Our series on the Westminster Shorter Catechism by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn will resume next week. We are missing from our collection his material on Question no . 65, and that material is being supplied to us very soon by a dear friend of this ministry. So in the meantime, we present today a sermon by Rev. Van Horn, a message which seems only all the more relevant today.

“THE LORD REIGNETH!”
A Sermon preached at The First Presbyterian Church, Port Gibson, Mississippi, October 8, 1961,
by the minister, The Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn.

Scripture — I Chronicles 16:7-36.

One night last week I was in the midst of that malady known as “insomnia.” It was in the early hours of the morning, everything was very quiet. My thoughts turned to the conditions of the world in which we live. As I thought of the danger spots of the world — the places where war is going on, the places that could erupt into war at any moment, the fact that at any moment an all-out war could start — as I thought of these things my heart was heavy within me. Suddenly the quietness was broken by a roaring sound, the sound of planes up in the sky. There must have been many of them for the roar was loud and the roar lasted a long time.

I thought: Up above in the sky, in those planes, are men who are guarding those of us below. They are spending their night “out” and are forced to do so by the world in which we live.

Some moments passed. Suddenly a new sound filled the air. A sound of a train. It was not the regularly scheduled train that comes through each night. This was at a different time and was much longer. A man told me the next day that many of the cars had military supplies on them. (I did not ask him what he was doing up at that hour!)

I thought: That is probably a train of military supplies, maybe even troops. I remembered the day when I would look out the window of a train filled with soldiers, see a small town in the early hours of the morning, and wish I was back home. Men carrying military supplies, spending their night “out” and forced to do so by the world in which we live.

As I thought about the world in which we live, I thought about the statement I read one time by Lenin, the Russian communist, who said, “First we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia, then we will encircle the United States, which will be the last stronghold of capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands.” He made this statement in 1924.

In 1955, Khrushchev had this to say, “If anyone thinks that our smiles mean the abandonment of the teachings of Marx, Engles, and Lenin, he is deceiving himself cruelly. Those who expect this to happen might just as well wait for a shrimp to learn to whistle.”

I thought: This is our world. A world in which Communism is making rapid strides. A world that could well have before it a “Doomsday” — a day in the near future when men would destroy each other. A day when there would be no place safe, no place to which we might flee from killing rays of an atomic attack.

To make it even worse, I thought of the men in our country who are advocating the policy of “peaceful coexistence”, the men who are playing right into the hands of the enemy. Men who do not seem to realize that the tyranny of Communism is easily extended where there are those who are always trying to find something good about it. Men who do not seem to realize that the forces of evil have always made their gains in the following way: 1. They ask for tolerance — and there are men in this country today who are absolutely advocating a doctrine of tolerance for Communist nations. 2. They request equality — and there are men in this country today who are absolutely advocating a doctrine of equality for Communist nations. 3. They demand supremacy — and who knows when this will come? These are the men who want us to get along with everyone and are men who do not really stand for anything and so they fall for everything.

These are the men who put pressure on to admit Red China into membership in the United Nations. After all so goes their argument, Red China is there, and we had better be realistic about it. Congressman Walter Judd has a good answer for them: There are gangsters in Chicago and we had better be realistic about that too, but does it mean we should now add them to the police force?

Even in the church this philosophy is running rampant. Men who are professing Christians, ministers, who look with displeasure upon those who will stand firm for the faith, upon those who will insist upon allegiance to The Word of God rather than to the dictates of the organized church. The time has already come in many of our denominations, including our own, when anyone who has the courage to stand for his convictions, who contends earnestly for the faith, this person runs the risk of being branded as “uncooperative” or as a “fanatic.”

What we need today are more men like Lord Lawrence. In Westminster Abbey I saw a monument to him. Inscribed on it are his name, the date of his death, and these simple but significant words, “He feared man so little, because he feared God so much.”

