p. 1 | The Sermon by Eld. R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 15, 1867

The Sermon.

By Eld. R. F. Cottrell

Preach the Word. 2 Tim. iv, 2.

GOD IS FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISES.

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.

“And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.” Josh. xxiii, 14.

This text, as will readily be seen, is a portion of the valedictory of Joshua, that ancient and distinguished servant of God, who, after the death of Moses, led the people of Israel across the Jordan and established them in their promised inheritance. In his old age and as his work was drawing to a close, he called for all Israel, with their elders and officers, and gave them his last admonitions and exhortations, as a dying father would give his last solemn exhortations to the children of his love, to whom his lips were now to be closed forever. He referred them to what God had done for them in the fulfillment of his promises. He could appeal to their own knowledge of the facts, concerning what the Lord had done for them. He could say to them, in the language of the text, “Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.” And by the faithfulness of God to them, he urged upon them the duty of being faithful to him. And he did not infer, like some in our times, that, because God had been so faithful, good and kind in all that he had done for them, he was all love and mercy, and consequently would not inflict his threatened wrath upon the disobedient. Far from it. Instead of this, he draws the following logical conclusion: “Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all the good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.”

God was faithful to all his promises in ancient times; he remains faithful still. All the prophecies that have a bearing on the times in which we live, are promises of God to us. We have not yet arrived at our promised inheritance; but are looking forward to the fulfillment of this his ultimate promise to his people. But all the promises or prophecies already fulfilled, are assurances of the fulfillment of the final one; and not only so, but they give us light upon the nearness of this crowning event. Prophecies that mark the steps of progress from a given point down to the end, are promises of God, the fulfillments of which are intended to give assurance to those that live in the time of the end. If these have been fulfilled in the order given, they give an assurance of God’s faithfulness, and thus guaranty the fulfillment of those that remain. Has not God fulfilled these promises? Has anything failed of all his promises thus far?

To make this matter understood, we will glance at some particulars. There are the promises of the four great kingdoms of earth, to be succeeded by the everlasting kingdom of God under the whole heavens. Dan. ii, vii. Has anything failed of this? Have not the four kingdoms appeared according to the promise, and have they not suited the description given exactly? Has not the Papacy also exactly fulfilled the description of the little horn, in its size, in its work of blasphemy and persecution, in its mutilation of the law of God, in the definite duration of its dominion, and in its present consuming state as it approaches the time of its destruction at the end by the brightness of Christ’s coming? Do we not know that not one thing has failed in this, and that the promised everlasting kingdom will surely come, and is about to be established? In all the details of these promises God has proved his faithfulness in the fulfillment of every item except the last—the giving of the kingdom to his saints. Will he fail in this? No! “He is faithful that has promised.”

The Lord Jesus also promised us certain signs in the heavens, when his second coming would be near, even at the doors. He promised that the sun should be darkened, that the moon should not give her light, and that the stars should fall from heaven as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when shaken of a mighty wind. Has one thing of this failed? No; all have been accomplished in their time and order. Some of us were eye-witnesses of the falling of the stars, and know by personal knowledge that the Lord has verified his promise. The Lord has been faithful in giving the promised signs. Will he fail of coming according to his promise?

Again, the word of God forewarned us of the great apostasy of the professed church; and though the apostasy is not a good thing, yet it is a good thing to be apprised of it, that we may be on our guard, and thus be saved from the deceptive influence and ruinous consequences of apostasy. By the great apostasy, I do not mean simply the Roman church. I trace the monster from its germ, in the days of the apostles, when the “mystery of iniquity” began to work, to its more full development in the man of sin, the Antichristian Papacy; thence onward through the various ramifications of law-established religion with the disgusting confusion of conflicting creeds and doctrines of men, till, finally, it reaches its goal or culminating point in modern Spiritualism, where, being full-grown, it openly repudiates the word of God, throwing off the mask, and with horrid impiety and blasphemy defying the God of the Bible.

These things so expressly foretold in the word of God, have taken place according to the numerous predictions. And, through the fermentation of this unholy leaven, the time has fully come when men professing godliness will not endure sound doctrine, but, according to their own perverted tastes, they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and have turned away their ears from the truth, and are turned to fables.

Of the popular fables of the present day, two are prominent. 1. The fable of the first-day Sabbath, which is now calling for legislative enactments in its support, preparatory to the final war upon the remnant of the true church, “that keep the commandments of God.” 2. The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, which Paganism bequeathed to the apostate church of Rome, which served, as Luther said, “to make the Pope’s pot boil,” and which is the chief corner stone of modern Spiritualism, the latest form of infidelity. The numerous predictions of this great apostasy have proved sadly true, its destructive work is moving forward among the people, and its final impious war against God and his people is evidently at hand.

But the Lord has promised his people an antidote against the destructive errors of this great apostasy, and a way of salvation from its fearful doom. He has promised us the proclamation of the judgment messages before the second advent, to complete the work of reformation, and thus prepare his people for the final