CHARLES SPURGEON THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name.” That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
I almost regret this morning that I have ventured to occupy this pulpit,
because I feel utterly unable to preach to you for your profit. I had thought
that the quiet and repose of the last fortnight had removed the effects of
that terrible catastrophe; but on coming back to the same spot again, and
more especially, standing here to address you. I feel somewhat of those
same painful emotions which well-nigh prostrated me before. You will
therefore excuse me this morning if I make no allusion to that solemn
event, or scarcely any. I could not preach to you upon a subject that should
be in the least allied to it. I should be obliged to be silent if I should bring
to my remembrance that terrific scene in the midst of which it was my
solemn lot to stand. God shall overrule it doubtless. It may not have been
so much by the malice of men, as some have asserted; it was perhaps
simple wickedness — an intention to disturb a congregation; tent certainly
with no thought of committing so terrible a crime as that of the murder of
those unhappy creatures. God forgive those who were the instigators of
that horrid act! They have my forgiveness from the depths of my soul. It
shall not stop us, however; we are not in the least degree daunted by it. I
shall preach there again yet; ay, and God shall give us souls there, and
Satan’s empire shall tremble more than ever. “God is with us; who is he
that shall be against us?” The text I have selected is one that has comforted
me, and in a great measure, enabled me to come here to-day — the single
reflection upon it had such a power of comfort on my depressed spirit. It is
this: — “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.” — Philippians 2:9-11.
I shall not attempt to preach upon this text, I shall only make a few
remarks that have occurred to my own mind; for I could not preach to-day;
I have been utterly unable to study, but I thought that even a few words
might be acceptable to you this morning, and I trust to your loving hearts
to excuse them. Oh, Spirit of God, magnify thy strength in thy servant’s
weakness, and enable him to honor his Lord, even when his soul is cast
down within him.
When the mind is intensely set upon one object, however much it may by
divers calamities be tossed to and fro, it invariably returns to the place
which it had chosen to be its dwelling place. Ye have noticed in the case of
David. When the battle had been won by his warriors, they returned
flushed with victory. David’s mind had doubtless suffered much
perturbation the mean time, he had dreaded alike the effects of victory and
defeat; but have you not noticed how his mind in one moment returned to
the darling object of his affections? “Is the young man Absalom safe?” said
he, as if it mattered not what else had occurred, if his beloved son were but
secure! So, beloved, is it with the Christian, in the midst of calamities,
whether they be the wreck of nations, the crash of empires, the heaving of
revolutions, or the scourge of war, the great question which he asks
himself, and asks of others too, is this — Is Christ’s kingdom safe? In his
own personal afflictions his chief anxiety is, — Will God be glorified, and
will his honor be increased by it? If it be so, says he, although I be but as
smoking flax, yet if the sun is not dimmed I will rejoice, and though I be a
bruised reed, if the pillars of the temple are unbroken, what matters it that
my reed is bruised? He finds it sufficient consolation, in the midst of all the
breaking in pieces which he endures, to think that Christ’s throne stands
fast and firm, and that though the earth hath rocked beneath his feet, yet
Christ standeth on a rock which never can be moved. Some of these
feelings, I think, have crossed our minds. Amidst much tumult and divers
rushings to and fro of troublous thoughts our souls have returned to the
darling object of our desires, and we have found it no small consolation
after all to say, “It matters not what shall become of us: God hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow.”
This text has afforded sweet consolation to every heir of heaven. Allow
me, very briefly, to give you the consolations of it. To the true Christian
there is much comfort in the very fact of Christ’s exaltation. In the second
place, there is no small degree of consolation in the reason of it.
“Wherefore, also, God hath highly exalted him;” that is because of his
previous humiliation. And thirdly, there is no small amount of really divine
solace in the thought of the person who has exalted Christ. “Wherefore
God also” — although men despise him and cast him down — “God also
hath highly exalted him.”
