AT THE SURREY TABERNACLE, BOROUGH ROAD
“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” John 16:11
THE crimes of the great enemy, Satan, the prince of this world, consist chiefly of two things; apostacy from God; and deadly enmity against him. Hence, he is said to be “a liar from the beginning;” there is the apostacy; and he is said to be “a murderer from the beginning;” there is the deadly enmity. And he drew Adam and Eve into the same crimes; they apostatized from God; so that every soul is become like Satan, a liar; and he is a murderer: and every man by nature is a murderer of Jesus Christ; every man by nature is a deadly enemy to Jesus Christ. And Satan's aim has been in all ages to keep men in that state of apostacy from, and enmity against, God. And therefore, the final judgment of the prince of this world will be in accordance with his crimes; and the judgment also of those who live one with him in that apostacy, who live and die one with him in that enmity, their judgment will be one with his. And therefore, it is said of him as a deceiver, for it is by apostacy, and by enmity against the truth of God their judgment will be one with his: and therefore, it is said of him as a deceiver, for it is by apostasy and by enmity against the truth of God, and the substituting of something that is like religion, that is not religion; substituting something that is like the truth, that is not the truth; by these, and a vast variety of other modes, the enemy carries on his deception, and therefore deceives the whole world; it is said of him as a deceiver, that he is cast in his final judgment, into the lake of fire and brimstone; where the beast, the wild beast, meaning the whole world, for it is a characteristic of the whole world in its corporate capacity, taking the whole world as a body, the whole world may be there taken as a wild beast, for all are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them; he is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. This, I say, is the final judgment of the prince of this world; though I should, at the same time question, whether that be the precise meaning intended in our text; because the Savior is here referring evidently to that victory which he wrought. He achieved victory by his putting away sin, by his magnifying and establishing God's eternal law, by his swallowing up death in victory, and bringing in everlasting righteousness. Hereby the enemy is in relation to the people of God eternally defeated; for his dominion over us lay in these two things, apostacy from God, and enmity against him. And if now we are brought out from that apostacy from God, which we are all in by nature, and united to God in that new covenant relationship in which alone salvation is found; then we are now so united to God in his love as to apostatize fatally no more; and if reconciled to God, by the work of the blessed Spirit in our hearts bringing us into the enjoyment of the Lord's presence, then we are reconciled to God to be at war with him no more; for as he has loved us forever, so he brings us to settle down in love to him forever. Therefore, our subject this morning will be to show the way of acceptance with God, in contrast to that state we are in by nature, under the prince of darkness; for the prince of this world being judged, will mean that he is put down; it will mean that the people of God shall have dominion over all that by which he conquered us. He conquered us, as we have said, by bringing us into apostacy from God and enmity against him.
Now, I shall this morning try to describe to you, in what way we escape this judgment, in what way we escape this hell, in what way, in a word, we escape all the curses of the Bible; and in so doing I will try to fulfil my promise of last Sunday morning, by running through the main parts of Revelation 12, which chapter seems to me to come in very well to open up our subject: and you will find there, that the way of escape from this terrible judgment, and the way of acceptance with God, is, in the first place, by the light of God; second, by the Christ of God; third, by separation from the world; fourth, by the mediation of Christ; fifth, by still farther separation from the world sixth, by standing fast in God's truth; and seventh and lastly, rejecting all human traditions and human devices.
