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Ezekiel Chapter
Twenty-one
Ezekiel 21
Chapter Contents
The ruin of Judah under the emblem of a sharp sword.
(1-17) The approach of the king of Babylon described. (18-27) The destruction
of the Ammonites. (28-32)
Commentary on Ezekiel 21:1-17
(Read Ezekiel 21:1-17)
Here is an explanation of the parable in the last
chapter. It is declared that the Lord was about to cut off Jerusalem and the
whole land
that all might know it was his decree against a wicked and
rebellious people. It behoves those who denounce the awful wrath of God against
sinners
to show that they do not desire the woful day. The example of Christ
teaches us to lament over those whose ruin we declare. Whatever instruments God
uses in executing his judgments
he will strengthen them according to the
service they are employed in. The sword glitters to the terror of those against
whom it is drawn. It is a sword to others
a rod to the people of the Lord. God
is in earnest in pronouncing this sentence
and the prophet must show himself
in earnest in publishing it.
Commentary on Ezekiel 21:18-27
(Read Ezekiel 21:18-27)
By the Spirit of prophecy Ezekiel foresaw
Nebuchadnezzar's march from Babylon
which he would determine by divination.
The Lord would overturn the government of Judah
till the coming of Him whose
right it is. This seems to foretell the overturnings of the Jewish nation to
the present day
and the troubles of states and kingdoms
which shall make way
for establishing the Messiah's kingdom throughout the earth. The Lord secretly
leads all to adopt his wise designs. And in the midst of the most tremendous
warnings of wrath
we still hear of mercy
and some mention of Him through whom
mercy is shown to sinful men.
Commentary on Ezekiel 21:28-32
(Read Ezekiel 21:28-32)
The diviners of the Ammonites made false prophecies of
victory. They would never recover their power
but in time would be wholly
forgotten. Let us be thankful to be employed as instruments of mercy; let us
use our understandings in doing good; and let us stand aloof from men who are
only skilful to destroy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 21
Verse 2
[2] Son
of man
set thy face toward Jerusalem
and drop thy word toward the holy
places
and prophesy against the land of Israel
The holy places —
The temple and all parts of it.
Verse 3
[3] And say to the land of Israel
Thus saith the LORD; Behold
I am against
thee
and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath
and will cut off from
thee the righteous and the wicked.
The righteous — It
is no unusual thing
that in publick calamities
those who are indeed righteous
should be involved with others.
Verse 4
[4]
Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked
therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the
south to the north:
All flesh —
All the Jews that dwell in the land.
Verse 5
[5] That
all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath:
it shall not return any more.
Shall not return — It
shall not return into the scabbard 'till it hath done full execution.
Verse 6
[6] Sigh therefore
thou son of man
with the breaking of thy loins; and with
bitterness sigh before their eyes.
Sigh therefore —
Thereby express deep sorrow.
Breaking of thy loins — Like a woman in travail.
Verse 7
[7] And
it shall be
when they say unto thee
Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt
answer
For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt
and all
hands shall be feeble
and every spirit shall faint
and all knees shall be
weak as water: behold
it cometh
and shall be brought to pass
saith the Lord
GOD.
Because —
The saddest news you ever heard is coming.
Verse 9
[9] Son
of man
prophesy
and say
Thus saith the LORD; Say
A sword
a sword is
sharpened
and also furbished:
Furbished —
Made clean and bright.
Verse 10
[10] It
is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter:
should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son
as every tree.
Of my son — To
whom God saith
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron
Psalms 2:9. This sword is that rod of iron
which despiseth every tree
and will bear it down.
Verse 12
[12] Cry
and howl
son of man: for it shall be upon my people
it shall be upon all the
princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people:
smite therefore upon thy thigh.
It — The devouring sword.
Upon thy thigh — In
token of thy sense of what they must suffer.
Verse 13
[13]
Because it is a trial
and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be
no more
saith the Lord GOD.
If — But if the king and
kingdom of Judah despise this trial
both shall be destroyed and be no more.
Verse 14
[14] Thou
therefore
son of man
prophesy
and smite thine hands together
and let the
sword be doubled the third time
the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the
great men that are slain
which entereth into their privy chambers.
And smite — In
token of amazement and sorrow.
Of the slain —
Wherewith many shall be slain.
Privy chambers —
Where they were hidden in hope to escape.
Verse 15
[15] I
have set the point of the sword against all their gates
that their heart may
faint
and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright
it is wrapped up
for the slaughter.
All their gates —
Both of cities
of palaces
and of private houses.
Wrapt up —
And hath been carefully kept in the scabbard
that it might not be blunted.
Verse 16
[16] Go
thee one way or other
either on the right hand
or on the left
whithersoever
thy face is set.
Go — O sword
take thy own
course.
Verse 17
[17] I
will also smite mine hands together
and I will cause my fury to rest: I the
LORD have said it.
Smite my hands — In
token of my approbation.
Verse 19
[19]
Also
thou son of man
appoint thee two ways
that the sword of the king of
Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou
a place
choose it at the head of the way to the city.
Appoint —
Paint
or describe them on a tile.
One land —
That is
Babylon.
Chuse —
Pitch on some convenient place
where thou mayest place Nebuchadnezzar's army
consulting where this one way divides into two
which was on the edge of the
desert of Arabia.
At the head —
Where each way runs
toward either Rabbath
or Jerusalem; for there
Nebuchadnezzar will cast lots.
Verse 20
[20]
Appoint a way
that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites
and to
Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.
To Judah —
The Jews.
Verse 21
[21] For
the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way
at the head of the two
ways
to use divination: he made his arrows bright
he consulted with images
he looked in the liver.
Stood —
The prophet speaks of what shall be
as if it were already.
To use — To
consult with his gods
and to cast lots.
Arrows —
Writing on them the names of the cities
then putting them into a quiver
and
thence drawing them out and concluding
according to the name which was drawn.
He consulted —
Perhaps by a divine permission
the devil gave them answers from those images.
In the liver —
They judged of future events
by the entrails
and more especially by the
liver.
Verse 22
[22] At
his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem
to appoint captains
to open
the mouth in the slaughter
to lift up the voice with shouting
to appoint
battering rams against the gates
to cast a mount
and to build a fort.
The divination —
The divination which concerned Jerusalem
was managed on his right hand.
Verse 23
[23] And
it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight
to them that have
sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity
that they may be
taken.
Them —
The Jews.
That have sworn —
Zedekiah
his princes
and nobles
who swore allegiance to the king of Babylon
these perjured persons will contemn all predictions of the prophet.
He — Nebuchadnezzar.
The iniquity —
The wickedness of their perjury and rebellion.
They —
Zedekiah
and the Jews with him
Verse 24
[24]
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be
remembered
in that your transgressions are discovered
so that in all your
doings your sins do appear; because
I say
that ye are come to remembrance
ye
shall be taken with the hand.