I. First, then, IN THE VERY FACT OF CHRIST’S EXALTATION THERE IS TO
EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN A VERY LARGE DEGREE OF COMFORT. Many of
you who have no part nor lot in spiritual things, not having love to Christ,
nor any desire for his glory, will but laugh when I say that this is a very
bottle of cordial to the lip of the weary Christian, that Christ, after all, is
glorified. To you it is no consolation, because you lack that condition of
heart which males this text sweet to the soul. To you there is nothing of joy
in it, it does not stir your bosom it gives no sweetness to your life; for this
very reason, that you are not joined to Christ’s cause, nor do you devoutly
seek to honor him. But the true Christian’s heart leapeth for joy, even
when cast down by divers sorrows and temptations, at the remembrance
that Christ is exalted, for in that he finds enough to cheer his own heart.
Note here, beloved, that the Christian has certain features in his character
which make the exaltation of Christ a matter of great joy to him. First, he
has in his own opinion, and not in his own opinion only, but in reality, a
relationship to Christ, and therefore he feels an interest in the success of
his kinsman. Ye have watched the father’s joy, when step by step his boy
has climbed to opulence or fame, ye have marked the mother’s eye, as it
sparkled with delight when her daughter grew up to womanhood, and burst
forth in all the grandeur of beauty. Ye have asked why they should feel
such interest; and ye have been told, because the boy was his, or the girl
was hers. They delighted in the advancement of their little ones, because of
their relationship. Had there been no relationship, they might have been
advanced to kings, emperors, or queens, and they would have felt but little
delight. But from the feet of kindred, each step was invested with a deep
and stirring interest. Now, it is so with the Christian. He feels that Jesus
Christ, the glorified Prince of the kings of the earth.” is his brother. While
he reverences him as God, he admires him as the man-Christ, bone of his
bone, and flesh of his flesh, and he delights, in his calm and placid moments
of communion with Jesus, to say to him, “O Lord, thou art my brother.”
His song is, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” It is his joy to sing —
“In ties of blood with sinners one,”
Christ Jesus is; for he is man, even as we are: and he is no less and no more
man than we are, save only sin. Surely, when we feel we are related to
Christ, his exaltation is the source of the greatest joy to our spirits; we take
a delight in it, seeing it is one of our family that is exalted. It is the Elder
Brother of the great one family of God in heaven and earth, it is the
Brother to whose all of us are related.
There is also in the Christian not only the feeling of relationship merely, but
there is a feeling of unity in the cause. He feels that when Christ is exalted,
it is himself exalted in some degree, seeing he has sympathy with his desire
of promoting the great cause and honor of God in the world. I have no
doubt that every common soldier who stood by the side of the Duke of
Wellington felt honored when the commander was applauded for the
victory, for, said he, “I helped him, I assisted him; it was but a mean part
that I played; I did but maintain my rank; I did but sustain the enemy’s fire;
but now the victory is gained, I feel an honor in it, for I helped, in some
degree, to gain it.” So the Christian, when he sees his Lord exalted, says,
“It is the Captain that is exalted, and in his exaltation all his soldiers share.
