The Arrows of the Bow Broken in Zion
A Sermon
(No. 791)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, January 19, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [4]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"There broke He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and
the battle." Psalm 76:3.
THE writer of this song of triumph gloried as a patriot in the defeat
of his country's foes–he did better, he triumphed as a believer in
Jehovah in the victories which were worked by the power of the Lord his
God! I have sometimes wished that we English Christians blended in
ourselves a little more of the two characters of patriots and
Believers. I am persuaded that if our poets had been holy and devout
men, and at the same time bold patriots, like David, they would not
have lacked subjects for the most glorious national hymns.
The events of English history are no less stirring than the annals of
Judah and Israel. What a theme for a master singer would be the defeat
of the proud Spanish Armada, or the frustration of Rome's knavish
tricks on November the Fifth, or the gallant fights of Oliver and his
valiant Ironsides, or the landing of William III and the overthrow of
the hopes of the enemies of the Gospel! Our national minstrelsy has
never been so devout as it should be and we are poor in holy national
songs as compared to the Hebrews. May the taste of coming ages improve
in this respect.
Let us, in the events which occur in our own tune, see the hand of
God–and if we cannot write psalms and hymns, yet at any rate let us
feel the spirit of glowing thanksgiving to that God who has bid the
ocean gird our native isle and thus protected her with a better guard
than gates of brass or triple steel! Blessed be the Lord our God, Who,
till now, has held the shield of Omnipotence over this land and made it
the citadel of liberty, the refuge of the oppressed, and the stronghold
of the Gospel of Christ.
We will not, however, detain you with such subjects, but invite you to
more spiritual considerations. Our Salem is the peaceful Church or God,
and our Zion is the abode of Gospel worship where the general assembly
of the first-born unite in holy joy. The Psalmists of Israel, when they
rehearsed the Lord's mighty acts in the midst of His people, spoke of
the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea. And we who believe in Jesus
can join with the song of Moses the song of the Lamb, while we behold
the overthrow of sin, death and Hell by our all-glorious Champion, and
cry with all our hearts and voices, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider has He thrown into the
sea."
Israel chanted her paean of victory over the accursed Canaanites whom
Joshua slew with great slaughter. They were firmly established in their
own country. They dwelt in cities which were walled up to the heavens
and they rushed forth to war, riding in chariots of iron with sharp
scythes upon their axles, and spearmen darting their javelins afar.
Their warriors were swift and valiant and their numbers like the sand
of the sea. But, behold, their boasted armies dissolved at the advance
of Joshua as the hoar frost melts in the sun!
Hittites and Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites fell before the sword of
the Lord and Israel magnified Jehovah who "smote great kings, and slew
famous kings, and gave their land for an heritage, even an heritage
unto Israel His servant: for His mercy endures forever." We also have a
better Canaan in prospect and more terrible enemies have been subdued
by Jesus, the Captain of our salvation–let us not be slow to praise
the name of the Lord! No Jew could forget the victories achieved under
the leadership of David over the Philistines. They had giants among
them and their ranks were filled with veterans–men of war from their
youth up–yet the sling and the stone brought down the champion, and
the troops of God were made valiant in battle, turning to flight the
armies of the aliens!
Give unto the Lord, O you mighty, give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name, for even thus
has Jesus vanquished evil and given His servants Grace to conquer
through His blood. This Psalm commemorates the grand defeat of
Sennacherib. No swords or spears were used–the Lord sent an angel who
cut off all the mighty men of valor, and all the leaders and captains
in the camp–so that the proud Assyrian returned with shame to his own
land. This victory was the subject of many a holy song in Judah's happy
land. But the everlasting defeat
of the accuser of the Brethren by the angel of the Covenant of Grace
should waken yet more thrilling music in the choirs of the Church of
the living God.
All the wonders recorded in the book of the wars of the Lord are
eclipsed in the Gospel annals, for they are but the destruction of
men's bodies, the temporary deliverance of cities and of nations from
the oppression of war. But the Gospel tells of eternal redemption. As
spiritual affairs far exceed material interests, so the spiritual
victories of God in the midst of His Church are far more resplendent
than His triumphs against His foes on behalf of Israel. May the Holy
Spirit quicken us, raise our courage, strengthen our faith and confirm
our confidence in Him while we think upon what God has done and is
doing in the midst of His Church.
