[Abstract of a Sermon Preached by the Editor at Oakland, Cal., Sabbath, April 21, 1906.]
" What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation?—That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge." Isa. 14:32, A. R. V.
FROM the standpoint of pure human reason we must believe that a God infinite in knowledge, wisdom, power, and love, created a perfect universe in which every part of His dominion was a safe place for His creatures. When from His hand came this earth, He pronounced it "very good," and gave it to man as his eternal home, sweet, peaceful, safe.
The Cause of All Trouble.
Where, then, is the trouble?—Sin entered. The highest law of the universe, the law of eternal character, the law of everlasting righteousness, was transgressed, perverted, and in consequence all laws beneath that higher law were also perverted.
When sin entered God's dominion through Lucifer the highest of all God's creatures (Isa. 12:12-14; Eze. 28:11-15), he fell, and all God's universe, bound together by the one Life, felt the perversion, and since that time the universe has suffered. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Rom. 8:22.
Object-Lessons to the Universe.
When man, the king of this earth, sinned, perverted in himself—the highest of God's creatures in the earth—the law of character eternal, he perverted every law below it. All physical law responded. Accursed became the ground for his sake. Perverted and abnormal growths in the vegetable world sprang forth. The earth and the universe became perverted. Suns exploded into meteors. Comets were formed. God permitted the perversion that men might see the aberrant, destructive power of sin, but He preserves His universe. So God has permitted it in this world that the lesson might be learned, and learned forever, that only in righteousness is continued life of either the spiritual or the physical, and that the physical is dependent on the spiritual. "In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28. A righteous universe could never grow old. The life and love and unselfishness of God and His creatures, all-pervasive, all-powerful, would keep it perennially young.
The Mistake of Science.
Scientists will not recognize the great God of the universe and His creative power. They will not recognize this great fact of sin, and its consequences.
Reason, therefore, they may forever; endeavor to formulate and deduce normal laws for the universe from the aberrant laws of a perverted nature, and they are often bound to go wrong. Would they but recognize God, and the great fact of sin, all problems would be easier.
What Follows Sin.
Sin existing, age ensues. Man grows old and dies. Trees and plants and animals grow old and die. The soil gets old and must be constantly renewed or enriched. The stars seem to grow old as has the moon and the earth. God foretold it: The earth "shall wax old as doth a garment." Like an old man, it groans and heaves and quakes, and loses temper. Therefore the cyclone, the volcanic eruption, the earthquake. And all these will continue to increase in frequency and violence till God's voice shall cry out of Zion, "It is done," and the whole earth shall shake, and the cosmos shall become chaos preparatory to its everlasting recreation. When that awful earthquake shall have come, then will it be fulfilled, "The cities of the nations fell." See Joel 3:16; Rev. 16:17-19.
Character rests on voluntary acquiescence to right law—God's law. That man might learn His law God must permit to follow the consequences of perverted law. Man can not sow cockle and get wheat. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." In the shakings and quakings and tremblings of earth God is teaching man that the earth is waxing old and its dissolution is drawing nigh.
There Is No Sure Refuge
in a sin-cursed earth. It has no sure foundation. What would men and women not have given to have found a refuge which they knew to be safe in San Francisco on that fateful April 18. The very refuges they had builded turned to heaps of débris. The earth itself seemed to be enlisted against them, no longer a resting place, but a huge monster to crush them. From infancy to old age, man finds no sure refuge in any of the material things of this world. Seeking he is ever, but finds it not. It is neither in gold nor silver; many would have given it freely to get out of San Francisco on that awful morning. It is found not in stocks nor bonds nor houses nor lands. Not all the wealth of the world can buy off the grim guest of every household—Death.
"The Grave?" Yes; there is the refuge of oblivion in the grave; but man was born of God to live and not to die. Is there refuge which tunnels the grave and carries us through its deep darkness to the evergreen fields of life beyond?—There is. God knew that the nations and the messengers of the nation would ask it now, even as in Babylon of old.
"What, then, shall one answer the messengers of the nation?" There are worldly cities, but there is no sure refuge there. We can not say flee to Oakland or to Chicago or to New York or to London. The next great convulsion may include one or all of these, and the proudest steel towers which men have builded may be reduced to scrap heaps.
There is a city which can not be moved, the foundation of which is character. "God hath founded Zion."
A Tested Foundation.
The foundation of the city of God is laid in the tried character of Christ Jesus our Lord. The same prophet from which our text is taken declares: "Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure foundation. He that believeth shall not be in haste." Isa. 28:16. "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 3:11.
What a mighty contrast is this foundation to that which earthly cities furnish. Those who builded, and thought they builded well on good foundation in San Francisco, made all possible haste to flee in the time of calamity; but he that builds in Zion shall not make haste, or as elsewhere quoted, by Inspiration, "shall not be ashamed or confounded." No confusion shall come to him who builds on this foundation.
That we may learn how to build aright we must know how the foundation was laid. Space will not permit us to tell one-tenth of what we would be glad to say. We may learn it, however, from the Scriptures, which are revelations of the trial through which Jesus Christ passed that He might be the corner stone and the place of refuge for all God's children. Listen:
"Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every name." Phil. 2:5-9.
The Emptying of Self—Filled with God.
When Christ Jesus was here upon earth He revealed not Himself, He came not to reveal Himself. In all that He said, in all that He did, we have not the revelation of the Son of God, but the revelation of the Father in human flesh; and in order that that revelation of love and power might be perfect He emptied Himself so that God might fill Him, and that God might be revealed to the needy, longing hearts of the children of men. Again and again do we hear such expressions from His lips: "I can of Mine own self do nothing;" "The words that I speak are not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me." He yielded Himself that God might be manifested; He stepped down from His glory with His Father, through every plane of created intelligences, down to death, tried on every plane, of angels and of men, and revealed God's character in every trial. Wherefore God exalted Him. In His human flesh He suffered and was tempted as were we; "for it became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." "Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted." Heb. 2:10, 17, 18.
"Who in the days of His flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and having been heard for His godly fear, tho He was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and having been made perfect He became unto all them that obey Him the Author of eternal salvation." Heb. 5:7-9.
One more scripture just before He faced Gethsemane and the cross, found in the twelfth chapter of John: "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?" The agony of Gethsemane echoed the same prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." But He came to seek and to save, and so, instead of praying, "Father, save Me from this hour," He said, "But for this cause came I unto this hour," and prayed, "Father, glorify Thy name."
And God glorified His name, in suffering, even to the very limit, meeting every temptation of the enemy, enduring every cross, despising the shame, and conquering that He might lay the sure foundation for everlasting righteousness which could never be moved.
It is character that counts, it is character which endures, and on that everlasting character in Christ Jesus the saved of God must build, and for such characters God will found His everlasting kingdom which will endure forever.
Would We Find the Refuge in Zion?
Then must we build on the sure foundation Stone. There is no other way but God's way. We may question and quibble, we may doubt and reject, but if we are saved at all, and if we find the refuge at all, it must be in Christ Jesus, "Unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,3to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture,—
"Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner Stone, elect, precious;
And He that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.
For you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness; but for such as disbelieve,
The stone which the builders rejected,
The same was made the head of the corner;
and,
A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
for they stumble at the word, being disobedient;
whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." 1 Peter 2:4-10.
God's Answer.
Such is God's answer for those who are seeking refuge in this world. Question as we may, doubt as we will, laugh over the solemn warnings of His Word, the mighty shakings are yet to come, when everything that can be moved will be shaken by the voice of God when He shall come into His own, so that the things which can not be moved shall remain; and the things which can not be moved will be those builded into the Zion of God's foundation, in the character of Christ Jesus our Lord. That tunnels the grave with everlasting righteousness, and reaches out into the eternal green meadows of God beyond. He was righteous, therefore death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24); and all those who are built on Him, tho the grave may close over them here, will live with Him to all eternity; and when the last great convulsions of perverted nature shake the cosmos of this world into the chaos of finished sin, those who are builded on the sure foundation, who have found the sure refuge, even tho death is witnessed on every hand, can sing,—
"God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore will we not fear, tho the earth do change,
And tho the mountains be shaken into the heart of the seas;
Tho the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
Tho the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof.
There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; SHE SHALL NOT BE MOVED;
God will help her, at the dawn of the morning.
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
Santa Rosa Court House after the Earthquake.
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.)
Jehovah of hosts is with us:
The God of Jacob is our refuge." Ps. 46:1-7.
To this refuge we invite every longing, troubled soul of earth. This is our message, this is God's message. "What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation?—That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge."