Have I not stood by his side? Little was the work I did, and poor the
strength which I possessed to serve him, but still I aided in the labor;” and
the commonest soldier in the spiritual ranks feels that he himself is in some
degree exalted when he reads this — “Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:” a renown
above every name — “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”
Moreover, the Christian knows not only that there is this unity in design,
but that there is a real union between Christ and all his people. It is a
doctrine of revelation seldom descanted upon, but never too much thought
of — the doctrine that Christ and his members are all one. Know ye not,
beloved, that every member of Christ’s church is a member of Christ
himself? We are “of his flesh and of his bones,” parts of his great mystical
body; and when we read that our head is crowned, O rejoice, ye members
of his, his feet or his hands, though the crown is not on you, yet being on
your Head, you share the glory, for you are one with him. See Christ
yonder, sitting at his Father’s right hand! Believer! he is the pledge of thy
glorification; he is the surety of thine acceptance; and, moreover he is thy
representative. The seat which Christ possesses in heaven he has not only
by his own right, as a person of the Deity, but he has it also as the
representative of his whole church, for he is their forerunner, and he sits in
glory as the representative of every one of them. O rejoice, believer, when
thou seest thy Master exalted from the tomb, when thou beholdest him
exalted up to heaven. Then, when thou seest him climb the steps of light,
and sit upon his lofty throne, where angers’ ken can scarcely reach him —
when thou hearest the acclamations of a thousand seraphs — when thou
dost note the loud pealing choral symphony of millions of the redeemed;
think, when thou seest him crowned with light — think that thou art
exalted too in him, seeing that thou art a part of himself. Happy art thou if
thou knowest this, not only in doctrine, but in sweet experience too. Knit
to Christ, wedded to him, grown into his parts and portions of his very self,
we throb with the heart of the body; when the head itself is glorified we
share in the praise; we feel that his glorification bestows an honor upon us.
Ah! beloved, have you ever felt that unity to Christ? Have you ever felt a
unity of desire with him? If so, you will find this rich with comfort, but if
not — if you know not Christ — it will be a source of grief rather than a
pleasure to you that he is exalted, for you will have to reflect that he is
exalted to crush you, exalted to judge you and condemn you, exalted to
sweep this earth of its sins, and cut the curse up by the roots, and you with
it, unless you repent and turn unto God with full purpose of heart.
There is yet another feeling, which I think is extremely necessary to any
very great enjoyment of this truth, that Christ is exalted. It is a feeling of
entire surrender of one’s whole being to the great work of seeking to
honor him. Oh! I have striven for that: would to God I might attain unto it!
I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is
this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to him. It seems to me to be the
highest stage of man — to have no wish, no thought, no desire but Christ
— to feel that to die were bliss, if it were for Christ — that to live in
penury and woe, and scorn, and contempt, and misery, were sweet for
Christ — to feel that it did not matter what became of one’s self, so that
one’s Master was but exalted — to feel that though, like a sear leaf, you
are blown in the blast, you are quite careless whither you are going, so
long as you feel that the Master’s hand is guiding you according to his will.
Or rather to feel that though like the diamond you must be cut, that you
care not how sharply you may be cut, so that you may be made fit to be a
brilliant in his crown, that you care little what may be done to you, if you
may but honor him. If any of you have attained to that sweet feeling of
self-annihilation, you will look up to Christ as if he were the sun, and you
will say of yourself, “O Lord, I see thy beams, I feel myself to be not a
beam from thee — but darkness, swallowed up in thy light. The most I ask
is, that thou wouldst live in me, that the life I live in the flesh may not be
my life, but thy life in me, that I may say with emphasis, as Paul did, ‘For
me to live is Christ.’” A man that has attained to this, never need care what
is the opinion of this world. He may say, “Do you praise me? Do you
flatter me? Take back your flatteries; I ask them not at your hands; I
sought to praise my Master; ye have laid the praises at my door; go, lay
them at his, and not at mine. Do ye scorn me? Do ye despise me? Thrice
happy am I to bear it, if ye will not scorn and despise him!” And if ye will,
yet know this, that he is beyond your scorn; and therefore, smite the soldier
for his Captain’s sake; ay, strike, strike; but the King ye cannot touch — he
is highly exalted — and though ye think ye have gotten the victory, ye may
have routed one soldier of the army, but the main body is triumphant. One
soldier seems to be smitten to the dust, but the Captain is coming on with
his victorious cohorts, and shall trample you, flushed with your false
victory, beneath his conquering feet. As long as there is a particle of
selfishness remaining in us, it will mar our sweet rejoicing in Christ; till we
get rid of it, we shall never feel constant joy. I do think that the root of
sorrow is self. If we once got rid of that, sorrow would be sweet, sickness
would be health, sadness would be joy, penury would be wealth, so far as
our feelings with regard to them are concerned. They might not be
changed, but our feelings under them would be vastly different. If you
would seek happiness, seek it at the roots of your selfishness; cut up your
selfishness, and you will be happy. I have found that whenever I have
yielded to the least joy when I have been praised, I have made myself
effeminate and weak; I have then been prepared to feel acutely the arrows
of the enemy; but when I have said of the praises of men, “Yes, what are
ye? worthless things!” — then I could also say of their contempt — “Come
on! come on! I’ll send you all where I sent the praises; you may go
together, and fight your battles with one another, but as for me, let your
arrows rattle on my mail — they must not, and they shall not reach my
flesh.” But if you give way to one you will to another. You must seek and
learn to live wholly on Christ — to sorrow when you see Christ maligned
and dishonored, to rejoice when you see him exalted, and then you will
have constant cause for joy. Sit down now, O reviled one, poor, despised,
and tempted one, sit down, lift up thine eyes, see him on his throne, and
say within thyself, “Little though I be, I know I am united to him; he is my
love, my life, my joy; I care not what happens, so long as it is written, ‘The
Lord reigneth.’”
