No. 1 Hebrews 12:28

H Page 1. ? 464 - 280 Lord of Hosts, how lovely fair, 2. ? 238 - 149 Firm as the earth thy Gospel stands, 3. ? 236 - 108 Our God how firm His promise stands. 80807 No. 1 Wherefore, we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews, 12th : 28th. It is very difficult, [if not] indeed almost impossible, to convey to minds wholly unspiritual the proper conception of the nature and operation of the [things of Kn] principles of the Gospel. Indeed is it not to be accomplished by any merely human agency. It is the work of Gods Holy Spirit. As well might a painter exhibit his art, or the sculptor his most finished specimen of chiselled [work] statuary; as well might the musician endeavor to charm the [deaf] ear of the deaf; and call upon him to admire the most angelic strains of melodious music, as that one shd. bring before the mind the stupendous 2 truths of the Gospel when that mind is carnal, ? when it has no interest in spiritual matters. This is Gods testimony. The natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither discerned. So emphatic is the declaration of Scripture on this subject that the [strange] fact is stated in these strange words that those under this unhappy influence of carnality are possessed of eyes, ? but they see not; that they have ears but they hear not, and then assign as a reason for they are a rebellious house. Let us not be understood as saying that these great and essential truths cannot be fully understood by the human mind. On the contrary, the testimony of the Bible is that the way forming men, though 3 fools shall not err therein, ? in the way of holiness; and the Lord directed the Prophet to [make] write the vision and make it plain upon tables [that he said] that he may run that readeth. The inability to comprehend these things does not arise from any intellectual defect; we are all possessed of reason; There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding: and all except secret + mysterious things that belong only to God, may be mastered, if only the application of given powers be made aright to the study. It is a moral, not an intellectual inability, that has taken possession of the men of carnal mind. This being the case it would be a hopeless undertaking to attempt ever to instruct those who [w]are in this state naturally blinded by Sin, + the powerful influence of a deceitful heart, were we limited to the exertion of merely human power. 4 Happily for us, happily for all men, it is true not only that while Paul may plant + Apollos water, + yet God only can give the increase, it is equally true that God has promised to supplement the weakness of the human teacher by sending the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of their understandings, and turn their hearts to the love of the truth. Among those things treated as mysterious by unwilling hearers + readers of the word, [+ readers of] [the la] is the statement here made that Christians receive a Kingdom; that they receive one too, that is not like the worlds great empires that rise + flourish in grandeur + glory for a time, and pass away into obscurity, + are found no more forever; that is a Kingdom 5 Kingdom that cannot be moved. [We propose to] They behold the [occupy your] description given of Gods people verified in every days experiences; that God hath chosen the poor of this world; that He has chosen the weak things of this world; that they are a little flock; that in the world they shall have tribulation; be persecuted, ? be counted the offscouring of the world; and history records the fact that this is all True: That Christ himself the founder of the Christian system was so poor that he had not where to lay His head; that he was tired, condemned + crucified as a criminal; + how then could He give them a Kingdom; or when was it ever heart [of] the [the] Christians [of this world] reigned in Kingly power over this world? And even when they are 6 pointed to the words that follow, that when God chooses the poor of this world, it is to make them rich in faith + heirs of the Kingdom; that when He chooses the weak things of this world it is to confound the mighty; that where he calls them a little flock he bids them fear not for it is your fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; that when He foretells that in the world they shall have tribulation; He bids them be of good cheer, I have overcome the world; that though they should be persecuted, ? reviled, ? and have all manner of evil said against them falsely, He bids them rejoice and be exceeding glad for so persecuted they the prophets that were before them, + that theirs shd be the Kingdom of Heaven; ? even them with all this promised 7 compensation, they are at a loss to comprehend how the two ? the suffering + the rejoicing can be reconcilable on any principles of human comparison; and how any one can for a moment believe these things to be true. I propose, therefore, to enter somewhat into the consideration of the nature, + the principle, that are the constituent elements of this immovable Kingdom, which Paul tells us we receive; and if we succeed in showing it before you as it is in truth, it may be that the prayer of faith may prevail with the Holy Spirit to enlighten some hitherto darkened soul, as to the influence it is intended to exert over them to serve God with reverence and godly fear. Some thing is needed by way of introduction. 