At this point in my thinking, in the midst of my insomnia, things indeed looked black. It would be enough for a man to call his druggist in the middle of the night and ask for three different kinds of tranquilizer. What a world! What a trend is taking place! It is enough to make us call back to the generation before and ask, “What kind of a world did you give us?” It is enough to make a man a pessimist.

But then some words of Scripture came to me: “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth.” (I Chron. 16:31). Without such words sleep would have been impossible, without such words a man could worry himself to death.

The next day when I arrived at my Study and was preparing this message, another verse came to my attention: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (Prov. 18:10). In the midst of this world in which we live, in the midst of the fact that men have decided on “peaceful coexistence” as the means to their end, I should like to present to you a few thoughts.

First, The Character of God Furnishes the Righteous Man With an Abundant Security. The character of God, the Almighty, Sovereign God Himself, is the refuge of the Christian in opposition to other refuges which godless men have chosen. I would like to remind you of the seven pillars of the house of sure salvation. Seven pillars given to us by the Sovereign God. Seven pillars found in the Word of God that should enable any child of God to take heart, even in the midst of this difficult and trying world. Listen to them, take them into your hearts and be thankful: HIs wisdom, His truth, His mercy, His justice, His power, His eternity, and last but not least, His immutability. The world may change. The world may involve itself in war after war. Men may be wiped off the face of the earth. But He is not capable of change! This is indeed a strong tower. With pillars uch as these we can be sure that The Lord Reigneth!

Second, He Has Proven His Security Time and Time Again to His People. I know that this is a matter of experience — and some will say we can’t use “subjective experience” for a proof — but no matter what name you give it, it is true. The poet put it this way and how wonderful a thought it is:

“There is a safe and secret place
Beneath the wings divine,
Reserved for all the heirs of grace;
That refuge now is mine.

The least and feeblest here may hide
Uninjured and unawed;
While thousands fall on every side,
I rest secure in God.”

You see, Brethren, no matter what your tribulation might be; no matter what your trouble might be; no matter how difficult things might be; He is there. If your trial in life is want, the Lord indeed will provide. His Word is filled with promises. Listen to one: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). If your trial is loneliness, the Lord is there with you. His Word is filled with promises to be with you. Listen to one: “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5). If your trial in life is war and the rumors of wars, The Lord will give you His peace. Listen again to The Word: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn. 14:27). If your trial in life is sin, remember that the Lord is your righteousness. God’s Word says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1;9). Brethren, we can defy, in God’s strength, tribulations of every sort and size!

Third, The Righteous Avail Themselves of the Strong Tower by Running to It. Such is the teaching of Proverbs 18:10. I think this is very important for us in this day and age. It is an old saying and very true, “You do not parley with evil.” You do not try to find how you can get along with it, you run from it. Your attitude toward evil should be the same as the attitude of Norm Van Brocklin, the former All-Pro Quarterback. When asked why he ran with the ball in a game he stated, “I only run out of sheer terror!” And so should the Christian’s attitude toward evil be one of not wanting anything to do with it. We should not want anymore to do with evil than Norm Van Brocklin wanted to do with running the ball.

Somehow or other there is a new teaching making itself felt today. This new teaching, when coming face to face with evil, (and Brethren, evil is anything contrary to the standard of the Word of God whether it is in politics or in the work of the church), teaches us to see how we can get along with it. This teaching motivates us to have peaceful coexistence with evil. Brethren, if a thing is wrong, it is wrong and we have no right to tolerate it, to give it equality, for then someday we shall live under it. The teaching of the Word of God is that the Christian flees to his God. The teaching is “Flee!” Let someone call you a coward! Let someone tell you that you are not having the right attitude of love toward a thing, or a person, by not having the right attitude of love toward a thing, or a person, by not having anything to do with it. Let them persecute you for having nothing to do with those who would usurp The Word. Such is evil and we are to flee from it, and to the refuge of the Almighty, Sovereign God, and He will be our strong tower!