II. Now, briefly upon the second point. Here also is the very fountain and
wellspring of joy, in THE REASON OF CHRIST’S EXALTATION. “Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him.” Why? Because, “he being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, be humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him.” This of course relates to the manhood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. As God, Christ needed no exaltation; he was
higher than the highest, “God over all blessed for ever.” But the symbols of
his glory having been for a while obscured, having wrapped his Godhead in
mortal flesh, his flesh with his Godhead ascended up on high, and the man-
God, Christ Jesus, who had stooped to shame, and borrow, and
degradation, was highly exalted “far above all principalities and powers,”
that he might reign Prince regent over all worlds, yea, over heaven itself.
Let us consider, for a moment, that depth of degradation to which Christ
descended; and then, my beloved, it will give you joy to think, that for that
very reason his manhood was highly elected. Do you see that man —
The humble Man before his foes,
The weary Man and full of woes?”
Do you mark him as he speaks? Note the marvellous eloquence which
pours from his lips, and see how the crowds attend him? But do you hear,
in the distance the growling of the thunders of calumny and scorn? Listen
to the words of his accusers. They say he is “a gluttonous man and a winebibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners;” “he has a devil, and is mad.” All
the whole vocabulary of abuse is exhausted by vituperation upon him. He is
slandered, abused, persecuted! Stop! DO YOU think that he is by this cast
down, by this degraded? No, for this very reason: “God hath highly
exhalted him.” Mark the shame and spitting that have come upon the cheek
of yonder man of sorrows! See his hair plucked with cruel hands; mark ye
how they torture him and how they mock him. Do you think that this is all
dishonorable to Christ? It is apparently so, but list to this: “He became
obedient,” and therefore “God hath highly exhalted him.” Ah! there is a
marvellous connection between that shame, and spitting, and the bending
of the knee of seraphs; there is a strange yet mystic link which unites the
calumny and the slander with the choral sympathies of adoring angels. The
one was, as it were, the seed of the other. Strange that it should be, but the
black, the bitter seed brought forth a sweet and glorious flower which
blooms for ever. He suffered and he reigned; he stooped to conquer, and
he conquered for he stooped, and was exalted for he conquered.
