1. Every species of tyranny.

2. Idolatry, or the worship of false gods.

3. Infidelity.

4. Heresy, or the disbelief of the great and fundamental doctrines of the Gospel.

II. BY WHAT MEANS WE MAY SUPPOSE GOD WILL OVERTURN OR REMOVE ALL THESE THINGS WHICH STAND IN THE WAY OF THE GLORIOUS REIGN OF CHRIST.

1. By public calamities or desolating judgments.

2. We may suppose that God will employ human learning to enlighten the minds of ignorant, barbarous, tyrannical, and erroneous nations in respect to their civil and religious tyranny, and their absurd and vicious customs and manners.

3. We may be confident that God will employ the Gospel as the principal external instrument to overthrow and remove all obstacles in the way of Christ's final and most glorious reign upon earth. This is suited at once to enlighten the understandings, awaken the consciences, and subdue the hearts of all who are opposed to the kingdom of Christ.

4. God will pour out His Spirit as the efficient cause of making all the other means that have been mentioned effectual, "to the pulling down of strongholds," etc.

III. WHY MAY WE CONFIDENTLY EXPECT THAT GOD WILL ACCOMPLISH HIS GRACIOUS DESIGN OF GIVING THE KINGDOM TO HIS SON BY THE MEANS THAT HAVE BEEN MENTIONED.

1. Because these are the means which He has hitherto usually employed for accomplishing this purpose.

2. Because He can make the means which have been mentioned effectually answer his great purpose in view.

3. He has expressly promised to do it.Improvement —

1. If the things which now stand in the way of the glorious reign of Christ must be removed in the manner that has been mentioned before His reign commences, we have no reason to think that His kingdom will soon come.

2. If God has done so much already, and will do a great deal more to prepare the way for the coming of Christ in His millennial glory, then we may justly expect that the world will be very happy under the reign of the Prince of Peace.

3. If God will remove the obstacles which still tie in the way of the latter-day glory of Christ in the manner that has been mentioned, then good men have a great deal to do to promote this great and good design.

4. It appears from what has been said, that Christians have great encouragement to exert themselves vigorously and wisely in preparing the way for the glorious reign of Christ.

5. This subject calls upon all to rejoice in what God has done and is doing, by the instrumentality of man, to fill the earth with His glory, under the reign of the Prince of Peace.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)

II. THEY TRANSPIRE BY DIVINE ARRANGEMENT. There must be perpetual fermentation where evil is. How does God effect these changes? —

1. By the revelation of right and truth to human consciousness.

2. By the procedure of His providence.

III. THEY WILL ONLY BE TERMINATED BY THE ADVENT OF THE RIGHTFUL KING. The world is Christ's. He has a right to rule. So truthful, benevolent, and just will be His sway that all opposition will be subdued.

(Homilist.)

1. The first prominent feature of self is in some cases profane self; that is, many of God's elect, before they are called by the blessed Spirit, are living in open profanity, in drunkenness, swearing, and the barefaced practice of notorious sins. But whenever the Spirit of God begins to work in the heart, He overturns profane self, that is, He brings such solemn convictions into the conscience — He shoots such arrows from the bow of God into the soul, that self in its profane shape is overcome and overthrown thereby.

2. Here, then, is a soul which stands overturned before God; a wreck and ruin before "the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." But what will a man do when he is reduced to these circumstances? Why, he will begin to build, and will endeavour to set up a temple in which he believes God will take pleasure, of which He may approve, and which shall, in some measure, recommend him to Jehovah's favour. A second overturning, then, is necessary, an overthrow of righteous or holy self. And what is the Lord's lever to overturn this second temple, built out of the ruins of the first, but not "the place of His rest," as being still the work of men's hands? A spiritual discovery of the deep pollution of our hearts and natures before Him. Profanity is overturned by the application of the law with power to the conscience; but this false holiness, this mock spirituality, is overturned by the discovery to our consciences of the deep pollution that lurks in our carnal minds; this is more or less the breaking up of "the fountains of the great deep," and discovering with power to the conscience the truth of those words: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." As we try, then, to be holy, sin rises up from the depths of our carnal mind, and overturns that fabric which we are seeking to erect.

3. Now let us trace a little what course self will steer. Why, this rest. less wretch now runs in another channel, which is to slight the solemn inward teachings of God, and to take hold of the doctrines of grace by the hand of nature, without waiting to have these heavenly truths applied, from time to time, by the mouth of God to our hearts. And as some sweetness has been felt in them there seems to be some warrant for so doing. But presumption creeps upon us in such imperceptible and subtle ways, that we scarcely know we are in thus delusive path before we find a precipice at the end of the road. And what has led us there? Our pride and ambition, which are not satisfied with being nothing, with occupying the place where God puts us, and being in that posture where He Himself sets us down. We must needs grasp at something beyond God's special teachings in the soul; we must needs exalt our stature beyond the height which God Himself has given us, adding a cubit to our dwarfish proportions. Here, then, is the third form of self which is to be overturned, as much as the two preceding forms, and that is presumptuous self.