"There broke He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and
the battle." Right valiantly has the Lord worked for us and in us, and
He will also do great things by us.
I. First, he has fought victoriously FOR US. Our God has worked great
spiritual victories for us by which all the ingenious weapons of our
many adversaries have been snapped. Let me remind you, Beloved, in the
first place, of what the Lord our God did in the day of our redemption
by the sufferings of Christ. Let us celebrate the triumphs of Cavalry!
The Lord of angels descended from Heaven and left the glories of His
Father's Throne to take upon Himself the form of a servant and to be
made in the likeness of man. Throughout the whole of His life of
humiliation He was attacked by the enemy, but He was victorious at
every point.
Hell strived to empty out all its quivers upon Him and the sword of
Satanic malice sought with its keenest edge to wound Him, but never was
He staggered or so much as scarred. He quenched every fiery dart and
repelled every barbed arrow. The prince of this world watched Him with
jealous eyes and scanned Him from head to foot but found no place for
the entrances of sin–nothing within His soul upon which evil could
gain a footing. Jesus was unconquerable to show us that in the power of
Divine Grace manhood may overcome the sword of evil and break the
arrows of temptation. At last the fullness of time ushered in that
dreadful night when all the powers of darkness met and collected all
their infernal might for one last tremendous charge–buckler, and
sword, and arrow and every weapon of offense and defense were wielded
by the leaguered hosts of Hell–but all in vain.
Our Champion was hard put to it. He sweat, as it were, great drops of
blood falling to the ground. He was numbered with the transgressors. He
was led away like a malefactor, tried and condemned. The Lord Jehovah
made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all, but in all, and over all He
was more than conqueror! You never can forget, for it is written upon
the fleshy tablets of your grateful hearts, how His enemies dragged Him
to the Mount of Crucifixion. How they fastened Him to the accursed
tree, lifted Him up all bleeding and suffering, exposed Him to the
glare of the sun, dashed the Cross into its place dislocating all His
bones! How they sat around and stared upon Him and mocked His miseries!
But in all this He remained invincible!
These griefs, which were outward and conspicuous to our eyes, were but
a small part of His agonies–the inward strife, the internal conflict,
the soul-desertion and depression were far heavier. Sin's utmost
weight, the fury of vengeance, the curse of the Law, the sword of
Justice, the malice of Satan, the bitterness of death–all these He
knew and more. And yet, single-handed, He sustained the fight and
earned the crown! That glorious cry, "It is finished," was the
deathblow of all the adversaries of His people, the breaking of "the
arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the
battle."
I think I see before me the hero of Golgotha using His Cross as an
anvil and His woes as a hammer. He is dashing to shivers bundle after
bundle of our sins, those poisoned "arrows of the bow." He is trampling
on every charge, and destroying every accusation. What glorious blows
the mighty Breaker gives! How the weapons fly to fragments, beaten
small as the dust of the threshing floor! Behold, I see Him drawing
from its sheath of hellish workmanship the dread sword of hellish
power! See He snaps it across His knee as a man breaks dry and brittle
firewood, and casts it into the fire. Like David, he cries, "He teaches
My hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by My arms." "I have
pursued My enemies, and destroyed them, and turned not again until I
had consumed them. And I have consumed them and wounded them that they
could not arise: yes, they are fallen under My feet…Then did I beat
them as small as the dust of the earth; I did stamp them as the mire of
the street."
Beloved, no sin of a Believer can now be an arrow to mortally wound
him. No condemnation can now be a sword to kill him, for the punishment
of our sin was borne by Christ. A full atonement has been made for all
our iniquities by our
blessed Substitute and Surety. Who now accuses? Who now condemns?