Your transgressions —
Against God
and against the king of Babylon.
Discovered — To
all in court
city
and country.
With the hand — As
birds
or beasts in the net
are taken with the hands
so shall you
and be
carried into Babylon.
Verse 25
[25] And
thou
profane wicked prince of Israel
whose day is come
when iniquity shall
have an end
And thou —
Zedekiah.
Whose day —
The day of sorrows
and sufferings
and punishment is at hand.
Shall have an end —
Shall bring the ruin of king and kingdom
and with the overthrow of your state
the means of sinning shall end too.
Verse 26
[26] Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem
and take off the crown: this shall not
be the same: exalt him that is low
and abase him that is high.
The diadem —
The royal attire of the head
which the king daily wore.
Shall not be the same — The kingdom shall never be what it hath been.
Him that is low —
Jeconiah. The advance of this captive king
came to pass in the thirty-seventh
year of his captivity.
Verse 27
[27] I
will overturn
overturn
overturn
it: and it shall be no more
until he come
whose right it is; and I will give it him.
Shall be no more —
Never recover its former glory
'till the scepter be quite taken away from
Judah
and way be made for the Messiah. He hath an incontestable right to the
dominion both in the church and in the world. And in due time he shall have the
possession of it
all adverse power being overturned.
Verse 28
[28] And
thou
son of man
prophesy and say
Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the
Ammonites
and concerning their reproach; even say thou
The sword
the sword
is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished
to consume because of the
glittering:
Their reproach —
Wherewith they reproached Israel in the day of Israel's afflictions.
Verse 29
[29]
Whiles they see vanity unto thee
whiles they divine a lie unto thee
to bring
thee upon the necks of them that are slain
of the wicked
whose day is come
when their iniquity shall have an end.
While —
While thy astrologers
and soothsayers
deceive thee with fair
but false
divinations.
To bring thee — To
bring thee under the sword of the Chaldeans
and destroy thee as the Jews; to
make thee stumble and fall on their necks
as men that fall among a multitude
of slain.
Verse 30
[30]
Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place
where thou wast created
in the land of thy nativity.
Shall I cause it —
God will by no means suffer the sword to be sheathed.
Judge thee —
Condemn
and execute.
Verse 31
[31] And
I will pour out mine indignation upon thee
I will blow against thee in the
fire of my wrath
and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men
and skilful to
destroy.
I will blow — As
those who melt down metals blow upon the metal in the fire
that the fire may
burn the fiercer.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
21 Chapter 21
Verses 1-32
Verse 2-3
Behold
I am against thee.
A prophecy of judgment
I. The prophet’s
compellation
or title--“Son of man.” There are but two persons in Scripture
which have eminently this name--the one is our Saviour
the other Ezekiel. For
our Saviour
it was not without very good reason--namely
as hereby to discover
the truth of His humanity to us--that amongst those many miracles which were
wrought by Him
from whence He did appear to be God
He might have somewhat
also fastened upon Him declaring Him likewise to be man. Besides
as suitable
to His present state of humiliation and future passion
that He might be looked
upon according to that view wherein He tendered Himself to the world
and that
those which were about Him might be prepared for what should happen unto Him
He thought it fitting thus to be called; in the meantime
likewise
encouraging
them
upon these terms
to close with Him
as who having taken their nature
upon Him
was not now ashamed to call them brethren. As for Ezekiel
why this
name should be put upon him
this is a thing further considerable--especially
why upon him rather than upon any other of the prophets
Daniel only excepted
who but once is distinguished by this compellation (Daniel 8:17). It is the general sense of
divines
that it was for this reason especially
namely
to humble him in the
midst of those many divine visions and revelations which he was partaker of
that though in regard of his work and employment he was a companion of angels
yet
for his condition
he was numbered amongst men. And so
in that respect
had a double disparagement upon him
which served to abase him--both of
mortality and sinfulness. But we may add also another reason here in this place
for the giving of it; and that was
not only to breed in him an humble spirit
but likewise a pitiful and compassionate. The message which he was now sent
about
it was a matter of judgment and terror; it was a threatening
and
foretelling of God’s wrath and indignation against His people. Now
this did
require some bowels and tenderness in him
that he should do it; and therefore
“Son of man” was a very fit and proper compellation
that so
being a man
himself
he might the more commiserate his brethren.
II. The prophet’s
injunction
or command
which is laid upon him: and that is
how to carry
himself in the denunciations of God’s judgments against His people. This is
laid forth in three clauses--First
to set his face toward Jerusalem. Secondly
to drop his word towards the holy places. Thirdly
to prophesy against the land
of Israel. Where ye have a full enumeration of all kind of places
and
conditions
and persons
as the objects of Divine wrath
which is threatened against
them. First
the city
expressed in Jerusalem. Secondly
the Church
signified
in the holy places. Thirdly
the country
or whole community
implied in the
land of Israel. Here is God’s judgments extended to all sorts and ranks of
men--to the civil State
to the ecclesiastical
and to the popular. We will
begin with the civil. “The Lord’s voice crieth to the city” (Micah 6:9).
1. The place threatened is Jerusalem
the mother-city in the land of
the princes and governors of the nation. This is that which God begins withal
in the denunciation of His judgments against His people here in this place.
This carries in it God’s anger against great ones--the nobles and princes and
judges and magistrates of the land; those which were of any eminency amongst
them
whether for birth
or place
or power
or wealth; these sinning against
the Lord were not without their correction--nay
God thinks fitting to take aim
at them first of all: “Set thy face against Jerusalem.” Now
there is a very
good account which may be given of this dispensation.
2. The prophet’s gesture which he is required to use to it--and that
is
to set his face towards it. “Set thy face towards Jerusalem.” The setting
of the face
in Scripture
does carry a different notion in it.
The second is in reference to the Church
or State Ecclesiastical.
“And drop thy word towards the holy places.”
1. The place is the Church and house of God. Here is God’s vengeance
threatened against that
as to the destruction of it. This is worse than the
former; by how much spirituals are better than temporals
and any prejudice to
our souls worse than to our outward estates.
2. The carriage and proceeding towards it
and that is expressed here
by dropping.
The third
and last
in reference to the community and whole
nation in general. In these words: “And prophesy against the land of Israel.”
1. The place threatened--“the land of Israel.” These words do carry
two things in them
which might seem
at the first hearing
to plead for
exemption from punishment.
2. The carriage towards it
and that is prophesying. “Prophesy
against the land of Israel.” This was a very ill message
and very unwelcome
which Ezekiel was sent with; but yet he must carry it
for all that. He must
prophesy against them--that is
declare God’s punishments upon them for their
sins and provocations of Him. (T. Herren
D. D.)
Verse 6-7
Wherefore sighest thou?
. . .For the tidings.
Sighing because of sorrowful tidings
“The tidings” were
in the first place
of dishonour done to God
and
in the second place
of ruin which the transgressors were bringing upon
themselves; and we think to show you that the tidings were such as might well
justify the prophet as he looked upon his nation in “sighing with bitterness
before their eyes.”
1. If you know anything of the relationship subsisting between the
Creator and the creature
you must know that we lie absolutely at the disposal
of God
depending for every thing upon His bounty
and bound to live wholly to
His glory. God’s laws are binding without exception and without limitation; and
if He only issue an announcement of His will
it should be received with the
deepest reverence and obeyed with unhesitating compliance throughout every
department of His unbounded empire. And if this obedience be withheld
who can
fail to see that the very greatest insult is at once offered by the finite to
the Infinite? Now
consider what effect this insult will have--or at least
ought to have--upon a man who loves God
and whose prime effort it is to obey
His every word. If a man of warm loyalty were living amongst traitors
it would
wound him to the quick to hear the king whom he honoured continually reviled.
If a man of warm friendship were with the enemies of his love
it would sorely
grieve him to observe how his friend was hated and despised. And what are such
feelings in comparison of those which should rise in the man of real piety
when he beholds on all sides dishonour done to his God? Oh! as such a man
thinks on the unlimited right which God has to the services of His creatures
and yet more as he thinks how God draws those creatures to Himself by every
motive of interest and attraction
supplying their wants
offering them
happiness
bearing with their perverseness; and then
when there come to him
tidings of the return which God receives--His authority defied
His promises
despised
His threatenings laughed to scorn
so that it almost seems the
universal object to expel Him from His own world
and set up some usurper in
His stead--as the man
we say
of real piety observes all this
and meditates
on all this
would there be any cause of wonder were he to exclaim
“For the
tidings! for the tidings when asked to explain a manifestation of grief which
should be similar to that of the prophet--“Sigh
therefore
thou son of man
with the breaking of thy loins
and with bitterness sigh before their eyes”?
2. But let us go on to consider the ruin which transgressors are
bringing on themselves; for here at least we shall find “tidings” which
in the
judgment of you all
might vindicate Ezekiel’s mighty manifestation of anguish.
It is not the moment of absolute shipwreck; but “it cometh”--“it cometh.” “The
tidings” make him as certain of the shipwreck of thousands as though already
were the sea strewed with the fragments of the stranded navy. It is with him no
matter of conjecture or speculation whether a life of wickedness will terminate
in an eternity of misery; he so surely anticipates the future that he is as
though he beheld the casting of the wicked into a lake of fire
and could not
be more assured of their terrible doom if the last day were come
and the dead
were raised
and “the books were opened.” And who are these victims of Divine
justice? Are they not his fellow men--his brethren after the flesh--those for
whom he would bitterly sorrow
if he knew them exposed to some temporal
calamity? Shall he--can he--be unmoved by their everlasting wretchedness? (H.
Melvill
B. D.)
Verses 9-11
Should we then make mirth?
Mirth unreasonable in the unconverted
I. Because they
are under condemnation. The sword is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is
furbished that it may glitter. Should we then make mirth? It is unreasonable in
a condemned malefactor to make mirth. Would it not greatly shock every feeling
mind to see a company of men condemned to die
meeting and making merry
talking lightly and jestingly
as if the sword was not over them?
II. Because God’s
instruments of destruction are all ready. Not only are Christless persons
condemned already
but the instruments of their destruction are prepared and
quite ready
The sword of vengeance is sharpened and also furbished. The
disease by which every unconverted man is to die is quite ready--it is perhaps
in his veins at this very moment. The accident by which he is to drop into eternity
is quite ready--all the parts and means of it are arranged. The arrow that is
to strike him is on the string--perhaps it has left the string
and is even now
flying towards him.
III. Because the
sword may come down at any one moment. Not only are Christless persons
condemned already
and not only is the sword of vengeance quite ready
but the
sword may come down at any one moment. It is not so with malefactors: their day
is fixed and told them
so that they can count their time. If they have many
days
they make merry today at least
and begin to be serious tomorrow. But not
so Christless persons: their day is fixed
but it is not told them. It may be
this very moment. Ah! should they then make mirth?
IV. Because God has
made no promise to Christless souls to stay His hand one moment. God has laid
Himself under no manner of obligation to you. He has nowhere promised that you
shall see tomorrow
or that you shall hear another sermon. There is a day near
at hand when you shall not see tomorrow.
V. It is a sore
slaughter.
1. Sore
because it will be on all who are Christless.
2. Sore slaughter
because the sword is the sword of God. (R. M’Cheyne.)
Untimely mirth
Lightfoot says: “I have heard it more than once and again
from
the sheriffs who took all the gunpowder plotters and brought them up to London
that every night when they came to their lodging by the way
they had their
music and dancing a good part of the night. One would think it strange that men
in their case should be so merry.” More marvellous still is it that those
between whom and death there is but a step should sport away their time as if
they should live on for ages. Though the place of torment is within a short
march of all unregenerate men
yet see how they make mirth
grinning and
jesting between the jaws of hell! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Go thee one way or other
either on the right hand or on the left
whithersoever thy face is set.
Religious decision
I.
The nature of religious decision. In general terms
this may be
said to be an inflexible regard for the will and honour of God--a firm
adherence under all circumstances to that course of duty which He has
commanded
and a personal dedication of the heart and soul to His service.
1. Religious decision is founded on a special regard to the will of
God. In this respect it differs from a native or innate decision of character
which is simply a following the bias of the mind.
2. Religious decision is exercised in regard to matters of real
importance. In matters of trivial concern. Christian decision may be yielding.
It is always candid. It shows due respect for the feelings and preferences of
others.
3. True religious decision will never be anxious about consequences.
In obeying the clear injunctions of conscience and of God
it is prepared to
leave events in His hands who has required the sacrifice.
4. True Christian decision is uniform and unqualified. The man of
decided principle will not admit the thought of a compromise with sin or with
error.
II. The importance
of religious decision.
1. It is important as a matter of Christian consistency.
2. Religious decision is a satisfactory test of Christian character.
3. Christian decision is important
as a means of securing the
respect and confidence of mankind. Men may think you needlessly precise
they
may even suspect the purity of your motives
but they will admire the conduct
that agrees with the profession.
4. Our usefulness is greatly involved in religious decision. The
Great Head of the Church does not select for the execution of His grandest
plans the timid
the hesitating
the wavering. No. He employs those to whom “He
has not given the spirit of fear; but of power
of love
and of a sound mind.”
(Anon.)
To the waverer
I. Thy nature of
religious decision.