Consider him further still. Do you mark him in your imagination nailed to
yonder cross! Oh yes! years full of pity, with tears standing thick! Oh! how
I mark the floods gushing down his cheeks! Do you see his hands bleeding,
and his feet too, gushing gore? Behold him! The bulls of Bashan gird him
round and the dogs are hounding him to death! Hear him! “Eloi, Eloi, lame
sabachthani?” The earth startles with affright. A God is groaning on a
cross! What! Does not this dishonor Christ? No; it honors him! Each of the
thorns becomes a brilliant in his diadem of glory, the nails are forged into
his scepter, and his wounds do clothe him with the purple of empire. The
treading of the wine-press hath stained his garments, but not with stains of
scorn and dishonor. The stains are embroideries upon his royal robes for
ever. The treading of that wine-press hath made his garments purple with
the empire of a world; and he is the Master of a universe for ever. O
Christian! sit down and consider that thy Master did not mount from
earth’s mountains into heaven, but from her valleys. It was not from
heights of bliss on earth that he strode to bliss eternal, but from depths of
woe he mounted up to glory. Oh! what a stride was that, when, at one
mighty step from the grave to the throne of The Highest, the man Christ,
the God, did gloriously ascend. And yet reflect! He in some way,
mysterious yet true, was exalted because he suffered. “Being found in
fashion as a man, he humbed himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every name.” Believer, there is
comfort for thee here, if thou wilt take it. If Christ was exalted through his
degradation, so shalt thou be. Count not thy steps to triumph by thy steps
upward, but by those which are seemingly downward. The way to heaven
is down-hill. He who would be honored for ever must sink in his own
esteem, and often in that of his fellow-men. Oh! think not of yon fool who
is mounting to heaven by his own light opinions of himself and by the
flatteries of his fellows, that he shall safely reach Paradise, nay, that shall
burst on which he rests and he shall fall and be broken in pieces. But he
who descends into the mines of suffering, shall find unbounded riches
there; and he who dives into the depths of grief shall find the pearl of
everlasting life within its caverns. Recollect Christian, that thou art exalted
when thou art disgraced; read the slanders of thine enemies as the plaudits
of the just, count that the scoff and jeer of wicked men are equal to the
praise and honor of the godly, their blame is censure, and their censure
praise. Reckon too, if thy body should ever be exposed to persecution, that
it is no shame to thee, but the reverse, and if thou shouldst be privileged,
(and thou mayest) to wear the blood-red crown of martyrdom, count it no
disgrace to die. Remember, the most honorable in the church are “the noble
army of martyrs.” Reckon that the greater the sufferings they endured, so
much the greater is their “eternal weight of glory;” and so do thou, if thou
standest in the brunt and thick of the fight, remember that thou shalt stand
in the midst of glory. If thou hast the hardest to bear, thou shalt have the
sweetest to enjoy. On with thee, then — through floods, through fire,
through death, through hell, if it should lie in thy path. Fear not. He who
glorified Christ because he stooped shall glorify thee; for after he has
caused thee to endure awhile, he will give thee “a crown of life which
fadeth not away.”
III. And now, in the last place, beloved, here is yet another comfort for
you. THE PERSON WHO exalted Christ is to be noticed. “GOD also hath
highly exalted him.” The emperor of all the Russias crowns himself: he is
an autocrat, and puts the crown upon his own head: but Christ hath no
such foolish pride. Christ did not crown himself. “GOD also hath highly
exalted him.” The crown was put upon the head of Christ by God, and
there is to me a very sweet reflection in this, — that the hand that put the
crown on Christ’s head will one day put the crown on ours; — that the
same Mighty One who crowned Christ, “King of kings, and Lord of lords,”
will crown us, when he shall make us “kings and priests unto him for ever.”
“I know,” said Paul, “there is laid up for me a crown of glory which fadeth
not away, which God, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day.”
Now, just pause over this thought — that Christ did not crown himself, but
that his Father crowned him; that he did not elevate himself to the throne
of majesty, but that his Father lifted him there, and placed him on his
throne. Why, reflect thus: Man never highly exalted Christ. Put this then in
opposition to it. – “God also hath highly exalted him.” Man hissed him,
mocked him, hooted him. Words were not hard enough — they would use
stones. “They took up stones again to stone him.” And stones failed; nails
must be used, and he must be crucified. And then there comes the taunt,
the jeer, the mockery, whilst he hangs languishing on his death-cross. Man
did not exalt him. Set the black picture there. Now put this with this
glorious, this bright scene side by side with it, and one shall be a foil to the
other. Man dishonored him; “God also exalted him.” Believer, it all men
speak ill of thee, lift up thy head, and say, “Man exalted not my Master; I
thank him that he exalts not me. The servant should not be above his
master, nor the servant above his lord, nor he that is sent greater than he
that sent him.”
