Young people, if you're going to really stand
for God, the fires of slander, the fires
of libel, and the fires of opposition will
always burn against you.
But I'd rather be in the fire with
Jesus than be on the throne with a
man of sin.
Persecution often comes to the faithful saints of
God, and the reformer John Knox knew much
of that.
He was in prison for speaking against the
heresies of the Roman Catholic Church in the
16th century.
Ironically, it was just over one year from
preaching this sermon on John Knox that Dr.
Paisley would also go to prison defending the
faith.
Here is Dr. Paisley now preaching on John
Knox, the Scottish reformer.
If you have your Bible, I want to
refer to the 17th chapter of John's Gospel,
the first three verses.
These words speak Jesus, and lifted up his
eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour
is come.
Glorify thy son, that thy son also may
glorify thee.
As thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent.
The influence of John Knox has made a
tremendous imprint upon the English-speaking peoples of
the world.
We feel in Ulster his influence and the
influence of Knox rested upon the founding fathers
of this nation.
Two famous martyrs preceded the ministry of John
Knox in Scotland.
And when he came to commence his ministry,
the nation of Scotland had already had its
baptism of blood.
I want to say something from this platform
this evening.
Let me really emphasize it, that Rome, the
Church of Rome, is drunk with the blood
of the martyrs of Jesus.
Let us never forget it.
And let me say, no matter what the
ecumenists may say, no matter how many people
may go up the stairs of the Vatican
to slaver on the toes of the Pope,
it will not make any difference to the
fact that this priestly leopard has not changed
its spots, and this diabolical Ethiopian has not
changed its skin.
Rome is just the same breath.
Do not you listen to these people who
tell us that the Church of Rome has
changed.
She is still the same.
She is still that mystery, Babylon the Great,
the mother of pirates and the abominations of
the earth.
And if she would have her way, this
preacher would not be preaching to you tonight.
I have come a little way along the
road and I know something about the power
of Romanism and what Romanism would do to
those that stand for Christ.
So, Knox commenced his ministry upon holy ground.
The Stephen of the Scottish Reformation was Patrick
Hamilton.
At the age of twenty-four, under the
orders of a Roman Catholic Cardinal called Beton,
he was called by the Reformers the Bloody
Beton.
This young man of twenty-five years of
age was burned to death because of Christ's
gospel preaching and because he would not go
amassing.
In fact, the indictment brought against Hamilton was
this, that he preached the gospel and that
he taught that all men have the right
to read the Word of God, especially the
New Testament.
Why, what is wrong with that?
And yet the Church of Rome burned this
young man because of a stand for the
Word of God and the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
And I would like to say that perhaps
not as yet have the fires been set
alight to burn those in our day who
stand for God.
But young people, if you are going to
really stand for God, the fires of slander,
the fires of libel and the fires of
opposition will always burn against you.
But I would rather be in the fire
with Jesus than be on the throne with
the man of sin.
May the Lord make us willing to go
through the fire for Himself.
Thank God there are as best of saints
for the children of God.
Then we can damn them and walk through
the fire unstarred and untouched.
You know, I rejoice in that word that
we read of the three Hebrew children.
Why they call them children, I do not
know, for they were really men.
And you remember when they walked through the
fire, you remember that when they came out,
they had not the smell of fire upon
them.
And praise God we can go through the
fire and the devil can sniff at us
if he likes, but there will not be
the smell of fire upon us.
This is the Lord's doing and it is
marvelous in her eyes.
And so Hamilton prepared the way for Knox.
After Hamilton came George Wishart.
And George Wishart was also put to death
by the Roman Catholic Church for teaching and
expounding the epistle to the Romans.
My, what a book is the epistle to
the Romans.
You know, we have a story in Ulster
and it goes like this, that this countryman
went to a Bible reading.
And it was the first time he was
ever at a Bible reading.
And he was a good, strong Protestant.
We call them prods in Ulster.
And he sat in this Bible reading and
he could not really make out what the
preacher was saying.
And when he went home, his wife said
to him, did you enjoy the meeting?
He said, well, I did not catch all
that the preacher said, but he was a
good preacher for he took epistle to the
Romans.
And I really enjoyed that, he said.
Well, the epistle to the Romans has done
more to unseek poverty than any other epistle.
And I would like just to call your
attention to the first verses of the epistle
which introduce us to the great doctrines of
that epistle.
For these are the doctrines that the Reformers
preach.
Life-giving doctrines.
Soul-stirring doctrines.
Devil-disturbing doctrines.