1. It is founded on a special regard to the Word of God.
2. It is exercised in matters that are religious.
3. It spurns all considerations of consequences.
4. It acts uniformly and undeviatingly.
II. Its importance.
1. As an index of Christian consistency.
2. As a test of personal Christianity.
3. As a passport to general confidence.
4. As an element of usefulness. (G. Brooke.)
Verse 21
The parting of the ways.
Which way
When you have been wandering in the country you have
sometimes come to where two roads branched away from the one you were on--like
the two arms of the letter Y--and then you stood puzzled which to take; for the
one would take you where you wanted to go
and the other would take you from
it. That spot
then
where you stood uncertain was “the parting of the way.”
Now
it is much the same with your life. It is a journey; you are always going
on and on
getting older
getting better
or getting worse
just as you have
turned to the right or the left at the parting of the way. In America there is
a house built on the very top of a great ridge of mountains
and when the rain
falls it gathers for a little on the flat roof and then drips over the eaves.
But what do you think? the raindrops that fall on the one side and those that
fall on the other never meet again! The one trickles away to the Atlantic
and
the other descends to the Pacific ocean; they take just opposite ways
and
never meet any more. That house is the parting of the way. And there are
circumstances which divide people from each other in much the same way--once
they are parted they never come together again. How careful
then
we should
be
and how prayerful we should be
at these times in choosing what we shall
do! How thoughtful and watchful
too
we should be about guiding others when
they are at the parting of the way! A little word can sometimes save them then.
About forty years ago a little boy went into a shoe shop in Boston to have some
repairs made. While he was waiting he said to the errand boy of the shop
“Do
you go to Sunday school?” “No
” said he
“I don’t know nothing about it
and
can’t read.” “Oh
” said the other
“I go to Sunday school
and I have such a
nice teacher! If you tell me where you live
I will call for you next Sunday
and take you.” And he did; and the errand boy behaved very badly
saying
naughty things
and sticking pins into his neighbours
altogether behaving so badly
that the teacher threatened to turn him out of the school. Still
the teacher
had patience and persevered--and who do you think that little wild scholar
became? Mr. Daniel Moody
the great preacher
who along with Mr. Sankey has
been the means of saving many
many people by bringing them to Jesus. And yet
it was a little boy who guided him right at the parting of the way! What a deal
of good that little boy did that day! And you can do the same. Whenever you try
to do good to others
or speak to them about Jesus
you are helping them more
than you think to take the right way at the parting. When we come to the
parting of the way there are two fashions of deciding which way we shall take.
One way is by trusting to chance. That is the fashion the king the text speaks
about decided which way to take. People do not use arrows nowadays
but
sometimes they “toss up
” and that is just the same thing. Is that the way we
should decide? No! no! a blind man might as well “toss up” whether an orange
was black or white
--“tossing up would never make it the one or the other.
Never trust to chance; the book of Chance is Satan’s Bible
and that is always
meant to deceive. There is a surer way
namely--Go by the directions. I saw a
picture once which has stuck to my memory for years and years. It was a picture
of a dark
wild
stormy night
and a traveller was standing up in the stirrups
of his horse at a parting of the way
trying to read the directions on the
fingerpost. How eagerly he is looking! I can see him yet--holding the lighted
match carefully in his hands
lest the wind should blow it out before he had
read the directions! It was a good thing for him that there were directions
and it is a good thing we have them too. Where are our directions? They
are--the Bible. That is God’s word to us
telling us which road to take when we
come to the parting of the way. (J. R. Howatt.)
He made his arrows bright
he consulted with images.
Is Christianity a delusion
Two modes of divination by which the King of Babylon proposed to
find out the will of God. He took a bundle of arrows
put them together
mixed
them up
then pulled forth one
and by the inscription on it decided what city
he should first assault. Then an animal was slain
and by the lighter or darker
colour of the liver the brighter or darker prospect of success was inferred.
Stupid delusion! And yet all the ages have been filled with delusions. It seems
as if the world loves to be hoodwinked. In the latter part of the eighteenth
century Johanna Southcote came forth pretending to have Divine power
made
prophecies
had chapels built in her honour
and 100
000 disciples came forth
to follow her. So late as the year 1829
a man arose in New York
pretending to
be a Divine being
and played his part so well that wealthy merchants became
his disciples
and threw their fortunes into his discipleship. And so in all
ages there have been necromancies
incantations
witchcrafts
sorceries
magical arts
enchantments
divinations
and delusions. None of these delusions
accomplished any good. They opened no hospitals
healed no wounds
wiped away
no tears
emancipated no serfdom. But there are those who say that all these
delusions combined are as nothing compared with the delusion now abroad in the
world
the delusion of the Christian religion. That delusion has today two
hundred million dupes. It has conquered England and the United States
for they
are called Christian nations. This champion delusion
this hoax
this swindle
of the ages
as it has been called
has gone forth to conquer the islands of
the Pacific the Melanesia and Micronesia
and Malayan Polynesia have already
surrendered to the delusion. Yea
it has conquered the Indian Archipelago
and
Borneo
and Sumatra
and Celebes and Java have fallen under its wiles. What a
delusion! This delusion of the Christian religion shows itself in the fact that
it goes to those who are in trouble. Now
it is bad enough to cheat a man when
he is prosperous; but this religion comes to a man when he is sick
and says:
“You will be well again after awhile; you’re going into a land where there are
no coughs
and no pleurisies
and no consumptions; take courage and bear up.”
Yea
this awful chimera of the Gospel comes to the poor
and it says to them”
“You are on your way to vast estates and to dividends always declarable.” This
delusion of Christianity comes to the bereft
and it talks of reunion before
the throne
and of the cessation of all sorrow. And then
to show that this
delusion will stop at absolutely nothing
it goes to the dying bed and fills
the man with anticipations. How much better it would be to have him die without
any more hope than swine and rats and snakes. Annihilation
vacancy
everlasting blank
obliteration! Why not present all that beautiful doctrine to
the dying
instead of coming with this hoax
this swindle of the Christian
religion
and filling the dying man with anticipations of another life until
some in the last hour have clapped their hands
and some have shouted
and some
have sung
and some had been so overwrought with joy that they could only look
ecstatic. To show the immensity of this delusion
this awful swindle of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ
I open a hospital
and I bring into that hospital the
deathbeds of a great many Christian people
and I ask a few questions. “Dying
Stephen
what have you to say? Lord Jesus
receive my spirit.” “Dying John
Wesley
what have you to say? The best of all is
God is with us.” “Dying
Edward Payson
what have you to say?” “I float in a sea of glory.” “Dying John
Bradford
what have yon to say?” “If there be any way of going to heaven on
horseback
or in a fiery chariot
it is this.” “Dying Neander
what have you to
say? I am going to sleep now--goodnight.” “Dying Mrs. Florence Foster
what
have you to say?” “A pilgrim m the valley
but the mountain tops are all agleam
from peak to peak.” “Dying Alexander Mather
what have you to say?” “The Lord
who has taken care of me fifty years will not cast me off now; glory be to God
and to the Lamb! Amen
amen
amen
amen!” “Dying John Powson
after preaching
the Gospel so many years
what have you to say? My deathbed is a bed of roses.”