II. THE SETTING UP OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE RUINS OF SELF. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." There is one then to come "whose right it is," there is a King who has a right to the throne, and to the allegiance of His subjects; a right to all that they are and to all that they have. But whence has He gained this right? "Until He come whose right it is." It is His right, then, first, by original donation and gift, the Father having given to the Son all the elect. "Here am I," says Jesus, and the children that Thou hast given Me." "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me." Then, so far as we are His, Jesus has a right to our persons; and in having a right to our persons, He has, by the same original donation of God the Father, a right to our hearts and affections. But He has another right, and that is by purchase and redemption, He having redeemed His people by His own blood — having laid down His life for them, and thus bought and purchased them, and so established a right to them by the full and complete price which He Himself paid down upon the cross for them. This two-fold right He exercises every time that He lays a solemn claim to any one of the people whom He has purchased. "Until He come whose right it is." Then there is a coming of Jesus into the souls of His people; not a coming into their judgments to inform their heads; not a coming into their minds merely to enable them to speak with their tongues concerning them, but there is a solemn coming of Christ, with power and glory and grace and majesty into the souls and consciences of His elect family, whereby He sets up His kingdom upon its basis, erects a temple for Himself, and builds up His own throne of mercy and truth upon the ruins of self. But this is not a work which is once done, and needs no more repetition. For we must bear in mind that this wreck and ruin of self is not a heap of dead stones. Self is a living principle; not a slaughtered and buried rebel, but a breathing antagonist to the Lord of life and glory. Self will ever work, then, against His supreme authority, and will ever rebel against His sovereign dominion. And therefore if we look into our hearts we shall find that day by day we need this overturning work to be done afresh, and again and again repeated in us.

(J. C. Philpot.)

II. IT IS CHRIST'S RIGHT THUS TO REIGN. "Whose right it is."

1. On His creative property in all things (Colossians 1:16). Satan is an usurper, — the world is alienated from its rightful Lord. But the right of Christ remains unaffected, and that right He will demand and obtain.

2. On His supreme authority as universal Lord. He is Lord of all, King of kings, etc. This authority is seen in controlling all events, in upholding all things, etc. In His infinite outgoings of benevolence and love.

3. He has a redeeming right. He became incarnate, He descended into the world, He brought the light of heaven into it, He gave His own life for it, He is the proprietor, etc. Here then is a right, ratified with His precious blood. He was willingly lifted up that He "might draw all men unto Him."

III. GOD WILL OVERTURN EVERY OBSTACLE UNTIL THIS BE EFFECTED. "I will overturn," etc. Ignorance must give place to light, error to truth, sin to holiness. Satan must be driven from his strongholds, and thus Jesus will enlarge His empire and extend His domains. There are, however, four mighty impediments which must be overthrown, entirely overturned.

1. Paganism, and all its multifarious rites.

2. Mohammedanism in all its earthly gratifications.

3. Judaism, with its obsolete rites.

4. Antichristian Rome.Every thing that exalteth itself against God, or attempts the division of Christ's merits, must be consumed before the brightness of Messiah's countenance and the power of His truth. But you ask, How will God overturn, etc.? Doubtless His providence will subserve the purposes of His grace. He may cause science and commerce to open a passage for the message of truth. He may even overrule war, and may allow the military hero to pioneer the ambassador of peace. But he will do it by the power of the Gospel of truth. The doctrines of the cross are to effect it. "We preach Christ crucified," etc. "Not by might, nor by power," etc.

(J. Burns, D. D.).

     4971   seasons, of life
     5572   sword
     9210   judgment, God's

Ezekiel 21:1-3

     1431   prophecy, OT methods

Ezekiel 21:2-3

     7741   missionaries, task

Light for them that Sit in Darkness;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF JESUS CHRIST: AND THAT HE UNDERTOOK TO ACCOMPLISH BY HIMSELF THE ETERNAL REDEMPTION OF SINNERS: ALSO, HOW THE LORD JESUS ADDRESSED HIMSELF TO THIS WORK; WITH UNDENIABLE DEMONSTRATIONS THAT HE PERFORMED THE SAME. OBJECTIONS TO THE CONTRARY ANSWERED. 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.'--Galatians 3:13. by John Bunyan--1674 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This solemn and searching treatise was first published in 1674, a copy of which is in …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Sundry Sharp Reproofs
This doctrine draws up a charge against several sorts: 1 Those that think themselves good Christians, yet have not learned this art of holy mourning. Luther calls mourning a rare herb'. Men have tears to shed for other things, but have none to spare for their sins. There are many murmurers, but few mourners. Most are like the stony ground which lacked moisture' (Luke 8:6). We have many cry out of hard times, but they are not sensible of hard hearts. Hot and dry is the worst temper of the body. Sure …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Saurin -- Paul Before Felix and Drusilla
Jacques Saurin, the famous French Protestant preacher of the seventeenth century, was born at Nismes in 1677. He studied at Geneva and was appointed to the Walloon Church in London in 1701. The scene of his great life work was, however, the Hague, where he settled in 1705. He has been compared with Bossuet, tho he never attained the graceful style and subtilty which characterize the "Eagle of Meaux." The story is told of the famous scholar Le Clerc that he long refused to hear Saurin preach, on the …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament