IV. Now, lastly, I must take this passage as it respects the UNGODLY AND THE SINNER AT LAST. How many there shall be at the last great day who will sit down very comfortably behind certain battlements that they have builded! There is one man—a monarch: “I am irresponsible,” says he, “who shall ever bring anything to my charge? I am an autocrat: I give no account of my matters.” Oh! he will find out at last, that God is Master of emperors, and Judge of Princes; when his battlements shall be taken away. Another says, “Cannot I do as I like with my own? What if God did make me, I shall not serve him. I shall follow my own will. I have in my own nature everything that is good, and I shall do as my nature dictates. I shall trust in that, and if there be a higher power, he will exonerate me, because I only followed my nature.” But he will find his hopes to be visionary and his reason’ to be foolish, when God shall say, “The soul that sinneth it shall die:” and when his thundering voice shall pronounce the sentence—”Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire.” Again, there is a company of men joined hand in hand, and they think they will resist the Eternal yea, they have a plan for subverting the kingdom of Christ. They say, “We are wise and mighty. We have fortified ourselves. We have made a covenant with death and a league with hell,” Ah! they little think what will become of their battlements at the last great day, when they shall see them crumble and fall. With what fear and alarm will they then cry: “Rocks, hide us! Mountains, on us fall!” What will they do when God’s wrath goes forth as a fire in the day of his fierce anger, when he shall melt their hopes and make them pass away, when he shall blast all their joys and compel them to stand naked before his presence? Then I picture to myself, in the day of judgment, a band of men who have said on earth, “We will trust in God’s mercy. We do not believe in these religions at all: God is merciful, and we will trust in mercy.” Now, suppose—what is impossible, because their delusion will be dissipated at death—suppose them, in the dread day of account, to be crouching in the fortress of uncovenanted mercy. The judge opens his eyes upon their city, and says, “Angels! go ye up upon their walls; make a full end; take away their battlements, they are not the Lord’s.” Then the angels go, and demolish every stone of the bulwarks. They utterly cut off all hope of mercy. Each time they lay on the blow they cry “without holiness no man shall see the Lord! Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins! Ye are saved by grace through faith, but ye trusted in naked mercy, ye shall not have it but ye shall have naked justice and nothing else.” Then there is another party who have built a castle of rites and ceremonies. On one side they have a huge piece of granite called “Baptism,” and on another they have the “Lord’s Supper;” and in the middle they have “Confirmation.” They think what a glorious castle they have builded. “We be lost?—We paid tithe of mint, cummin, and anise. We paid tithes of all we possessed. We know that grace is in ceremonies.” Out comes the Almighty, and with one word blasts their castle, simply saying “Take away their battlements, for they are not the Lord’s.” Ungodly men and women! what will ye do at last without battlements, without a rock to hide yourselves, without a wall behind which to conceal yourselves, when the storm of the Terrible One shall be as a blast against the wall? How shall ye stand when your hopes shall melt like airy dreams, like visions of the night that pass away when one awaketh? What will ye do when he despises your image, and when all your hopes are utterly gone?
The Christian man can go away with the reflection that his battlements can never be taken away, because they are the Lord’s. We rely upon the electing love of Jehovah—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; we trust in the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, the Everlasting Son; we depend wholly upon the merits, blood, and righteousness of Jehovah-Tsidkenu—the Lord our righteousness; we are confiding in the Holy Spirit. We confess that we are nothing of ourselves—that it is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We do not acknowledge one scrap of the creature in our salvation nor one atom of self; we rely entirely upon covenant love, upon covenant mercy, covenant oaths, covenant faithfulness, covenant immutability, and resting on these, we know our battlements cannot be taken away. Oh, Christian! with these walls surrounded thou makest laugh at all thy foes. Can the devil touch thee now? he shall only look upon thee and despair. Can doubts and fears take away our battlements? No: they stand fast and firm, and our poor fears are but as straws dashed against the wall by the wind; for, “though we believe not, yet he abideth faithful,” and not all the temptations of a sinful world, or our own carnal hearts, can separate us from the Savior’s love. We have a city, the walls of which are mighty, the foundations of which are eternal; we have a God who says, “I the Lord do keep her, and do water her every moment, lest any hurt her, I will keep her day and night.” Trust Christian, here, salvation shall God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Surrounded with these, thou mayest smile at all thy foes. But take heed you add nothing to them, for if ye do, the message will be, Take away the battlements, they are not the Lord’s.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