“Dying Doctor Thomas Scott
what have you to say?” “This is heaven begun.”
“Dying soldier in the last war
what have you to say?” “This is heaven begun.”
“Dying soldier in the last war
what have you to say?” “Boys
I am going to the
front.” “Dying telegraph operator on the battlefield of Virginia
what have you
to say? The wires are all laid
and the poles are up from Stony Point to
headquarters.” “Dying Paul
what have you to say?” “I am now ready to be
offered
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight
I have finished my course
I have kept the faith. Oh death
where is thy sting?
Oh grave
where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God
who giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Oh my Lord
my God
what a delusion! what a
glorious delusion! Submerge me with it; fill my eyes and ears with it; put it
under my dying head for a pillow--this delusion; spread it over me for a
canopy; put it underneath me for an outspread wing; roll it over me in ocean
surges ten thousand fathoms deep. The overwhelming conclusion is that
Christianity
producing such grand results
cannot be a delusion
an
hallucination; cannot launch such a glory of the centuries. Your logic and your
common sense convince you that a bad cause cannot produce an illustrious
result. Some of you have read everything. You are scientific and you are
scholarly
and yet if I should ask you
What is the most sensible thing you
ever did? you would say
“The most sensible thing I ever did was to give my
heart to God.” But there may be others here who have not had early advantages
and if they were asked to give their experience they might rise and give such
testimony as the man gave in a prayer meeting when he said: “On my way here
tonight
I met a man who asked me where I was going. I said
‘I am going to a
prayer meeting.’ He said
‘There are a great many religions
and I think the
most of them are delusions; as to the Christian religion
that is only a
notion
that is a mere notion
the Christian religion.’ I said to him:
‘Stranger
you see that tavern over there?’ ‘Yes
’ he said
‘I see it.’ ‘Do you
see me?’ ‘Yes
of course I see you.’ ‘Now
the time was when
every body in
this town knows
if I had a quarter of a dollar in my pocket I could not pass
that tavern without going and getting a drink; all the people of Jefferson
could not keep me out of that place; but God has changed my heart
and the Lord
Jesus Christ has destroyed my thirst for strong drink
and there is my whole
week’s wages
and I have no temptation to go in there. And
stranger
if this
is a notion
I want to tell you it is a mighty powerful notion; it is a notion
that has put clothes on my children’s backs
and it is a notion that has put
good food on our table
and it is a notion that has filled my mouth with
thanksgiving to God; and
stranger
you had better go along with me
you might
get religion too; lots of people are getting religion now.’” Well
we will soon
understand it all. We will soon come to the last bar of the music
to the last
act of the tragedy
to the last page of the book--yea
to the last line and to
the last word
and to you and to me it will either be midnoon or midnight. (T.
De Witt Talmage.)
Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem
and take off the
crown.
The Christian philosophy of revolution
The true philosophical history of man is that which reveals to us
the causes and progress
first
of his depravity and deterioration; and
secondly
of his return towards that state of holiness and happiness which he
is destined
in the purpose of God
and through the agency of the Gospel
again
to attain. The progression which the history of the race exhibits has been in
cycles
and not in straight lines. In accordance with the principle announced
by the prophet of Jehovah to the profane and wicked Prince of Israel
it has
been a process of revolution and not of development. It involves the law of
declension and decay
as much as that of quickening and growth. In the first
place
the origin of the human race was not from a state of barbarism
but one
of absolute perfection; and the first change which passed upon human nature was
that by which it fell into degeneracy
by reason of temptation from without.
Social happiness was blighted
and perished in the bud. The very first
offspring of the social state
instead of love
sympathy
and mutual support
were
first
envy
then hatred
and lastly murder. Alienation and division thus
became at once the universal law of society. In the first place
the earliest
ages of the world after the fall
when the light of revealed truth was dimmest
and the reign of grace most feeble
were marked by a rapid degeneration
physical
intellectual
and moral
in the nature
the character
and the
condition of man. In the second place
when the power of sin was checked by
larger gifts of gracious influence
the power of Divine truth became diffusive
and entered upon its aggressive work in the achievement of man’s regeneration;
and has continued to the present hour
progressive; and
judging from the
history of the past
and the characteristics of the present
as well as the
prophetic delineation of the future
it will continue steadily progressive
till its final and perfect consummation. In the third place
the great agent by
which this progress has been carried forward is that of revolution
or that of overturning
overturning
overturning
till He shall come whose right it is to wear the
crown of universal dominion
amidst the redeemed race of man. In any
comprehensive survey of the subject
the central epoch of human history is the
advent of the Son of God. Everything anterior to that event pointed to the
incarnation as embracing the fulness of its significancy
and everything
subsequent derives its vitality and power from the same source. To the eye of
the Christian
and in the light of the Bible
those vast and sublime
overturnings which reared and overthrew successively the gigantic empires of
Egypt
Assyria
Persia
and Macedon
to say nothing of countless smaller
states
which concentrated the intellect
the genius
and the cultivation of
the world in the States of Greece
and finally enthroned Rome as sole mistress
of the earth
these all appear as mighty and indispensable agencies
commissioned of God to produce that mental culture
that feeling of strong
unsatisfied religious want
and that state of universal peace
which were
essential to prepare the world for the advent of the Son of God. And now in
like manner we believe the peculiar dispensation of the age
and specifically
of the race to which we belong
is to leaven the philosophy
the literature
the morality
and the civil and political institutions of the world with the
religion of the Bible
and then carry their elevating
purifying influence
throughout the earth. This is the last of the great dispensations of the
world’s progressive history. The true and final civilisation of the race
as
statesmen and philosophers delight to call it
is just that which owes to
Christianity both the life of its being and the law of its forms. It was
designed for the whole family of man; and it will therefore embrace the whole.