Christ has died, yes, rather has risen again! Let Hell, if it can, find
a single arrow to shoot against the Beloved of the Lord! They are all
broken, not one of them is left. Christ has emptied the quivers of
Hell, has quenched every fiery dart and broken off the head of every
arrow of wrath! The ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of
the weapons of Hell's warfare–which are only visible to us to remind
us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance.
Sin has no more dominion over us! Jesus has made an end of it, and put
it away forever. O you enemy, destruction has come to a perpetual end!
Let us talk of all the wondrous works of the Lord and you who make
mention of His name keep not silent. When our Lord, after a short
sojourn in the grave, rose again on the third day, His resurrection
effectually crushed all the remaining hopes of Hell. So long as He was
in the tomb, it might seem as though His people were in jeopardy. But
when He "rose again for our justification," our security was no longer
in doubt! In His death He paid the debt. In His resurrection He
obtained the receipt, and exhibited the precious writing to Heaven, and
earth, and Hell, by nailing the handwriting of ordinances to His Cross.
The rising of Christ from the grave is to us the warrant of our final
perseverance. Has He not Himself said, "Because I live, you shall live
also"? It is to us the pledge of our resurrection, for as the Head has
arisen, so all the members of the body must arise. Had Jesus seen
corruption, had the grave still held His body in vile durance, our hope
would have been but slender. But now that Jesus lives, and death has no
more dominion over Him, we rejoice that by one sacrifice He has
perfected forever them that are set apart. Our risen Lord shines forth
in transcendent majesty beside the empty tomb, surrounded by the broken
swords and bucklers of His people–
"Shout, you seraphs! Gabriel, raise
Fame's eternal trump of praise!
Let the earth's remotest bound
Hear the joy-inspiring sound
Hallelujah. Lives again our glorious King!
'Where, O death, is now your sting?'
Once He died our souls to save; 'Where's your victory, boasting
grave?'" Yet further, when, after 40 days our Lord ascended from us to
take possession of the purchased possession in our name, and to prepare
a place for us at the right hand of the Father–in that day He again
gave to Hell such a defeat as it shall never be able to recover. Had
Jesus Christ remained still upon the earth, it had been thought that
Heaven was still shut to Believers and we might have entertained a fear
that between us and the celestial gate there would be such hordes of
enemies that we should never be able to hew a pathway to our rest. But
Jesus has completely cleared the king's highway to Glory for all His
saints, and they traverse in safety the road to the celestial gate! As
the watchmen fled from the grave's month when the living Lord arose,
and as the stone was rolled away from the sepulcher, so all the fiends
that might have kept us out of Heaven have fled also, and every barrier
to our entrance to the celestial reward is effectually removed.
See the Incarnate God returning to His Throne! Your imaginations can
conceive the splendor of His triumphal entrance when all the angels
hailed Him with glad acclaim and disembodied spirits who had long ago
been redeemed by the foresight of His death met Him with their
congratulations and the Paternal Deity said, "Well done" and bade Him
take His reward at His right hand. Ah, then He led captivity captive
and made a show of His enemies openly! Then He finally broke the
"arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle," and
gave to His people a conformation of the assurance that it shall never
be possible to keep so much as one of them out of the eternal rest
since their Covenant Head has taken possession on their behalf–to hold
it safely for each one until "the adoption to wit the redemption of our
body." Nor is the story quite ended yet. Jesus is now exalted far above
all principalities and powers and every name that is named.
But the enemy of our souls, though defeated, continues maliciously to
attempt our destruction. Satan's head is bruised but still he lives and
continues perpetually to assault the saints of God. We seldom stand
before the angel without Satan comes forward as our accuser. The
accuser of the Brethren unceasingly clamors against the saints, but
here is our joy–whatever may be the arrows of Satan's bow, whatever
sword he may wield against us–there He stands, our great Captain, our
Shield and the Lord's Anointed! And as fast as the arrows of accusation
are shot, He breaks them! And as often as the sword is drawn, He turns
aside its edge!
Courage, Christian! Your foes may be unceasing in their attacks, but
Jesus Christ is unfailing in your protection! For Zion's sake He does
not hold His peace and for Jerusalem's sake He does not rest. His
intercession comes up perpetually before the eternal Throne–and the
constant presentation of His Omnipotent merit evermore preserves the
tempted, succors the needy, and upholds those that are ready to fall.
