only to be found in Christ but also to be faithful to Christ, and keep from turning to the right hand nor to the left. Oh! this is our duty, and when we do this we shall have to acknowledge (even if we could do all our duty) that we have not done but what was out duty. But instead of doing all our duty, how much is left undone! What shame and confusion of face belong to us! What thankfulness to God that it is not on anything we may try to do our salvation depends, but on what Christ did! His work is perfect, His work is the foundation upon which God’s people build. Still, although our salvation does not depend upon our endeavours, if we are unfaithful to God, and if we miss an opportunity of doing good, that must make us uncomfortable on a dying bed. Ah! yes. Although you should get to heaven, there would never be again for ever an opportunity for you to do good to anyone in this world, to warn your friend or your foe, to warn any “to flee from the wrath to come.” You could not come back again to the world to do anything for God. No.
IV. The duty now enjoined
The last thing (I am keeping you too long) is this, the duty now enjoined. Let us take it to heart, let each of us carry it with us. The duty enjoined is — “Be strong and work.” The work was the work of the Lord; they were building the temple. They were asked to work, to proceed with the work, and in the records of the Kings it was found that a decree was given and proclaimed by Cyrus that the work was to proceed. And so, my friends, the enemies were confounded, and the poor people of God were encouraged to proceed again with the work which had been so long delayed. Let us seek grace, that we may do whatever our hands find to do. If you can do nothing more, oh, pray for those who are trying to do public work for God. Encourage them in every way, and do whatever your hand finds to do. We are all going on to another world. There is no knowledge nor device in the grave, to which we are all hastening. Let us — not only those whose duty it is to proclaim in public the truth of God, but let us all — try to do everything we can to put down evil. There is much work for all true Christians in this age, and in this city, in various ways, where iniquity abounds, and where errors abound. Let us raise our voice against them. One may say — “What is the use; there is such power against us?” Did you not read the promise, “I am with you?” Let it not weaken your hands, nor keep you back from doing your duty, that there is such power against you. Do you your own duty, and God will be with you.
“And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” — Rev. i. 17, 18.