Changes are passing upon the internal policy and the outward face of nations
with a rapidity as much greater than those of the early ages of history as the
modes of locomotion and the intercourse of the world have been improved by the
agencies of steam and magnetic electricity. The progress of human events toward
their ultimate goal
like some mighty mass acted upon by a constant mechanical
force
is ever accelerating as it advances. This is preeminently true of the
very point of time now passing. The plot thickens. Events crowd with
ever-accumulating momentum toward the appointed end. The watchwords of the
downtrodden classes of the Old World--Liberty
Equality
Fraternity--are not so
far from the embodiment of the true and fundamental principles of that very
civilisation which yet awaits the human race. But as to the sources whence
these blessings are to come
they are
by the necessities of their previous
condition
wholly in the dark. The “liberty” which they are blindly struggling
after
in the turbulent and bloody track of radicalism
is to be realised in
the enfranchisement of the Gospel
and grounded on that personal liberty
wherewith Christ makes His people free. The “equality” to which their inward
convictions assure them they are entitled is not an agrarian equality of social
and material position
but an equality in human rights
founded on an equality
of moral condition and desert in the sight of God; and the “fraternity”
emblazoned on their motto is the genuine
but it may be the perverted
heart
utterance of the conscious right to membership in that common brotherhood of
humanity which springs out of the common Fatherhood of God. The whole and every
item of this ideal longing of humanity in its most degraded and dangerous forms
and which has been moulded into the war cry of modern revolution
is destined
to fulfilment; but in a form and from a source widely different from that to
which the ignorant and vicious and dangerous paupers and outcasts of the world
are looking for succour. They shall yet enjoy all
and more than all
their
brightest hopes
but only as a fruit of the Gospel of Christ. (M. B. Hope
D. D.)
National revolutions
Our day is one of unusual excitement; mind is everywhere agitated;
the foundations are out of place; the earth reels like a drunken man; sceptres
are broken; dynasties tremble; the diadem is removed and the crown taken off;
thrones are burnt in the open streets; kings flee for their lives to foreign
shores; men’s hearts are failing them for fear
and for looking after those
things that are coming on the earth
for the powers of heaven are shaken.
I. National
revolutions are symptomatic of moral disorder. They are the result of one or
more causes of an evil
or a series of evils
which have been long accumulating
and gathering force and strength
until the terrible crisis comes
when
like
the central fires of the earth rushing to the volcano
an eruption takes place
and men are filled with astonishment and oppressed with awe. All the
manifestations of injustice are evidences of the moral disorder to which I
allude.
1. Religious persecution.
2. The withholding of political rights.
3. Positive oppression.
II. National
revolutions are in harmony with individual experience and material phenomena.
The individual is the type of the nation. The nation is but the individual on a
broader scale. The body politic is congregated men. The mass is the man
multiplied. We are firmly persuaded that the security of a nation is not in the
form
but in the moral integrity of its government. “Righteousness exalteth a
nation.” We deprecate injustice
whether it emanate from a throne or a
presidential chair; and tyranny
whether it come from a man or a mob; and
slavery
whether it exist under a despotism or a republic. Again
as in the
individual
so in the nation; if there be the conservative power of health
it
will struggle for the mastery. The accumulated moral disease must destroy
vitality
or be thrown to the surface by revolution. We find another analogy in
material laws. The inequality of the earth’s surface is conducive to the health
of vegetables and animals. The roaring cataract stuns the beholder
but he
inhales not there the poison of the stagnant pool. The sweeping wind makes the
forest to groan
but it causes its roots to strike deeper in the earth
and the
juices of vegetable life are increased. The thunders of heaven
with their
herald-lightnings
appall and terrify us
but they are the physicians of the
atmosphere
and drive pestilence from the land.
III. National
revolutions are the voice of God speaking to the world.
1. They proclaim the vanity of all artificial greatness. “The Lord is
known by the judgment which He executeth.” “He leadeth princes away spoiled
and overthroweth the mighty.” “He poureth contempt upon princes
and causeth
them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way.”
2. By these revolutions God utters His protest against tyranny. God
is the God of justice
the Friend of the needy
the Avenger of the oppressed;
and those that walk in pride He is able to abase. His voice
if despised in His
word
is lifted up in the storm
the tempest
the plague
and the revolution;
and it is the protest against injustice and oppression.
3. Another lesson read to the their victories worthless; their wars
sin; their pride
rebellion; their honours
transient; their wealth
evanescent; their glory
a fading flower; and their destiny
extinction from
under these heavens.
IV. These
revolutions are forerunners of the Redeemer’s righteous reign. The Redeemer will
come again--not to be betrayed
mocked
and crucified; but to be glorified in
His saints
and admired in all them that believe; to be hailed as the Prince of
peace--the liberator of every bondman--the joy of every loyal heart--the desire
of all nations; to be crowned
amid the hosannahs of an exulting world
while
the smiling heavens are vocal with the intermingling hallelujahs of angels and
men. (W. Leask.)
Verse 27
I will overturn
overturn
overturn it: and it shall be no more
until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.
War
a means of advancing the kingdom of Christ
I. War.
1. War has its own work to accomplish. It is not a chance. It is of
God (1 Chronicles 5:22). War
like
pestilence or famine
is under His command
and warriors are the executioners
of His will
though they know Him not. Jehovah hath a work to do
which war is
the fittest instrument to accomplish. He saves by the Gospel; He “overturns” by
the sword.
2. The foundation of all true religion lies in obedience to the first
commandment of the law (Exodus 20:2-3). But the heathen nations
“have gods many
and lords many” (1 Corinthians 8:5). Idolatry has
been more prevalent than the worship of the true God in all ages and nations
since the time of the patriarchs. And idolaters outnumber the worshippers of
the living God in the present day. This wide defection from truth is not to be
attributed to ignorance
but to depravity (Romans 1:21; Romans 1:28). Ignorance is not the chief
evil in our race
but sin
--“all have sinned” (Romans 3:23
--so that “every mouth must
be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19).
3. Now it is necessary that this matter be thoroughly understood
in
order that we may vindicate the righteousness of God in permitting the nations
of the earth to remain so long unsaved while He has visited them so often with
His sore judgments
of which the sword has not been the least. Heart depravity
gave birth to idolatry
and idolatry ministers to that depravity. When “the
light becomes darkness
how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). When God is rejected
the
devil reigns. Crime is everywhere the religion of Paganism
and its universal
fruits are envy
lust
rapine
misery
murder
death
hell. It is nothing that
the Gospel of Jesus has; it hath everything the Gospel has not. It is directly
antagonistic to Christ. And if the power of heathenism were not brought down by
the sword
the whole of its institutions
laws
priesthood
and systems of
government
combined with the sinfulness of the human heart
would present an
impenetrable barrier to the admission of the truth. War must throw that barrier
down. Christian churches are not to furnish the warriors; Christian
missionaries are not to lead on a band of holy crusaders; but God will find the
instruments
and by them He will do the work. “I will overturn
overturn
overturn.”
4. Here let us pause
and survey the events of the present and
preceding century in heathen lands
that “we may declare the work of God
and
wisely consider of His doing” (Psalms 64:9).
II. Its issue.
1. We know not what events may lie before us
nor how God may work by
divers instrumentalities
both good and evil; but the ultimate result of the
unsheathed sword
and of His overturning
He hath plainly declared. “I will
overturn
overturn
overturn it; and it shall be no more
‘until He come whose
right it is.’”
2. This design of God cannot be frustrated; His purposes shall
assuredly stand. Every war has been hitherto made subservient to the kingdom of
His Son.