Soul-sealing doctrines.
And if you look at the first verses,
you will find that this epistle is an
exposition of the gospel.
Look at Romans chapter 1 and verse 1.
Separated unto the gospel of God.
We have the gospel of God expounded in
this epistle.
There are all sorts of definitions given of
the gospel.
But here is the gospel according to God's
precious revelation.
And you will find that this gospel concerns
Christ.
It is the gospel of Christ.
And you will find three things standing out
here at the introduction to this epistle.
And I believe these are the key to
the whole epistle.
What are they?
First of all, it is the gospel of
Christ's promise.
Look at it.
Which He had promised before by His prophets
in the Holy Scripture.
And before the gospel has its reception in
my heart, thank God it had its inception
in the heart of God away in eternity.
And I thank God when I open the
Bible and I look into the Old Testament,
I see that the gospel is the gospel
of the promise Christ.
The promise of Christ.
And you know, this epistle goes into the
promise of Christ.
If you go into it, you will find
the comments of the Holy Ghost on the
Old Testament Scripture.
And then if you look again, you will
find it is not only the gospel of
the promise of Christ, but it is the
gospel of the person of Christ.
And we read, This
gospel is the gospel of the person of
Christ.
What a wonderful person He is.
God manifests in the flesh.
We are not pointing man to an example.
We are not pointing man to the highest
form of human life.
Thank God we are pointing man and are
preaching to God manifest in flesh.
The eternal God enthroned in humanity.
This is the message that the Reformers preach.
And then you will notice, last of all,
it is the gospel of the purpose of
Christ.
What is the purpose of the gospel?
Look at it for obedience to the faith
among all nations for His name.
And if you are really preaching the gospel,
friend, things will happen.
If you preach the gospel, friend, the work
that you do will stand for God.
Even the Pope knows all about me.
He had to have me arrested in a
row to keep me quiet.
Well, may the Lord help us to really
preach a gospel that disturbs people.
I would not like to preach a soft,
sissy gospel that would not disturb anybody.
You know, in Ireland we have dandelions.
In the summertime, these dandelions decay.
And the children pluck them and they blow
them.
And the top blows off them.
You know, there are some preachers and they
could not blow a dandelion cock.
There is no piff in them or power.
But, my, I want to preach a gospel
that will really disturb the powers of darkness.
It is the sort of gospel Knox preached.
And this was the gospel that laid the
foundation of Knox's ministry.
Now, how was Knox, who was ordained a
priest and followed on after these two martyrs,
how did he come to Christ?
It was through reading the Word of God.
And I purposely read John 17.
And it was verse 3 of John 17
that brought John Knox out of the darkness
of Roman Catholicism into the glorious light of
God's gospel.
This is life eternal.
Thank God we are offering to man eternal
life.
Knox had sought peace and life in the
ritual, in the superstition, in the darkness of
Romanism.
And he had not found it.
But this is eternal life.
That they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
And we can only know the true God,
not through the church or through the sacraments,
but through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And you know, at 67, John Knox finished
his fight on earth.
And the last words that he said were
these.
Read me the verse where I first cast
my anchor.
This was the verse that he cast his
anchor on.
John's Gospels 17 and 3.
And I want to say his anchor held.
Now, of course, immediately John Knox was brought
to Christ.
The powers of Rome in every hand sought
to silence him.
And Cardinal Beton met his doom by the
hands of certain conspirators who were enraged by
his bloodshedding.
And they were joined in St. Andrew's Castle
by John Knox, the priest who had been
converted.
And it was in the castle of St.
Andrew's, when the garrison was besieged by the
powers and the armies of Rome, that John
Knox started his preaching ministry.
There was a converted monk in that garrison
called John Ruff.
And John Ruff saw the tremendous power and
blessing that rested upon John Knox.
And one day before the congregation, he commanded
Knox no longer to delay but to go
forward and open his mouth boldly and make
known the mystery of the Gospel.
And so one day, shortly after that, John
Knox entered the pulpit.
And the first sermon he preached was from
Daniel chapter 7, verse 24 and verse 25.
The ten horns out of this kingdom are
ten kings that shall arise, and another shall
rise after them.
They shall be diverse from the first, and
they shall subdue three kings.
They shall speak great words against the Most
High, and shall wear out the saints of
the Most High, and think to change times
and laws.
They shall be given unto His hand until
a time, and times, and the dividing of
time.
And Knox took this verse and he applied
it to the church of Rome.
He said the church of Rome spoke great
words against the Most High.
And so she does.
