Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3188
“Pass through the host, and command the people.” Joshua 1:11.
[When the “Army Discipline and Regulation Bill” was before the House of Commons, Mr. Spurgeon delivered this discourse upon it. Shortly afterwards, he published a summary of the sermon in The Sword and the Trowel, with a prefatory note in which he said, “We hope to print the whole discourse for the use of soldiers.” With this view, he had commenced to revise it, but had not completed it, and it is now published for the first time. Workers among soldiers will find the sermon specially suitable for them.]
BELIEVERS are called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. As many of us as believe in Him and have obtained eternal life through Him, are now enlisted beneath His banner to fight the battles of holiness against sin and of truth against error. We war not, however, with flesh and blood, but with spiritual enemies. We slay lust and lying, drunkenness and blasphemy—and we wage a never-ending warfare against everything which is dishonest, unkind, selfish, or ungodly. He who died upon the Cross out of love to the undeserving has taught us how to endure hardness for His sake as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Our ambition is to fight a good fight and keep the faith. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we hope to do so and to receive from our Great Commander’s mouth the blessed commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I have here a copy of the “Army Discipline and Regulation Bill” sent to me by a member of the House of Commons, with this written in the corner of it, “May not the Christian soldier derive some profit from this?” I feel sure he may. May the Holy Spirit enable us to do so!
This Bill contains a list of offenses for which a soldier on active service is liable to death—and those offenses are excellent figures of certain spiritual offenses which must not be committed by the soldiers of Christ! If they fall into them, and continue in them, it will prove that they are already under sentence of death and are not Christ’s servants at all. If any complain that the discipline of our Lord Jesus is strict, it will be of benefit to them to see how severe is the discipline of every army. Nothing can make Christ’s service sweet except love to Him—His service appears hardest to those who have hard hearts—and just as men grow right and true, they find the Lord’s yoke to be easy and His burden light. Judging Christianity from the outside, it will always seem to unregenerate men a very strict Puritanical system. But judging it from the inside, when the heart is renewed and the soul is charmed with the blessed Person of their Divine Redeemer, we love our Lord’s service and find intense delight in it. We consent to His Law, that it is good, and we long with all our hearts to keep His statutes even to the end. We are glad to know what offenses are, that we may pray to be kept from them for we would not willingly offend so good a Lord.
In this Bill, we read that “A Person subject to Military Law, when on Active Service, is punishable with Death, if he commits any of the following offences”—
(1) . “Shamefully abandons or delivers up any garrison, place, post, or guard, or uses any means to compel or induce any governor, commanding officer, or other person, to shamefully abandon or deliver up any garrison, place, post, or guard, which was the duty of such governor, officer, or person to defend.”
This is a grievous offense in the Church of God and I am sorry to say that it has often been committed. We are put in trust with the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that is the citadel which we are to defend at all hazards—so what a sad thing it is when professed Christ’s ministers give up Truth of God after Truth in order to please the public! “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon,” that professed servants of Christ have betrayed the Gospel itself to the enemy! O you who follow the banner of Jesus, never do this! Defend it with your lives! Die in the defense of it, as the martyrs did, and never be ashamed of it in any company. You may not be an officer and, therefore, you cannot give up a garrison or castle to the enemy—but you have your own post to guard—take care that you guard it! Never give up the Bible—no, not a leaf of it! Never give up prayer—stand sentry there and let no man laugh you out of it! Whatever post the Lord Jesus commits to you, take care that you hold it till He comes, or till you, yourself, are called Home to the heavenly headquarters. Hold fast, as with a grip of steel, every Doctrine which the Lord has taught you whether others approve of it or not! Hold fast, also, and endeavor, by the aid of God’s Spirit, to put into practice every precept of the Lord. Value the practical part of Christianity as well as the doctrinal—and prize them both beyond gold. Be not of the mind of those who say of Christ’s rules, “These are of little consequence.” No! Your Master’s command cannot be a trifle! And the spirit which thinks little of anything which Jesus commands is an evil spirit! We must pray against it and strive against it. Make it a matter of conscience to follow Jesus at all hazards wherever He goes. Stand up for the Scriptures and the true Gospel—and “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Do not give up a hair of the head of the Truth of God, nor let her enemies take away so much as a lace of her shoes.