3. But in what way
some might inquire
can the war in which we are
now unhappily engaged conduce to the coming of His kingdom
whose right it is
to reign? It may not be easy to answer that question. How God will work we know
not
nor do we wish to know; it is sufficient that our faith at present should
rest upon His Word. Still
however
without venturing beyond our line in the
way of predictions
we may argue on probabilities that present themselves to a
reflecting mind.
4. It only remains that we notice
with commendation
those peculiar
features of this war which demand our grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God.
The first is
the extreme reluctance with which we entered upon it. Every
method diplomacy could prevent to avoid conflict was exhausted. It was not
always thus with nations. It was not always thus with England. We hail the
change
even while we hear a proclamation of war
as indicating the approach of
that blessed period when war shall be no more. Secondly
the humane manner of
conducting the war is worthy of the highest praise. (W. J. Shrewsbury.)
Social changes subservient to the kingdom of Christ
There is a well-known phrase which has been applied by one and
another to various things in the world
just as anything happened to be a
favourite of prejudice or fancy
“Esto perpetua.” But methinks a sober and
enlightened looker on the world will not find very many things on which he can
deliberately pronounce it. He certainly cannot begin with the state of his own
mind
taken entire and as it is. And if he cast a rapid glance of survey over
the world
his attention will soon be arrested by many things which he would
not wish exempted from such a denunciation as that of the text. Perhaps we
should not proceed without first protesting against the passion for mere change
and commotion; a restless discontent that everything should continue as it is.
Yet Providence may occasionally make use even of this for its great purposes;
may let loose the wild violence
and direct its operation
on what is decreed
to be demolished. However
a good man wants not to excite to activity any such
spirit while he beholds the things he wishes overturned. What things? At
different times you have been moved with regret and indignation and almost
horror as the several grand evils that are oppressing and blasting the world
have unfolded their deformity and malignant effects to your view.
I. Perhaps the
first that will occur to the mind is--false
pernicious religion. Religion! the
light of the world! turned into error
delusion
and darkness! Religion! the
sacred bond of the creature to the glorious Creator! rent and reformed into a
bondage to all that is in opposition to Him! Religion! designed as the purifier
and elevator of man
--transformed into the promoter
even the creator and the
sanction
of his corruption and degradation! Religion
in short
the happiness
of man on earth
and the preparation for eternal happiness
converted into a
cause of misery here and hereafter! Then
“overturn! overturn!” Imagine
in any
country
a mighty fortress of a cruel tyrant
constituting the main strength of
his occupancy
--even the most dreadful earthquake would be almost welcome to
the people
if they saw that it was prostrating the massive walls
the
impregnable towers of this fortress; their own humble abodes might be seen falling
but “look yonder! something else is also falling!”
II. Again
what
ruinations there must be on earth before Christianity is set quite clear and
pure from all the corruptions of worldly policy. “Overturn!” will still be his
prayer with respect to all systems and institutions
which
by their principle
put religion on any ground where it must be necessarily and primarily a secular
affair; where the spiritual interests shall be made formally subsidiary and
servile to the secular; where secular regards will necessarily have the
ascendancy; where the leading considerations will naturally be those of
emolument and ambition.
III. The history of
the world presents
almost over its whole vast breadth
one melancholy
spectacle of mankind subjected to the uncontrolled will of a few individuals
assuming the station of deities
and very many of them the worst of their race
“the basest of men!” Such a system resolutely maintained must come to a
tremendous result. It will ultimately compel two vast orders of will and force
into awful conflict; like that of the fire and water of the last day. For it
cannot be that God has appointed the general human mind to subside in a quiet
enslavement and stagnation. There will be mighty commotions; a “shaking of the
nations
” in all probability. But the omens are very dark as to any speedy
results from them of a hind to satisfy a Christian and philanthropic spirit.
The gloomy omens arise from this
--that God has His own controversy with all
the nations. (John Foster.)
Revolution and reformation
I. What things do
now stand in the way of Christ’s glorious reign.
1. Every species of tyranny.
2. Idolatry
or the worship of false gods.
3. Infidelity.
4. Heresy
or the disbelief of the great and fundamental doctrines of
the Gospel.
II. By what means
we may suppose God will overturn or remove all these things which stand in the
way of the glorious reign of Christ.
1. By public calamities or desolating judgments.
2. We may suppose that God will employ human learning to enlighten
the minds of ignorant
barbarous
tyrannical
and erroneous nations in respect
to their civil and religious tyranny
and their absurd and vicious customs and
manners.
3. We may be confident that God will employ the Gospel as the
principal external instrument to overthrow and remove all obstacles in the way
of Christ’s final and most glorious reign upon earth. This is suited at once to
enlighten the understandings
awaken the consciences
and subdue the hearts of
all who are opposed to the kingdom of Christ.
4. God will pour out His Spirit as the efficient cause of making all
the other means that have been mentioned effectual
“to the pulling down of
strongholds
” etc.
III. Why may we
confidently expect that God will accomplish His gracious design of giving the
kingdom to His Son by the means that have been mentioned.
1. Because these are the means which He has hitherto usually employed
for accomplishing this purpose.
2. Because He can make the means which have been mentioned
effectually answer his great purpose in view.
3. He has expressly promised to do it.
Improvement--
1. If the things which now stand in the way of the glorious reign of
Christ must be removed in the manner that has been mentioned before His reign
commences
we have no reason to think that His kingdom will soon come.
2. If God has done so much already
and will do a great deal more to
prepare the way for the coming of Christ in His millennial glory
then we may
justly expect that the world will be very happy under the reign of the Prince
of Peace.
3. If God will remove the obstacles which still tie in the way of the
latter-day glory of Christ in the manner that has been mentioned
then good men
have a great deal to do to promote this great and good design.
4. It appears from what has been said
that Christians have great
encouragement to exert themselves vigorously and wisely in preparing the way
for the glorious reign of Christ.
5. This subject calls upon all to rejoice in what God has done and is
doing
by the instrumentality of man
to fill the earth with His glory
under
the reign of the Prince of Peace. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Human revolutions
I. They have a sad
successiveness. They do not run out and expend themselves; but one makes place
for another. All mutations in schools
markets
churches
kingdoms
only pass
away as waves on the shore
to be succeeded by other advancing billows. There
is nothing settled.
II. They transpire
by Divine arrangement. There must be perpetual fermentation where evil is. How
does God effect these changes?--
1. By the revelation of right and truth to human consciousness.
2. By the procedure of His providence.
III. They will only
be terminated by the advent of the rightful King. The world is Christ’s. He has
a right to rule. So truthful
benevolent
and just will be His sway that all
opposition will be subdued. (Homilist.)