The church of Rome wears out the saints
of the Most High.
And so she does.
The church of Rome thinks to change times
and laws.
And he really set about the Roman Catholic
Church with such unction and fire and zeal
that his congregation said, All the other preachers
cut off the branches, but this preacher lays
the axe to the root of the tree.
And that is the way to preach, to
lay the axe to the root of the
tree, to really attack the powers of darkness
and the forces of evil.
And here is John Knox.
And the castle is besieged.
And alone he stands and fearlessly and faithfully
declares the truth of Christ against all the
idolatry and idolatry of the Roman Catholic system.
What a man was Knox.
But you know, if you take a stand
for Christ, you will suffer for it.
If you are going to stand out for
Jesus Christ, you will pay the price and
suffer it.
The French soldiers came.
They destroyed the guards that were set on
the castle of St. Andrews.
They attacked the castle, conquered it.
John Knox, the preacher, was soon a prisoner.
And when they got him as a prisoner,
they made him a galley sleeve.
They used the whip upon his body.
And they did everything to humble this mighty
man of God.
But there was a spirit within him that
could not be humble.
Think of him one day preaching fearlessly and
thundering against the powers of darkness.
And the next day, stripped to the waist
with the lash of the galleymaster over his
back.
And there he is tugging at the oars
of the galley night and day.
But you know, if you have real faith
in God, you will stand firm even in
the dark places.
You will prove the Lord in times of
trouble.
And I can say personally in my ministry,
when I have gone down into the valley,
and when the day has been dark and
it seems that the sun was never going
to rise again, nor the stars even to
be seen amidst the blackness of the night
of persecution, it is then that I have
really and truly and gloriously proved the Lord.
So don't be afraid of the dark valley,
friend.
You will hear the heartbeat of Jesus in
the dark valley.
And in the silence of the bitter night
of sorrow, Jesus will be there.
Standing somewhere in the shadows, you will find
Jesus.
He is the only one who cares and
understands.
Standing somewhere in the shadows, you will find
Him.
And you will know Him by the nail
print in His hands.
But you know, Knox's spirit was not broken.
And one day a Roman priest came aboard
the galley and he had a painted doll
in his hands, supposed to represent the Virgin
Mary.
And he made all the galley slaves kiss
this wooden doll.
And then he brought it to Knox.
And Knox pretended to be converted.
And he said to the priest, Could I
see her lady?
And the priest was all pleased, and he
put the doll into Knox's hands.
And Knox laughed.
He said, I'll let her swim.
And he threw it overboard.
He said, She's light enough.
Let her swim for it, if she's a
saint.
And as she has such power.
Needless to say, they never put the painted
doll into his hand again.
See, the spirit of this great man was
unbroken.
The waters of judgment and persecution could not
break the spirit of this man of God.
And I believe that we have the Spirit
of Christ that will stand in the darkest
hour.
And when everyone is against us, we will
be prepared to stand for Christ.
You know, it's very easy to stand for
Christ when the crowd's with you.
And when everybody's patting you on the shoulders
and saying, Yes, you're doing a good job.
But it's hard to stand when everybody's against
you and every voice is against you.
And everything seems dark against you.
That's the time to stand.
Thank God we can be given grace in
such a day to really stand.
I'd like to say that when he was
a prisoner, he learned the power of prayer.
And could I read to you from one
of his great books?
And if you want a book by John
Knox, the book you want to get is
a declaration of the true nature and objective
of prayer.
He learned it the hard way.
This is what he says, Trouble and fear
are very spurs to prayer.
For when man complest about with demonent calamities,
and vexed with continual solicitude, having by help
of man no hope of deliverance, with sore,
oppressed, unpunished heart, hearing also greater punishment to
follow from the deep pit of tribulation, doth
call to God for comfort and help.
Such prayer ascendeth to God's presence, and returneth
not in vain.
There's no situation, and there's no circumstance, and
there's no pit that circumstances might hurl you
into that's so deep that the voice of
effective prayer can't reach from its depths to
the heights of heaven and bring the answer
from the God who truly answers prayer.
Oh, that we might learn to pray in
the darkness, and then the light will come.
But, of course, the day came when his
prayers were answered, and he was released after
nineteen months as a slave in the French
galleys.
Knox got his liberty.
He came to England.
Henry VIII had died.
Young Edward Tudor had occupied the throne.
This young man was a spiritual young man.
He appointed spiritual men as his chaplains, and
he gave a royal chaplaincy to John Knox.
In the north of England, the power of
Rome was great.