Let us be of good cheer, for there, in the New Jerusalem to which our
laboring souls aspire, the intercession of Jesus breaks "the arrows of
the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." Nor does it end
there, for here below our exalted Lord is master over all events!
Providence is ruled and guided by the Man whose head was surrounded
with the crown of thorns–
"Lo! In His hands the sovereign keys Of Heaven, and death, and
Hell."
To this hour the adversaries of the Truth of God seek the overthrow of
the Church of God. We may be sometimes idle, but they are always
diligent. "The enemy goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour." He assails the people of God in successive ages from
different points of the compass with cunning and fury, and we should
have poor hope–we who are like a few lambs in the midst of wolves–if
it were not that our Master is present by His eternal Spirit and rules
all things by His Providential government! He can make those wheels
which are so high that they are terrible, to revolve that the greatest
enemies of the Church shall be cut off or shall be converted! And He
can raise up from the dunghill men that shall be princes in the midst
of Israel, to be defenders of the Truth and shepherds to His people.
He can cause to be born in a humble cottage in the woods a Luther who
shall shake off the fetters from the nations! He can bring forth from
the wildest village of France a Calvin whose words shall be as nails
fastened by the master of assemblies! And He can raise a flaming Knox
and nourish his fiery spirit in Geneva till Scotland needs him–or
raise up in the quiet parsonage of Lutterworth a Wickliffe to shine as
the morning star of the Reformation in England. God is never short of
men! He never has to worry Himself of means! He knows no difficulties
or dilemmas. If His Church needed it, He could, tomorrow, make emperors
relent of their sins and doff their crowns to become ministers of the
Word, and constrain the most violent persecutors of the Church to
crouch at her feet and lick the dust.
Let us be confident in the reigning power of our ever loving Savior!
Let us be reassured by the history of the Church in the past, and
expect to see Divine interpositions in our own day. Fear not, for still
it shall be said of Zion, "There broke He the arrows of the bow, the
shield, and the sword, and the battle." For His redeemed ones it is
most evident that the Lord Jesus is more than conqueror, not only
putting adverse darts aside, but breaking them. He not merely averts
the violence of the sword, but He breaks that sword, tearing the
buckler from the enemy and leaving him defenseless– stripping him of
all his arms, both of offense and defense–that his defeat may be total
and irretrievable. "Arms and the man, I sing," said the great Roman
poet. A nobler theme, by far, would be, "Arms and the Son of God."
II. May we have help from on high while we now ask you to consider the
victories which Jesus Christ has won in us. Brethren, we who are
members of the Church of Christ have been subdued by Sovereign Grace.
Whereas once we were enemies, we are now reconciled unto God by the
death of His Son. Now, if we could each tell his story of conversion
the children of God would be ready to burst out with one simultaneous
shout of joy as they perceived that in the midst of His Church, the
Lord, in the hearts of His people, has broken the arrows of the bow!
Let me take you back to the time of your conversion. Some of us were
very stout-hearted. We knew the Truth of God but we did not love it. We
understood the Gospel and we abhorred it. We were often entreated to
consider the welfare of our souls, but we cared for the frivolities of
the moment and we let the realities of eternity slip by. We were
thundered at by the Law! We were gently wooed by the Gospel. The tears
of a mother, united with the earnest warnings of a teacher, and the
admonitions of a pastor–all these were powerless upon our slumbering
conscience. Some of us went to great lengths of rebellion and hardened
ourselves more and more until it seemed impossible for us to do enough
against the Lord our God.
