THE CHRISTIAN’S HERITAGE
Isaiah 54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, &c.
I. THE CHRISTIAN’S EXPERIENCE.
1. Weapons are formed against him. No Christian need expect aught else. As Israel’s experience in the wilderness, so the Christian’s in the world. The devil will try to hinder his progress, &c The world, too, in various ways—by its cares, snares, &c. The law in his members also will war against the law of his mind. He must fight his way, “fight the good fight of faith,” fight under the banner “Jehovah-Nissi,” fight, “putting on the whole armour of God.”
2. Tongues rise against him. From the days of Cain it has been so, and will be so to the end. Christians need not think it strange if they are mocked, maligned, misrepresented, all manner of evil said against them. So they treated the Lord, and so they will treat His disciples (John 15:9). But while this shall be, more or less, the experience of every Christian, learn, over against it—
II. THE CHRISTIAN’S SECURITY.
1. No weapon shall prosper. His enemies may be mighty, &c; but more mighty, wise, watchful, indefatigable and loving is his protector. He is perfectly safe. This does not mean, however, that he is not to use expedients—to watch and pray, to resist and strive.
2. Every tongue he shall condemn. (I.) He shall do it himself by welldoing (1 Peter 2:15).
(2.) God shall do it for him.
(3.) It shall be done sufficiently on earth (Psalms 37:6).
(4.) Perfectly in eternity (Job 19:25).
3. Let Christians see to it that they so live that men speaking evil of them shall do it “falsely,” and God shall fully vindicate them.
But now the question comes, Who has this security? and in answer see—
III. THE CHRISTIAN’S CHARACTER. “The servants of the Lord.” Only real Christians, to whom this security is given, i.e., those whose faith is a real root within and bears corresponding fruit without. Many arrogate such promises as this who have no right to them. They only who keep the precepts reap the promises. We must be servants if we would be safe. It is he who serves that the Lord preserves; none other (Matthew 7:21).
This secunty is further described as—
IV. THE CHRISTIAN’S HERITAGE. This description may teach us—
1. That while he is a servant, he is also a son—son and heir. Each believer may say with John (1 John 3:1-2).
2. That his security is a thing not of merit, but of inheritance. It is a legacy secured to him by the death of Christ (Luke 12:32).
3. We may be sure that a heritage from God is a certain possession (James 1:17).
V. THE CHRISTIAN’S TITLE.
1. The Christian’s justification is of God (Philippians 3:9).
2. His sanctification is of God (Philippians 2:13).
3. Boasting is excluded. “What hast thou that thou hast not received?”
4. His security is perfect. If God justify, who can condemn? (Romans 8:34.) And if God sanctify, He will perfect that which concerneth us. This clause thus explains as well as ratifies the promise, and, further, it tells us how we may secure this promise for ourselves. Righteousness we have not by nature; we cannot attain it of ourselves; but we may receive it from God. Let us seek it by faith in Christ, and He will be “the Lord our righteousness,” and then this glorious heritage is ours. What a different one from that of the wicked (Job 20:1-29).—David Jamison, B.A.: The Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv. p. 538.
WORTHLESS WEAPONS
Isaiah 54:17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper
Old castles contain many relics of the past, and on the walls hang many weapons of ancient date. To such a place the Church may be likened. A divine and secure citadel, it contains not a few victorious trophies—signs of its enemies’ defeat.
I. Some of the weapons that have been used against the Church collectively.
1. The first that we notice is very old. It was employed against Noah, Job, David, all who have been called to do great things for God. What is its name? Infidelity. But it has not prospered. Humanity refuses to be infidel. Sinners abound, not sceptics. Atheism, like physical deformity, is the exception, not the rule. The soul must have something to live upon. Again and again the foes of Christianity have become its converts in their very attempts to destroy it: Athenagoras, Gilbert West, Lord Lyttelton.
2. Behold another of these hostile implements. Its edge is keen; it gleams with cruel hate; there are crimson stains on it. Its name? Persecution. It has inflicted frightful, gaping wounds; it has taken many an innocent life; history is full of records of its merciless deeds. But it is a weak weapon, nevertheless. It has purified the Church oftentimes, by driving away the hypocrites and leaving the true believers; it has increased the Church by scattering abroad its preachers, who in new fields have made fresh converts; but it has not destroyed the Church. It has not prospered.