8 introduction. Paul begins by the word Wherefore; ? implying that what follows, is somehow connected with what proceeded this word. It is so. It was after he had given utterance to that sublime passage in which he contrasts the terrors of the Sinaitie delivery of the Law by God to Moses, with the gentler manifestations of the Christian system ? on which he bases a[n argument] warning [for the] [to where] [who bears] That men [shd men] shd not refuse to hearken to the voice of God from Heaven, when [that] the refusal of the Chr of Israel to hear that voice from Sinai had been followed by their destruction. For while that voice then shook the Earth ? God threatens that he will shake not the earth only but the heavens also. The meaning of which shaking Paul says in the removal of those things that are 9 shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. All Commentators agree that the removal here spoken of is the destruction of the Jewish system of religion, the overthrow of their nationality, + the utter demolition of their splendid City. [Upon the very] Immediately [ruins of] [fall] in contrast with this palpable tangible visible earthly Kingdom, Paul calls the attention of these Hebrews to whom he was addressing this letter, to that Kingdom which he tells them cannot be moved, of which Xtians are to be the recipients and proclaims to them the legitimate effects? which shd follow such a bestowal, [?]: that shd have or seek + hold fast that grace whereby they could serve God with reverence 10 and godly fear. The method of the discussion then will be confined within the limits following, viz: I. That peculiar feature of this Kingdom here announced, that it cannot be moved. II. The reasons which explain its immovableness. III. The inseparable and properly expected result, of receiving such a Kingdom, that we should have grace to serve God with reverence and godly fear. 1. That this Kingdom cannot be moved has been shown in its past history. A rapid sketch is all that is necessary to refresh our memories, and confirm our faith. There has never been [known] a period in all time past, [and] when [there was not a Church of God] this Kingdom did not exist upon the Earth. And the evidence goes to show that before the annals of this Earth of ours began in that remote period of a past Eternity when Gods eternal years began, [the] its existence [of this Church] began. If you can 11 tell me when God began to be, then I can date the origin of His Kingdom, for as it was like all His other counsels, provided for from all Eternity, and as His counsel ? His mind ? His purpose is a part of Himself, ? it follows that His Kingdom is coeval with Himself. To be sure its earthly development + manifestation began in Eden. But it is an everlasting Kingdom, ? from Eternity to Eternity. We might close this discussion at this point, with the single remark that if this Kingdom is part of God, it needs no argument to establish its immovable perpetuity, since God is infinite, Eternal, + unchangeable, + so [whatever] no matter what assaults may be made upon it, no such thing as moving it can be conceived of as among possibilities. But it 12 cannot fail to strengthen, confirm, and refresh, and invigorate the faith of Gods people to review the history of Gods [Ch.] Kingdom, and trace the assaults which have been made upon it by its enemies and the triumphs which it has always won, in every conflict. It is a remarkable fact that it has always been in conflict. This is the Militant State of the Kingdom. Recall the fact that no sooner was it established in its primeval glory in the bliss of Holy Eden, that its inveterate foe ? the foe of God + man; ? hurled his fiery darts against its integrity in the persons of our first Parcuti. He came and [with] breathing out His poisonous suggestions into their ears, did succeed in converting Eden into a desolation, + man into a rebel. 13 But the Kingdom stood unmoved. Its walls of strong salvation made withstood the assault so fiercely hurled against it, and there at the very time when he vainly imagined that the foundations were uprooted + the Kingdom was shaken to its ruin. The Mighty God, its Omnipotent King, interposed and [then] in the very presence of the Adversary + amid the very tokens of his apparent success, He laid the foundations of the Kingdom anew, and announced its final victory though long continued years of conflict. The first prophecy was then declared ? The seed tc., The suffering but triumphant Redeemer then undertook the work which had already 14 already from all eternity been laid upon him, and He was announced as the Captain of the Lords host, who was to lead the sacramental army of Gods elect to their assured + final victory over all opposition. The Kingdom was not moved then; man did fall; ? man has always continued to fall, and be moved; but never has the Kingdom we have re[c]d been even so much as shaken. The Kingdom remains in all its grand Divinity + integrity. Though Heaven + Earth may pass away the Kingdom like the Word of God shall not be moved. Amid the glorious provisions made in this Kingdom, is that efficacious promise and which also secures the restoration of man, 15 the fallen, to his original estate as a [faithful] [for] subject. The pardoned rebel becomes the faithful servant. it is quite easy to see too that this very fact presupposes and implies that the Kingdom itself cannot be moved. Were it liable to mutatious, and were it possible for as to conceive that this Kingdom could fail to assert its Power, + resist successfully then there would be no hope for man. But when we recall the fact it has resisted all assaults ? Satan in Eden ? falling before the Son of God ? the seed of the woman ? [?ru?sing] his head; ? The unparalleled wickedness of the world overcome by the destructive deluge, and the Kingdom of God still riding 16 triumphantly upon the bosom of the World of waters bearing in the ark its [few] subjects reduced to 8 souls ? still the Kingdom unmoved tho the world has perished; ? And the subsequent defiance of God by the [idolatry] blasphemous attempt of men to build a tower whose top shd reach unto Heaven and secure their safety from Gods wrath, defeated by the King in Zion coming down, + confounding their language + dispersing them over the whole earth. The idolatry + violence neutralized by the Call of Abraham, The [Captivity] bondage of Gods people in Egypt broken by Moses and Aaron; the assaults of wicked Heathen Rulers and the repulse by the Warrior King David; The 17 relapse and idolatry of Gods own people; their restoration + deliverance by Heathen Kings appointed by God Himself; the long and dismal 400 yrs. of degradation of the people from the close of the Prophetic