When we talk of great and vile sinners it brings tears to our eyes as
we remember that such were some of us, but we have been washed. Ah,
Brothers and Sisters, the bringing in of great sinners is, indeed, a
glory to Christ–and the salvation of great moralists is not a
secondary victory, for perhaps of the two it is more difficult to
subdue the righteous self than the sinful self of men. To have made
those who have been kept pure outwardly to feel their inward impurity,
and
to bewail it is a triumph great and masterly! Rejoice when the harlot
bows before the Savior with breaking heart! Be glad when Saul of Tarsus
yields his persecuting heart to the Savior's scepter! But equally adore
the majesty of love when the young man who has kept all these
commandments from his youth up seeks the one thing which he lacks and
trusts his heart with Jesus Christ without delay!
When we shall get to Heaven we will astonish the angels with what we
shall have to tell–the depths of sin out of which we have been
delivered–the fiery lusts from which we have been rescued–the stiff
necks that have been made to bow, and the unyielding knees that have
been compelled to bend! Glory be unto God! I cannot help saying so
again, Glory be to God! As I look around this place and think of some
of you in whom God's great and wondrous arm has been revealed in
redeeming you from all your iniquities, I dare make it my boast that
here the Lord has broken "the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the
sword, and the battle!"
Since conversion, dear Friends, how often has the great Conqueror been
obliged to interpose on our behalf to save us from our rebellious
lusts? I do not know how you find it, but it strikes me that conflict
is the principal feature of the Christian life this side Heaven. We
know what communion is. We are no strangers to the banqueting house
where the banner of love is waving. But still, to contest every inch of
ground on the road to immortality, to wrestle hard with sins, and
doubts and fears is our average experience. We do get beyond this
sometimes, but not for long. We have soon to come back again, either to
fight with the lions, or Apollyon, or to climb the Hill Difficulty, or
to traverse the Valley of the Shadow of Death, or to pass through
Vanity Fair, or to endure the sleepy influences of the enchanted
ground, or to be in Doubting Castle!
It is not an easy path to Heaven–it is warfare from beginning to end.
There are times with us when we are so sorely beset with temptations
that our feet have almost gone, our steps have well near slipped. We
had long before this fallen, to our shame and confusion, if another arm
than ours had not held us up. Oh, what strong temptations some of us
have endured! Those of us who have passionate, fiery, strong, willful
natures have to fight frequently against suggestions which we would
scarcely whisper in the ear of those we love the best. We have overcome
as yet. We have been upheld till now. But who could have held us up but
the Lord Himself?
Our temptations occasionally are plied so craftily and are so exactly
fitted to the situation, so precisely adapted to the state of our
bodily health, or the condition of our outward business that it is a
wonder that we have not yielded. Yes, and we have almost yielded, as we
must mournfully acknowledge, and then Apollyon has hissed at us from
between his teeth: "You have been unfaithful to your Lord already in
your heart. You know you have gone back in your soul and broken your
covenant. How can you hope to be accepted at the last? Go back to the
world at once, for you are playing the hypocrite, you know you are,"
says he, "for your heart is deceitful. Go back, therefore, in your
outward life."
Though we have been able still to wield the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God, and have kept the weapon of All Prayer in our hand,
yet we have been almost overcome, and have narrowly escaped. We have to
bless God that we have escaped like a bird out of the snare of the
fowler, but only escaped as by the skin of our teeth. We have not
broken the arrows of the bow. We have not been able to break the sword
of the enemy–but Christ has done it, blessed be His name! We have fled
to the foot of His Cross. We have looked up and seen the streams of His
precious blood. We have cowered down beneath the shadow of the
Atonement and we have come away strong to fight with our corruptions
and to overcome our besetting sins.
Further than this, those who know anything of the inner life, if their
inward struggles are at all like mine, will frequently have to contend
with doubts and fears, suspicions and forebodings. Glory be to God, it
is not always so. "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that
day." My Brothers and Sisters, we often walk in darkness and see no
light. Many of God's people are harassed with questions as to their
interest in Christ, or are afflicted with deep depression of spirit.
And when it is so, if we try to comfort them, what a task it is! I have
tried all the promises of the Bible which I could remember upon some of
the sorely troubled ones. I have reminded them of the Person of Christ,
and His consequent power. The suffering of Christ and His consequent
ability to cleanse from sin.
And frequently I have had this answer, "When God shuts up, who can
deliver?" and I have been made to feel, as a pastor, very often, that I
could not quench the fiery darts of the enemy for other people–that I
could not break the sword of the enemy for others–or even for myself!
What a sweet relief it is to be assured that Jesus can break the arrows
of the bow, subdue our doubts, and cause His people with reviving
courage to say, "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, for when I fall I
shall rise again!" I have seen many excellent Believers whose lives
have been examples to us all, who, nevertheless, have said, "If you
knew what was in my heart, you would not speak to me as a Christian.
Oh, how great are my sins! I feel that I live at a great distance from
God. I am of little or no service to His Church. When I am in trouble,
I do not act like a Believer and cast my burden upon the Lord, but I
bear it till my soul is sorely burdened."
Then I have read to them such a Psalm as the one which follows our
text, where David says, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my
sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was
overwhelmed. You hold my eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no
more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Does His promise fail
forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up
His tender mercies?" I have always found such souls get relief when
they have come to Christ just as they did at first–and if they have
said, "I am afraid I never did come," they have soon rejoiced in the
light of His countenance when they have been able to add, "But if I
never came, I will now"–
"Just as I am–though tossed about With many a conflict, many a
doubt, Fights within, and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come."
To creep to the foot of the Cross feeling as if the earth would open
and swallow you up, and yet resolved that if you perish, you will
perish with your arms about the Atonement, resting on the expiatory
Sacrifice–this is the sure way to comfort. Tried one, you cannot
perish beneath the Cross! You must be safe there! Standing there, you
shall understand that there Jesus breaks "the arrows of the bow, the
shield, and the sword, and the battle." To leave this subject for a
moment, I would notice that all which is yet to come in the inner life
is secured by our Lord Jesus Christ. As up till now we have not been
mortally wounded, nor have cast away our confidence altogether, so
shall it be to the close. No doubt other conflicts will arise–the past
seems to warrant our prophesying that the future will not be calm and
peaceful–the hours of old age and consequent debility are stealing on
apace.
The days of sickness, and all the depression of spirit which sickness
usually brings are drawing near. Last of all, and most terrible to
some, the solemn article of death approaches, and speak of it as we
may, death is terrible to a living man. The river of death is cold and
chill, and for a man to plunge into it boldly will need more than
ordinary courage. But let us not sit down and deplore our future ills,
nor petulantly wish to avoid life's trials–we cannot if we could–let
us set our face steadfastly towards Jerusalem and go onward, persuaded
that every foe in advance is already defeated! Christ Jesus leads the
way! No enemy has been able to stand against Him and none shall stand
against us all the days of His life!
Death has lost its sting since Jesus died. "The sting of death is sin;
and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I wish that I had the
power to speak of these things as they deserve, but I leave them with
you as topics for your thankfulness. O my Brothers and Sisters, how we
ought to praise and bless God for what He has worked in us from the
first day until now! A dear friend said just before service, "I am very
grateful, and what is more, if I am not grateful, I ought to be, for I
owe so much."
Oh, if ever I get to Heaven, I will sing the loudest of any there for I
am sure I shall owe more to God than any of you! The responsibilities
of my office overwhelm me. When I sit and think of the many, many, many
who call me by the name of pastor, and the tens of thousands that read
the word which I preach every week, I am overwhelmed! If I shall at the
close of life be able to say as George Fox, the Quaker, said after his
last sermon, "I am clear! I am clear!"–I would give all the world if I
had it, to know that I shall be able to say that–for this is my one
and sole desire, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness, but being wrapped about with the fair white linen
of His. If safe at last, I shall have to praise Him who has delivered
me from a thousand temptations, and kept my feet safe in slippery
places.
I know that to each one of you your place seems as peculiar as mine
does to me. I do not doubt but what I am as much fitted for mine as you
are for yours, and therefore I believe that your condition has its
peculiar dangers, and I doubt not you receive peculiar helps and
special deliverances. Defraud not my Master of your gratitude! Give Him
your hearts. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the
altar, for God is our God which has showed us light! Let what He has
done for us bind us to Him, and encourage us to hope in Him. "You have
been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice."