Now, this is the path marked out clearly. Hence, the church is there spoken of as “a woman, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Now, of course, the sun there, will mean the light of the sun; it will mean the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the meaning there. So, when the Lord begins his work in the heart of a poor sinner, that sinner finds out that he is in darkness; and then, when the Lord intends to wrap that soul in the light of eternal truth, he fulfils that Scripture, “Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” Hence, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness arising with healing in his wings. The idea there intended is, I think, not merely the diurnal rising of the sun, but perhaps the vernal rising of the sun; that is, the sun when it acquires power, so as to banish winter and to bring in summer. That is the idea. So, the poor sinner feels that by sin he is in a wintry state; he is in a wretched, barren state, he is in a deathly state; and when he looks towards God, as a holy God and a just God, everything looks like desolation. The poor sinner shivers and trembles. Ah, he says, what a wretched, wintry state I am in; here am I, as miserable, as sin and the threatening of the Bible can make me; here is death staring me in the face, and here is hell staring me in the face, and all the curses of the Bible, what a poor creature I am. Now, then, what is the remedy? The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings. Let the Lord Jesus Christ be made manifest, let a poor sinner be brought near to him; he will see then that Christ is the end of the winter; that is, he is the end of the law; and the end of the curse, and there is no more curse; and that sinner gladly receives the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus becomes clothed in the light of the Sun of Righteousness; and he says, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ may well be called the Sun of Righteousness, for he has made everything right; everything is right now; he has brought me near to God; and by his atonement all my sins are gone, and gone forever; by his righteousness, condemnation is gone, gone, and gone forever; by his victory death is gone, gone, and gone forever. Yes, the winter is past, the rain is over; “arise,” said the Lord to the soul, “my love, and come away from that wintry scene in which you have been laboring; for the flowers appear upon the earth and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” Now, when the sinner is brought here, he is brought into something like summer, brought into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and clothed with him. Now when a soul becomes clothed with Jesus Christ in this way, there is no light that will suit it after that but the Lord Jesus Christ. He may well, therefore, be called the Son of Righteousness. Now take away this light of Christ's mediation, this light of Christ's work, then the soul is left in darkness. And what is said of this Sun of Righteousness? It is said of him that he shall go down no more; “your sun shall no more go down.” He went down at Calvary's cross, but then he rose from the dead, he died no more; death has no more dominion over him. But when we are thus brought into the light of Christ Jesus, and clothed with him, can Satan touch us there? No. Can he get us away from such a God as this? No. Can he make us hate such a God as this? Never, never.
Then it is said, “the moon was under her feet.” Some have said the moon is the ceremonial law. I do not myself believe that is the meaning. I think Isaiah 60th to which I have already referred, will explain what is meant by the moon under her feet. Of course, it will mean the light of the moon under her feet. “Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.” There you see the Lord is spoken of both as the sun and as the moon, the one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. And therefore, the moon under her feet will I think mean the light of the gospel. After you have been brought into the revelation of Jesus Christ, then comes the night. Ah, how much night some of you have experienced! You look back at the time when you enjoyed the Lord's presence, and the mountains flowed down at his presence, and all the evils of your nature like wild beasts got them and laid them down in their dens, and everything seemed happy and pleasing. But by and bye, night comes on. What is to be your light then? God's blessed word. Ah, many a soul, when this night state comes on, goes to the word of God, and gladly by a kind of moonlight traces out the footsteps of the flock; goes to the 102nd Psalm; “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayers.” Oh, I thought nothing of that Scripture when I was wrapped in the Sun of Righteousness, and happy; but since I have experienced so much night work I am glad to see such a Scripture as that. “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” Oh, how encouraging that is! And then such an one will seek and will find many other Scriptures like that; and they will throw a light upon his path. And thus, the Lord nominates his people, by their diseases: he will heal that which is diseased, strengthen that which is sick, bind up the limb that is broken, and will bring again that which is driven away, and will save that which was lost. Well now, what do you say this morning? Can you say, I feel I am a poor, diseased, sin sick creature, and driven away as a sinner in the fall of Adam, and driven away too far from that fellowship and communion which I had with God; I feel that I am a poor creature, and that I am so lost that I cannot read my title clear, cannot make myself out, and cannot make out exactly where I am? I once seemed to see where I was; and all appeared right; but now I seem to have lost it all, and I have got into that state that I cannot tell where I am. Well then, the promises are to him that is walking by moonlight, having a little light of the Word, that you may step on in the way David describes when he says, “Your word is a light unto my path, and a lamp unto my feet.”
And then of this woman it is said, that “upon her head was a crown of twelve stars.” Now these twelve stars, I take to be the prophets and the apostles; a definite number given for an indefinite; not the prophets and apostles personally, but the prophets and apostles in their testimonies. The stars come last; and therefore, the church being thus crowned, will mean that all those who are brought into the light of Christ's substitution, and who are brought to know something of this night work, so as to prize the blessed truth of God that describes minutely the footsteps of the flock, that such shall be crowned with the fulfilment of all the testimonies of prophets and apostles. It certainly must be one of the great delights of the soul, when it arrives at heaven, to see that all the promises have so far been fulfilled; and then at the last great rising day, when raised up and presented before God in all the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we may range over all the testimonies and promises of the new Covenant, and we shall not find one unfulfilled; we shall find that not one good thing has failed; everything shall be entirely ended, as the Lord intended it should.
Thus then, friends, in order to escape the judgment to come, in order to have an inheritance among them that are sanctified, we must be brought into this light of Christ's substitution, into this light of his truth, and into the anticipation of the fulfilment of all the promises of his blessed word.