“If on my face for his dear name,
Shame and reproach shall be;
I’ll hail reproach and welcome shame
For he’ll remember me.”
God will remember me, and highly exalt me after all, though man casts, me
down.
Put it, again, in opposition to the fact, that Christ did not exalt himself.
Poor Christian! you feel that you cannot exalt yourself: Sometimes you
cannot raise your poor depressed spirits. Some say to you, “Oh! you
should not feel like this.” They tell you, “Oh! you should not speak such
words, nor think such thoughts.” Ah! “the heart knoweth its own
bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not therewith,” — ay, and I will
improve upon it, “nor a friend either.” It is not easy to tell how another
ought to feel and how another ought to act. Our minds are differently
made, each in its own mould, which mould is broken afterwards, and there
shall never be another like it. We are all different, each one of us; but I am
sure there is one thing in which we are all brought to unite in times of deep
sorrow, namely, in a sense of helplessness. We feel that we cannot exalt
ourselves Now remember, our Master felt just like it. In the 22nd Psalm,
which, if I read it rightly, is a beautiful soliloquy of Christ upon the cross,
he says to himself, “I am a worm and no man.” As if he felt himself so
broken, so cast down, that instead of being more than a man, as he was, he
felt for awhile less than man. And yet, when he could not lift finger to
crown himself, when he could scarce heave a thought of victory, when his
eye could not flash with even a distant glimpse of triumph, — then his God
was crowning him. Art thou so broken in pieces, Christian? Think not that
thou art cast away for ever; for “God also hath highly exalted him “who did
not exalt himself; and this is a picture and prophecy of what he will do for
thee.
And now, beloved, I can say little more upon this text, save that I bid you
now for a few minutes meditate and think upon it. Oh! let your eyes be
lifted up; bid heaven’s blue veil divide; ask power of God — I mean
spiritual power from on high, to look within the veil. I bid you not look to
the streets of gold, nor to the walls, of jasper, nor to the pearly-gated city.
I do not ask you to turn your eyes to the white-robed hosts, who for ever
sing loud hallelujahs; but yonder, my friends, turn your eyes,
There, like a man, the Savior sits;
The God, how bright he shines;
And scatters infinite delight
On all the happy minds.”
Do you see him?
The head that once was crowned with thorns,
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
That mighty Victor’s brow.
No more the bloody crown,
The cross and nails no more:
For hell itself shakes at his frown
And all the heavens adore.”
Look at him! Can your imagination picture him? Behold his transcendent
glory! The majesty of kings is swallowed up; the pomp of empires
dissolves like the white mist of the morning before the sun, the brightness
of assembled armies is eclipsed. He in himself is brighter than the sun, more
terrible than armies with banners. See him! See him! Oh! hide your heads,
ye monarchs; put away your gaudy pageantry, ye lords of this poor narrow
earth! His kingdom knows no bounds; without a limit his vast empire
stretches out itself. Above him all is his, beneath him many a step are
angels, and they are his; and they cast their crowns before his feet. With
them stand his elect and ransomed, and their crowns too are his. And here
upon this lower earth stand his saints, and they are his, and they adore him;
and under the earth, among the infernals, where devils growl their malice,
even there is trembling and adoration; and where lost spirits, with wailing
and gnashing of teeth for ever lament their being, even there, there is the
acknowledgement of his Godhead, even though the confession helps to
make the fire of their torments. In heaven, in earth, in hell, all knees bend
before him, and every tongue confesses that he is God. If not now, yet in
the time that is to come this shall be carried out, that every creature of
God’s making shall acknowledge his Son to be “God over all, blessed for
ever. Amen.” Oh! my soul anticipates that blessed day, when this whole
earth shall bend its knee before its God willingly; I do believe there is a
happy era coming, when there shall not be one knee unbent before my Lord
and Master. I look for that time, that latter-day glory, when kings shall
bring presents, when queens shall be the nursing mothers of the church,
when the gold of Sheba and the ships of Tarshish, and the dromedaries of
Arabia shall alike be his, when nations and tribes of every tongue shall
“Dwell on his name with sweetest song,
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on his name.”