III. And now, lastly, as this has been done for us, and in us, it will
be done BY US. The Church of God is God's battle-ax and weapons of war
in fighting His battles for truth and righteousness. And, up till now
history shows that none have been able to stand against God in the
midst of His people. If I could give you a brief epitome of Church
history, I should be glad to do so, but there is not time this morning,
and will not be, I fear, at any of our services today. But it is a
fact, that along the whole spiritual battle the victory has been to
God's people.
At first the enemy attacked the Church with persecution. Those rough
and barbarous weapons of war were used which were to be found in the
Coliseum with its wild beasts and cruel men, or in the axe, the stake,
and the rack. Men have grown somewhat wiser now, but in those days men
and devils sought to destroy the testimony of our God by the
destruction of the saints. And what was the result? O Persecution,
where are your trophies? The virgin daughter of Zion has shaken her
head at you and laughed you to scorn! The Church, like a good ship
beaten by the waves, has cut through every billow and has been hastened
on her way by the storm. Washed and cleansed and purged by opposition,
the more the Church has been opposed the more brightly glorious has she
shone forth!
God was in the midst of her and helped her. He helped her and that
right early. Our pulse beats fast, and our blood grows hot when we read
of the persecutions of old pagan Rome. And when we turn to the story of
the Reformation, and see the hunted ones among the Alps, the Huguenots
driven out of France–our own Lollards and the Covenanters of
Scotland–we feel proud to belong to such a race of men! We glory in
their lineage and are amazed that the policy of persecution should so
long have been continued by shrewd, sharp-witted men, when it ought to
have been clear to them that in every case in which they persecuted the
Church of God, it multiplied the more exceedingly! God has, indeed,
broken "the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the
battle," by sustaining His people in times of persecution.
The Church has also been assailed with deadly errors. There is scarcely
a doctrine of our holy faith which has not been denied. Every age
produces a new crop of heretics and infidels. Just as the current of
the times may run, so does the stream of infidelity change its
direction. We have lived long enough, some of us, to see three or four
species of atheists and deists rise and die–for they are short
lived–an ephemeral generation. We have seen the Church attacked by
weapons borrowed from geology, ethnology, and anatomy. And then from
the schools of criticism fierce warriors have issued, but she survives
all her antagonists. She has been assailed from almost every quarter,
but the fears that tarry in the Church today are blown to the wind
tomorrow!
Yes, the Church has been enriched by the attacks, for her divines have
set to work to study the points that were dubious, to strengthen the
walls that seemed a little weak, and so her towers have been
strengthened and her bulwarks consolidated. To disprove the Word of God
and to overthrow Christianity is still the fond dream of wicked men,
and therefore we may expect yet worse attacks. There are looming in the
future, even now, fresh clouds of skeptical theory, but as certainly as
God has blown away these things like chaff before the wind in times
gone by, so will He in the days that are yet to come. It is in the
Church itself that the victory is generally won. I am inclined to
believe that the writers against different heresies, when they have
done their best, have done comparatively little with the masses–and
that our learned men, when they assail new forms of skepticism, however
successful they may be with the few–do but very little with the many.
The true place of victory is not in the scholar's study, nor in the
classroom of the university, but in the Church itself. If you want to
answer the infidel, live a holy life! If you desire to stop the
skeptic, let your faith bring forth patience, your patience experience,
your experience hope that makes not ashamed. Zeal for the Truth of God
as it is in Jesus, earnest prayer for the extension of the Redeemer's
kingdom and industrious effort for the spread of the Truth will be much
more victorious over the insinuations of evil men than the most cogent
arguments that reason can devise. There, on the deathbed of the
consumptive girl with scarcely strength enough to speak, she bears
witness that Christ is precious and His love a sweet savor in her
departing moments–THERE our precious Jesus breaks the arrows of the
bow!