eta, [to the] succeeded by the Advent of Xt. The persecutions trials + sufferings of Jesus, succeeded by His triumph over the grave, His ascension + glorification and the grandeur of the triumphs of the Early Xtian Kingdom over the world then Known; and the overthrow of the enemies of the Kingdom, and the protection of the Christian subjects of this Kingdom at the destruction of Jerusalem. And as the assaults of the 18 enemies of the Kingdom developed themselves more + more fiercely in the Ten terrible persecutions of the early Centuries were checked by the reign of Constantine; and then while in the subsequent darkness that rested upon the prospects of this Kingdom insomuch that there seemed to be not a vestige scarcely left of it in existence, God had reserved for himself a holy, zealous devoted remnant among the vastnesses, caves and mountains + dens of the Earth ? The Waldenses, + the Abrigenses of Italy ? the Huguenots of France, ? the Puritans of England ? the Cameronians of Scotland; + thus while the Kingdoms of the Earth were shaken + aroused to destroy Gods Kingdom amid all the torment + rage of its enemies, the Kingdom 19 remained and He that sitteth in the Heavens laughed at their vain + futile efforts, and declared that He would set His King, Jesus Xt. in His Holy Hill of Zion, in spite of every assault. So when the Corruptions of the Roman Ch. had so overwhelmed the nations of the earth, that AntiChrist set himself up as God in Rome ? by the instrumentality of Martin Luther, the monk of Erfurt, this colleagues, the deathblow was struck to the Power of the enemy, and the open high handed material opposition of the wicked Powers of this world clad in secular Authority has ceased. And now the hosts of Infidelity, the oppositions of Science falsely so called, the tribe of self elevated Philosophers who have 20 determined to overthrow this Kingdom, are met successfully by the divinely equipped legions of Gods own appointment and spiritualism + skepticism, and all the new forms of Atheism, are encountered by the Power and demonstration of the Spirit in the simple preaching of the Cross of Christ. This Kingdom stands today without one iota of its grand System removed or shaken. In our day God is calling into requisition his own instruments to meet all these embattled hosts of His enemies, and desperately wicked Chicago has yielded to the power of the Holy Ghost; the giant form of Infidelity has been struck inn the forehead and prostrated in the dust by the smooth pebble of Divine Truth, 21 from the sling of zeal + love in the hand of the shepherd. While Boston the seat of heartless skepticism is bowing before the stalwart blows of Moody + Cook. With these records of the past, testifying to the fact, that this Kingdom cannot be moved, when we recall that past + see that History gives no account of any other Kingdom which has been so hated, and as maliciously and insatiably pursued and persecuted, nor anything like it, ? when we see that as regards the truth + principles of this Kingdom, its foundation, and its entire system, not a particle[ular] of impression has ever been made upon it by all its enemies, we may confidently turn our thoughts to the outlook of the future we cannot but feel to its fullest extent that it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved. 22 Why, my beloved friends, what can be plainer than this demonstration? Who dare dispute the fact that this Kingdom is [so] immovable? How else is it to be explained that it is this day in existence more powerful and wide sweeping in its influence than ever before? This world is nearly six thousand years old, as the habitation of man, according to the most reliable Chronology. While Ignoring [and] yet taking into [an] account the affected wisdom of infidel Geologists who claim for man a far higher antiquity, than this, and granting that the world in its present organization as mans home is a million of years old, ? how happens it that the Kingdom which was introduced into the world at so early a period of its History has lived through a thousand mutations of the world; has breasted a thousand storms of opposition; has surmounted a thousand opposing obstacles; has won a thousand victories against uncounted hosts of embattled 23 legions of fierce enemies [of] both men + devils, and stands today as illustration of the [Divine] declaration of its Divine Sovereign, The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it? Will any man dare to pronounce it a system of Delusions? Will any man tell us that there is nothing in this Kingdom but a figment of Priest craft that has been deceiving the peoples + the nations, blinding their reason + binding their Consciousness with fetters of Superstition? That is has no foundation in Truth? Admit for argt. sake for a moment that it is a false system; and the monstrous burden [of proof] rests upon those who deny its Divinity that they shall account for its bare existence under the Circumstances of its past history. There it stands, the most inexplicable problem ever submitted for solution to the human mind, unless it be referred to a divine origin. Other systems have perished 24 Other Empires have moldered; other Kingdoms have perished; All human Philosophy has become obsolete save in so far as the principles co-incided with the principles of this Kingdom; all that has survived of the the teachings of Plato + His great master Socrates, are the eternal laws of truth which they caught [from] through tradition from the Kingdom of Eternal Truth as dispensed by [His] its human Rulers + Religious teachers. The puerile + heathenish doctrine of a vain mythology which these Philosophers strove to combine with the truths they had gathered, crumbled and vanished, while the rock of Heavenly truth stands yet as the foundation, and the principles of the Kingdom stand erect as its walls, not a stone loosened, not a battlement nor a tower wavering, but proudly + solidly it stands unmoved and will continue unmoved amid a thousand mutatious + vicissitudes thro time, + thro the realities of Eternity.