The three-fold overthrow of sell
I. The Lord
repeats three times the expression
“I will overturn it.” It may indeed be said
with respect to this repetition of the words three times
that it may signify
the positiveness and certainty of God’s determination. But still I believe
if
we come to look at it in a closer point of view
we shall find that it is
literally true
--that the repetition of it three times does not merely intend
to express the certainty of God’s overthrow of self in the soul
but that there
are three distinct occasions--three clear
positive
and direct overturnings of
self
and bringing it into utter ruin
in order to the setting up of Christ in
His glory and beauty upon the wreck and ruins of the creature.
1. The first prominent feature of self is in some cases profane self;
that is
many of God’s elect
before they are called by the blessed Spirit
are
living in open profanity
in drunkenness
swearing
and the barefaced practice
of notorious sins. But whenever the Spirit of God begins to work in the heart
He overturns profane self
that is
He brings such solemn convictions into the
conscience--He shoots such arrows from the bow of God into the soul
that self
in its profane shape is overcome and overthrown thereby.
2. Here
then
is a soul which stands overturned before God; a wreck
and ruin before “the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” But what will a man
do when he is reduced to these circumstances? Why
he will begin to build
and
will endeavour to set up a temple in which he believes God will take pleasure
of which He may approve
and which shall
in some measure
recommend him to
Jehovah’s favour. A second overturning
then
is necessary
an overthrow of
righteous or holy self. And what is the Lord’s lever to overturn this second
temple
built out of the ruins of the first
but not “the place of His rest
”
as being still the work of men’s hands? A spiritual discovery of the deep
pollution of our hearts and natures before Him. Profanity is overturned by the
application of the law with power to the conscience; but this false holiness
this mock spirituality
is overturned by the discovery to our consciences of
the deep pollution that lurks in our carnal minds; this is more or less the
breaking up of “the fountains of the great deep
” and discovering with power to
the conscience the truth of those words: “The heart is deceitful above all
things
and desperately wicked.” As we try
then
to be holy
sin rises up from
the depths of our carnal mind
and overturns that fabric which we are seeking
to erect.
3. Now let us trace a little what course self will steer. Why
this
restless wretch now runs in another channel
which is to slight the solemn
inward teachings of God
and to take hold of the doctrines of grace by the hand
of nature
without waiting to have these heavenly truths applied
from time to
time
by the mouth of God to our hearts. And as some sweetness has been felt in
them there seems to be some warrant for so doing. But presumption creeps upon
us in such imperceptible and subtle ways
that we scarcely know we are in thus
delusive path before we find a precipice at the end of the road. And what has
led us there? Our pride and ambition
which are not satisfied with being nothing
with occupying the place where God puts us
and being in that posture where He
Himself sets us down. We must needs grasp at something beyond God’s special
teachings in the soul; we must needs exalt our stature beyond the height which
God Himself has given us
adding a cubit to our dwarfish proportions. Here
then
is the third form of self which is to be overturned
as much as the two
preceding forms
and that is presumptuous self.
II. The setting up
of the kingdom of God on the ruins of self. “I will overturn
overturn
overturn it: and it shall be no more
until He come whose right it is; and I
will give it Him.” There is one then to come “whose right it is
” there is a
King who has a right to the throne
and to the allegiance of His subjects; a
right to all that they are and to all that they have. But whence has He gained
this right? “Until He come whose right it is.” It is His right
then
first
by
original donation and gift
the Father having given to the Son all the elect.
“Here am I
” says Jesus
and the children that Thou hast given Me.” “All that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” Then
so far as we are His
Jesus has a
right to our persons; and in having a right to our persons
He has
by the same
original donation of God the Father
a right to our hearts and affections. But
He has another right
and that is by purchase and redemption
He having
redeemed His people by His own blood--having laid down His life for them
and
thus bought and purchased them
and so established a right to them by the full
and complete price which He Himself paid down upon the cross for them. This
two-fold right He exercises every time that He lays a solemn claim to any one
of the people whom He has purchased. “Until He come whose right it is.” Then
there is a coming of Jesus into the souls of His people; not a coming into
their judgments to inform their heads; not a coming into their minds merely to
enable them to speak with their tongues concerning them
but there is a solemn
coming of Christ
with power and glory and grace and majesty into the souls and
consciences of His elect family
whereby He sets up His kingdom upon its basis
erects a temple for Himself
and builds up His own throne of mercy and truth
upon the ruins of self. But this is not a work which is once done
and needs no
more repetition. For we must bear in mind that this wreck and ruin of self is
not a heap of dead stones. Self is a living principle; not a slaughtered and
buried rebel
but a breathing antagonist to the Lord of life and glory. Self
will ever work
then
against His supreme authority
and will ever rebel
against His sovereign dominion. And therefore if we look into our hearts we
shall find that day by day we need this overturning work to be done afresh
and
again and again repeated in us. (J. C. Philpot.)
Messiah’s final triumph
I. Jehovah has
given universal empire to Jesus (Psalms 72:1-11; Psalms 2:8; Psalms 89:27; Daniel 7:14; Zechariah 9:10; Philippians 2:10; Acts 2:32
etc.) Christ’s dominion is to
embrace the whole world
--every empire
kingdom
continent
and island.
II. It is Christ’s
right thus to reign. “Whose right it is.”
1. On His creative property in all things (Colossians 1:16). Satan is an
usurper
--the world is alienated from its rightful Lord. But the right of
Christ remains unaffected
and that right He will demand and obtain.
2. On His supreme authority as universal Lord. He is Lord of all
King of kings
etc. This authority is seen in controlling all events
in
upholding all things
etc. In His infinite outgoings of benevolence and love.
3. He has a redeeming right. He became incarnate
He descended into
the world
He brought the light of heaven into it
He gave His own life for it
He is the proprietor
etc. Here then is a right
ratified with His precious
blood. He was willingly lifted up that He “might draw all men unto Him.”
III. God will
overturn every obstacle until this be effected. “I will overturn
” etc.
Ignorance must give place to light
error to truth
sin to holiness. Satan must
be driven from his strongholds
and thus Jesus will enlarge His empire and
extend His domains. There are
however
four mighty impediments which must be
overthrown
entirely overturned.
1. Paganism
and all its multifarious rites.
2. Mohammedanism in all its earthly gratifications.
3. Judaism
with its obsolete rites.
4. Antichristian Rome.
Every thing that exalteth itself against God
or attempts the
division of Christ’s merits
must be consumed before the brightness of
Messiah’s countenance and the power of His truth. But you ask
How will God
overturn
etc.? Doubtless His providence will subserve the purposes of His
grace. He may cause science and commerce to open a passage for the message of
truth. He may even overrule war
and may allow the military hero to pioneer the
ambassador of peace. But he will do it by the power of the Gospel of truth. The
doctrines of the cross are to effect it. “We preach Christ crucified
” etc.
“Not by might
nor by power
” etc. (J. Burns
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》