Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1531
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, April 4, 1880
“Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me.” Exodus 32:26.
DURING the last few days in which the stir of a general election has moved the most quiet of our streets, every one of you must have been asked, many times, on which side you are. Some are enthusiastic on this side and some are quite as warm on the other and the interest of all ranks and classes is awakened. Now that the Lord’s Day has come I hope you will forget all about politics and listen to me while I ask a far more important question, namely, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” May God grant us Grace to give an honest answer and may that answer be, “Yes, Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You.”
May thousands of you say to the Lord what Amaziah and his band said to David, “Yours are we, David, and on your side, son of Jesse.” Before I enlarge upon this exceedingly personal and practical question, I must ask you to remember the man who asked it. It was Moses who put this question, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” and he put it to Israel when sin was rampant in the camp. It is well to remember that he stood there as a lone man, the solitary champion of Jehovah and challenged the whole nation to decide for God! His own brother had practically deserted him and become the means of making the golden calf. The 70 elders who ought to have been by his side were, none of them, present with him except his lieutenant Joshua.
He stood alone in the midst of the multitude just when they were intoxicated with their lustful pleasures and their fanatical worship. He was equal to the emergency! Thoughtless altogether of his own safety, dauntless, brave and bold, he dashes down their idol and commands it to be ground small and cast into the water of which the nation would drink. He upbraids them to their faces and strides among them, as much superior to them all as a shepherd is superior to the flock he tends. You have to admire his courage! You wonder at his supreme power and you inquire for the secret of such sovereign strength. Moses must have worn about him a dignity most commanding, a royalty far superior to that which comes of birth or office!
Don’t you know where he derived that majesty? He had been, for 40 days, alone with God! Heavenly communion makes a man strong. He had been in the secret place of the Most High. He had spoken with God, face to face, as a man speaks with his friend, and it was not likely that he should fear the face of man after having seen the face of God! He had been familiar with the sublime and when he came down to the infinite littleness of men who had dared to liken the Glory of God to the image of an ox that eats grass, he wore about him a natural superiority before which they all trembled and slunk away in fear!
Moses was also a man of prayer. He had stopped the hand of the Almighty on the mountain’s brow till even God, Himself, had said, “Let Me alone”—wondrous though it may seem, the man, Moses, by his holy faith had even put a restraint on God Himself! Be you sure of this, that the man who has power with God will have power with men. If we have power with God for men, we shall have power with men for God! He that can overcome Heaven by prayer—what is there that he cannot conquer? There stood Moses, like a lone rock in the midst of the tempestuous sea! The tumult of the people raged around him, but he was firm and unmoved. He became, indeed, the one fixed point upon which the very existence of true religion depended. All the partisans of godliness remaining in the camp, hidden and concealed, rallied to his call and the one man saved the cause.
So has it been in history, not once nor twice, but many a time! A single determined man, full of God’s Spirit, has confronted the whole mass of the people—has breasted the rushing torrent of popular prejudice and has not only stemmed the current, but turned it in the opposite direction even as Moses did! Being girt with the power of God and
having learned to dwell on high, the one Believer has become the heroic leader of a band of earnest hearts. Brothers and Sisters, we need, in these days, men and women of fixed principles! We need individuals of enlightened mind and determined will! We need those who know what is right and will not deviate from it even though they should risk their lives! We need to have, not one or two, but multitudes of steadfast men and women, who, when they put their foot down, mean to abide there and cannot be pushed from off their standing-place.
If any of you aspire to lead your own families and to influence your own connections in the right way, you must possess personal strength of mind of the right sort and you must get it where Moses gained his power. You must be much alone with God and mighty on your knees. Come forth to face the wicked world with your faces radiant with the light of God! Communion with Heaven must win for you Divine help, that you may not be overcome by evil, but may overcome evil with good. Thus much concerning Moses. God make us to be like he.