But the next step, is the bringing forth of Christ Jesus. Now this woman, “being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered:” not a literal woman, but a mystic woman, a spiritual woman; and therefore, must be understood spiritually. In the early ages, there was great difficulty in bringing forth Jesus Christ in the public ministry of the word; and yet the apostles well knew that if they did not bring forth the Holy Child Jesus in the public ministry of the word, it was no use bringing forth anything else; and the people of God in after ages well knew if they did not bring forth the Holy Child Jesus in the public ministry of the word, there was nothing else to bring forth. “Unto us a Child is born:” we cannot be children without that: “unto us a Son is given;” we cannot be sons of God, any other way but by adoption into oneness with the Savior. And historically speaking, the church remained travailing in birth, she pained to be delivered, for hundreds of years. “The dragon stood before the woman, to devour the child and Christ was never brought forth very publicly after the apostolic age, until 350 years ago; when the Lord raised up the great Luther, and many other great men. The church had travailed century after century to bring forth Christ Jesus in the public ministry of the word. You may bring the Pope, and have everybody with you; you may bring human traditions, and have everybody with you; you may bring images, you may bring the Virgin Mary, you may bring all the repulsive (I cannot help so speaking) fooleries of hell and Satan, and you have the world on your side; but that would not suffice the woman; she travailed in birth with Christ Jesus; she labored in solemn prayer to God, looked forward to the time when the Holy Child Jesus should be brought forth in the public ministry of the word and Satan should, as in the after parts of the chapter, be cast down. Now the church has done this.
Now come to it personally. The apostle Paul, when he saw the Galatians tinged with apostacy, said, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.” So, the soul that is born of God, Oh, if I could bring forth Christ into my soul; if I could bring forth Christ for myself; if he were mine; nothing short will do; if Christ may be formed in my heart, the hope of glory. As soon as ever I can find that he is formed in my heart the hope of glory, that, says such a one, is what I want. I want to say what the apostle said, and from the same experience as his, when, he said, “It pleased God to reveal his Son in me.” Oh, when I can say, as the church in Solomon's Song, “A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me, he shall lie all night between my breasts;” when I can feel that Jesus is with me spiritually, as with Simeon literally as well as spiritually, when he took the infant Savior up in his arms, and said, Now, Lord, let you your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” then indeed shall I be happy. Now this is another step then, nothing short of this; it must be Christ in the heart. I know it has been so with me a great many years; Jesus Christ being formed in my heart the hope of glory, election in him, predestination in him, calling in him, redemption and forgiveness in him, acceptance in him, security in him, eternal life, and freedom and inheritance in him; and when you come with your duty-faith, or any other system, I have no room for it; you want to bring your wares to my house, and want me to put something belonging to Christ out, in order to put something belonging to the devil in. No, thank you; I've no room in my temple for Tobiah's stuff; let us do as Nehemiah did, cast it all out; and let every room be filled with something belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ; so that Christ shall become all and in all. That is step the second, bringing forth Jesus Christ not only in the public ministry of the word, but into the heart also. But then, say you, this child was “caught up unto God, and to his throne.” Not literally so; it must not be literally understood, but spiritually. It will indicate, therefore, the special care that God takes of the Holy Child Jesus; it will indicate the care that he takes of the little ones; that is the idea of it: for Christ, as a child, is the representative of children. He was the Holy Child; you by nature are not holy children; but being born again of an incorruptible seed, by the word of God that abides forever, taking you spiritually as little children, there you are holy. And as this child is caught up unto God, and to his throne, so it shows the care the Lord takes of the little ones. He will not allow the little ones to be hurt. Better that a millstone where hung about your neck, and you were drowned in the depths of the sea than to scandalize one of these little ones. And these little ones are great sinners in their own estimation; paradoxical as this may seem, this is one of the essentials of their littleness. The reason why men are not little children in spiritual matters is because their sinner-ship has never overwhelmed them, has never sunk them down; and they cannot become little children in spiritual things until they are made sensible that they are by nature great sinners. So that the dragon could not devour the child. Take that also historically and personally; first, that we still have the gospel, we still have the Holy Child Jesus brought forth in the public ministry of the word; and second, we still have little ones, and they cannot be destroyed, the Lord takes care of them. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” So then, if we are thus laboring to bring forth Christ, and our concern is for Christ to be all in all, that I say is, the second step towards escaping the judgment of the wicked one.