II. But the promise is true of the individual believer as well as of the Church. How hopeful, how happy, ought every believer to be! The soul of the good man is invulnerable.
1. The weapon of SLANDER shall not prosper. At one time or another all God’s servants are attacked by it. But in the end none of them is any the worse for it. God will take care of the reputations of His people. Are you slandered? Do as David did (Psalms 119:6). So you may smile at your calumniators. The hour of your vindication is at hand (Psalms 37:5-6).
2. The weapon of DOUBT shall not prosper. Like other men, the believer is assailed by doubts; but they do but cause him, as they did John the Baptist (Matthew 11:2-3), to apply to Christ for their solution; and by Him he is settled and grounded in the truth, to which he clings the more firmly because he remembers how nearly he lost it.
3. The weapon of DEATH shall not prosper. He who trusts in God’s mercy through the substitution of Jesus Christ need not be alarmed at this weapon. You probably recollect handsome, brave Sir Walter Raleigh’s remark when he put his finger on the edge of the horrible axe which was speedily to end his life: “It is a sharp medicine, but it is a cure for all ills.”—T. R. Stevenson: Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 244.
The meaning of this is that the Church of God cannot be destroyed.
I. GOD’S CHURCH HAS ALWAYS ENCOUNTERED OPPOSITION.
It has been persecuted. Its Divine origin has been and is disputed. There have always been enemies that have sought its destruction, &c.
That the Head of the Church should expose His truth to attack at all, is strange at first sight. But,
1. Opposition tests the sincerity of discipleship.
2. Keeps alive the evidence for the truth, which otherwise might drop out of recollection.
II. GOD’S CHURCH HAS SURVIVED OPPOSITION.
Thus this word has been hitherto fulfilled. [1686]
[1686] The language here is derived probably from courts of justice, and the idea is, that truth and victory, in every strife of words, would be on the side of the Church. To those who have watched the progress of discussions thus far on the subject of the true religion, it is needless to say that this has been triumphantly fulfilled. Argument, sophism, ridicule, have all been tried to overthrow the truth of the Christian religion. Appeals have been made to astronomy, geology, antiquities, history, and indeed to almost every department of science, and with the same want of success. Poetry has lent the charm of its numbers; the grave historian has interwoven with the thread of his narrative covert attacks and sly insinuations against the Bible; the earth has been explored to prove that “He who made the world and revealed its age to Moses was mistaken in its age;” and the records of Oriental nations, tracing their history up cycles of ages beyond the Scripture account of the creation of the world, have been appealed to; but thus far, in all these contests, ultimate victory has declared in favour of the Bible. And no matter from what quarter the attack has come, and no matter how much learning and talent have been evinced by the adversaries of the Bible; God has raised up some Watson, or Lardner, or Chalmers, or Buckland, or Cuvier, or Wiseman, to meet these charges, and to turn the scales in favour of the cause of truth.—Albert Barnes, D.D., Commentary, in loco.
1. Through persecution it has been preserved.
2. Notwithstanding enfeebling influences it has been preserved. It has often been exposed to bad air. For malism and superstition. Yet it has more adherents to-day than ever, and is growing.
3. Notwithstanding the attitude of scepticism and unbelief. Changes its front at different periods. Sometimes the literary history of the Bible is attacked; sometimes the reality of its facts; sometimes its miracles; some times its supposed incompatibility with scientific doctrines. Hitherto, however, it has always stood its ground, and emerges from every conflict stronger than before.
All this proves—
1. That the Gospel, which is the life of the Church, is commended by the strongest evidence.
2. That the Gospel is perpetuated by supernatural influences. Gibbon elaborated five secondary causes of the rapid and extensive propagation of the Gospel in the first centuries. They are true as far as they go. But he slurs over in a sentence a cause still greater, namely, the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a continuous miracle. Conversion is always the work of God. Every fresh convert is a fresh evidence of the truth.
3. That God’s Church and cause shall be maintained until its mission is accomplished. Notwithstanding all difficulty, all opposition, all new forms of unbelief, it shall fulfil this prophecy in the future as it has in the past.—J. Rawlinson.