There, in the working man's cottage which was once the haunt of
drunkenness and the den of vice and the abode of misery–but which has
now become a little paradise where the children are trained for Heaven,
where father and mother are knit together in love–THERE the Grace of
God breaks the shield, and the sword, and the battle! There where the
weeping sinner finds peace. Where the troubled merchant wins rest to
his spirit. Where the tempted young man overcomes the temptation and
stands fast in the day of trial–THERE it is where suffering is endured
with patience, where labor is performed with perseverance, where the
command is obeyed with holiness and sin is resisted with steadfastness!
THERE it is that the Gospel of Jesus breaks the "arrows of the bow, the
shield, and the sword, and the battle."
My dear Friends, let nothing ever daunt us as a Church. God has given
us some signal triumphs in the conversion of remarkable sinners–let
nothing, therefore, ever hinder us in seeking the conversion of men.
Some of you I know are industrious every day in seeking to turn men to
Christ. Do not give up the most hardened cases where you get nothing
but a sneer, or even where the door is slammed in your face! Do not be
cast down at rebuffs or blasphemies–those who are most opposed
frequently yield first. It is harder work to deal with those who say,
"Yes, yes, yes," but who forget what we say–it is more hopeless work
to deal with them than with those who turn against us and seek to tear
us apart.
In God's name push on, you soldiers of the Cross! The darkest alley may
be made light! The back courts of London may become the courts of King
Jesus! The house that is now a den of infamy may be purged, and be made
to have a Church within its walls! Be confident, in the energy of the
eternal Spirit, that He can subdue the hardened heart! Be steadfast in
the exercise of minister and continue to preach the Gospel, for it is
by preaching through the Holy Spirit that men shall be saved! Brothers
and Sisters, we anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be
converted to Christ! We are looking forward to the time when the gods
of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and to the bats–when
Romanism shall be exploded and the crescent of Mohammed shall never
again wave to cast its baleful rays upon nations.
We expect the time when every sail that whitens the deep shall bear the
herald of the Cross! When kings shall bow down before the Prince of
Peace and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed! I know that
some despair of this. They look upon the world as a vessel that is
breaking up and going to pieces, never to float again. We are to pluck,
they say, the elect from off her, and the world itself is to be
destroyed and cast away as an unclean thing. We are of another mind and
look for something more glorifying to God than this desponding theory.
We know that the world and all that is in it is one day to be burnt up,
and afterwards we look for new heavens and for a new earth. But we
cannot read our Bibles without the conviction that– "Jesus shallreign
wherever the sun Both his successive journeys run." We are not
discouraged by the length of His delays. We are not disheartened by the
period which He allots to the Church in which to strive and struggle
with little success and much defeat. We believe that God will never
suffer this world, which has once seen Christ's blood shed upon it, to
be always the devil's stronghold. Brethren, Christ came here to take
the lion by the beard and to rend him, and to deliver this world
entirely and altogether from the detested sway of the powers of
darkness. It shall be so, for Jesus cannot lose His reward! We expect
to see the mountain of the Lord arise–it has arisen now–it is no mean
hill already. But we expect to see it rise higher, and higher, and
higher till it shall be exalted upon the top of the hills–above all
the highest peaks of earth–and nations shall flow unto it.
The handful of corn upon the top of the mountains shall yet shake like
Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
What a shout shall that be when men and angels shall join together to
cry, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" What
a satisfaction will it be in that day to have had a share in the fight,
to have helped to break the arrows of the bow, and to have aided in
winning the victory for our Lord Jesus!
In closing, let me solemnly remark how unhappy are those who are on the
side of evil! It is a losing side and it is a side where to lose is to
lose forever. Be reconciled unto God! This is the Gospel message. "Kiss
the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, while His wrath
is kindled but a little." Lastly, how happy are they who trust
themselves with this conquering Lord, and who fight side by side with
Him doing their little in His name and by His strength! Thrice happy,
my Brothers and Sisters, are we to have the honor of winning souls! Let
us seek to get more of such honor! Let us be insatiable to promote
Christ's Gospel! Let us be ambitious to the highest bent of our minds
to extend the Redeemer's kingdom! And God do so to you, and more also,
as you shall seek to do unto Him, and unto the sons of men for their
good evermore. Amen.
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Mary Magdalene
A Sermon