The next step will be separation from the world. “The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days.” Very various are the opinions of the learned as to when the church thus fled into the wilderness, and as to what part of the world she fled to; opinions upon this point are as numerous almost as the writers themselves; they have never found the place, and they never will, because they take it literally and locally, and it will never stand good in that way. Come down to personal experience; the idea is this. The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness; and so, if you are called by grace, the world will no longer be your paradise, you will fly from it; the profane world will no longer be your paradise; instead of living among the flesh pots, the leeks and the onions, you will fly from them; the empty professing world will not long be your paradise, you will fly from it, and go into a state of solitude; and you will say, oh, what a poor solitary creature I am! I cannot any longer go with the world; I can no longer find its sociality at all genial to me; I want something better; I want to be where the Rock of Ages is; I want to be where the heavenly manna is; I want to be where the cloud of truth is; I want to be where the sacrifice for sin is; I want to be where the mercy seat is; I want to be where the Lord is; I want to be in that path that shall lead me on through the wilderness of this world to that city that has foundations. That is the wilderness, a place prepared of God. Why, all the solitudes into which you have gone were places prepared for you. Whenever a sinner is called by grace, he is called out of that world which was his paradise before he was called. I know it was my paradise, and I intended it to be my paradise; I had got all my plans; I don't know how many thousands of pounds I had not saved. Why, we did not know that, say you. I don't mean actually, but in expectation; and what time I meant to retire from the world when I had made my fortune, and enjoy myself; and what time I meant to turn to religion and get to heaven at last. But the Lord stepped in; laid me on the bed of affliction; opened up the terrible majesty of his holiness to me, set my secret sins in the light of his countenance, opened up the fountains of the great deep within, made me feel that all my plans were worse than delusion. What is the result? Trembling at his word, crying for mercy; “Lord, have mercy upon me!” He knows, my hearer, how to blast our plans in order to bless our souls; he knows how to overturn all our schemes of earthly joy that we may find our all in him. That is step the third, then, separation from the world.
Well, said John, "There was war in heaven;” not in heaven literally, but in the heavenly dispensation; “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon:” not physically, not by brute force. Michael there, I should think, will mean Christ; his angels will mean his ministers and his people; and “the weapons of their warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations,” it falls upon the soul, you see, it is not the body; “and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” ours is not a flesh and blood war, not a physical war; “but against principalities and powers, and against spiritual wickedness in high places;” state religion, popish religion, false doctrines that are received by the high and the mighty in this world; and the poor that God has chosen, the weak, the base, the foolish that he has chosen, are the persons armed with the panoply of heaven, that shall stand fast against all these principalities and powers, and shall be more than conquerors at the last. That is the war, a spiritual war. “And the dragon fought, and his angels.” Well now, I can't say so much for them; I can't say they don't use carnal weapons; for the enemy is not at all particular as to what kind of weapons he uses, nor his agents either. They came against the master of the house with swords and staves, as against a thief, and they have come against many of his household in the same way since. But as one fault does not justify another, shall we, because our enemies use carnal weapons, do the same? No! ours is that kind of warfare that wrongs no man, injures no man; seeks the good of all, but the injury of none. That, then, I would call step the fourth. But we shall overcome; yes. “But he prevailed not:” the dragon and his angels, prevailed not against God's elect, “If it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.” Now, I dare say, you Wesleyans, I dare say there are a few here this morning, for you can't get on without hearing us sometimes, you know; and you duty-faith people, I believe that you would give half what you are worth, if you could take that sentence away, and put it into connection with some other word in the scriptures; if it were possible he would deceive the very pious; wouldn't you be pleased? Ah, that you would. If it were possible, he would deceive the very benevolent wouldn't you be pleased? If it were possible, he would deceive the men of universal charity, wouldn't you be pleased? But it is not so; but, “If it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.” So, it isn't so bad to be one of these elect after all. Now, the accuser of the brethren was cast down; mark, he is the accuser of the brethren. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, (a total abstainer,) and brought many a soul to the blessed God; yet, while many of the common people recognized the excellency of the man, they said that he had a devil. What gave such great offence? Because he preached God's truth: that was it. So, the Savior: there was perfection itself; and yet what awful accusations were brought against him! Well, how do the people of God overcome? Because some of Satan's accusations are true; and he knows that, and we know it too. He will write down this and say, what will you do at the judgment seat of God? man shall give an account of every idle word he shall speak; what will you do at the bar of God, for you cannot contradict it? But if you are taught of God, you will not let the matter stop till then, you will settle it now. And how was the matter settled? They overcame his accusations, true as well as false, “By the blood of the Lamb.” Can Satan bring much against you truthfully? Never mind; the blood of the Lamb will put it to rights for you. Can Satan bring but little against you truthfully? Then, even then, nothing but the blood of the Lamb can give you the victory. The matter is settled now, my hearer; it is settled with us now; this is our stronghold now, this is our hope and victory now; this is our standing now. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God:” now, the matter is settled, now. The accuser of the brethren, then, was cast down; “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” “And by the word of their testimony.” And what was that word? Why, that “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin;” that is the word of their testimony. Well, will he now cease? No, he will still follow up. “He persecuted the woman that brought forth the man child.” What is to be done now? “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle.” Now, in the beginning of the chapter it simply says that the church of God fled into the wilderness; but here it says that “There were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.” that is, the time the Lord intended her to be there. What does this mean? It means a greater separation from the world than ever. Depend upon it, if you be a free born son of God, the longer you live, the further you will be from the bond children. There will be two wings of a great eagle; your faith in Christ's work will increase, your faith in God's mercy will abound, your assurance of God's truth will abound more and more; and so far from your drawing nearer to the systems of the day, you will go further from them. May the Lord, therefore, increase our faith, and give us the wings of a great eagle, that we may fly nearer and nearer to heaven: for the more expansive the wings, the wider the circle the eagle can take, the more it can enjoy its heavenly freedom, and the nearer it can approach the sun. So, the stronger our faith, the higher we shall rise, and the more we shall glory in the Lord our God.
But again, the way of escape from judgment; the next step is that of standing fast, standing fast against floods of persecution, and against floods of error. “The serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” First, “The waters you saw,” says the angel to John, “are peoples and nations.” The serpent cast out of his mouth a whole host of Egyptians, to cause Israel to be kept away from the path that God designed for them; but they were swallowed up. Then Satan poured out a whole host of Amalekites, to carry the Israelites away, but they also were swallowed up. Then came the Canaanites, but they also were swallowed up. Haman determined to carry away Mordecai and all the Jews, but he was swallowed up. Therefore, the meaning is, that all the enemies that Satan brings against the people of God, shall (by the judgments of God, by the grave, and by various means) be swallowed up.
Well now, where is the woman? I will tell you where she is. “Who is this that comes up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” That is, where she is, with Christ, and Christ with her. Ah, says Satan, if I could but roll in people, and roll in errors, that could separate her from her Beloved, and separate her beloved from her; if I could bring about a separation, I would soon make an end of her. But there is no separation. And so, you will find. Have you some enemy determined almost to destroy you? You be quiet; pray to God the Father in secret; be quiet; the earth will open and swallow up that man: stand fast in God's truth; better die there, by the hand of the enemy, then by your own apostacy. But the Lord will step in and help you; the earth shall open, revolutions shall take place; and those enemies that intended so much harm to you, shall be the means of a vast amount of good. It will make you fly to God, pray to God, look to God; and hereby, even by means of their persecution, you shall be driven into realizations of eternal mercy, that you never would have had without such circumstances. And so, the earth “helped the woman.”
But, lastly, the position we are to keep then, is this; we are to keep the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God are two-fold, all the other commandments branch out of these two. The one is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart;” and the second, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And that is what the Christian does. He loves the Lord God, his covenant God, and he loves the brethren. That is keeping the commandments; and that is the way of victory.
Thus then, friends, I have tried to point out the way of escape from the judgment to come; the light of Christ's substitution, Jesus Christ becoming all in all. Separation from the world; his mediatorial work: a further separation from the world, and more and more nearness to God. Standing fast against floods of enemies and errors: and lastly, keeping the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And thus, is the enemy judged, conquered and defeated.
The 60th of Isaiah, and this 12th chapter of the Revelation, much resemble each other: the one begins with, “Arise, shine, your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you;” and the other with the church clothed with the threefold light of heaven. The 60th of Isaiah end's with “A little one becoming a thousand, and a small one a strong nation and the 12th of Revelation ends with keeping the keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus Christ. Do we not see a likeness here in the ending of these two chapters? In the one here are to be greatness and strength; and to all intents and purposes, keeping the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, is certainly the way, and the only way, to true greatness and lasting, even everlasting strength; and so, shall the enemy be defeated.