Yes, Brethren, it is true that we live in a dangerous, terrible world. It is true that there are things making their way to and fro in the world of today that seek to destroy us. It is true that “Doomsday” could be just ahead. It is true that many sitting here this morning may well be fighting on the fields of battle a year from now. It is true that sickness and pain and misery are all here with us. But take heart! The Lord reigneth! The Bible says, “Our life is hid with Christ in God.” We are in the hands of Christ. We are under the wings of the Deity. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life — if we have asked Jesus Christ to come into our hearts and save us from our sins. No one can erase them. We have a strong tower and we are safe, by His grace.

Spurgeon once told his people — and he can say it far better than I am able to say it — “I see no reason for us to stay down in the dungeons; let us go up to the very top of the ramparts, where the banner waves in the fresh air, and let us sound the clarion of defiance to our foes again, and let it ring across the plain, where yonder pale white-horsed rider comes, bearing the lance of death; let us defy even him. Ring out the note again; salute the evening, and make the outgoings of the morning to rejoice.”

“Munitions of stupendous rock,

Thy dwelling-place shall be;

There shall thy soul without a shock

The wreck of nature see.”

Brethren, may I remind you once again? May I announce it to you in a way that you will never forget it? May I sound forth the answer to anything the world might have to offer with its wars, tribulations, bombs, evil? The Lord Reigneth!

Today being Saturday, we return to our Election Day Sermon Series written by the Rev. David W. Hall, pastor of the Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, Georgia. Today Dr. Hall looks at the sermon brought by the Episcopal minister Jasper Adams on this day, February 13, in 1833.

Election Day Sermon Series : “The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States”
delivered on February 13, 1833, by the Rev. Jasper Adams.

The Rev. Jasper Adams was an Episcopal Minister and President of the College of Charleston when he preached this 1833 message to the Diocese of South Carolina at St. Michael’s church in Charleston, South Carolina. This sermon occurred a little over a half century after the American Revolution. In it, Adams argued at length that Christianity (Protestantism in the main) rested at the foundation of American political order. This sermon may be found on pp. 39-50 of Religion and Politics in the Early Republic, Daniel L. Dreisbach, ed. (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1996).

Adams based his sermon on 1 Peter 3:15, Prov. 14:34, and Rev. 11:15. His first trumpet note was: “As Christianity was designed by its Divine Author to subsist until the end of time, it was indispensable, that it should be capable of adapting itself to all states of society, and to every condition of mankind.” He summarized the intersection of religion and politics toward the beginning of his sermon in this fashion:

According to the structure of the Hebrew Polity, the religious and political systems were most intimately, if not indissolubly combined: and in the Mosaic Law, we find religious observances, political ordinances, rules of medicine, prescriptions of agriculture, and even precepts of domestic economy, brought into the most intimate association. The Hebrew Hierarchy was a literary and political, as well as a religious order of men. In the Grecian States and in the Roman Empire, the same individual united in his own person, the emblems of priest of their divinities and the ensigns of civil and political authority. Christianity, while it was undermining, and until it had overthrown the ancient Polity of the Jews on the one hand; and the Polytheism of the Roman Empire on the other; was extended by the zeal and enterprise of its early preachers, sustained by the presence of its Divine Author and accompanied by the evidence of the miracles which they were commissioned to perform. It is not strange, therefore, that when, under the Emperor Constantine, Christianity came into the place of the ancient superstition, it should have been taken under the protection, and made a part of the constitution of the Imperial government.

While warning against the flagrant abuses of Constantinianism, he also noted that most early American colonies united faith with franchise. Here is how he raises the establishment question: “In thus discontinuing the connection between Church and Commonwealth—did the people of these States intend to renounce all connection with the Christian religion? Or did they only intend to disclaim all preference of one sect of Christians over another, as far as civil government was concerned; while they still retained the Christian religion as the foundation of all their social, civil and political institutions?” And on the federal level, he asks: “Did the people of the United States, when in adopting the Federal Constitution they declared, that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ expect to be understood as abolishing the national religion, which had been professed, respected and cherished from the first settlement of the country, and which it was the great object of our fathers in settling this then wilderness to enjoy according to the dictates of their own consciences?”

Rather than the view “that Christianity has no connection with the law of the land, or with our civil and political institutions,” Adams reviews the actual record and finds the following:

1. The originators and early promoters of the discovery; and settlement of this continent, had the propagation of Christianity before their eyes, as one of the principal objects of their undertaking.
2. We shall be further instructed in the religious character of our origin as a nation, if we advert for a moment to the rise and progress of our colonial growth.
3. To examine with a good prospect of success, the nature and extent of the changes in regard to Religion, which have been introduced by the people of the United States in forming their State Constitutions, and also in the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. In perusing the twenty-four Constitutions of the United States with this object in view, we find all of them recognizing Christianity as the well-known and well-established religion of the communities.

He reports these epiphenomena as well: “In our Conventions and Legislative Assemblies, daily Christian worship has been customarily observed. All business proceedings in our Legislative halls and Courts of justice have been suspended by universal consent on Sunday. Christian Ministers have customarily been employed to perform stated religious services in the Army and Navy of the United States.” He continued to note: “In administering oaths, the Bible, the standard of Christian truth is used, to give additional weight and solemnity to the transaction. A respectful observance of Sunday, which is peculiarly a Christian institution, is required by the laws of nearly all, perhaps of all the respective States. My conclusion, then, is sustained by the documents which gave rise to our colonial settlements, by the records of our colonial history, by our Constitutions of government made during and since the Revolution, by the laws of the respective States, and finally by the uniform practice which has existed under them.”

[Ed. : An epiphenomenon (plural: epiphenomena) is a secondary phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel to a primary phenomenon.]

Adams not only thought this to be the accurate history but also a salutary relationship. Neither he nor his audience seems to tremble before this history as if it were a theocratic incursion. On the contrary, a half century after the Revolution, Adams (and others) advocated a healthy, clothed public square.

This Episcopal bishop warned against the encroaching system of unbelief that ushered in “the ruin of hundreds of thousands of estimable families, unexampled distress of nations, general anarchy and convulsions, and in the devastation of much of the fairest portion of the earth? Encouragement of the infidel system among us will dissolve all the moral ties, which unite men in the bonds of society.” “Circumvention and fraud,” he warned, “will come to be esteemed wisdom, the sacred mystery of ‘plighted troth’ will be laughed to scorn, wise forbearance will be accounted pusillanimity, an enlightened practical benevolence will be supplanted by a supreme regard to self-gratification and an insensibility to the welfare of other men, the disregard of Almighty God will be equaled only by a corresponding contempt of mankind, personal aggrandizement will be substituted for love of country, social order and public security will be subverted by treason and violence—these, and all these have been, and may again be the fruits of the infidel system.”

Believers today might still wish to consider his exhortation:

No nation on earth, is more dependent than our own, for its welfare, on the preservation and general belief and influence of Christianity among us. Perhaps there has never been a nation composed of men whose spirit is more high, whose aspirations after distinction are more keen, and whose passions are more strong than those which reign in the breasts of the American people. These are encouraged and strengthened by our systems of education, by the unlimited field of enterprise which is open to all; and more especially by the great inheritance of civil and religious freedom, which has descended to us from our ancestors. It is too manifest, therefore, to require illustration, that in a great nation thus high spirited, enterprising and free, public order must be maintained by some principle of very peculiar energy and strength—by some principle which will touch the springs of human sentiment and action. Now there are two ways, and two ways only by which men can be governed in society; the one by physical force; the other by religious and moral principles pervading the community, guiding the conscience, enlightening the reason, softening the prejudices, and calming the passions of the multitude.

Such stirring rhetoric and such passionate patriotism from an early 19th century Episcopalian pulpit may surprise many descendants of the diocese of Charleston. But Adams’ sermon is well worth hearing again.

This sermon appears in the 2012 Kindle edition of Election Sermons (pp. 45-64) or click here or here to read it on the Web.

by Dr. David W. Hall, Pastor
Midway Presbyterian Church

An Auspicious Date Indeed

It was on this day, February 10th in 1645 that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland officially adopted the Westminster Assembly’s document titled The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government.

In Charles Hodge’s Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, he states “In this directory it is declared, that the ordinary and perpetual officers of the church are pastors, teachers, and other church governors and deacons.” Certainly the Presbyterian form of government was already in place and practiced in Scotland before this date, but by the adoption of this Westminster document, the Kirk of Scotland endeavored to bolster a uniformity of church government among the churches of England, Scotland and Ireland.

While not exactly easy reading, here below is the text of the 1645 General Assembly’s resolution:

The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government

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p style=”text-align: justify;”>ASSEMBLY AT EDINBURGH, February 10, 1645, Sess. 16. 
ACT of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the KIRK of SCOTLAND, approving the Propositions concerning Kirk-government, and Ordination of Ministers.

THE General Assembly being most desirous and solicitous, not only of the establishment and preservation of the Form of Kirk-government in this kingdom, according to the word of God, books of Discipline, acts of General Assemblies, and National Covenant, but also of an uniformity in Kirk-government betwixt these kingdoms, now more straitly and strongly unite by the late Solemn League and Covenant; and considering, that as in former time there did, so hereafter there may arise, through the nearness of contagion, manifold, mischief to this kirk from a corrupt form of government in the kirk of England: like as the precious opportunity of bringing the kirks of Christ in all the three kingdoms to an uniformity in Kirk-government being the happiness of the present times above the former; which may also, by the blessing of God, prove an effectual mean, and a good foundation to prepare for a safe and well-grounded pacification, by removing the cause from which the present pressures and bloody wars did originally proceed: and now the Assembly having thrice read, and diligently examined, the propositions (hereunto annexed) concerning the officers, assemblies, and government of the kirk, and concerning the ordination of ministers, brought unto us, as the results of the long and learned debates of the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster, and of the treaty of uniformity with the Commissioners of this kirk there residing; after mature deliberation,, and after timeous [i.e., in good time or sufficiently early] calling upon and warning of all, who have any exceptions against same, to make them known, that they might receive satisfaction; doth agree to and approve the propositions aforementioned, touching, touching Kirk-government and Ordination; and doth hereby authorized the Commissioners of this Assembly, who are to meet at Edinburgh, to agree and to conclude in the name of this Assembly, an uniformity betwixt the kirks in both kingdoms, in the afore-mentioned particulars, so soon as the same shall be ratified, without any substantial alteration, by an ordinance of the honourable Houses of the Parliament of England; which ratification shall be timely intimate and made known by the Commissioners of this kirk residing at London. Provided always, That this act be no ways prejudicial to the further discussion and examination of that article which hold forth, That the doctor or teacher hath power of the administration of the sacraments, as well as the pastor; as also of the distinct rights and interests of presbyteries and people in the calling of ministers; but that it shall be free to debate and discuss these points, as God shall be pleased to give further light.

Words to Live By:
God has ordained that the Church should be overseen, first at the local level, by spiritually mature men. Local congregations in turn are connected one to another and represented by these same elders, first regionally, and then on a wider scale, most commonly nationally. See Acts 15 for an example of this wider court of the Church. Pray for the Church. Pray that our leaders in the Church would study to carefully maintain God’s intended order for the Church. Pray that both we and our elders would remain humble and obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ, in all things seeking His will and not our own.

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. — (Acts 14:23, KJV)

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— (Titus 1:5, ESV)