Sometimes, I hope to live to see that all-auspicious era — that halcyon age
of this world, so much oppressed with grief and sorrow by the tyranny of
its own habitants. I hope to see the time when it shall be said, “Shout, for
the great Shepherd reigns, and his unsuffering kingdom now is come” —
when earth shall be one great orchestra of praise, and every man shall sing
the glorious hallelujah anthem of the King of kings. But even now while
waiting for that era, my soul rejoices in the fact, that every knee does
virtually bow, though not willingly, yet really. Does the scoffer, when he
mouths high heaven, think that he insults God? He thinks so, but his insult
dies long ere it reaches half-way to the stars. Does he conceive, when in his
malice he forges a sword against Christ, that his weapon shall prosper? If
he does, I can well conceive the derision of God, when he sees the wildest
rebel, the most abandoned despiser, still working out his great decrees, still
doing that which God hath eternally ordained, and in the midst of his wild
rebellion still running in the very track which in some mysterious way from
before all eternity had been marked as the track in which that being should
certainly move “The wild steeds of earth have broken their bridles, the
reins are out of the hands of the charioteer” — so some say; but they are
not, or if they are, the steeds run the same round as they would have done
had the Almighty grasped the reins still. The world has not gone to
confusion; chance is not God; God is still Master, and let men do what they
will, and hate the truth we now prize, they shall after all do what God wills,
and their direst rebellion shall prove but a species of obedience, though
they know it not.
But thou wilt say, “Why dost thou yet find fault for who hath resisted such
a will as that?” “Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me
thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to
show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory.” Who is he that shall blame him? Woe unto him
that striveth with his Maker! He is God — know that, ye inhabitants of the
land; and all things, after all, shall serve his will. I like what Luther says in
his bold hymn, where, notwithstanding all that those who are haters of
predestination choose to affirm, he knew and boldly declared “He
everywhere hath sway, and all things serve his might.” Notwithstanding all
they do, there is God’s sway, after all. Go on, reviler! God knoweth how
to make all thy revilings into songs! Go on, thou warrior against God, if
thou wilt; know this, thy sword shall help to magnify God, and carve out
glory for Christ, when thou thoughtest the slaughter of his church. It shall
come to pass that all thou dost shall be frustrated; for God maketh the
diviners mad, and saith, “Where is the wisdom of the scribe? Where is the
wisdom of the wise?” Surely, “Him hath God exalted, and given him a
name which is above every name.”
And now, lastly, beloved, if it be true, as it is that Christ is so exalted that
he is to have a name above every name, and every knee is to bow to him,
will we not bow our knees this morning before his Majesty? You must,
whether you will or no, one day bow your knee. O iron-sinewed sinner,
bow thy knee now! Thou wilt have to bow it, man, in that day when the
lightnings shall be loosed, and the thunders shall roll in wild fury: thou wilt
have to bow thy knee then. Oh! bow it now! “Kiss the Son, lest he be
angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”
O Lord of hosts! bend the knees of men! Make us all the willing subjects of
thy grace, lest afterward, we should be the unwilling slaves of thy terror;
dragged with chains of vengeance down to hell. O that now those that are
on earth might willingly bend their knees lest in hell it should be fulfilled,
“Things under the earth shall bow the knee before him.”
God bless you, my friends; I can say no more but that. God bless you, for
Jesus’ sake! Amen.