Extract
from a sermon of Robert Gordon's on Ezekiel 17:22-24, entitled “Christ the
Goodly Cedar”
Robert
Gordon (1786-1853) was a minister of the Gospel in
Scotland. A Presbyterian who held fast the
doctrine of his forefathers in the faith – the Puritans and Covenanters –
the writings left by him for posterity exhibit much earnest and skilful work
in revealing Christ as Saviour and Redeemer.
The
prediction before us unfolds also larger and more glorious views of the
kingdom
of
Christ
than it
did, or could do, to the Church of old. While it opens up to us the prospect
of a spiritual kingdom, which will one day be universal, it conveys also much
information respecting the privileges and responsibilities of Christ’s
people. It intimates, from the very nature of the figure employed, that the
progress of that kingdom is to be gradual; and so we have seen it to be in the
actual fulfilment of the prediction.
But
we cannot think of this without being reminded that the gradual nature of this
progress is connected with the means, or method, or instrumentality which
Christ has been pleased to appoint for the establishment of his kingdom. That
instrumentality is the co-operation of his own people, – the communication
of the Gospel by those who know and believe it, to those who do not know it,
in all the countries and kingdoms of the earth, and through every successive
generation of the children of men. Christ has not employed angels, as he could
easily have done if he had chosen, to carry his message of peace to the
nations. He has chosen men to this honourable office, – redeemed men, –
those who have themselves been set free from the bondage of sin and Satan,
that they may have the honour and the privilege of carrying to others who are
enslaved still, as they themselves once were, the glad tidings of life and
liberty. It is a privilege, – a great and glorious privilege, – whatever
professing Christians may think of it. And those who feel it to be so will
admire the grace and wisdom manifested in the gradual progress of Christ’s
kingdom, in so far as provision is thereby made for affording them an
opportunity of being fellow-workers together with Christ in advancing his
cause. But the privilege carries with it great responsibility. If Christ’s
professing people are the instruments which he has chosen to employ for the
extension of his kingdom, they must conclude that the progress of that kingdom
will, in some measure, correspond with the zeal, and ardour, and diligence
with which they do their part. They cannot expect that the work should go on
if they are idle. And if, at any time, therefore, they should be disposed to
become impatient, or should be discouraged and desponding, because of the
slowness with which the Gospel spreads, let them reflect whether they are not
passing sentence on their own indifference, and indolence, and sloth. It is
true that they have many and powerful antagonists to encounter. But let them
not measure the strength of their enemies by their own weakness. They are but
the instruments; another hand uses them. They are but the means; the power
resides elsewhere, even with Him who is “the King of glory,” “the Lord
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” Hitherto, the kings of the
earth, and the princes, and the mighty men, have been too often arrayed in
hostility to the cause of Christ. But they cannot prevail. They cannot uproot
the goodly cedar which Jehovah’s own right hand hath planted, nor prevent it
so spreading as to afford shelter to all fowl of every wing; for “all the
trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree,
have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry
tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.”
Reference
"Christ
in the Old Testament," vol. 4, Free Presbyterian Publications 2002, pp.
216, 217.