And so the king sent Knox into the
north of England to preach the gospel.
And Knox preached with such power, with such
liberty, that the garrison town of Berwick was
changed from being a town of profanity, a
place of drunkenness, a place of evil doing,
until it was a town known throughout the
north of England as a place where holiness
ruled and where the word of God held
sway.
Could I say again that the farmers were
all mighty evangelists?
They were men with a loving heart, and
they were men with tender compassion for the
souls of man.
If there was one man who laid the
foundations of the nation, it was John Knox.
Of course, Edward Tudor died.
The bloody Mary came to the throne.
Knox had to leave England for the continent.
Then eventually he returned for a short period
to Scotland.
When he arrived in Scotland, he found that
the situation was very grim, that the reformed
faith was discontented, that the church of Rome
held tremendous sway.
And when he arrived, he had this to
say of the situation, His
friends advised him to go back to the
continent.
But instead of that, he started an evangelistic
crusade right through the kingdom.
He went from town to town and from
city to city, declaring the gospel of Christ
justification by faith alone, denouncing the idolatry, the
priestcraft and the superstitions of Roman Catholicism.
The emissaries of Rome planned to take him.
He was wonderfully warned by a friend.
He eluded them and once again found refuge
in the city of Kelvin in Geneva.
Shortly after that, he returned again to Scotland
to remain as Scotland's great reformer.
And it was then that his greatest work
was done.
In 1561, Mary Stuart arrived in Scotland to
take the throne.
Mary Stuart, the fair and the fine.
The hope of Romanism and the church of
Rome felt that if she secured Scotland and
held Scotland for Rome, that she would also
eventually secure England as she was in succession
to the British throne.
But there was one man in England who
was valuable for Mary, Queen of Scots.
And I want to tell you something.
When you go out to battle for God,
you will meet the devil in many shapes.
But the worst devil to meet is the
devil in skirts.
And that is exactly what Knox met in
Mary, Queen of Scots.
And my, she really intended to go for
him.
But John Knox was an able preacher.
One day he denounced her proposed marriage to
the Roman Catholic King of Spain.
My, if you want to get a woman
really going, denounce her marriage and you will
really get it.
Or her proposed marriage.
Some of them do not mind you denouncing
the marriage after it has taken place.
For maybe they have second thoughts anyway themselves.
But she certainly went for him.
Summonsed him to the palace.
Brought him in.
Who are you, she said, to interfere in
my life?
I am the Queen of this realm.
He said, Your Majesty, I am God certain.
And as long as I feel I should
speak out for my God, I will speak
out.
She said, Go into the empty room and
stand there until you hear what I have
decided should be done with you.
John Knox walked out into the empty room.
And all her ladies-in-waiting were there.
And they all started to titter at the
preacher.
And they were all laughing at him.
But old Knox was still fearless and he
looked at them.
He said to them, Would not you all
like to stay here forever?
But there is a knee of cold death.
And he is going to come to you
all someday and call you away from the
Queen's presence into the presence of the King
of Kings.
And you will give an account for yourself
there.
And you know she had them tried for
treason.
But she failed.
She sowed discord and murder and war in
the realm.
And eventually her dynasty toppled over by the
power of the preaching of Knox.
And the land was well rid of her
hideous tyranny.
Oh, the power of a faithful preacher of
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There was one thing about Knox, and it
was this, that he was absolutely fearless.
When he died, the regent of the kingdom
said, There lies he who never feared the
face of man.
This fearless preacher.
There lies he who never feared the face
of man.
Is there a message from Knox to this
congregation tonight, to every preacher, to every man
and woman that is called to do the
work of God?
I think there is.
The message is this.
Be right with God.
Have God's smile.
Have God's approval.
And then fear nobody.
But preach the word of God as God
gives it to you.
And if that is how you work for
the Lord, God will bless you.
And He will make you a blessing.
You know His grave is unknown.
Somewhere outside St. Giles Cathedral He lies.
But the spot cannot now be located.
The same with John Calvin.
His grave, his resting place is unknown.
But, friend, his work reverberates down the corridors
of time, because it was a work that
honored Christ, that honored the God of heaven,
and honored the gospel of sovereign saving grace.
I trust when the call comes for me
to pass to higher service, whatever the circumstances
of that call may be, it will be
said of me that I was faithful to
God irrespective of the consequences.
May the Lord help us to stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free.
And may we never be entangled again with
any yoke of bondage, especially the bondage of
the harlot system of Roman Catholicism.
May God bless us truth for Jesus' sake.
Amen.