Thursday, December 16, 2010

the pulling down of strongholds

On 5th July 1910 the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland opened in Inverness with a sermon by the Moderator, Rev. Alex Macrae on the text.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” – 2 Corinthians 10:4. Closing his sermon Macrae said the following which is very relevant to the situation today.

We are in extreme danger. It is, however, with the weapons that the Gospel supplies that Christ will yet, through His mighty power, pull them all down. He shall consume the man of sin “with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming.” He shall yet completely demolish the strongholds of error that are spread all over Christendom in the present day...The weapons furnished in the Gospel alone will do it, through the forthputting of the almighty power of God. When His time comes, the light of the Gospel will flash throughout all lands. In spite of all opposition, Christ will have the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.

In conclusion, we have reason to bewail many shortcomings. We see little of the Lord’s work anywhere in our Land. The Holy Spirit is grieved. There is a general falling away from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There is a process of retrogression persistently going on from purity of doctrine and practice. There is a growing indifference to true religion and undefiled. There is a wide-spread apathy to the inroads of the Papacy that aims at depriving us of our civil and religious liberties. There is a false charity that is more careful of not offending the protagonists of error and falsehood than the God of truth and righteousness. Our duty, however, is clear. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. His truth is the same. Let us, therefore, value more and more the weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and unflaggingly conduct the warfare to which the Lord has called us, in the strength of His grace, and with a single eye to His glory. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Amen.